ksmith | Hockey night in Illinois

Let's see if the Hawks can win one.

Today was a garden-kitchen day. Cut down all the tomato plants; bagged the greenery instead of composting because of the blight contamination. I thought I'd be lucky to salvage a handful of greenies, but I managed to fill a paper grocery bag with ripes, soon-to-ripens, and probably-will-never-ripen-but-we'll-give-it-a-shot. Split them between four bags, and stuck them in the spare room to do what they would.

All that's left now are a few basil plants and three bell pepper plants. All the bells have peppers, the largest of which may be about three inches or so across. Not big enough to pick. I don't know how much time I have until the first freeze, but I hope the peppers can ripen now that they aren't crowded by the tomatoes.

Then I got busy in the kitchen. Blanched&skinned a couple dozen Romas that had ripened over the last couple of weeks, and stuck them in the freezer. Picked a few more crabapples, and put on another crockpot of chutney. Roasted some red peppers. Baked apple-oatmeal cookies.

My feet hurt, and I'm tired. But the house smells mahvelous.