Andrea Cooley Creative Services

I know it’s barely summer, but as a first-time veggie gardener who checks on her plants daily (OK, sometimes several times daily) I was thrilled when I saw the first cherry tomatoes ripening! Adam and I popped these juicy jewels in our mouths, but hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have enough to cook with. Yesterday at the grocery store when I reached for me usual pint of grape tomatoes Adam noted that soon we’d be harvesting our own!

Ripe tomatoes! Look closely below and you’ll see all the green ones waiting to ripen.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but this is actually 2 squash plants. Originally I transplanted 6 plants and only these 2 survived. I can’t imagine if all 6 would have made it! I’ll remember to plant them farther apart next year and toward the back. They have a mind of their own!

The zucchini flowers are so pretty. I know they are edible, but I’m patiently waiting for the squash to grow. I know there are tons of blooms on each plant, but I was still sad to see some blooms knocked off from the storms this weekend (and I think bunnies may have gotten a few). Time to sprinkle more chili powder on the leaves. That seems to keep them away.

Look at this green pepper! Maybe I’ll leave it on the plant long enough that it turns red, but I probably won’t be that patient. It’s not perfect like the ones you get at the store, but I don’t care. I grew it!

It wouldn’t be summer without bing cherries. They are one of my favorite treats. Adam and I ate most of this bowl in one sitting. You should have seen our teeth, they were red! The bowl (Comptoire de Famille) is one of my favorites, from a Country Home prop sale, of course.

When I was in California earlier this spring I fell in love with my friend’s succulents. Something about them is exotic and beautiful and they require limited attention. So, I came home with some cuttings to see if I could start my own succulent garden.

I left the plants sitting on the windowsill for a couple weeks (at my friend’s advice) and they started sprouting roots. Then they were ready to plant! I got sandy soil for cacti at the hardware store and potted them. (I found this lovely pot, above, at Market Day)

After potting them I left them dry for another week. I guess the roots need the oxygen in the soil more than water to survive.

(I love how this one is reaching for the sun!)

Now I am going to spritz them with a spray bottle once a week and see how they do.

Unfortunately these beauties aren’t mine, they live in a sunny breakfast nook in San Francisco, but maybe air plants will be my next endeavor. Aren’t they amazing!?

I can’t take credit for this recipe, but it’s too good not to share. I think it’s morphed from a friend’s go-to meal while she lived in the Virgin Islands, then it spent some time marinating in a tiny kitchen in LA and now it’s summer staple in our house. The first time I made it for Adam he was skeptical. The main ingredient is cheese tortellini, which he associates being served with some kind of sauce. This dish has no sauce. And it’s served cold, making it perfect for a humid summer night. And it’s just so colorful (my photo doesn’t do it justice).

OK. I’ll quit typing about how good this is and just give you the ingredients and let you decide for yourself.

Ingredients

4-5 slices proscuitto (you can substitute bacon, but it’s really better with proscuitto, don’t be intimidated by the fancy Italian name. You should be able to find packages of it in the deli)
2 T olive oil
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
10 ounces frozen sweet corn (or 3-4 ears corn on the cob)
1 package fresh or frozen tortellini (16-20 ounces)
fresh ground black pepper
fresh basil to garnish

Directions:

Boil tortellini according to directions. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Cook proscuitto until slightly crispy. Remove proscuitto. Add garlic, corn and tomatoes to skillet. Stir together and turn down to low until tomatoes start getting juicy. Cut proscuitto into bite-size strips and add to the mix. Season with pepper and stir in basil. When mixture is warm toss with tortellini and enjoy! Juices from the tomatoes mix with the sweet corn and salty proscuitto. Yum!

I recommend serving with garlicy, chewy bread and chilled white wine. If you’re in Des Moines I highly recommend anything from South Union. Tonight we had the tomato focaccia.

This makes 4 servings, so it’s perfect to take for lunch the next day or again for dinner.

What do you think?

Every since I found out we have a peony bush in our front yard I have been waiting for it to bloom. I LOVE peonies and am still kind of in awe of the fact that we have our own bush! I will still point out every peony bush we see on a walk and stop to say hi to them and smell them, but now I have my very own!

This morning I welcomed the first pink lady into the family. Isn’t she beautiful?

I’m going to be out of town the next 4 days, so the rest of the blooms better not be gone by the time I get home. I have given Adam strict instructions on how to greet them and introduce himself to them.

I have also been waiting for the vine outside the kitchen window to bloom. I thought it was going to be a clematis and maybe that’s what it is, but it’s not exactly what I was expecting. Can anyone identify this small purple bud? I’m afraid I may have been a little over zealous in my pruning earlier this spring, but I think it still looks pretty good.

I have discovered a guilty pleasure: weeding. I like to pick at things. Sometimes Adam jokes that I should have been a dental hygienist so I could clean people’s teeth all day because I’m always “helping” him keep his teeth clean now that he has braces.

We’ll see how long my weeding lasts, but I tend to check up on my garden every night and while I’m out there I usually end up squatted down like a two year old picking away. I’m convinced we would have a forest of maple trees in our backyard if I hadn’t picked all the little helicopters that were taking root. I’m a little worried that I may have pulled some baby bean sprouts. We’ll wait and see what’s poking up after I’ve been away for a few days. So far my lettuce is looking really good (though I need to thin it out and that’s hard!), the spinach is just poking through and the pepper and tomato plants I bought are getting ready to bloom!

Adam’s new favorite past time is watching the birds and squirrels eating at the bird feeder. It’s like a little zoo outside our window!