Rubber ducky!

Summer exhibit at one of the libraries I use (I go to three of them, how does anyone manage with fewer?  good collections at one, brilliant events at another, book group at third), anyway, here's a nice collection on display in the little glass case that's low enough down for little kids to see in without their parents having to lift them up all the time.  The thing that looks like a lightning flash is the overhead light reflected in the glass, no way around it.

I didn't even know you could have a collection of rubber duckies!  this one is too cute. Spent way too much time pointing and grinning.  I wonder if this young collector will get bigger and bigger stuff as he grows up. Like old cars in the driveway that he's working on. Or electronic gear everywhere that he's working on..

Pointing, but not grinning, at recipe book I got from same libe, looked like interesting, nonfussy foods, wonderful photography, of course. And found it was a snare and a delusion, not to mention a big lie.  To me a recipe tells you what ingredients to have on hand and how to proceed from there.  It does not involve telling you to add ready cooked frozen items, and cans of that ghastly mushroom soup beloved of food advertisers, and cake mix.  To me that's not cooking, that's assembling imitation toy food.  So there. 
I will withhold the title, to protect the guilty.  And flounce away and get my recipes from MC and Jean and other such real cooks.  And Julia, and Sheila Lukins.  And Jacques Pepin.  It's no harder to cook their way than by keeping the food packaging industry in business.

Speaking of Sheila Lukins, my favorite hot biscuit recipe is from Silver Palate, and I've done variations on it, including that one giant loaf thing I showed you recently, which went down very well.  Made it again yesterday and this time added in a handful of fresh picked basil and oregano, all chopped fine, and the kitchen smelled wonderful while it baked, and that too is going down a treat.  I did similarly with the Pepin Tibetan flatbread last week, and liked that, too.

Mainly I'm coping with finding cooking methods for the great vegetables I'm getting every week in my farm share.  Lovely redskin potatoes, which made up a great salad, steamed and cubed and tossed with a horseradish mixture, along with green beans.  Beautiful long yellow squash, very tender, sliced, steamed, needed nothing but a big shake of black pepper, mixed with corn kernels and some cucumber with a dash of vinegar.  All these are recently farm share hauls.  I'm finding my half share is just fine for me, except that excess corn is promised to HS, since that's going to be a bigger feature. 

The farm people tell me the crops are about two weeks ahead of schedule this year.  Strawberries long gone, raspberries just over this week, blackberries coming in next week, and eggplant.  It's really good to be eating my way through the seasons this way, aside from the interest of finding myself with a different selection each week.  The farm ladies do the selecting, picking, packing, sharing, labeling, everything, and all I do is show up and say thank you.  It's great.