by Alison

I sooth my sour mood

with spoonfuls of lemon curd

straight from the jar

by Alison

fifteen years later

I’m still cooking broccoli

with garlic and oil

by Alison

green tea and kale chips

yoga and inspiring books -

I’m feeling healthy

by Alison

Indian cuisine

sleeping late and Haloween -

we like the same things

by Kelly

Summer is wrapping up. So too is the growing season.

While it’s especially hard for me, a Minnesotan who knows that winter is just a few months away, to say good-bye to the heat and humidity, I am at least able to acknowledge that summer’s end brings a delicious bounty of garden produce.

There are few things in life so grand (as far as I’m concerned) as a ripe tomato picked from your very own vine and drizzled in olive oil. I was thrilled, therefore when I stumbled upon a series of haiku in praise of the tomato.

The haiku were penned by Lori Writer, who writes for a Twin Cities food-obsessed web site called Heavy Table.

Her tomato haiku link to recipes suggesting new ways to use up your bumper crop. This one, in particular, stood out to me:

Tomato ice cream
sounds ghastly. But, tomato
is a fruit, you know.

Writer’s tomato haiku are actually a year old. I stumbled upon them because I was reading a more recent post by her in which she put together a collection of haiku praising the cucumber.

Like her tomato haiku, her cucumber haiku link to recipes suggesting various ways to eat all the cukes your vines have produced.

But I happen to like her introductory cucumber haiku the best:

Glorious August.
Long days, borealis nights.
Cukes, by the bucket.

And even though summer’s heat seems to have passed me by (fall has come on with a vengence here) I can’t stop myself from thinking about the recipe suggested by this cucumber haiku:

Lemonade Chiller,
tart and sweet. Leaves you cool as
any cucumber.

by Alison

in the seafood shack

parking lot, brothers argue

over politics

by Alison

.

.

.

morning:

I play dolls with kid

throw the Kong ball to puppy

and play dolls some more

.

later:

instead of rushing

to the store we meet up with

a caterpillar

.

afternoon:

I scream in the car

a tick on my tummy while

driving to Walmart

.

dinnertime:

8:57

kid’s still eating mac and cheese

puppy looks for crumbs

.

bedtime:

husband sick in bed

nursing a cup of miso

daughter rubs her eyes

.

night time:

pup goes out for one

last poop I close my eyes and

listen to crickets

by Kelly

we check the progress

of our first cucumber — its

growth is magical

by Kelly

People either love

beets or hate them. No wonder

we’re friends. We love them.

Here’s my newest beet recipe. Alison, you simply MUST try this:

Roasted Beets with Carmelized Onions and Feta