[fauxgypsy]

Pink girl. you made me laugh: if Dale wasn't here I would not eat as well as I do. His mother made me an awesome coconut cake for my birthday last week and I have to confess that I had coconut cake at least once for breakfast. Night before last I sauteed mushrooms in olive oil, until they were just soft, took them up, added shrimp to the remainder of the oil, briefly sauteed it, crushed a garlic clove into this, added a quart of home canned marinara sauce, the mushrooms and a small can of tomato paste and simmered it for a little while. I served it over whole wheat pasta, with a tossed salad and a slice of whole wheat artisan bread. For breakfast Dale had oatmeal and I had eggs scrambled with a bit of cheddar served with a little chorizo left over from our Mississippi Mexican meal (Miss-Mex versus tex-Mex) a couple of days ago and a couple of corn tortillas, all topped with homemade salsa (this is not my typical breakfast, sometimes I will have cream cheese with sweet chile sauce on whole grain crackers or a grilled cheese sandwich.) For lunch we had tuna salad on whole wheat. Dale grilled country style ribs tonight (have I ever mentioned that he competed in the Memphis in May barbeque competition and once his sauce came in second place), and we shared a baked potato and a salad. We have been on a salad kick the last few days. after supper I had my omega three enriched orange juice with my nasty liquid potassium.
I am looking forward to fresh veggies from our fall garden, we have beets, kale, swiss chard, mustard, turnip, leaf and head lettuce, red onions, English peas, sugar snap peas, and carrots up and growing. I am trying my version of Square Foot Gardening, a lot in a small space. I hope we can keep the deer and armadillos out of them and that we start getting some rain. We have been enjoying tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers until the heat got them. Lots of fresh herbs.
We both enjoy cooking and gardening. It seems like one or the other of us has been sick all summer but we managed to do a lot in spite of everything. Friends gave us a lot of produce as well and our freezer is pretty full. It helps so much that we both can cook. Dale's mother had six boys and they all can cook.
Back in the summer, Dale's back was really bad, and I was still getting the TCH. I had pickles that needed slicing so bad and I was so tired. I slipped into the kitchen determined to get those pickles done. I stood there at my chopping block and started slicing them. There were so many of them and I had always sliced them myself. I stood there for a few minutes, looking at the clock, trying to figure out where I would get the energy for the task. All of a sudden I thought to myself, 'you idiot, use the food processor." My pickles are thinner this year but at least I have pickles. The minute Dale heard the processor, he came to the kitchen and helped with them.

Leslie