where squash and beans meet in HEAVEN

A good neighbor is hard to find, right?  One thing we have noticed in 22 years of dog owning, from Chicago to Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Ithaca, is that people walking their dogs get to know their neighbors.  Sure, I might be very solitary and shy, but I always get to know the people around my house, because we walk the dog...which has become rare.  Nobody walks anywhere anymore, nobody knows their neighbors, nobody sits on their front porch greeting their walking neighbors.
If you walk your cute little beagle you have a wonderful introduction to all the people who live near you...which is how we got to know Yogi's family better than others, because they walk their dog too.  And when they were getting a puppy 2 years ago, they asked me to take care of Yogi when they weren't able to.  Yogi's personality is different from my own beagle, for example, he likes other dogs and Penny does not like most.

SO, I was in a conundrum Saturday, invited out to a get together with other people and their dogs and asked to also babysit Yogi...but that was solved:  I just took Yogi! I wish I had more photos of him with the other dogs...then we went to East Hill Rail Trail for a late evening hike, gosh it was a gorgeous day.

Yogi's family keeps giving me cartloads of veggies from their garden, and we have enjoyed every last one, either canning or eating it all.  They told me they grated summer squash into their spaghetti sauce and loved it and I figured it would also be true with chili....and HOT DAMN it is true, and I make the most lazy but tasty squash chili on earth--I have made it 3 times in a row!...***
(of course, with good seasonings and simmered all day, old shoes and gym socks would make great chili too!)
I said "this squash is bigger than a football!"


***ridiculously easy lazy summer squash chili

You can simmer in a large soup pot or use a slow cooker, I have done both.
-grate a summer squash, dice a bell pepper (and any other veggies hanging around)
-toss in pot with some olive oil, start heating
-drain and rinse can of either black or red beans, add
-add 3/4-1 cup spaghetti sauce (use more with a big squash, same below)
-add 3/4-1 cup water
-add 1/4-1/2 cup BBQ sauce (I use Dinosaur BBQ habanero...it will make anything take superb!)
-all your favorite spices, like hot pepper, black pepper, oregano, garlic, whatever
-simmer in the slow cooker 5+ hours, in your soup pot 1+ hours---the grated squash seems to vanish, becoming a nice thick sauce
- about 20 minutes before dinner toss in a handful of pasta, and I like to top with cheese and corn chips, mmmm
-

in which a mysterious soccer ball turns my cat into an athlete

The wife is like "what is the cat playing with?"
"A small soccer ball"
"Where did he get a small soccer ball?"
"Maybe when I was babysitting Yogi, he brought it over?"
"That must be it."
"He's mighty good at that, maybe he'll lose some weight and the vet will stop pestering us to put Spike on a diet...."





HEY, never too early to shop for Christmas, and look at all the fine new items added to my etsy gallery (click here!), go get 'em while they are HOT!

squashed....

My neighbors (probably yours too) have squash coming out their EARS.  I have a whole file of zucchini recipes that gets dusted off every summer for frantic use (although I like zucchini anytime), but summer squash?  Only 2 recipes, I like to make it into chili or lasagna, both sooooo good.  Those same neighbors mentioned they made squash muffins too, a new idea to me, and I found many recipes (click here)... and a gluten-free recipe I like a lot (click here).  It is not one of those rich-full-of-sugar-and-fat recipes, more of a light and fluffy muffin that turned out perfectly and makes you wonder where the squash is...I did not see any reason to NOT add blueberries and then top with cinnamon sugar because I did not have any lemon anything.....
have an awesome weekend!

wheels keep on turning....

The wife wandered through the studio yesterday, got some snaps of me finishing one mug and glazing another... my favorite part of pottery is glazing, second is finishing thrown items.  Throwing clay on the wheel?  A distant third:  it makes me feel unbelieveably  great, but I always feels like the writer and the blank page, full of anxiety about the unknown, whereas with trimming and glazing, all the decisions have already been made, you just have to follow the known steps :)

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

–William Shakespeare

Campbell Meadow, near our house.  Have an awesome Wednesday!

your corner of the woods...

"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes." ... Winnie the Pooh




I needed to go see my parents Monday.  At the last minute Yogi's family asked me to babysit him.  NO PROBLEM!  Yogi is such a good dog, and on a perfect summer day my parents' farm is heaven for ANYBODY.  Yogi had an ear problem recently and was not allowed to swim...a tough one for a natural swimmer on a hot day when there is a creek, river and pond....

Above is that wee creek, below is the entry to their place....


When you first drive up to their place, there is a bridge over the river.  This is looking from the bridge at the entry to my mom and dad's place...


The drive follows the river.


The drive follows the river a ways then into the woods....


You come around a bend and see their barn...


The view from their house down to the pond....yep, you can see Yogi wishes he could get soaked...
have an awesome Tuesday yerself!

“Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” ― A.A. Milne

“We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.
Even longer,' Pooh answered.” 
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

HortonDumboBabar!

Oh goodness, my two favorite books when I was little (well, Peter Rabbit too...and others....) were BABAR and HORTON HEARS a WHO...and I loved how the mocked little elephant Dumbo showed everybody how being different could be for a great reason...and there are other great things about Dumbo....

So, you know, you never forget that sort of thing, do you?  Have a great Sunday!



(now pottery by Gary Rith)

21 pounds....

The cousins are visiting:  "Oh, our cat is Spike's size, what is our Tango, 12 pounds?"
Me:  "Spike is 21 pounds.  So is the dog."
They:  "NO WAY!!!!!! Well, but Tango is very fuzzy......"