Tonight was patty things, I know there's a better word but it escapes me, of farm sweet potato, dug yesterday.
Eight minutes in the microwave, while the salted onion browns, then peel, ouch it's hot, mix with fresh Thai basil growing in the kitchen, egg, the onion, pinch of berbere. Don't clean the pan after the onion, it's flavored, and saute.
There's enough for two meals on one sweet potato. About 12 minutes from thinking about it to eating.
A packet of malt vinegar squeezed over. This was a really unexpectedly good combo with the spices and the basil.
Listening to Dorothy Sayers' Presumption of Death on Libby, library app, read by Edward Petherbridge who played the best possible Lord Peter in the TV version with Harriet Walter playing Harriet Vane.
It feels very right for him to read this, as if he has an inside track. This book was finished, brilliantly by Jill Paton Walsh after Sayers' death. One of the few books well done in the style of the author by a successor. Thrones and Dominations is good too, same writer.
Audiobooks are for when I'm stitching. When I'm just reading, at the moment it's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, another by Susanna Clarke, about magic and magicians who act like irritable councilmen. I put it on my Kindle, easier than reading online and I have the font at a comfortable size.
She wrote The Ladies of Grace Adieu which I read recently. She's able to write in the style of several nineteenth century authors, really entertainingly because it's deliberate. Now it's Austen, now Trollope, now Scott, now Dickens, and always good, very sly.
Quite a bit of stitching today which I'll blog about soon.
And a bit of garden cleanup, deadheading spent flowers and finding they looked so much better after that, that I decided against cutting them right back. They still have some season in them. The deadheading exposed whole areas of buds on the chrysanthemum.
I'm not fond of the color of the yellow daisies, but I'm slow to cut them back since I found the goldfinches love the seeds.
A day of painful memory and further determination to be an active citizen (not easy for an introvert!). We're closing in on 100 days of peaceful rally for racial justice and get out the vote in our small mostly-white city in a very red state. It's been amazing to see the looks of utter glee on peoples' faces when they see our signs, and realize they're not the only ones aghast at the state of our country. Lots of waves, thumbs ups and honks in support - quite amazing! There is hope - not that Idaho will turn blue, but that there are many more caring, thoughtful people than I expected.
ReplyDeleteAnd enough of the politics - how lovely to find new buds after deadheading. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
Cheers,
Chris from Boise
Good for you. Not easy to show up blue when you're in a sea of red.
DeleteThe buds were a reminder to me not to be hasty, my besetting sin.
I love sweet potato. It never think to do anything with it. It sounds yummy!
ReplyDeleteI bought a giant sweet potato and an acorn squash yesterday to make the delicious curried soup I love so much. I've never thought about making sweet potato patties.
ReplyDeleteGood job on letting your flowers bloom while they may.
We're getting into soup season, maybe that's where the other giant sweet potato will go. Thanks for reminding me about soup.
DeleteThose look like a great meal - sweet potatoes are a favourite here too.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprises me was how well the malt vinegar went with it. Nice balance.
DeleteI think those yellow ones are rudbeckia, a coneflower, not a daisy. I have several plants but they don't do well here in our heat and humidity. once again your meal sounds delish. you want to come cook for me?
ReplyDeleteYou might be right about the daisies. They only go conical after they're faded though. The rest of the season they have that flat daisy like shape. someone else suggested brown eyed susans. I didn't know there were brown eyed ones. I tend to use daisy as a generic term when I don't know!
DeleteI could cook for you if you were very spontaneous about mealtimes! I cook when I realize I should eat. Not much advance notice.
So now I've finally looked them up and you're right, they're rudbeckia. Also brown eyed susans! I was mixing them up with echinacea, which are different in color, do was assuming they couldn't be coneflowers if yellow. Well they can. Thank you. I know more now than I did before your comment.
DeleteThey're very hardy, vanish in winter and come bustling up through the groundcover every summer. By the time they're gone the Montauk daisies ate starting. They're very late flowering. My other white daisies ate early summer, gone for weeks now.