WINE A LOT, YOU'LL FEEL BETTER!

Friday night found this group of friends seated around a large round table in the window of the Hillsboro Brewpub, laughing and having a wonderful time...drinking wine and having some of the best fish tacos around.

Janet, Marcia and Geri

Joan and Joan

me, Sharon and Joan

We have been dubbed the Wine hags, and although I doubt any of us feel like 'hags', we really don't mind the moniker.  We get together somewhat frequently (although we'd all like to make it more frequent I am sure) over wine and food and prove how wonderful the woman-bond really is!!

On another note, Freddie and I took both Saturday and Sunday for day trips, a kind of mini vacation.  On Saturday we went to a lovely old hotel, the Trempeleau Hotel, overlooking the Mississippi River for lunch.  There is a lock and dam nearby and we drove around it only to discover this narrow gravel road, which Freddie wanted to explore.  It was simply beautiful.

Both sides of the road were like this, water right up to the roadside, and lots and lots of green growth...it was like going back in time into a primordial period.

You can barely see it in this photo, but there is a bright red flower in the center.  There were countless numbers of these beautiful flowers along the road.  My camera's battery failed or there would be more photos of them.

We drove as far as we could and then came to this.  Luckily there was a tiny turn around to the left...

Sunday we went to the Great River Folk Festival and heard some great folk music.  All in all, a good weekend.

TOMATOES AND MORE TOMATOES

I know there are only a very few of you who follow this blog, but to those who do, my absence has been mostly attributed to being so busy with the garden produce, among other things.  Today I decided I would update, while not shirking my garden duties.  I have roasted/canned pizza sauce; made tomato ciabatta bread; blanched and frozen green beans; and made and froze three batches of pesto, and also 'cleaned' the house.  I am soon ready for a glass of wine....

Despite my garden having been taken over by weeds this year, it is doing very well.  The zinnias are magnificent, their colors so vibrant and their varied shapes almost unbelievable.

Today I have spent much time in the kitchen, and although I am a bit weary I have truly enjoyed it.  

Sauteing onions, black olives, garlic and some tomato paste...

...when cooled add to yeast flour mixture to make a really wet dough... let rise a couple of hours

using lots and lots of flour shape and plop onto parchment paper and slide into a very hot oven...

after 25 minutes some of the most delicious ciabatta you can imagine.

On to the baskets of tomatoes...today roasting pizza sauce to can.

...cut up tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil and add salt, pepper, oregano and a touch of sugar and roast until it is as thick as you like...

out of the oven, and into hot sterile jars, process (along with powdered ascorbic acid) for 30 minutes...

on the basement shelf.  I have now canned enough pizza sauce for about 75 pizzas, plus a few frozen containers as well.

At the start of the gardening season I hunted around for some straw to mulch between the rows and was never able to find any.  My garden is not small, and this not small garden, without straw mulch has been taken over by weeds.  I have managed, in most instances to keep the area directly around my plants weed free, but everywhere else is densely packed with quack grass, purslane and lots of other unwanted growth.  (Still, I often think to myself weeds are plants, too, and they are unaware that they are 'weeds'.)  Still, when I go up to my garden I always feel a bit depressed as my garden, every other year, has been kind of an artistic endeavor for me.  I loved the beauty of the clean rows filled with colorful and plentiful produce.  This year it lacks that clean-cut beauty, but it doesn't seem to mind, as it is producing non-stop.

I love my garden and all that it gives.