Sauteed Mushrooms

Okay, this is my third attempt to write this post.  And since each subsequent attempt means I have to start from the beginning and edit what I've written, I am determined to finish this one.

The first edit was easy, because all that I had accomplished with my first attempt was "Sauteed Muuuuuuuuu" in the title field.  Give or take a few u's, I didn't count how many there actually were.  That's right, I fell asleep before I barely even started.

And the second attempt, I fell asleep while writing the above paragraph.  

Before you wonder if my laptop is pumping out some sort of a sleeping mist, let me just say that I've been dealing with a nasty summer upper respiratory infection which has left me wiped out by the end of the day.

And now that I'm feeling better, I'm not so wiped out, maybe just feeling grumpy.  Take last night for example.  My grumpiness prompted me to take this picture:

I was at Fenway Park, which is usually my happy place, but in the seventh inning the Red Sox blew a 9-3 lead and that made me grumpy and then I started wondering why the head of the person sitting in front of me (see picture) seemed to be growing larger as the game went on.

That was my view.  It could have been worse...despite obstructing my view, the young man with the expanding head was extremely well-behaved and hardly moved at all during the game, so there was no bobbing and weaving on my part to see around him....I simply had to lean to the left (to see the pitcher) or lean to the right (to see the batter).

Thanks for listening.

If you're not feeling well, you may consider chicken pot pie or beef stew your comfort food of choice.  Not me.  Nuh-uh.  I need mushrooms.  The steak under the mushrooms is merely incidental.

Time Sure Does Fly...........

I can't believe how quickly this summer has been flying by!

In two weeks, Caitie and Sean will be gone, off to college.  I really enjoy having everyone under one roof, so my focus this summer has been on enjoying every moment and trying not to think about how lonely it's going to be when they're gone.

I've  secretly been making lists of things I want to pack into their care packages.  Shhhh, don't tell.  It will be Sean's first year at school, he has no idea what a care package is.  His care packages will involve lots of home-baked treats.  He especially likes cookies.

Too bad he doesn't like banana bread--but Caitie does.  I've been baking lots of banana bread this summer. The summer heat has been ripening the bananas so quickly, I've had lots of overripe bananas to bake with.

    I put chocolate chips and raspberries in this loaf.

 In less than 24 hours, it was gone.

I added chocolate chips and raspberries to this loaf as well, and then made it chocolaty by switching out 1/2 cup of flour for cocoa powder instead.

You can find my recipe for banana bread by clicking here .  To make the chocolate chip-raspberry banana bread, just add a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of halved fresh raspberries (tossed with a tablespoon of flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your loaf) to the basic recipe.   Because of the extra moisture that the raspberries add, you will need to increase the cooking time, at least ten minutes more than the original recipe calls for.   I baked mine for an hour and 10 minutes.

It's been extra-hot around here this summer.  I can't keep up with the water demands of my container plants,   and most of them are very sad-looking.  I won't even show you a picture, that's how bad they look!

But the flowers in my garden are holding on, especially the zinnias and dahlias.

I've been filling vases with them (and an occasional late-blooming gladiolus), hoping that these bright blooms will make the dead flowers in the deck boxes less noticeable!