Category: summer

Late Summer’s Garden in the Midwest

~ Katherine ~ 2 Comments
Hollyhocks along the garden fence. I planted too late so don't believe I'll see flowers this year.
Hollyhocks along the garden fence. I planted too late so don’t believe I’ll see flowers this year.

I came to the flower garden late this year.  And I am waiting for a show of color even though I know it may not happen this time around.  As for vegetables, green tomatoes on the vine in August – and I wait still….for summer to finally turn up the heat and bring forth brilliance.  Gardening teaches me how to wait, but more than that how to have hope even when it all looks very, very green and small.

Waiting....
Waiting….

While I wait, I read.Onward and Upward in the Garden by the late New Yorker editor, Katharine S. White. – a compilation of the fourteen essays she wrote for the New Yorker from 1958 – 1970.  This book is  filled with facts enveloped in her opinions and personal reviews of seed catalogues, seed companies, books and authors dating as far back as the 19th century.

The Writer in the Garden, edited by Jane Garmey includes essays written by authors as varied as Edith Warton, Michael Pollen and W.S. Merwin.

I am lost this summer in these great books, I am lost in the fiction that is a garden.

Nasturtiums in a pot on the deck.
Nasturtiums in a pot on the deck.
Basil just beginning to look full and fragrant.
Basil just beginning to look full and fragrant.

I leave you with a thoughtful quote on what a garden is to W.S. Merwin…..

….an assembly of shapes, most of them living, that owes some share of its composition, its appearance, to human design and effort, human conventions and convenience, and the human pursuit of that elusive, indefinable harmony that we call beauty.  It has a life of its own, an intricate, willful, secret life, as any gardener knows.  It is only the humans in it who think of it as a garden.  But a garden is a relation, which is one of the countless reasons why it is never finished.

 
This has however been the summer for cucumbers.
This has however been the summer for cucumbers.

 

Never finished!

Summer Wild!
Summer Wild!

Wait… What? Writing Through Their Summer Vacation

~ Katherine ~ 8 Comments

I am sitting on my deck.  It is early morning.  The sun is shining and it is quiet.  I am beginning work on my next post when…

My littlest, who is at the table working on a stamping project, begins digging through her art box and in the process knocks over my full! mug of coffee.  As I scramble to wipe it up she begins telling me about her dream last night.  Something about her family surprising her with a birthday cake.

My oldest asks me where his bathing suit is (I am still wiping up what’s left of my morning coffee).  My middle son, who climbed out of bed before the five o’clock news this morning is now snoring on the couch in the living room.  And I am begging both of my other children to please, PLEASE! be quiet and not wake him.

My husband left for work less than an hour ago and has just texted me to remind me to remember our son has a baseball game this afternoon and now my smallest is singing to me as I wipe away.  She pauses in mid-song with “Mama…can I tell you something?”  By now my computer screen has gone blank, into sleep mode.  Into “I can’t wait for you all day.” mode.

I bring the blank post page back just in time for my oldest to return to the deck blurting out my name.  It doesn’t matter that I’m not even looking at him when he says, “Mom, wanna know a fact?”  No response from me so of course he continues. “Do you know yawning is contagious?”  I am still staring at the screen and am not responsive.  I might as well be locked in a coma, with my eyes open.  “Well,” he says, “Do you know that?”

Oh he is just talking, talking, talking!  And she is still singing!  And the other one has just stopped snoring.

And I can’t remember what it was I was about to tell you.

My Mother’s Advice, 50 Shades Wrap-Up & Arugula, Spinach, Strawberry Salad

~ Katherine ~ 3 Comments

My mother and my biggest fan texts me the following after reading my last review of 50 Shades of Grey, ” Keep reading.  You’ll change your mind about Christian Grey at the end of the book. ”  And then she adds, “Who knows?  Maybe it will put a little excitement into your marriage…if it isn’t there already.  Wink.”

Ugh.

And finally when I don’t think I can take much more and am considering going off-line with my writing forever, she completes her motherly advice with, “Oh, don’t be such a prude.  I’ve read all the good scenes to your dad at night when we’re in bed.  It’s fun!”

Ewwww.

Final Thoughts on 50 Shades….This is a dark romance, a deep-down psychological challenge – a game.  Before reading this book I would ask myself the following:

Do you want to play?  Will you be honest with yourself and consider how you too might feel about riding pain to the edge – maybe way beyond your threshold for a chance to feel a rich pleasure you’ve never known?  Are you willing to take that risk?

Will you allow the author, E.L. James, to twist and bend your psyche, tighten your belly every time she puts her two main characters in the same room together?

Are you ready for James to show you who you really are?

Ana will let Christian spank her if he agrees to tell her more about who he is.   I can’t imagine giving up my ass so easily.  Here’s my offer to my husband-  I’ll let you spank me if, for one week,  you clean the house, do the laundry, wash the kids, go grocery shopping, make dinner, bake me a chocolate cake and listen with an abundance of interest as I tell you all about my day.  Oh and throw in a week’s worth of uninterrupted naps for me as well.

After a few days have passed, my mother calls me.  “I’ve made the Arugula, Spinach and Strawberry Salad and it is delicious!  You have to give your readers the full recipe.”  We are done talking about 50 Shades and back to talking about food.  Whew.

So here it is – Mary Ann Esposito’s recipe for Arugula, Spinach and Strawberry Salad.  Eat this salad and pick up a copy of 50 Shades of Grey before the last of summer’s heat is extinguished. Oh, and feel free to use my mother’s advice while I go make another appointment with my therapist.

from the June 2012 issue of Taste of Italia

1 tsp. unsalted butter

1/4 cup pine nuts (my mother used walnuts instead)

2 cups arugula leaves, washed and dried

2 cups spinach leaves, washed and dried

1 cup thinly sliced fresh strawberries

2 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

In a small saute pan, melt the butter and toast the pine nuts (or walnuts) until they are lightly browned.  Transfer the nuts to a small bowl and set aside.  Tear the leaves of the arugula and spinach and put them in a salad bowl.  Add the strawberries.

Heat the honey and balsamic vinegar together in a small saucepan just until the honey melts (I wiped the butter out of the saute pan that I browned the nuts in and used that one instead of having to wash two pans later).  Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and whisk in the olive oil 1 Tablespoon at a time until an emulsion is created (I added an extra Tablespoon of olive oil to cut down on the sweetness a bit).  Stir in the salt.

Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently.  Sprinkle the nuts over the top and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

* To make this a delicious Autumn salad I’ll use thinly sliced green apples in place of the strawberries, toasted pecans in place of the pines nuts and add a sprinkle of gorgonzola cheese.

Enjoy!

We’ll Have Crepes for Dinner

~ Katherine ~ 1 Comment

– I will jump with you, I say.

We are lying on our stomachs, stretched out on the wing of a small airplane flying low over a white sandy beach, over a tropical island.  The water is blue and clear waving ripples of morning sunlight towards the curving lines of shore.  He comes to his bare feet, gives me an “I’m serious about this” look.

-I’m ready, I say, and try to steady myself as I push up on my hands, bend my elbows, sit back on my knees.  I thrust one foot forward and grasp at the smooth metal with my toes.  Wobbly at first, I let my fingertips brush off the wing as I stand to meet him in the moving sky.

Wrapping my fingers around his, I squeeze his hand and we step off.  Falling, falling, softly like Winter’s first snow, we land feet first somehow safely on the beach and catch our breath – a new breath that takes in salt and pineapple.  We build a small outdoor cafe – an Artists’ Cafe and lay planks of wood flooring over the warm sand, over our first footprints.

I make crepes for the locals and delicately paint each one with hibiscus flowers in red, orange, pink and green sugar.

A Change in the Weather and Summer Pasta

~ Katherine ~ Leave a comment

There is still a good month left to this summer.  We are finally getting rain in this part of the Midwest.  Thunder and lightning wake me in the middle of the night.  Thunder roars differently out here, I think.  Something with big meaty fists pounds our roof and then rolls away slowly, clumsily over its knuckles, glaring at me over its fat shoulder.

It snorts-Take that, Jersey Girl.

Lightning is fantastic in the big, big sky.   In an instant and without warning, white fills my eyelids like a camera’s flash, transports me right out of a dream and back into the blackness of 3 am.  Hopefully all this rain hasn’t come too late for the farmers who are relying on their corn crops.  After living here now for two years and reading the local papers, this is what I think about.  Maybe the farmers actually sleep better to the sounds of a storm.

Amid all the heavy roar and sharp cracks outside my window, I begin to drift off again.  There’s an old farm house out here somewhere waiting for me.   There’s a hot, orange sun beginning to set over a field, a wrap-around porch painted white wearing pots of lush ferns like earrings, a brightly-colored woven hammock sways gently in the corner.  And just outside a squeaky front gate, there’s a country road that goes on and on.

In the meantime, there is our apartment, a hub this summer for all our coming and going.  A place to hang up damp bathing suits and pool towels, a place to drop off the bass guitar after lessons and a dusty baseball bag after a night game under the lights.  An almost too big table that just fits on an almost too small back deck where we share our summer supper.  Where I notice the dirt still lingering beneath small fingernails and think to myself – Another good day.

A place for me to write, a place for my books and shelves for my cookbooks and food magazines.  A place to make a quick, small meal last night, that-turns out- has big flavor.

It begins with pasta – small penne cooked al dente then tossed with bite-size pieces of fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and juicy tomatoes all from the garden – chopped.  A clove of garlic from the farmers’ market – minced, a bit of salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil.

Summer in a bowl.

Recipe adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis

Try Again Tomorrow

~ Katherine ~ 2 Comments

Today’s the first day in awhile that I feel like making something wonderful to eat – light and healthy.  Today’s the day I get myself back to the Pilates studio for the first time in almost three weeks.  Today begins with my June issue of Taste of Italia.  On the last page Mary Ann Esposito offers her recipe for Arugula, Spinach and Strawberry Salad.  Knowing I have a whole flank steak grilled and leftover in the fridge, I think this salad will be the prettiest thing to accompany thin slices of cool steak on my dinner plate.  Yes, this will be tonight’s healthy and tasty meal to celebrate my return to yoga pants.

I took the kids to the Farmers’ Market where we bought the spinach – small, tender leaves so young and fresh – they taste like sun and earth.  Then off to the store for a bunch of peppery arugula and dark red strawberries.  Finally, we head over to my neighbor’s for four pounds of honey that she just extracted from her tens of thousands of bees.  I only need two tablespoons for the honey and balsamic vinegar dressing, the rest will hopefully last me until Thanksgiving.

I washed the spinach and arugula and placed it all in baggies in the fridge to wait for me until this evening.  My man – amor de mi vida – is working late and so I decide to let the kids pick what they would like to eat for dinner.  Next thing I know, I’m slinging Bagel Bites from the oven and cutting Nutella sandwiches into fours and then allowing two – not three- brownie bites for dessert.  Every time I opened the refrigerator door to reach for the gallon of milk (More milk, Mom!) I looked longingly at the fresh greens and strawberries waiting patiently for me.

Guess what I ate for dinner?  Yep.  Bagel Bites and brownie bites.

Ensalada de Aguacate y Mango

~ Katherine ~ 2 Comments

The heat has been broken.  Finally I sit here at my table on the deck cool and even slightly chilly.  It is early morning and I feel the dampness of the evening melt into my skin.  Despite the drought our watermelon and pumpkin vines are growing, winding their way towards each other, grabbing hold of each other.  The tomato plant has green fruit and the herbs on the deck are behaving wildly.

The children are tan and covered in scrapes from bike and skateboard accidents.  The boys have almost gotten the hang of the breast stroke in their morning swim lessons and my daughter is learning little by little how to catch a lightning bug without squishing it in her small hands.  All three of my children are lean and quick.  Throughout these long days, I find they are more interested in climbing trees than sitting still to finish their meal.

I have been eating a lot of pasta dressed only with olive oil and a coarse grind or two of salt and finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon.  Beneath the hot pasta a small handful of either spinach leaves or arugula slowly wilts in the heat.  I let it sit and come to room temperature before taking the first bite.  Everything now is slow, light and easy.

I made the Avocado and Mango Salad from the cookbook Memories of a Cuban Kitchen weeks ago and think I’ll make it again this week.  The recipe says to use mango or papaya so I used both.  It also calls for a bed of watercress but at the time all I could find was arugula.  The peppery bite worked in this salad just as well.

Enjoy!

Ensalada de Aguacate y Mango

1 bunch watercress, stems removed

1 large, ripe Florida avocado or 2 smaller Haas avocados, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced

1 large, ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced

1/2 medium-size red onion, cut in half lengthwise and each half cut into thin slices

Pure Spanish olive oil to taste

Fresh lime or lemon juice to taste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Line a large platter with the watercress and arrange over it alternating slices of avocado, mango, and onion.  Drizzle with the oil and juice (whisked together if you choose), and season with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 Servings

What I’ve Got Growing So Far…

Do You Trust Me?

~ Katherine ~ 2 Comments

Anastasia has the contract – the terms of agreement Christian Grey has offered her to enter into a Dominant/Submissive relationship with him.  The writing has changed in Chapter 11.  I believe I have just read a real legal contract – James copied and pasted it right into her novel.  I mean she must have, right?

The intimate scenes so far between Anastasia and Grey are written with complete erotic detail.  I can see, taste, smell it, hear it, feel it all every time Grey takes her.  But just as Anastasia is holding back with Grey – she still hasn’t signed the contract that will bind her (pun very intended), I will not let the author have me.  Not yet.

I am pleased that James has put backbone into her main character.  Ana is not heading into this dark relationship lightly.  And she is making demands – changes to the contract while she still can and asking why? will she not be permitted to look him in his eyes and why? will she not be allowed to touch him.

Despite the writing, which unfortunately can be very distracting to the point where I am yanked off a page – and every few pages at that –  I feel James’ committment to her characters – to her work.  It is clear to me she is expert on this subject.  Just before Grey “fucks” Anastasia he asks “Do you trust me?”  I believe James is asking of her readers the very same question.

Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy

~ Katherine ~ Leave a comment

Fireworks last night.  Too many plastic cupfuls of strong iced coffee from the back of our pick-up.  Feeling too much alive to fall asleep, I stayed up until 1 am and am suffering for it today.  Traded Grey last night for a cookbook.  Memoirs of a Cuban Kitchen makes my summer reading list this year.  Mary Urrutia Randelman tells stories of what it was like growing up in 1950’s Cuba:

Cuba, the magical island where I was born, was a paradise- a place of dazzling light, tropical breezes, and starry nights.

I have wanted to visit Cuba for quite some time now.  And maybe because as an American, Cuba is so forbidden, I want it even more.  So for now, I’ve begun working through the exotic recipes (exotic to me, yet very wonderfully simple and unbothered – Avocado and Mango Salad, which I made and promise to give you the recipe along with a photo soon).

Best of all Mary Urrutia Randelman has devoted an entire chapter to Cuban cocktails: Puesta del Sol (Havana Sunset) – guava nectar, pineapple juice, grenadine and vodka; Fuego Liquido (Liquid Fire) – pineapple juice, lime, dark rum, sugar and a splash of beer.  There are a couple of daiquiris and of course, the Cuban Mojito among many delicious others.

I can’t think of a better way to enjoy another sultry sunset this evening than by sipping an icy Puesta del Sol beside the one I adore, while our children run barefoot through the grass to the wild vocals of Celia Cruz, who, I bet, would sound even better coming from vinyl spinning on my grandfather’s old record player.