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Summer days are long, warm, and often too good to waste on spending a long time in the kitchen. But you have to eat, right? Can't eat out all the time. Here's an idea for tonight courtesy of the Crepes of Wrath site, One Skillet Potatoes, Sausages and Peppers.
Tomatoes and peppers are hitting farmers markets and farm stands making this a very fresh dinner idea.
For people with way too much extra kitchen counter space.
Doubtful that any of these 5 will ever find a place here at home.
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert and the city council passed an ordinance against transient vendors which included the long running Keller Farms summer sweet corn stand.
This would be a mere niblet of a story except that local Illinois people love their local sweet corn and are fighting back.
The BND has the story with a humorous video.
In the Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis, a community garden fills what was formerly a vacant lot on Tamm Ave near Manchester. I went by this morning to take a look because next summer we hope to have one of these on the Concordia Seminary campus.
While I was there, the man who oversees the garden and conveniently lives right across the street, came along and gave me some of the history and how the garden works.
They built the garden in conjunction with Gateway Greening, an organization which advised them on the best way to plant and what to plant as well as how to be a true organic garden.
There are approximately 20 individual plots available to area residents who pay $15 dollars a year, January to January. This fee covers costs which include insurance, water, mulch, etc. Interestingly, each plot is different, some are filled with native flowering plants while others are all edible crops and herbs. All of the support material for holding up plants and vegetables are natural woods, sticks which fall from the trees. There is also a gazebo and several benches hidden away in shady spots.
Mulched paths run through the area and a black iron fence separates the garden from the sidewalk and street.
One in four residents of Illinois are obese. That is a record of sorts for the state, the first time than many have been so fat.
Illinois is not alone, however. 32 states have the same percentage of obese residents.
Twenty years ago there was no state which had more than 15 percent of the population categorized as obese. Things are changing.
Another study, this time involving mice, coffee and Alzheimer's.
Drinking 5 cups of coffee a day could reverse the memory problems associated with Alzheimer's Disease. There is also some indications that the caffeine hampered the production of protein plaques associated with the disease.
Mice who were exhibiting signs of memory impairment were used in the study.
Mice who had the coffee did as well in memory tests as those mice who had no dementia.
Mice in the study who were given only plain water did poorly on the memory tests.
Here at Concordia Seminary we've added vegetables and herbs to the flower beds this year for anyone on campus to pick and enjoy. The island turnabout and parking planting beds by the chapel are filled with all variety of peppers which are beginning to bear.
The triangular turnabout bed is filled with the hotter variety of peppers, jalapeno, habanero, chili, hot yellow, Kung Pao. The right bottom corner of the picture shows one of the jalapenos.
The bed on the north chapel parking area has the sweeter variety of peppers, banana peppers, bell peppers and beans growing at the base of each leg of the bamboo tepees.
White Sox pitcher, Mark Buehrle, a St. Louis native, has partnered with his wife to provide help for a local animal shelter, Alton Illinois' Hope Animal Rescues.
Since November the Buehrles have donated lights, ceiling fans and air conditioners, but are now extending their efforts into the sale of wine.
A new wine with the label, Buehrlot, will be sold with all profits going to the shelter.
You can purchase some of this wine online by going here. It is a 2007 San Martin California Merlot.
Woof. This is so great.
Living in St. Louis as we do, being dog lovers and having a husband who is an extreme White Sox fan, you can bet we'll be getting some of this.
Locally grown raspberries are being offered at the farmers markets these days and they must be good, albeit kind of pricey, because the lines are long at the stands which have them. Biver Farms in Edwardsville is able to sell raspberries most of the summer because they plant a wide variety of the fruit.
That being said, this month's Bon Appetit magazine has a good looking raspberry pie recipe which I have been wanting to make. It does take a few ingredients that aren't exactly easy to find, but with local raspberries for sale at various farmer's Markets tomorrow, I'm thinking it might be worth the effort. I mean, it's hot out. What better than a cool creamy dessert.
Called the No-Bake Chocolate-Raspberry Cream Pie...
you'll need to find a package of chocolate wafer cookies which isn't the easiest thing to do. Schnuck's has them for $4.99. Also a bit of creme fraiche, I know Dierberg's has this, I don't know about Schnuck's.
Here's the whole list
So our kitchen sink drain which connects to the garbage disposal has been smelling rather like wet dirt lately. Whenever we turned on the water to the sink, this musty outdoorsy smell drifted up. At first we thought it might be the actual water. Nope.
It was coming from either the pipes or the drain and after trying the old baking soda trick to no avail, I asked our favorite retired plumber, Norman, in church yesterday.
He gave me one word of advice. "Lemons".
Lemons? Yes. Lemons.
"Slice up some lemons and grind them up in the disposal and that should take care of it." He said his wife Betty will use lemons with iced tea or lemonade and after the drinks are gone, she just keeps the lemon slices, puts them in a plastic bag and tosses it in the freezer. That way she always has some lemons to grind up in the disposal to take away the odor and little bits of stuff that never gets washed away.
Norman hasn't ever like the chemicals sold for this purpose and I have to say, after doing this yesterday, the earthy smell is completely gone.
