I'm Melting!!!

Holy cow it's hot already. It's already broken records. 98 degrees in May.
Even for South Central Texas that's not right. I don't mind the heat but
this is insane. Good thing our AC is working well.
I know I've been really remiss in updating this. Really awful. My job has
actually gotten busier and I just haven't felt like staring at a computer
much when I get home. Plus I still have the fun insomnia thing going on.
It's gotten somewhat better but not quite where I'd like it. I've got lots
to talk about but just never get around to doing it. I'm such a
procrastinator.
We have a real garden this year. We used what little of our tax return that
we had left over from the fun car repairs we had to make and the escrow
overage check we got from the mortgage company to buy wood and a dump truck
full of dirt. We now have about 12 tomato plants (romas, sun-golds, Italian
ice, and a few others.) and about 6 pepper plants. (bells, serrano, but no
jalepeno :( ) Plus assorted herbs and things. And then there are the
plumeria. Oh my goodness. The boy went down to the La Vernia house and took
a bunch from the greenhouse. He barely made a dent in the thing too. Our
garden now has no other space for anything else. I don't know what we're
going to do next year if we want more veggies.
I am looking forward to having tomatoes and peppers from my garden this
year. I've been collecting pepper recipes and trying to come up with more
tomato recipes. Once our garden starts producing we're going to be eating
them just about every day. I don't mind but I'm going to have to get
creative. I have hit on a new salsa recipe using the sun-gold roma tomatoes.
They're slightly sweeter and tangier than a regular roma. When you add in a
few jalepenos and a couple habaneros you get a really nice combo of sweet
and spicy. It's going to be fun to experiment with them some more.
This past weekend we made an herbed roast chicken, bacon mashed potatoes
(using the bacon put on top of the chicken when it roasts- keeps it really
moist. You remove the bacon after about an hour) and a bibb lettuce salad
with a blackberry vinaigrette. The blackberries were a really nice
complement to the rest of the meal. And they're in season now so they're
fresh. It's peach and berry season here already. The East Coast is just
getting into the full swing of asparagus and things and we're already done
with that. In fact I haven't seen any lately at the farmer's market. I can't
wait for the summer fruits.
I have an interesting cat story that I will save until later. It goes with
our trip to Houston, which is a completely different post. But let me just
say, it reinforced my belief of keeping the toilet lids up when we leave for
a few days.

Blackberry Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup blackberries, juiced (use a garlic press and don't completely strain
it)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar (champagne vinegar will also work)
chives
salt
pepper
juice of half a lemon

Whisk all the ingredients together, using more or less to taste. Making
dressings is all about taste. It's usually a little bit of this and a little
bit of that. We had everything whisked together except the lemon and thought
something was missing. The flavor was there but it was dull and not as berry
tasting. Then we realized that we needed lemon to brighten the flavors. You
couldn't taste the lemon- it just enhanced the berry flavor. A little bit of
acid can go a long way.
We served it over a salad of grape tomatoes, shallots, and bibb lettuce.