What would you do with a shopping bag full of small white eggplants that your friend gave you? 
I'm thinking of making pickles out of them (and perhaps foisting a jar or two off on her).  My Google-Fu found four recipes that sound pretty good.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/pickled-grilled-eggplant-recipe/index.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/11/how-to-pickle-eggplant-with-mint-and-garlic.html

http://www.cookbookarchaeology.com/?p=1657

http://italianfood.about.com/od/veggieantipasti/r/blr0730.htm

I've also got 5 green Thai eggplants in the fridge, harvested out of our own garden (many more to come if this produces like my Ichiban Japanese eggplant did last year).  I'm thinking of giving them a somewhat Thai treatment.  We're growing peppers and Thai basil that would go well with them, and fish sauce is a pantry staple.  A bit of lemongrass and lime juice (I admit, I cheat.  I have a tube of lemongrass paste and one of those green plastic limes in the fridge), maybe chop up the leftover white button mushrooms... mmmm, this is sounding good already. 

Someone needs to make work busier (it's the usual summer doldroms) so I don't have time to browse bulb and plant websites - that or take my credit cards away from me. I managed to prevent myself from ordering a bunch of stuff last fall/winter for shipment this spring, but I couldn't prevent myself from ordering a bunch of stuff for shipment this fall.

I have to admit, my resolve originally melted with this order on 6/11, but I was able to contain myself for a month before putting in the next order

  Allium carinatum s. Pulchellum

  Allium flavum                 

 Allium schubertii             
 
 Allium low growing mixture 
 
  Galanthus nivalis Flore Pleno

  Leucojum aestivum 

 

The dam broke in July, and I purchased a bunch of natives and/or deer/drought resistant varieties (ok, the Sedum was free with purchase...)

            

yesterday's order was

 

I'll be busy in September and October as these start being delivered

Great, most of the traffic to this blog is from spam sites.  Whee.  Maybe I can get some more interest if I actually publish some content.

Speaking of SPAM, a good way to use up leftover steamed rice is to make this fried rice.

Ingredients per pint of cold leftover rice:
1/2 cup onion (and/or scallions), chopped
1 clove (or more) garlic, crushed
1/2 - 3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 can SPAM in 1/2" cubes
1 egg
1 Tbs. butter
peanut oil (or another oil with a high smoke point)
soy sauce, salt & pepper, sesame seeds to taste

In a hot pan or wok heat up about 1 Tbs. oil.
Cook scrambled egg, chopping it into small bite sized bits in the pan & remove.
Lightly brown SPAM cubes & remove.
Add another 1 Tbs. oil. & sautee onion and garlic. 
Add cold rice to the onion and garlic, break up as best you can.  Cook for a minute or so to get a little brown on the rice.
Add 1/2 cup chicken broth and continue to cook, you may need more to make the rice soften up a bit.
Add soy sauce, salt & pepper to taste
Return SPAM and eggs to the rice, toss with the butter and some sesame seeds, and serve.

You can add peas, cooked cubed carrots, corn, bean sprouts, or whatever you like to your rice.  I tend to like it mostly teppanyaki style.  Sometimes I put in lap xhong sausage instead of SPAM or make it vegetarian without the meat.

A name change, and a promise to post occassionally when not at work so I can actually access the photos I have saved up in the clouds.

I spent the past two mornings working in the garden and am now rewarded with two weed free beds, one of which also got mulched.  Pics later.

Dog Days

Here in NJ we've got the usual summertime Triple H weather - Hazy, Hot, Humid - going on.  Perspiration isn't even a relief because the air is too humid for evaporation to occur.  Therefore you just walk around with this sheen of sweat covering your entire body.  Even your fingertips get sweaty.

Dragonfly Omen

When I was walking to work, I spotted a large dragonfly sitting on the ground.  Not a good spot for it, in the middle of a sidewalk that would become quite busy later on.  I nudged it with my toe to see if I could get it to move, but it just twitched a bit and didn't fly off. 

I couldn't leave it where it would surely get squished, so bent down to pick it up.  It would not let me pick it up but it did climb up on to my finger when I presented it.  This dragonfly was nearly as big as my hand.

Tried to let it climb off onto a tree, but it did not want to let go.  So, I walked, with a dragonfly on my index finger, to the front of my building and tried to let it off in the planter.  At that point, it flew off, and up up up it went.  I guess it was just tired a few minutes earlier.

Was interested in what deities are associated with dragonflies, first hit on Google said something about them being associated with Freya.  Might not be historically accurate, but I'll take it.