Did anyone get a chance to watch Zooey D’s new show last night? She’s one of my absolute faves (she is of course 1/2 of one of my favorite musical duos, and isn’t she everyone’s girl crush) and I’ve been excited all summer to watch the new show. I forgot to DVR it before I left town, though, and Fox now makes you wait 8 DAYS before you can watch online!

Its actually funny that I didn’t get a chance to watch it, given the circumstances, I’m sort of the new girl myself. I’m on the east coast visiting the sailor, and staying in his apartment with 4 boys. Its been fun, but admittedly a bit ridiculous. I mean, there is a bottle of old spice body wash for each of them (thats 4 giant bottles) in the shower. Its like old spice and bud light city around here. Don’t worry – we keep it classy and order thin crust There is no way they were going to let me get away with Glee, let alone New Girl.

Pretty much me while Erik is one 24 duty today

Pretty much the boys - minus the designer apartment decor

More on my trip in the days to come, but seriously, if you saw the show, fill me in on what you thought – I thought the blog world would be all atwitter but I haven’t  seen a single review!

[images via Fox Broadcasting]

Still hanging on to the last bit of summer? The late growing season plus warm weather we’ve been having lately mean only one thing to me – eating gazpacho well into September. It takes me back to the days of travelling through Spain when we existed on gazpacho and sangria for almost a week. Muy delicioso!

Tomatos are my favorite thing on earth. Like, last meal favorite. I can eat them plain, cooked, sliced, diced, anywhere, anytime. So every year I look forward to the time when they are truly ripe and delicious enough to make Gazpacho. Because you just can’ make gazpacho with underripe, mealy tomatoes any time of year.

A few weeks ago after a trip through Yakima I ended up with a glut of perfectly ruby beefsteak tomatoes. I broke out the food processor and my favorite gazpacho recipe and went to town. Its one of the easiest things to make really, just chop, process, stir, and refrigerate. It does taste best after a few hours or overnight of chilling so the flavors can mix, but with a little forethought its a great addition to a warm afternoon.

Rustic Gazpacho

Adapted from The Big Book of Soups and Stews by Maryana Vollstedt

3-4 ripe plum or beefsteak tomatoes, cut into chunks, no need to peel in my opinion (if you’re unsure about the size of the maters, I’d guess 1.5-2 lbs worth)

1 medium cucumber—peeled, halved, seeded and cut into chunks

1 red pepper, cut into chunks

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 handful fresh cilantro

2 garlic cloves, smashed

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

1/2 c. olive oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp hot sauce

freshly ground black pepper

In a blender or food processor, combine the cucumber, bell pepper, onions, garlic, vinegar, oil, hot sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper and process until coarsely pureed. Transfer to large bowl.

Place chopped tomatoes in food processer alone. Process until finely pureed (About 10 pulses). Transfer to bowl with cucumber puree. Stir to incorporate soup.

Refrigerate Several hours to overnight for best flavor. Serve Chilled*. Garnish with freshly toasted bread, avocado chunks, goat cheese, etc.

[Side note #1: Some recipes call for tomato juice/v8 to give a heavier tomato background to the soup. It makes a little bit of a richer version if thats your gig, try it out.]

[Side note #2: I realize that gazpacho is not the world's most photogenic food. Halfway through, it looks a little unappetizing. But stick with me, its super delish and refreshing!]

Sorry that I ate ours too quickly to show it cutely served in small bowls with a sprig of fresh basil. Can’t keep the tomato monster at bay!

[* Whenever we eat gazpacho, my parents tell this funny story about a trip they went on with friends before I was born. Shortly after gazpacho being brought to the restaurant table, one of the guys on the trip leaned over to his neighbor and whispers "Should I say something? The soup is cold. . ." Classic]

Six years ago when D and I evacuated New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, we bounced along the east coast until we finally landed in Ithaca, NY. There were over 300 Tulane students that ended up there that semester, and the University and local community opened their arms to us, providing discounted apartment rent, hand me down clothes, etc. It was still a tough situation, but I can honestly say that the semester would be even worse if it werent’ for the generosity of those around us. All those people helped us without knowing it would ever be repaid – they helped us as they would like to be helped.

Well, right now, other communities in upstate New York are enduring a flooding crisis of their own due to heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Lee. FEMA has finally upgraded the designation so that individuals can receive assistance, but I can personally attest to the fact that FEMA help is only a drop in the bucket. To lose most of your belongings and receive $3,000 doesn’t really cut it always. There is more help for property damage, but its nowhere near what it costs to fully rebuild your lives. The scenes below are not foreign to those of us who lived in New Orleans at the time of the storm – sidewalks piled full of trash were commonplace. Its scary, frustrating, and incredibly sad.

Abbey from Aesthetic Outburst (who we previously sponsored as part of her 20 in 20 project) lives in a particularly hard hit town, Owego, and has started a fundraising campaign for those in her community. She and her family have been very fortunate, but that doesn’t change the fact that devastation is all around.

Because the community up there was so gracious to us during our time of need, I felt the least I could do was to spread the word about Abbey’s effort and see if we could send a little support back to those who helped us. Read more on Abbey’s blog here and here. Direct link to her fundraiser is here (or click on the button above). So far she is about 1/3 of the way to her $5,000 goal. Lets help her get there!!

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you”     Matthew 7:12

Our garden is looking amazing over here.  Sure, there has been some rain… but the sun is out in full force lately!  Yahoooo!

One little project we have been up to has been a potato tower.  We saw the idea in Sunset and other various garden publications and thought… terrifffic idea!

For those of you that don’t know, you plant seed potatoes underground and then they begin to sprout leafs abouve the surface.  You pile dirt on top of the leaves until just a few remain above ground.  And repeat with more and more dirt… creating a bigger and bigger mound.  When the leaves begin to wilt, you are nearing the end of this process.

You plant the seed potatoes in the spring season.  Here are all our little starts drying out in the sun.

First boards are going up!

Then the potato plant grows and grows!

Boards  slowly go up as the plant grows … that way the leaves still get light.  This picture below was taken after a particularly rainy spell.  The potato plants grew way way to fast to keep up with our volume of dirt.

 I just used all of the old scrap pieces from when we built our raised beds, that way the cedar just matched.

This weekend it was time…. TO UNCOVER POTATOES!!!

It is kind of like digging for buried treasure…. in the form of french fries!

Now, here is my next question that I would love some feedback on…. Fall Crop, yes or no?  We bought starts at Sky in the spring, but we called around to several local nurseries and have not found any starts.  In fact, nursery employees are somewhat in shock when we ask.  But, according to my friend google, some people grow these in the fall.  I think that if we got them in soon we would still have a sixty day window before a very hard frost.  Has anyone done this?  Or has anyone gone out to the organic grocery story and bought a few potatoes to use for seed?  I really get a weird satisfaction out of this potato tower building and then hunt.  …..

by b:

Whoa! September already. Time flies when you’re ten on ten-ing, huh?

Our day was filled with a bunch of homeowner have-tos (washing windows, cleaning gutters), but also an impromtu trip to swim in the lake and a wonderful neighborhood barbeque.

[Also, exciting news! It's D's first ten on ten. We collaborated in alternating photos for the day - mine are FudgeCam for Android, her's are taken with her Nikon DSLR]

by d:

morning coffee dahlia greeting:

watering the new plants:  (i am stoked by this picture because i have been wanting to try my camera and water photoing and got it!)

we dug up potatoes!  (more to come on that!)

late afternoon swim at lake washington to get the dirt off… with the ducks!

I could not resist this picture. ….  random kid at the beach with a float I want!!  Look, he is riding a shark!

stopped by a fun neighborhood beer shop to pick up a few things!