Fudgey Wudgey Chocolate Sauce is Wonderful!

Warm Fudge Sauce over ice cream! It's the perfect accompaniment to Sunday afternoon Domino games. You do play Dominoes on Sunday afternoon, don't you? Real Dominoes where you add up all the end numbers and try to make a number divisible by five? It's like calisthenics for your brain and when you're done, well, you've earned some ice cream with warm fudge sauce, don't you think? 

Celebrate Squash!

It's "Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch" Day. Let's celebrate! I understand it's a national holiday. Whether you're the one sneaking or the one finding a grocery bag of the lovlies on your porch, surely you'll be serving them today! Right? 

The chickens think too-big squash is a yummy treat.

In our garden which has been hit hard by scorching temperatures and drought, the zucchini and crookneck squash continue to thrive. Thanks to our resident guineas, Hank and Edna, there are no squash bugs attacking our plants this year. 

Cookbooks I Have Loved

Keep your romance novels, I'd rather settle down with a good cookbook. It's not that I don't enjoy good fiction, it's just that I have so little self-discipline and am inclined to consume a book while neglecting all other responsibilities including things like sleep. It's ridiculous! It doesn't even have to be all that good. So I don't allow myself to indulge all that often. Cookbooks, however, make good reading and I can put them down. Cookbooks not only make good nighttime reading, they also can take you on great adventures in the kitchen.  Delicious dishes are just a recipe away!

While I'm always looking for a new cookbook, there are some that stand out. Splattered and worn, they have been beloved teachers and dear friends. Here are some of the cookbooks I have loved:

Betty Crocker's Cookbook
I received this book from my mother at one of my wedding showers. She had used a Betty Crocker Cookbook for years and she got me the latest edition.

Living in a Dry and Weary Land

There are a few bloom on the hibiscus

A brave daylily blooms in spite of the heat

We are living in a “dry and weary land.” The heat has been brutal and oppressive. There has been no rain for weeks. The garden whimpers. Even with watering, it is not pretty.

Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes Are Quite Good

Sourdough is an ancient way of causing a rising or growing action in dough or batters through fermentation. Before commercial yeast was available this is how most bread was made. Many pioneer families depended on sourdough as did the Yukon gold miners who were even called "sourdoughs." Since sourdough is a culture that is "fed" flour and water, it can be sustained for many years. Claims are made of sourdough maintained for a hundred years or more. 

Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes make a lovely weekend breakfast.

My sourdough is nowhere near that old, but I am thinking that I've kept it going since sometime in the 1990's, perhaps even earlier.