Eating: The ratatouille was good.  I ate a bunch of it and froze 3 quart bags of it for later when I am craving summer veggies in the fall or winter.  I have another 1/2 an eggplant this week from the CSA (the other 1/2 goes to my in-laws) so am looking for another good eggplant recipe.
This is the recipe I used last week.  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/ratatouille/detail.aspx  The chopping took a while but I like to chop, so that was okay.  Left out the 'shrooms because I am not a huge fan and also because they didn't speak "summer" to me.  And I used fresh parsley instead of dried because I have some growing on the deck.

We are on a pizza kick this month.  I have made home-made pizza (or 'Ho-made' as we call it, after a sign we saw in Door County advertising ho-made jams) for a number of years.  Simple Betty Crocker crust and sauce recipe, to which we usually add Canadian bacon and sometimes peppers if we have some.  Bake on the pizza stone from Pampered Chef (of course!) until the cheese is brown and bubbly.  A couple weeks ago, we made the pizza and E added red pepper slices from the pepper he grew, harvested and sliced thin (he has mad knife skilz).  It was perfection.  The next week (happened to be a Thursday again), we decided to try a BBQ chicken 'za since we had some leftover rotisserie chicken.  I made the BBQ sauce (with a little help from Pampered Chef for recipe and the BBQ rub) while E shredded the chicken.  A little green pepper, some red onion (on my half) and then fresh cilantro (added after it came out of the oven - otherwise it is just little burnt leaves - ask me how I know).  So tasty!  The best one yet.  This week was a Mexican pizza - instead of the red sauce we used E's fresh blender salsa, topped it with leftover taco meat, "Mexican-blend" cheese, and peppers. Fresh cilantro and crushed tortilla chips on top after baking.  Also very tasty, but not quite up there with the BBQ chicken.  Thinking of more creative ideas for the next pizza - suggestions??

Reading: I finished A Wrinkle in Time. I didn't like it as much as I remembered liking it before.  I need to think about it a little more before I discuss it.  Good thing bookclub isn't coming up real soon. 
Now I am reading Rhoda: A Life in Stories by Ellen Gilchrist.  It is a good sized volume of short stories, some of which are autobiographical, starting when Rhoda is about 7 or 8, in the '40s.  Love Rhoda's attitude and spunk.  And Gilchrist's writing style is engaging and descriptive.  I really feel like I am getting to know this character and her family.
I still need to pick a book for the Saturday bookclub.  What shall I pick for a bookclub that doesn't usually read the selection? Hmmmm....

Weeding: Date for the plant swap has been set.  I am very excited for this!  Swapping plants with my friends, snacks and beverages (of course! Can there be a gathering with out food??), tours of my garden.  I am enjoying the planning stages for that.  Also in the planning stages: E and I are hoping to build the second raised veggie garden bed on Labor Day weekend, get it filled with compost and then leaves to "cook" over the winter and be ready for spring planting.  And the gi-normous stump will hopefully be getting removed soon so we can get going on that area behing the house (plans percolating in my brain, not yet on paper though - a hedge for privacy, a fire pit, seating in the secluded area in addition to the half-log bench E made from the trunk of the tree, expanding the plants to all sides of the area, maybe a small water feature like one of those fountains that bubbles up out of a large rock, etc., etc.).  I have dubbed this "stump garden". 

Time to go cut back some of those tall flower stems on the daylilies and tie back some flopping plants. 

Until next time, happy reading, eating and weeding!