FOODIE ALERT

 Some recent meals from the Taylor Family Kitchen.

Lemon-Pepper Chicken Breast, Israeli Couscous, Sauteed Green Beans.

Simple salads: chopped lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes.

Italian Night: Grated Parmesan atop Judy's Pasta Meat Sauce over Rotini and Cavatappi, Garlic Toast.

Bruce's Bread Machine Whole Wheat Bread with Dried Cranberries.

Bon appetit!

MORE ARTISTRY

One of the commenters on yesterday's blog, Diaday from Dayton, Ohio, noted what a great idea Gayle had to repurpose old CD's as art.

I took another look and then emailed the artist to ask if that's what the centers of those designs were.

She replied that they weren't but said she had a few pieces using old DVD's.

And she sent photos of them.

When I showed them to her mother, all I could say was "What will that girl come up with next?"

ART FROM THE HEART

The BAD (Beautiful Artistic Daughter) and I have never discussed where she gets her ideas, what motivates her impulses, what she sees in her mind before she embarks on another project.

But they continue to flow from her hands, amazing her mother and I and her friends and acquaintances.

For someone like myself, with little to no artistic ability, they are stupendous accomplishments of what I would describe as genius.

So, with no more of my adulation, I show you her photograph of her latest creation.

BAKING IN ARIZONA IN JULY

As my buddy, Steve . . . no, no, not Baseball Steve . . . this Steve.

The Steve, who lives in London, England, and is the author of the Shadows and Light blog.

Anyway as he reminded me recently when I was whining about the heat and not wanting to turn on the oven, that's what air conditioning is for.

And he was right because yesterday I turned the oven on and made a batch of blueberry muffins with the extra blueberries that didn't go into my clafoutis awhile back.

It was a new recipe for me and they turned out great, even though SWMBO growled a bit about the uneven distribution of berries.

(She got one muffin with only one berry in it while others were loaded.)

And speaking of SWMBO, once the muffins were done she reminded me that she'd been out of her favorite English Muffin Bread for about three days.

So back I went and baked up a couple of loaves of that for her.

Amazingly for me, who is notoriously slow in my baking and cooking abilities, all of this was done by noon and I could turn off the oven until late afternoon, when it was time for me to prepare my weekly Friday Pizza.

Who cares about the heat?

Certainly not THIS cool cat!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Oh it's so much cooler today!

Only supposed to be 92 today where I live.

Hey, it got up to 97 yesterday.

But, y'know, it's a dry heat.

I bet you're really tired of hearing that old line, aren't you?

I remember reading a frightening story by the French writer Camus about a guy who murders another guy as they're walking on the beach.

But what stuck with me about that story was the description of the shimmering heat in Algeria, where the tale was set.

Now everytime I go outside and the glare of the heat makes my eyes hurt I think of Algeria.

So let us all cool down with a refreshing dash of humor.

It is Friday after all.

And speaking of Frenchmen . . .

Man, there seemed to be a violent streak running through this week's "funnies"(?).

Maybe I should stay out of the heat for awhile and stop drifting off to Algeria.

You too.

Have yourselves a safe, sane and cooling weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . ahhhhh, very palindromic this week . . . )

WHAT TO EAT IN THE HEAT

When the temperature climbs to 94, as it did today, and is forecast to soar to 97 tomorrow, one looks for recipes whose preparation will not heat up the house any more than it already is.

So my mentor in the kitchen, SWMBO prepared a chilled tuna salad today for sandwiches.

And to accompany it, her famous deviled eggs.

She having left the kitchen early in the day, I decided to foul things up by making a blueberry clafoutti.

In the oven.

Hey!

Blueberries are cool, aren't they?

MYSTERY

 

This creature came into our home recently.

SWMBO managed to corral it.

We don't know what it resembles most.

A UFO alien?

A mole?

A miniature whale?

(Very miniature, I'd say.)

What it turned out to be was an anthropormorphized miniature red pepper from the grocery store.

But . . . one can't thinking  . . . they're everywhere.

Watching us.

Aren't they?