[chocomouse]

cwdesign, we've not been directly affected by the flooding - our house is about 200 feet above the Connecticut River so no chance of flooding. However, many roads are washed away or flooded so many family and friends cannot get home or get out. It will be months before many are rebuilt. Many businesses are closed because people can't get to work, even the two interstate highways are shut down in sections. The ground is saturated from rain almost daily for the past month, yet we have not lost power from trees falling on lines. Now that it is daylight, emergency services will be able to inspect the damage more closely and let us know what the prognosis is for rebuilding. Yesterday we got 2.39 inches of rain, and 1.50 inches overnight, however the forecast is for only a few showers and some sunshine for the next week or so. King Arthur Baking, ten miles south of us, is also in a good position similar to ours, no chance of flooding, but the employee-owners are probably having a difficult time getting to work.

[chocomouse]

Today I made 2 loaves (doubled the recipe) of Len's Semolina-Rye-Whole Wheat bun/bread.

[chocomouse]

Seafood salad and a green salad; and then a delicious lemon cookie!

[chocomouse]

We've had 3 days of 88-92* temperatures, some hazy sun, but minimal rain. I'm hoping our plants will start to grow. Except for some cherry tomatoes, some jalepenos, and 1 green bell pepper, we have nothing, not even any signs of fruit starting on any of the vegetables.

[chocomouse]

For dinner, we had grilled salmon, asparagus from the freezer, and some leftover Cowboy Caviar. Just as we sat down to eat, the thunder started.

[chocomouse]

I made burger buns, subbing in whole wheat for some of the AP flour, and adding garlic and onion powder.

[chocomouse]

Dinner was kebobs: chicken, green and orange bell pepper and onions, with roasted potatoes and marinated tomatoes with sliced onion. We've had sunshine all day with a high temp of 88!

[chocomouse]

I could use two bites or more of those ribs, Mike! We had Cowboy Caviar leftover from a 4th of July cookout. And we were treated to a nearby and long thunderstorm. However, it was sunny all day until about 6:30, our first sunshine in weeks.

[chocomouse]

We had BLTs for dinner. It has rained steadily all day.

[chocomouse]

I love to garden, but not this year! I've never seen anything like the current weather. According to my weather station, we got 2.33 inches of rain this week. I haven't yet added up the month's total, but I suspect it is around 6-8 inches. I'm usually just hoping for an inch a week to maintain my plants. Some days we get 8-10 storms a day, drizzles or downpours, no sun. Days with no sun, and for the last couple of weeks we've had haze and smoke from the wildfires in Canada. Most of my plants have survived and are growing lots of greenery, but they're not producing. My cherry tomato is about 4 ft tall, and has a few small green tomatoes. The herbs look great, crowding each other out of their planters. In my in-ground garden, inside the electric fence I have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and about 2 dozen bell peppers plus 1 jalapeno, and cukes and zukes and summer squash. Surrounding the fence I have 6 Celebrity and 6 Amish Paste tomatoes, along with 2 hills (4 seeds planted in each, some rotted from too much water and cool temps) each of Delicata, spaghetti, butternut, and buttercup winter squashes. In planters on the deck I grow lots of different varieties of lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes, scallions, green and yellow beans, a cherry tomato and 2 bell peppers, plus about a dozen herbs. We do have a good crop of raspberries and blackberries coming along, but lost most of the blueberry blossoms and all of the apple blossoms when we got a hard freeze of 24* in mid-May. I guess we won't starve if the sun shows up soon, but I may be shopping a lot at the farmers' markets this summer. I hope the rest of you gardeners are getting lots of produce!

[chocomouse]

I made the Apricot Oatmeal bars, but used my blackberry jam. The blackberry flavor is not as strong as it is when I used the jam on something more plain, such as an English muffin. But the bars are very good.

I also made hoagie/sub buns and this time they look really really good -- practice makes perfect on the shaping!

[chocomouse]

Friday I made BakerAunt's adaptation of the Maple Buttermilk Whole Wheat bread. It was a slow riser, but did rise and is excellent.

[chocomouse]

Pizza!

[chocomouse]

Dinner, during another thunderstorm, was omelets.

[chocomouse]

We had quesadillas tonight, to use up some leftovers: thin sliced boneless pork, spicy tomato salsa, crushed pineapple, onion, peppers, bean sprouts, and shredded cheddar.

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