Monday, July 19
Amanda does not have golf today, so I have a day off from being her driver. I set up the sourdough starter last night so that I could bake today. The odd looking loaf was an experiment. My refrigerator was very crowded with accumulated garden produce, so I did not have room for all four loaves to rise there for 4-5 hours. I left one loaf on the counter to rise and baked it first. Of course, at warm room temperature it had risen quite a bit. The soft mound collapsed when I scored it and did not rise again in the oven. I baked at the recommended time and temperature, but you can tell by looking that the baking time was too long. I cut back the time on the rest of the loaves.
In addition to the sourdough loaves, I make a 2-loaf recipe of zucchini blueberry bread. Among the vegetables that I picked on Saturday was enough zucchini to grate 3 cups for the recipe and I had blueberries in the freezer. This recipe is definitely a keeper for breakfast sweet bread. It has enough sugar and oil that it can't be considered "healthy." I reduced the sugar, used some pear butter to sub for some of the oil and used 20% whole wheat flour. The bread is moist and delicious with a generous portion of blueberries. The zucchini disappears as it bakes .
I prepared an all-garden supper with Margaurite's Summer Squash Casserole, peas, green beans and fried okra. Living right and eating good!
Tuesday, July 20
Bill and I did something very unusual for us - we went shopping. We made an outing to Sevierville to the Outlet Mall so Bill could look for shoes at the Clark's factory store. On the way, we stopped at the Lodge Cast Iron outlet and I bought a couple of loaf pans that I will try on the next baking day. Bill found a pair of shoes he liked and I bought a summer white cotton sweater at the Ann Taylor outlet next door. We decide to drive home by way of Townsend and Maryville, rather than go back to the interstate. We haven't made that scenic drive through Wear's Valley in a long time. We hoped to eat in Townsend, but the restaurant that we were interested in is only open Wednesday - Sunday. We ended up at a local Mexican restaurant in Maryville that we have enjoyed in the past. It was a full day outing and a pleasant change for us. Don't want to do it again any time soon, though.
Wednesday, July 21
Back to driving Miss Amanda, or rather, she drives and I ride shotgun. She is ready to get her license! After dropping her off, I went to Lenoir City for a meeting at church. Before coming home, I stopped to check on Jim and get him some groceries.
Mid-after, I picked up Amanda for a haircut at Turkey Creek and from their to golf practice at Avalon. I drove this time. I will miss spending this time with her.
Thursday, July 22
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Good morning, East Tennessee
Smoke from the western wildfires is tinting our sunrise and sunset. |
I was up before the sunrise this morning to take Sandra for her second cataract surgery. She had another 5:45 appointment. We were finished in plenty of time for me to pick up Amanda at 8:30 for the trip to Fox Den.
It wasn't too hot when I got home and I knew that there were vegetables that needed to be picked. I got quite a haul. No problem about what to do with the rest of my day!
Today's harvest: 1/2 lb okra; 1 3/4 lb cucumbers; 1/2 lb green beans; 5+ lbs tomatoes; 3+ lbs purple hull peas; 3 lbs zucchini; 4 Jalapeno, 4 ?UK and 3 green bell peppers. I'm still trying to figure out what this unknown pepper could be, like a banana pepper but not yellow.
I shelled the peas for the freezer and grated the zucchini for more bread, put tomatoes out on the counter and the rest in the refrigerator to deal with later. I got 3 pints of peas and 2 1/2 recipes portions of grated zucchini.
Friday, July 23
This is Amanda's last day as golf clinic assistant. I picked Sandra up at 10 for her follow-up appointment and was back home before lunch. At 2, I went back into town to meet Jim's brother-in-law and sister at Jim's house. It looks like the work will be completed except for the separate job of restoring the bathroom which will begin on Monday.
Then there were those tomatoes that have been ripening on counter. The quickest way to preserve them seemed to be juice and can them. A gallon of tomatoes that had been quartered and cored produced just 4 pints of juice which I will use in soups or stews.
Bill has been working on two outdoor projects in this awful heat, in addition to mowing. He has trimmed fox grape vines out of the wisteria and pine. And he is working on a project to get an electrical outlet to the power pole or shed to use for charging the boat batteries. Today he picked up the boat from the mechanic who has installed our new trolling motor and two marine batteries to power it. The motor is GPS controlled and will eliminate the need for anchoring when we are fishing.
We decided on a Friday night fish fry, with Southern-style catfish and fried okra instead of "chips," served with a simple salad.
The Tokyo Summer Olympics officially began, with opening ceremonies on TV. The olympics had been postponed a year because of Covid travel restrictions. There is still a lot of controversy about holding the games because Covid is widespread in Japan. There are no spectators at any events, except a few VIPs and other athletes. No family members were allowed to travel to the games.
Saturday, July 24
It got hot quickly today, so I mostly stayed in and stayed cool. I spent a lot of time working on this blog. We cooked hamburgers for supper with sweet potato fries in the air fryer.
Sunday, July 25
Today's SS lesson was a discussion on a passage from Ephesians about how we honor God by loving one another. What would our church and our life be like if we really practiced what we taught and preached. After church, I visited Jim and shopped for a few groceries for him and for us. He is now scheduled to get back into his house on Tuesday. Frank, the contractor we met here at the motel should have his toilet useable by then. Late afternoon, before supper, we went to the Matzeks so Bill could challenge Amanda in a game of ping-pong.
Ribs from a previous Ruby BoGo which were in the freezer were the main course, with purple-hull peas, green beans and fresh corn.
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