Friday, June 17, 2016

PASSING THE TORCH

This election. I swear. It's taking something out of me. So much hate spewing forth from every direction! When I think about my contemporaries at UT and at colleges around the country in the late sixties/early seventies, rising up against the status quo, actually managing to make real changes for the better by joining together to make ourselves heard, well, I just have to wonder. What happened to all of those idealistic people? How did we come to this? 

But, then, two of my kiddos showed up here yesterday evening, stayed up talking politics with us until the wee hours, and were both dressed and on the road by 6:30 AM, headed off to the State Convention in San Antonio, full of the passion and determination that my generation seems to have lost. Maybe things are not so hopeless after all. Maybe it was simply time for us to pass the torch to the next generation of caretakers and shaker-uppers -- the ones who still have a chance to make this world a better place. For this little dude...



Wednesday, June 15, 2016

RAIDERS OF THE LOST SEED


Hubby decided yesterday was the day to try and clean up our open-air garage -- a thankless task, the results of which never last for long, due to that bit about it being "open-air".  On the plus side, if you have people in the family with hoarding tendencies, you can't just toss a bunch of junk in there then slam the doors shut and forget about it. 

When he moved the cars out of the way, he found our usual little "gift" - piles of birdseed detritus beneath each one.


The first time we noticed it, we couldn't figure out how it got there. Could the wind have blown it in? Then why wasn't it elsewhere in the garage? Why just these two little piles? Finally we caught on. The birds and the tree squirrels are messy eaters, and leave piles of seed beneath each of our feeders. Then the rock squirrels - those funky little fellows who are more gray than brown, with very dark heads and faces -- come along to gather it all up, and ferry it to their dining rooms under our cars. Apparently they prefer a bit of privacy when they dine. We like to watch them in action through our front door while we eat our own dinner.


A couple of nights ago we were watching something on TV when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the same color as our squirrels, with the same fluffy tail, but waaaay too big. "John, quick! Come look!" Turns out our little foxes like birdseed too! We figured that one was probably the mother of the litter our neighbors above us found at their house. I would have given anything to snap a photo of her, but knew that the minute she heard our door creak open, she'd be off like greased lightening.

Instead, we just stood there watching as she finished up all the seed in the garage, then moved outside to clean up everything under the feeder next to it. Way better than watching TV, dontcha think?

Monday, June 13, 2016

GOOD EATS

It's Tomato-Time in Texas y'all, and the Lanes have been eatin' good!


Last order cycle I got a couple of pounds of my favorite big beefy slicing tomatoes, Cherokee Purples, from The Bountiful Sprout. The first two nights we made hubby's favorite Caprese Salads, alternating thick slices of tomato with a few slices from a ball of fresh mozzarella, then drizzling them with a bit of really good olive oil and a splash of aged balsamic, and finishing with a grind or two of coarse salt and pepper, and a shredding of freshly picked basil. Mmmmmm. 

The following night we had old fashioned tomato sandwiches. Hubby opted for one on toasted bread, with bacon! Me, I'm a tomato sandwich purist. Nothing but home-grown tomatoes, mayo (which I almost never eat on anything else), salt and pepper. Plus, it has to be on soft, mushy bread!

I'm hoping the selection will still be plentiful when I return from helping out a sister who's had a really rough time with a knee replacement surgery, for there are still soooo many things to be crossed off of my tomato checklist, such as...
  • pasta with Jewell's or Jamie's raw tomato sauce
  • tomato pesto tarts
  • baked cherry tomatoes with goat cheese, scooped up with chunks of warm, crusty bread
  • Greek salads, with cucumber, red onion, kalamata olives, and feta cheese
  • Salade Provençal 
  • Lago's roasted tomatoes, served over warm pasta, or on toast crusts with chevre, or in sandwiches
To name just a few!

Know what else is back is season? Shrimp. In particular, the Sunday night Cajun Shrimp Boils at Hays City Store.

One order is enough for two!
Now them's some good eats, I gar-on-tee!