It's August!

Today is the warmest day that we have had in a long time. It's in the high 80s and humid. Not only have the temperatures been cool but it has also been very windy. The leaves on the zucchini plants that are on the south side of the house were facing the same direction after being buffeted by the high winds.

I haven't had any time to work on my flower beds lately so I'm planning on getting out tomorrow so that I can weed, deadhead and fertilize the potted flowers. I have been using the water in the rain barrel to keep the pots wet--it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to water all of them. A few weeks ago, I cut back the salmon Wave petunias and it really made a difference. They are full and lush again.

We have been reaping the harvest from the vegetable garden daily. Last Saturday, Ken emptied out one of the bins containing the Yukon Gold potatoes. There were about a dozen large potatoes and a handful of very small ones. He found a recipe for Swedish potato salad in a current issue of Cook's Illustrated and used some of the large ones to make it. It was really good! However, next time he will add bacon to it.

Yesterday, I made linguine with roasted vegetables and a pesto to spread on french bread. I roasted 4th of July tomatoes, Sun Gold tomatoes, the baby potatoes, zucchini and carrots in the oven at 425 F for 30 minutes. Then I carmelized three small onions. After all of the vegetables were cooked, I mixed them together in a bowl and added two chopped uncooked 4th of July tomatoes. Their juices and the extra virgin olive oil used to roast them created a nice sauce. I then added the vegetables to the cooked linguine and sprinkled each dish with parmesian cheese.

I used a recipe from this month's Organic Gardening to make the pesto. The recipe called for both walnuts and pine nuts. I did make one change to the recipe though. It said to use nine gloves of garlic but I only added five. I love garlic but five cloves were even too much. Next time, I'll use one or two.

Yesterday, was the first time that I picked any zucchini but the plants are loaded with flowers. I thought that I would use some of the zucchinis in recipes such as zucchini bread but I still plan on stuffing the blossoms.