THE ITALIAN VEGETARIAN

Judy stopped at our local Sprouts store the other day and discovered something she'd never seen before: baby eggplants.

Shoppers were scooping them up and she got a bagful and then asked a lady loading up on them how she fixed them.

The lady turned out to be Italian and she gave her a lengthy recipe which at one point involved cutting the eggplants in half and scoring them.

A man was listening in and at that point he said "Score them?  How do you do that?"

Apparently he had his mind on the NCAA basketball tournament but when eggplant scoring was explained to him realized his mistaken thought.

So . . .

. . . here, at home, are the halved eggplants, just a tad larger than a large egg, and some sliced zucchini.

And Judy shoots, she SCORES!

Go alongs include some garlic, a shallot, some cherry tomatoes and a sliced yellow pepper.

Throw all of that in a big pan and saute it with some olive oil and this is what you get.

Healthy and pretty darn good.

Judy called it sort of an Italian ratatouille minus the "gravy", as Italians call their red sauce.

(AMIT* - We had some chicken nuggets along with it so it wasn't a true vegetarian meal.)

<< *AMIT = A Moment Of Truth >>

AND NOT JUST THE PLUMS!

One street over the decorative pear trees are following the plums with a burst of ivory whiteness.

But I can't help wondering, as the temperature hovers at 85 degrees in mid-March, what will it be like here in August?

I have a friend and former colleague who grew up in Arizona but lives now in snow covered Maine.

The other day on Facebook she commented that she envies her Arizona friends right now but she'll be laughing out of the other side of her mouth when June rolls around.

SPRING IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER . . .

I used to sing that (the title of this blog) and follow it up with "Spring better get a bigger dress!"

Well, Gentle Readers, I never claimed to have any couth.

What brings this to my mind is Tom of the Mediterranean Climate over in California.

The other day when I was braggin' on our mercury headed for the 70's (actually it got to the low 80's the past couple of days), he asked me if we had any spring blossoms over my way.

I said "not yet".

I had forgotten how the "decorative" fruit trees explode in the spring.

I took these photos across the street from our humble home this evening.

Those are the supposedly decorative wild plum trees with all that purply-pink foliage.

So, Tom, and anyone else I may have misled, I apologize.

Well actually, since these trees explode with these blossoms practically overnight, I suppose I could be forgiven.

After all, I don't get out much.

Though SWMBO and I enjoyed an evening on the front patio tonight until the chill came upon us.

Speaking of which . . .

. . . I asked my Master Gardener what was going on with this plant.

It looks like it does in the fall, when the leaves turn crimson.

She said she thought Old Frosty had caught it just a tinge as it was starting to put out new growth and put a hurtin' on it.

But right next to it this lady is doing just fine.

By the way, if you were thinking about asking me what the names of these plants are?

Don't you ever!

(Though that last one might be an Oregon Grape.)

FRIDAY FUNNIES

Oh, joy, it's time for the Friday Funnies.

And not only for Joy but for all the rest of you too.

O.K. for our first laugh let's start off (as Zhoen would say) with one word.

Ryancare.

Oops, there I go again.

Anybody here like wine?

(hic) Had enough?

Oh, wait, there's one more that's sort of related.

That uses up my supply of whacko drinking cartoons.

All of you Gentle Readers (and secret lurkers) out there in the cyberworld have yourselves a disgustingly hedonistic weekend and always . . . yes, always . . . remember to keep laughing.

As for me, I'm happy for Fridays for another reason than the Funnies.

It's pizza night!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Today's forecast from the Weather Gods calls for a high temperature of 76 degrees.

The photos are from a month and a half ago.

Very low cloud over StoneRidge.

A night time visitor revealed in the snow.

Looks like coyote tracks to me and they do inhabit the area.

Whatever it was it walked across my front yard in the night.

SAILING AND LANDING

If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to sail around the world alone on a small boat you may want to read Webb Chiles' log of his journey from Durban, South Africa, to St. Helena in the mid-Atlantic in a tiny (24-foot) sailboat.

It is a harrowing tale, at least for this landlubber, and it can be found here.

Keep in mind, this is a 75 year old man!

As for myself, I'll do no such adventuring.

I'll just wait for spring to come for sure.

The temperature has climbed to the 70's this week and the robins have landed once again.

Still, it is only the 8th of March and the Weather Gods have fooled us before.

TUESDAY TUPPENCE

Here's my sparse two cents for the day.

Webb Chiles has updated his blog with the story of his 2,500 nautical mile journey from Durban, South Africa, to St. Helena island.

If you're so inclined, you can read it here.

On the home (and culinary) front, I bought a dozen goodies from The Samosa Lady last week.

My provider is the one on the left in this old picture taken at the square in Prescott.

She shows up at the Prescott Valley Farmers Market.

I had never tried samosas before and got a couple of free tastes and then bought half a dozen with chorizo filling and another half dozen stuffed with egg and potato.

They were frozen and we had some of them the other night after heating them in the oven.

Very tasty.

Sorry, no photos.

I gave the Russian Rocketman Sage its annual spring haircut yesterday, trimming it back to the ground.

It looks a bit like a disaster area in its ring of rocks this morning but it will grow back quickly, probably taller than ever.

SWMBO loaded the debris into the dumpster and did some other weeding in the driveway and that was the end of our exertion for the day.

We sat in the warm sunshine a bit and reminisced about days gone by when we could do a lot more.

So it goes.