Turkey Tracks: August 21, 2016
Sunday Puttering
I love a day like today.
No schedule. Nothing to do but what I want to do. Within reason, anyway. It always involves comfy clothes: freedom of the body with no bra or anything tight.
I read a bit over breakfast: email, the news (I have the NYTimes articles every day online and it’s so easy and convenient and has no ads), Facebook, the weekly local papers. One of my fellow passengers on the Riggin in July posted his OUTSTANDING pictures to the rest of us. I’ll do a blog entry of some of them in a bit.
We are getting a storm, which we need, but the sun comes out a bit, and I find myself watering, weeding a little, gathering, feeding birds (I made sugar syrup for the hummers) and just puttering about.
I roast some beets:
These will get into a green salad with blue cheese, some spring onions, and my mustardy/garlicky vinaigrette.
I pick chard from the garden and bring it inside to dry. It will go into Mason jars and be thrown into soups and stews this winter. Green flakes, after the food processor chops up the dried leaves.
The bottom flat is full of drying cherry tomatoes picked yesterday: Sun Golds. I pick another whole batch while in the garden. Rain makes the ripe tomatoes burst open. I have no container with me, so I make one from the bottom of my shirt tail.
After dripping some whey out of yogurt, I make mayonnaise–using some minimally processed avocado oil. It’s delicious, so that’s a winner. I find even the light olive oils to be too strong for a lemony mayo. The addition of the whey “cultures” the mayo so that it lasts a long time.
What’s behind the mayo making is a yen for a BLT–it’s that time of year. AND, I have a beautiful little head of cabbage that wants to be turned into coleslaw.
I clean out the produce drawers in the refrigerator. The Hope’s Edge weekly CSA pickup is Tuesday. (More tomatoes!) And I determine that I will pan sauté the remaining zukes, yellow squash, a new onion, new potatoes, some cherry tomatoes, and an eggplant with some herbs, especially mint. I’ll use the bacon grease as a flavoring agent. It’s a “good fat,” and my bacon is nitrate/nitrite free. I have a baked chicken breast I’ll warm to go along with this supper.
I read some of the LAST Ogilvie book on the fictional people of the fictional Bennet’s Island–located somewhere near Matinicus–while eating and put it down only to make a maple syruplatte with my little Moka pot and milk frother.
Raw whole milk and freshly grated nutmeg. Sometimes I add cinnamon too. I only warm the milk before frothing it to prevent killing all its goodness.
This one is a little light on milk… But it was delicious!
Penny has been waiting patiently for her walk. We take a run up to a neighbors trails where she can fun free. The fog and lower clouds are skimming the tree tops and covering the mountains. It’s glorious.
When we come home, red squirrel is sitting on top of the bench downstairs. She traps him/her on the upper porch, and s/he leaps off to the hydrangeas below and makes a run for a nearby oak. Penny is only a half-length behind him/her. Everyone is excited about the drama.
I’m easily amused on puttering days.
Louisa Enright's Blog 
Reading this reminds me of the letters my mother used to write after my dad had passed away and she still planted the garden, canned, and wrote about what she’d made herself for dinner. And what she was planning to pick as the next batches, and reading, the crossword puzzles, and more. A full life. As yours sounds. A pleasure to read.
louisa- such a beautiful piece. i can feel the snuggly all the way from here:). Just wonderful! thank you for sharing this! best- jude