Ephemeral Chaos: Obligations

Last week of classes, only three more to go.

Speaking of obligatory, here's the latest puppy shot. Click to embiggen and I dare you not to say "Awwwww!"

I expected my travel life, my rock star life to be affected by the dog. No biggie, I thought. I'll just be home more. I hadn't considered how my at home life, my cooking life would be affected.

First, I found out that I am not immune to mosquito bites, as I had thought. Apparently I just never went outside.

I also found out that I can get a suntan after all.

I have also discovered that I cannot cook as I used to. Without fail I'll be halfway through some cooking and the dog will have to go out. We've been told by the vet to put Steuey on a bland diet for a bit, so hopefully that will calm down his need to go out so often (bless his heart).

I've burned things. I've forgotten to add critical ingredients. I've had to skip the side dishes.

That, plus a hard drive crash have limited my cooking and my photos. Still, here's a sample of what we've been eating with our Fair Share (CSA ingredients that I can remember in parentheses):

Orzo with Ham and Chevre, served with zucchini (zucchini, chevre, green onions)
Cornpone pie (ground beef, eggs)
Vegetable Shashlik (eggplant, red onion, basil, rice)
Tortilla Espanola (eggs, potatoes, onion)
Cold Cucumber Soup with Hard Cider (cucumber)
Tacos Verdes (tortillas, cheese, cabbage, green beans, eggpland, squash)
Blueberry cobbler (blueberries, egg, butter)
Mufalettas (bread, mozzarella)
Carrots with Capers (carrots)

For photos, I've got a blackberry pie (blackberries, egg for wash). I just grabbed a recipe from a vintage cookbook and tweaked it a bit.

I also made Yoel's zucchini pancakes, which I've made about eight times since she shared the recipe (eggs, zucchini, onions, banana pepper). You could probably halve the recipe to feed two, especially if you're saving room for blackberry pie.

The Steuey-induced belated addition of sugar had a negative effect on the slow-cooker pistachio zucchini bread (zucchini). It's edible, but very moist.

By far the most successful meal of the week was the one with the least prep: ripe local cantelope wrapped in local prosciutto on a bed of butter lettuce and pea shoots drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil (cantelope, olive oil, pea shoots). Here's a tip I would never have believed but for LB: crack a little black pepper over your melon, even if you're eating it plain for breakfast.