Daily Archives: 8/17/2006

Beach! whoot!

lest you all think this is a CSA blog only:

Last friday michelle met me at the train and we hopped into the wee insight and drove south.

rt. 1 bridge, delaware

we headed to assateague for part 1 of my beach vacation august. we got in at 10:30 on friday and set up our tent behind dad and maggie’s camper, and hit the hay. sat. and sunday were lovely in a sit on the beach and get pink kind of way… monday I took it a little easy from the sun, and tuesday the wind was too brutal and kicked up too much sand. actually, monday night the wind blew so hard that it pulled my tent up from the ground despite the tent stakes (but luckily while we were in it) and tossed us around and tried to roll over (but we were in it!) and then just petulantly snapped the leeward pole right in half. we splinted it in the middle of the night while michelle held the tent down (aka laid on her back inside) and taped up the other obviously damaged poles (just splintered) and went right back to sleep as the wind blew the tent over the top of me like a noisy down comforter.

but wednesday, now, that was a perfect last day at assateague. classically gorgeous, temperate, sunny, and the kind of beach you don’t want to walk, much less drive, away from.

digicam 027

we caught some rays. got on the road an hour and a half late. took copious photos of the wee ryan, who hated the beach at first but after the brilliant coaxing of michelle, now can tolerate it as long as you don’t make him look directly at the ocean.

digicam 030

and then michelle and I picked ourselves up, rinsed off, and drove north to the metro ny area. it’s nice being on car trips in the daytime! We also 1. stopped to buy a peck of peaches and some cukes and then 2. found out that the jerky outlet, despite it’s great business model, has closed. well. that’s ok. we stopped for cokes and spicy chips at a wawa and made great time up the highways.

there WAS some excitement in delaware (what would a michelle and kari car tirp be without excitement?) — we came upon a van that was driving very erratically and very fast and swerving and tailgating and when we looked at the driver, it looked like he was sound asleep. So I fell back and put my hand at the ready by the horn while michelle called 911 and filled them in. luckily, after she called he pulled over and we drove off feeling a little more secure that we wouldn’t experience an awful horrible terrible accident.

I dropped michelle at the path and she was home by 8:30, and I picked up my veggies and headed home and washed my beach towels and read books in my recliner. Aaah. what a lovely vacation.

and I go back in just 6 short work days! that makes for some real perspective at my desk in front of my computer. perspective, and some lovely deep bronze tan color, my friends, even with the spf 50. no, really. are you laughing at me?

CSA Week 9

2006CSAwk9

cubanelle peppers, white and purple eggplant, basil, potatoes, peaches, tomatoes, kohlrabi stems? and 2 jars of honey.

when I first picked up the share I thought maybe I had grabbed something fancy and not meant for me! the giant bunch of basil and the 2 jars of honey threw me – but the farmer posted to her blog that she’d traded for some south jersey wild flower honey. it’s unpasteurized, too, which means I’ll have to be a little faster about eating it once it’s open. it looks SO GOOD.

Now I’m wondering if I can “grill” peaches on the broiler or should I invest in a grill pan. I asked my friend jesse in his new cooking blog (which is super! awesome! a must-read!) cause y’all know what’s good with honey: grilled peaches. Dizam!

I’m still due for the tomato-eggplant risotto from world vegetarian. my copy of the book came while I was at the beach. And I am going to visit a friend in bklyn who recently gave birth on sat., so I want to bring her something to eat too.

leftovers:
week 6: beans.
week 7: cabbage, eggplant, green pepper, cranberry beans.
week 8: potatoes, beets, radishes, mint, basil, hot peppers, chard, purple and thai eggplant.

I had to toss the chard and the beans from week 5 but brought all the tomatoes with me to the beach and ate them up. I am hoping to go to a bbq on sat. where bringing some kind of elaborate cabbage dish would be appropriate. And I MUST cook the cranberry beans because they are so weird and good sounding.