We made a Farmer's Market run yesterday morning, along with everyone else in Dallas, and my tomato haul was superb. I told the lady at Betty's tomatoes that I wanted "seconds"--the not so beautiful ones since I was going to make sauce from them anyway. She told the other lady who was in charge of doing the little tomato displays and holy, cow, I got a sack full of tomatoes for $6. And they were lovely. Not a creepy one in the bunch. So, later this morning I'll be doing the X's on the bottom of each one and then into a boiling bath for 15 seconds, an ice bath plunge, and then the skins will slide right off. After a quick de-seeding, and a rough chop, we're gonna be Marinara-ing in my new cookware, and I will be a happy gal clanging my pots and pans.
I also scored three lovely cantaloupes in varying stages of ripening--one is already sliced and chillin', the second will get halved and sent to my neighbor along with a few tomatoes and some fresh peaches, while my marinara simmers. The peaches are still good but starting to fade taste wise, so hurry if you want some.
My neighbor really concerns me as I see her dragging her groceries in from her car and no, she won't let me help unless I just happen to catch her. At over eighty, her big old house is just too much for her --a story I am all too familiar with. Sometimes she forgets to close her garage door and since it opens up to a busy side street, she's had some things swiped, not surprisingly. I am now her self appointed garage door monitor.
Her kids will all be here this month and I plan to button hole her daughter and tell her what I'm seeing, though I'm fairly sure she knows. I don't want Mary to move--I just want her to be safe and comfortable, as I know her kids do. They are in just as big of a muddle over what to do, as we were earlier with my mom. Bruce has been helping out with her yard--her yardman "doesn't do windows"--and pretends like he doesn't speak English when she asks him to do stuff he doesn't want to do. So, old Harris goes over when she's inside and does nice little stuff like trimming, weeding, etc. It's funny how it's easier to do something like that for someone who is not your own mom. We can help out and do for her with none of the angst or guilt you sometimes get from family. Since my mom is basically taken care of, as his Bruce's, we've sort of adopted Mary. When Bruce took her some still warm chocolate chip cookies last weekend, she called me and said "Please, do not take me off the still warm cookie delivery service", and I assured her we wouldn't. Plus, she's just hilarious and sooo appreciative. She really is just a hoot.
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