Hello, hello! How are you? Sending thoughts of comfort and joy and cake, but only if cake is your jam. This was blueberry , from a recipe I made ages ago. Still recommended.

It is canning season, y’all, and I have been at it. Since we are eating a lot of instant pot yogurt (literally making some now), we are enjoying it both plain and with jam mix ins. Zero complaints, zero.

I made a tomato with the colorful assortment above, red pepper (spicy and bell in one batch), peach, strawberry, and triple berry. I’m not gonna lie, the tomato, all by its lonesome is nothing to write home about, but mixed evenly with the pepper, especially with cream cheese on a cracker, is the tops!

Lemon tart! I wasn’t in the mood to do a lot of slicing for a Shaker Lemon and found a recipe where you whir it all together in the Vitamix. Simply grand, minus the cute decorative lemon slices. They were hard.

Trying something very old for the first time, mashed peas on toast, topped with a basted egg. We both loved it!

Out and about to our favorite British pub, known simply as The Brit. Their food never disappoints! Afterwards, we walked to Frozen Gold, which has Voo-Doo Donut style ice cream, with cores of chocolate, strawberry, mint, and more! They are then rolled in a complementary crunchy element: freeze dried fruit, cereal, Oreos, and suchlike. They are crazy-good but require a no-nonsense, heads-down approach, so as not to get your garments and face coated in mess. Worth it!

Word on the street…

Lately, at the grocery, they’ve had these most adorable scalloped cardboard baskets of grapes, with the artistic flair of a tucked leaf. It really is the small things.

I made Grandma Hanna’s potatoes again! With smoked salmon, red pepper jelly, bread and butter pickles.

The algorithm led me to the technicolor making of Sympathy for the Devil, and, for fans, I cannot recommend it more highly. The evolution of a song is pretty fascinating.

Also, how cute is Mick? Tousled hair, ruffle shirt, and lemon-lime pants! Oh, and, this reminds me, The Interview, in the New York Times (and on YouTube) has a great one with him. I was surprised and delighted at his kindness and humility. He’s also much funnier than I anticipated.

I made Welsh Rarebit with some homemade bread and had some leftover sauce, so I thinned it to make a gravy for a basted eggs on toast the next morning. Greg made bacon, by pushing a button on our toaster/air fryer. It is not quite of Star Trek ilk, “Computer, bacon, crisp,” but damn close. Mercy.

More baking! In our Denver apartment days, I took a pastry class where we made puff pastry, and it wasn’t terribly complicated, just a lot of steps, so I thought I’d give croissants a try. I made a few mistakes, like too cold butter, not wrapping the dough tightly enough, and forgetting to glaze the pastries before baking, but dang, they were delicious! I made ham and gouda (right), chocolate (because Greg, left), and simply gouda (not pictured). I will definitely do it again but roll them in the classic shape.

It is monsoon season in these parts, and one surprisingly cool evening, I had a craving for chai. Here it is, most delightfully frothy.

Also, the mug! On our honeymoon, thirty-three years ago (!!!), as I have mentioned previously, we visited Moominland, and afterward the Arabia Finland shop. They had every manner of Moomin ceramic, and we came away with two mugs and an adorable decorative plate that sits, in pride of place, at our bedside.

An important note, I am an excellent gift giver, and I believe, a thoughtful and generous human being, on the whole, but do not ever ask to use one of these mugs. I’m serious.