I have a sunburn....

..... and I feel like such a dork. Why oh why did I not put sunscreen on????? It's on my back too, the worst spot. It was earned by spending a day in the garden in the hot Inland Empire summer sun. And then popping into the spa afterwards because half way through the garden experience I had to put my bathing suit on. Why you ask??? Well, it all started out innocently enough. I needed to do some trimming and sprinkler adjusting. The I decided, DH has Little Girl occupied, why not rip out the corn?? See in the hot sun here, the corn is done. It has yielded it's bounty and it was time to go, especially since I kept seeing a ton of ants around it. Remember, it's Antvasion 2008. So I began ripping it out, and just got covered in ants. It was horrid, like some bad sci fi movie, they were everywhere. Then they began to bite. Bad. I grabbed the hose and rinsed myself off, wearing my knit shorts and camisole. I hollered for DH to run up and get me a bathing suit and changed right there in the yard, DH holding up a towel to protect my modesty from the whole neighborhood. Stupid glass walls.... Anyway, that became the game, pull some, get bit, rinse them off, and so on. I managed to get all of the ears off and then stalks ripped out, but not in the trash I am hoping the little buggers will run off out of them before I need to. But I did save the last of the corn! I planted Blue Aztec, White Corn and Mini Pink Popcorn... We had eaten the white already, and I didn't catch the Blue fast enough... so I will dry it for next year. The Pink came out really neat, and I'm looking forward to popping it once it's dry. I got lots of cross pollination, which I was going for... I'll save some seed for next year and see what I get. Although, I may not plant this next year, as I have some seed of corn from the Sacred Valley in Peru to plant, courtesy of my young adopted Peruvian cousin. The kernels are the size of a dime, no joke. I can't wait to try it.

I caught this little guy on a chili plant.... I just don't want to know what he's been munching on, he was so cool looking, I didn't have the heart to remove him, there's room for everyone in my garden. I deadheaded my herbs, a lot of them have gone to flower and I want them to grow. So it was off with their heads! I thought the blooms where so pretty I brought them in to make a bouquet. I put them in the fish vase I painted ages ago at one of those paint your own ceramics places. We just got a new one, but I haven't had a chance to stop in. Probably a good thing... I'm guessing it's not 8 month old friendly.

It was Everything Soup night last night... This weeks consisted of leftover homemade potatoes au gratin (which started as leftover cheese fondue), leftover grilled chicken added to sauteed carrots and red onions, all chopped fine with a couple of bay leaves, cumin, paprika and fennel seed. Just covered with chicken stock and simmered for a while, then I took out most of it and put it through the blender, adding some half and half leftover from making ice cream. Freekin' good, if I do say so myself. Pretty slim on the leftovers this week, so a pretty good concoction. Tonight I attempted a Chicken Kievish dish, with chicken breasts pounded flat, filled with leftover blue cheese butter from steaks a couple weeks ago, rolled, breaded and pan fried. If I had kept pan frying until the chicken was done, I would have burnt it, so I had to pop it into the micro of a quick finish it up, since Little Girl needed to have dinner NOW. She was having a bit of the chicken herself. I shall try again, and change a few things. I think the breasts were too big, and therefore didn't pound well. Is is me, or are chicken breasts just getting bigger and bigger??????? These were supposed to be natural hormone free, so I think they must be breeding them for giants!