breaking bread

There are so many things I enjoy about our old stone home. One of them is simply the play of morning light across the dining room table.

Last evening, I reveled in the beautiful faces that dined here:

Hubby, tired & somewhat sunburned from a satisfying day's work. He ripped shingles off of a roof in the Indian summer sun.

Ben, the best boy in the whole world of boys. After a morning of college classes, he joined his dad on the roof.

Ana, who is such an very very good girl. She worked from 10-3 and then went kayaking with

Philip, who lives up the street. We love having his dazzling smile around these here parts.

Summer, who wrote & directed a most stunning film which is in its last legs of editing. You just WAIT until you see this film!

Jonathan, who pulled into the drive while we were lifting our forks to our mouths. Lucky for him, we had plenty to go around. He enriched our discussion of Conditional Immortality over dinner.

It tickles my fancy to no end that such lovely faces break bread around our table.

for what it's worth....

For curiosity's sake, I searched online for "antique general store counter",
and found this.

Gracious me! $4,500???

Ours looked so very much like this one. We rescued it from a friend's barn in exchange for some plumbing work. I think we got a sweet deal.

green tomatoes

It has been a great summer for tomatoes.

I put in around thirty plants; twelve of them being "Amish Paste". This has proven to be a winner for sauces and all kinds of cooking, as there is a lot of meaty paste & very little seeds.

We experimented by canning home-made ketchup. Why not?

It got the thumbs up from me; the rest of the family thought it was a great dipping sauce, but it's still not the same stuff as Heinz.

Ketchup Babies.

Anyway.

Last week, I trolled in all the green tomatoes & prowled the web for what to make with them. I was enamored with this recipe, perhaps only because of the web design. But really, the recipe sounded great.

I made 14 pints and dubbed it "Green Tomato Salsa" -because that's the way we will use it! We scarfed up two pints already, accompanied by two bags of white tortilla chips.

Now some of you will say, "this entry doesn't say ANYTHING about the new addition!" and you woulds be correct. The back wing looked really good for two days, and then all the mess began again: trim, carpet, paint, wood-stove pipe, and putting together the Lord of the Manor's office.

It is presently in a state of disarray, believe me. Better to talk about green tomatoes!