I’m usually not one to drink white wine instead of a cocktail, but I’ve been enjoying Pinot Grigio lately. After the sun sets and it doesn’t feel like an oven outdoors, I sit quietly on my patio surrounded by banana trees, palms and other subtropicals, watch the hummingbirds flit about and sip on very well chilled Pinot Grigio and I’m happy as a lark! Try it, you might like it as well.

For the last few weeks, it seems that just about everybody in my neighborhood was putting up figs, corn, okra and pears. One neighbor who always has an over abundance of tomatoes and bell peppers brought me a jar of peperonata. She is of Sicilian descent and explained to me that peperonata is a family favorite. It contains bell peppers (this one had both red and green), onions, garlic and olive oil. It’s quite tasty and I’m experimenting with it (I wonder if I could con her out of some more) on grilled chicken and beef. Very, very good!

My cousin, who has her own goat herd and makes delightful cheeses with the milk, brought me two logs of chevre, which prompted my husband to make an omelet with some and folded fresh corn into it. The omelet was a wonderful light supper accompanied by goat whey bread. Absolutely fantastic!

A friend who is more into aromatherapy than I guided me to a website that features liquid hand soap, three milled soap, room spray and candles that are scented with TOMATO! Since I’m such a tomato freak, I just might try the room spray. I don’t know if I want to come out the shower smelling like one, tho. There are also products scented with asparagus, parsley and lime. Am thinking that if I mixed them all up, my house and my body could smell like a freshly made salad! Wow! Check it out: http://www.elizabethw.com/shp/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=40&cat=Vetiver

Also, I noticed products containing vetiver…
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My potted herbs continue to thrive and I love cooking with them, but I also like using them for aromatherapy. Just so you’ll know, herbs that are calming include chamomile, lavender, lemon balm and lemon verbena. I welcome a cup of chamomile tea when I’m trying to meet a deadline. Lavender soap is always on hand in my shower—the aroma is so relaxing. And I now know why I slept so well when I visited my Aunt Belle—she tucked sachets filled with lemon verbena in her linen closets!
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I don’t have a lot of kitchen gadgets so I try to “make do” with what I have on hand. I don’t have a salad spinner to dry salad greens, but if you put a couple of sheets of absorbent paper towels in the bottom of a large mixing bowl or salad bowl. Add your washed salad greens and toss around with the paper towels. You may have to do this a couple of times with fresh paper towels but it does the trick. Oh, and I sometimes keep the salad greens in a clean pillow case, rolled up, in the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator to keep them fresh for a couple of days.

My kitchen sink disposal has been on the blink for a couple of days, and of course it had to be on days that I was peeling shrimp and cleaning garden vegetables. I remembered something my mother did back in the Dark Ages and it works just fine…
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About once a month I HAVE to have a piece of beef, preferably a perfectly grilled rib-eye. My husband on the other hand favors a fillet. Last Saturday we both decided to have a steak night and invited two couples to join us for a meat feast—grilled steak, double-stuffed baked potatoes, and tomato-feta salad. We decided to splurge and get a whopper of a Portershouse, the steak that is cut from the large end of the short loin containing meat from both the tenderloin and the top loin muscle. It was fantastic! We fought over the bone–nothing like gnawing on the meat attached to the bone.

It’s hard to believe that kids are already getting ready for school. Here are some snack items (nutritious and delilcious) to tuck into the lunch box.

Fig Newtons
Apples/pears/cheese
Raw veggies
Saltines
Pretzels
Angel food cake\
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Gingersnaps
Vanilla wafers
Graham Crackers

If you’re like me, I always have bits and pieces of leftover cheese. Sometimes it’s just a small chunk of sharp Cheddar but other times I carefully wrap a piece of Maytag blue or cabrales (a Spanish blue), as well as pieces of chevre and baby Swiss. I hate to waste. Once I have several chunks saved up, I make cheese toast to serve as appetizers. My husband loves this and he’s now enchanted with his own creations. It’s also a good way to use the last few slices of bread on hand that’s getting a bit stale. Spread slices of bread with just a bit of softened butter, top with a sliver of cheese, put them in your toaster over (or whatever oven you have), and when they come out, sprinkle the tops with freshly grated black pepper or minced fresh herbs. Last night we topped our melted chevre with pieces of smoked salmon we had leftover from earlier in the week.

A friend brought me a bottle of her homemade blackberry wine last night and we make ourselves a wine cooler by combining two parts wine with one part club soda with a bit of crushed ice. It was indeed cooling after a very hot day.