Gratinée Tomatoes, and a change is in the air. . . . .

 . . . . . . . . . . and I actually started walking early morning again over the holiday weekend. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it feels out there in 58-63F temps. after such a long hot, humid spell. I can breathe. I can wear long sleeves in comfort. I can listen to the 'morning sounds' of birds and barking dogs. I see rabbits hopping, and if I get out there before 7 AM, there is no traffic. There are silvery dewdrops on the spider webs. The leaves are fading and there are a few yellow ones drifting down onto lawns and garden beds.

The last of my summer flag collection - soon time for autumn leaves and pumpkins!

Above: Prepping Penne with Gratinée Tomatoes

Did you cook over the Labor Day holiday?  

We fired up the grill - real burgers for Bob, a veggie burger for me. I grilled red peppers for another meal this week. Also made two Lebanese dishes, mjeddrah (lentils, rice, and caramelized onions) and felafel (spicy chick pea patties) for pita bread sandwiches. . . . . . .and some prepped dishes for the week ahead.

With abundant Roma tomatoes filling a bowl on the kitchen island I made this easy peasy, tasty pasta dish. 

This quick pasta with a green side salad was enjoyed in the gazebo.

I often think that eating well has everything to do with having the correct food on hand in the fridge. It's so much easier to be innovative and pull a healthy and tasty meal together when things are waiting, chilled and still fresh, when one cannot do daily shopping as most of us don't these days.

You have to agree if you're the one searching recipes, choosing dishes, prepping and then cooking and serving, it's exciting and easier to have quick cooked veggies at the ready, steeping in olive oil with a few aromatics. . . . . some crushed or chopped garlic, shallots, grated lemon zest, and hardy herbs like thyme, rosemary, bay etc.  Just remember that sharpening veggies with lemon juice and vinegar, or anything acidic, should be left until just prior to serving.  

I'm making another dish of gratinée tomatoes today, a mix of Roma, cherry, and cocktail, they all work.  . . . . . and can be used in so many dishes.

Bon appetit.

Saturday garden notes - shopping. . . . .

This week has been quiet since the torrential rains of Monday. I've spent time emptying items filled with water - pots, watering cans, garden ornaments - cleaned up the front porch, deadheaded hydrangeas, pulled out dried up petunias who had seen better days.

Yesterday I made a last batch of pesto for the freezer as the basil has been attacked by some invisible nibbling invader. Aphids most likely, but this late in the season I'm not going to spray them as I'm done with pesto until next summer!  

The fig tree still full and green, even some large ripe figs visible near the top where it's impossible to reach, along with plenty of small green ones lower down.  The insects appear to have abandoned the juicy fruits. Soon the waving leaves will start to turn gold and rust and the tree will look beautiful in autumn dress before they fall to the ground . . . . then we will know winter is on the way.

The weather feels different as we are now settling into September. The ridiculous triple digit heat of this week is ending, today just reaching low 80's. . . . . with a promise of much lower night temps. at long last. This being an important American holiday weekend - which is often stormy - is going to be lovely for a change, so firing up the grill and chilling a few bottles of rosé and beer is on the 'to do' list even though we'll be celebrating here at home, alone!

This seems to be a rogue magnolia bloom right at the peak of the tree - reaching for the late summer sun. . . . . a lovely garden surprise.

The thousands of cicadas around the garden are still loud and droning in the humid air. Funny how at first they are so annoying and then after a few weeks one really doesn't even hear them, their sound just blends in with life. . . . . . 

 

Yes, a little shopping on the list for today. How I'd love to visit a row of smaller shops along a little street, supporting independent businesses all whom are struggling these days . . . . . instead it's going to be big box store's garden center in search of a few plants, a hardware store, and of course the grocery store!

To those of you celebrating Labor Day weekend I wish you a good

holiday though probably it will be different this time around. 

Stay safe.

September song -

"Best I love September's yellow,

Morns of dew-strung gossamer,

Thoughtful days without a stir,

Rooky clamours, brazen leaves,

Stubble dotted o'er with sheaves -

More than Spring's bright uncontrol

Suit the Autumn of my soul." 

~ Alex. Smith ~

The month of September brings the autumnal equinox on

 Tuesday the 22nd - the official date of the new season.  

Usually though we think of the first day of September as

 being the arrival of Autumn.

The garden is changing rapidly now. After the horrendous rains here on Monday night - we were pounded and flooded with 6 inches - things are looking different. 

To top it all off we are now in a heatwave with the heat index temperature reaching 105F yesterday, higher today with as much as 110F of heavy, moist air making any outdoor work or activity not only miserable but very dangerous!

Sadly, no Horse chestnut trees growing here but I do still have one

 copper-hued conker brought back from England many years ago! 

I like to hold it, roll it in my hand and and reminisce about my 

childhood Autumn days.

We spent a little time outside yesterday, early morning, Bob doing storm

 damage cleanup, me digging out the amaryllis bulbs and deadheading the

 now brown and dry blooms from the hydrangeas.

This is my first try at keeping my winter blooming bulbs through spring and

 summer in hopes I can force them back into bloom around the holiday season. 

 I had planted the 4 large bulbs into the garden in May (see their beautiful 

leaves above), and one pleasantly surprised me with a baby!

They now have to remain in a cool place until their re-potting in November.

As cool places are hard to find at present - the potting shed is like an oven -

I've put them in a box and keeping them in the air conditioned house -

just hoping there are no bugs creeping around of course!

Speaking of creeping creatures, while working on the two large hydrangeas

 bushes in front of the porch, a sudden movement startled me and Charlie

 gecko appeared clinging to a stem.  He seems to live in this area of the 

garden where I have placed a large shallow dish which I keep filled with 

water. . . . initially for the bees but perhaps also a good watering place for

 Charlie (who could be Charlene as I did see a very tiny gecko around also

 this summer!).

Last, but never least, another visitor was on the porch this morning, drinking from the fountain and peering in the dining room window with the usual sparkle in his/her eye. . . . . . and I'm sure awaiting a tip top acorn season ahead!!!