This was the beginning of the busiest weeks of my work year, prepping for fiscal year end closing meetings. This always coincides with the county fair so is a double whammy. Adding to that was my decision to enter food in the fair, which was a first for me and brought on by a new limit on my sock entries. For the first time, you could only have 5 entries in any one category and since there's only one category for small knitted items, I had to choose wisely on knitting and would enter some baked goods to round out my entries. As usual, the goal was to earn enough ribbon money for lunch out.
I'd thawed blackberries so got up first thing Monday and baked a blackberry pie. Entries were Tuesday but I wanted to take the rest of the pie to knitting (you only enter a quarter of the pie) so made it early. It was tart but still yummy according to my taste testers. I got up Tuesday morning and made zucchini chocolate muffins with lemon chips. Normally I use peanut butter chips and would again because the lemon flavor was lost, leaving just a shot of yellow sweetness in the muffins. I brought the extra of those to work and they all got eaten, of course.
Mary was out of town for the first two days of the week so the first closing meeting wasn't until Thursday, which meant my prepping was not stressful this year. Good thing because Tuesday was a long day. I picked up a salad for lunch on the way to work in the morning and then ate a PB&J sandwich, made with the leftover baguette from lunch, in the car on the way home. I dashed inside to pick up my pie and muffins and headed to the fair for 4H vegetable check in, which I do every year as master gardener volunteer hours. Andrea picked up my food and dropped it off for judging, which she does for me every year. It takes a village.
The rest of the week went well with the meetings but when I was getting ready for bed on Thursday, I noticed some red in my eye. Well, when I looked sideways, it was clear that a blood vessel had burst in my eye. That had never happened to me before and freaked me out a little but it was at the side of my eye so not super visible. It faded over time. Good thing.
The heat had broken so I spent a bunch of time outside. First up was weeding the veg beds and then I kept going around the deck and even got some of the big bed done. I got the kitchen cleaned up, which of course lead to cooking up a storm. I had beets I'd roasted that needed using so made quinoa with sauteed chard (from my garden) and beets that I topped with grilled steak come dinner time. I also made summer chopped salad (my own recipe - scroll down if you're interested) and then made a beet salad with some grain mix from Aldi. I even made cabbage and sweet potatoes that went into the freezer. It's always nice to go into the work week with a fridge full of healthy food.
When I was done with all that cooking, I went out again and mulched all around the deck with the mulch I'd bought weeks ago that was still sitting in a pile by the alley. When I was done, I went in for yummy dinner and then Lorri and her sister, who I met last summer in Portland, came over for a visit. It was a perfect weekend and I was thrilled with the cooler weather (finally!) that let me spend time outside. I was ready for my busy week too. Yay!
Summer Chopped Salad
1 cuke, peeled, seeded, cubed
1 zucchini, cubed
2 paste tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
4 strips crisply fried bacon, crumbled
~1/4 cup of your salad dressing of choice
Put cuke in colander and sprinkle liberally with
salt. Let stand 30 minutes then rinse
and pat dry. Combine in bowl with
remaining vegetables, drizzle with salad dressing, toss and top with
bacon. Wonderful served cold as either a
side dish or light lunch - YUM!
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