Perfect Summer Meal

DH is on the road again, so I'm eating alone. I am cooking sweet corn, fresh from the garden 20 minutes ago. In a few minutes I'm going to take it out and slather it with butter, add a little salt and some freshly ground black pepper. With the corn, I am going to have fresh sliced red tomato (Mortgage lifter variety, a cousin of Brandywine) and some cucumbers peeled, sliced with a little cider vinegar and few drops of honey. I'm going to have a slice of locally-produced Amish farmer's cheese with some french bread I baked yesterday. For dessert I'm having a blueberry-ginger cake, trying out the recipe for the blueberry festival. The only thing that would make this better would be to share it. Poor hubby - he will probably stop at McDonald's on his way home. It is just so NOT THE SAME.

I had a terrible earache earlier today - the whole side of my face is sore, including the throat inside. I stayed in bed late, then finally dragged myself to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and out to the patio where I sat down in the sun in the zero-gravity recliner, laid back, and shut my eyes. Just listening to the sounds of summer really relaxed me, so much that I was startled when I spilled my coffee all over myself!

I heard the rise and fall of the cicadas singing, the "wheet-wheet" of a robin, an occasional warble from a sweeter bird. Behind the cicadas I heard crickets chirping. And of course, I heard the cars roaring up and down the highway, an occasional motorcycle revving its engine at the local racetrack, and once a semi-tractor/trailer rig going past. I heard the crunch of a car's tires slowly winding down my east-side neighbor's lane. I heard the whine of an occasional housefly or hornet flying past me, and some stupid bug without navigational skills kept plopping into the brick wall - it sounded like a June bug but it's a little late for one of those. I heard the whisper of the breeze tickling the tree branches, and the rattle of some dry leaves blowing across the patio. A little later I heard my neighbor dropping what sounded like rocks into a plastic bucket, making me feel guilty for lying down in the middle of the day. So, I got up and pulled weeds from my flower garden.

Looking for bread recipes in an old Farm Journal "Breads" cookbook, I found this recipe for marmalade: I think I'll make it with yellow summer squash instead of zucchini, and shred the squash instead of slicing it.