yummy yummy burger buns (Big Sur Bakery cookbook, sub a little cream for part of the milk and a smidge of honey) for a grilled patty, homemade zucchini pickles, three cheeses (brie, cheddar and swiss), fresh tomatoes and farmers market ketchup tower of chin-dribbling, sweet-tasting, summer-celebrating bbq.

I just finished building this salvaged wood, swamp green cupboard for my kitchen. the bottom is an old kitchen cabinet from an earlier tear-out, topped with the concrete countertop I poured. The hutch measurements are thanks to an early morning coffee talk at Carol's. Her Dad (never had the privilege of meeting met him, but I know we would have been buds) built the original and I followed with this funky, folksy folly.

I am madly in love...besotted, bewitched, beguiled, bedeviled...with my zucchini plant. Every morning as I peek beneath its cape-like leaves it offers magic tokens of appreciation for earth, sun and water. This succulent, moist, roly-poly yeasted bread, baked from the Big Sur Bakery Cookbook (Thank you, Carol, for the enlightenment) Pumpkin Bread recipe (transformed before my eyes into a Zucchini Bread recipe) is chewy, spicy and SHAPELY.

Zucchini, anyone? My one zucchini plant has been graciously producing an abundance of green speckled squash for my cooking pleasure. Jars of pickles, sweet moist breads and a deep-flavored zucchini, pepper, onion, tomato casserole are just the beginnings of this much appreciated summer bounty. This recipe is from Morning Glory Farm. I added some fresh squeezed lemon juice and lots of salt and pepper. After sauteeing the veggies with chopped garlic and basil, the casserole is baked with a topping of mozzarella and cheddar cheese until it is bubbly and cheesy and juicy and melty-in-your-mouthy. If I didn't have braces, I would have sopped up the rich broth with hunks of toasted garlic baguette. But, alas, I had to tip my plate and slurp up every last drop. 

I've got GRAPES!!! This is the miracle plant of my garden. This is the vine cutting from my friend's Santa Cruz backyard. I planted it about 3 summers ago and look what's happened. Yahoo, hooray, let's have a parade or at least a headline or a bullhorn... GRAPES ARE GROWING, Hoorah, Hoorah! Let's give them a hearty welcome then, HOORAH, HOORAH!

Baked up the 5 hour vodka today. one whiff is enough to have you doing the Ipsy Pipsy Mop on Your Head dance. I wonder what a shot will do?

I am so excited about the carrots I bought at the farm stand in Half Moon Bay. They were my muse for visual vegetal poetry and velvety voluptuous soup.