pnArt

The weekend found us in Joisy where we went for two birthday parties - my mother-in-law’s number 80 and my nephew’s number 4.    I returned late Sunday and I’m not even unpacked but things have suddenly hotted up at work with my boss making the totally unreasonable demand that a project I had promised to finish last year actually be delivered sometime this year. Doesn’t he have any sense of literary irony and dramatic tension? Meanwhile a relative of mine is having a personal and financial crisis and we’re trying to figure out how to help in our usual fluttery and dilettante fashion. I wish I was one of those square-jawed testosterone-dripping action heroes who knows how to charge into a situation and confidently bark orders. And on top of that, our little 13-year old Birman has suddenly started to issue op-ed poops about something in doorways and other heavily trafficked areas. He did it again tonight so I scolded him and locked him in his room but we have no idea what he’s trying to tell us.   Albert, our Maine Coon, speaks fluent cat, but he’s no good at translating.

Still, pears and squash wait for no man.   This is the time of year when everything is coming in from the garden. Tonight I baked the last of our pears into the last of our ginger pear crisp. We’ve made other dishes with pears - chicken and pears, pear chutney , and pears with chocolate sauce, but Jane Brody’s ginger pear crisp is so incredibly good, and it freezes well and is a reliable hit at parties, so we can’t resist devoting most of our crop to it.

I also found myself with two big zucchini bats - the last of that crop this year. Their seeds and skins were too tough, so I cored and peeled them and quartered the fruit. I sauteeded up some big Vidalia onions with extra olive oil and then dumped the zucchini chunks into that sweet mess with some salt and pepper. They finally became soft around midnight so I put the whole thing in the refrigerator. A few hours ago my wife picked about 20 beautiful plump, red, sweet tomatoes, and tomorrow I’ll chunk them up, and make a casserole with them and the sauteed zucchini and some cheese and breadcrumbs. Now it’s time to release the Birman prisoner and join my wife in bed.