Life IS a bowl of cherries...

I'm not feeling particularly philosophical this week. I've had a few moments of brilliance, but nothing that is formulated well enough in my mind for me to put "on paper" yet. So what's my topic today? You'd think I would think about this during the week. It's kind of like fixing dinner. You know you're going to have to do it every day, and yet, every day we seem surprised by the fact that's it's dinner time, and we have to come up with some food on the table. 24 hours is just not long enough in between. If God's time is 1000 years = 1 day, I could use one of those. Maybe I could get that pile cleared off my desk...

We are all loving the fruit this week. Last night we had some cherries left from the week before (I know, unbelievable!), and I begrudgingly got started on them knowing we should clear them out before starting on the ones coming in this week. What a nice treat when I discovered how delicious they were. I thought how stupid I was not to be eating them all week (I'm a watermelon girl most of the time when it's in season). I think we enjoy our summer fruits even more knowing we will only have them for a short while. Well, summer will be over soon enough, that's for sure.

We also made an albondigas spaghetti tonight (that's Mexican meatballs for all of you who missed the dialogos in Spanish 101). It's amazing the mileage we get out of the lowly sunflower seed and nuts in general.

We've also been wanting a new dessert. Last week we made parfaits with some of the lovely blueberries. We layered it with vanilla yogurt sylk and topped them with some crunchy buckwheaties. I went to an all day class in Orlando last Saturday. I knew they were having lunch catered in, but I was not willing to gamble that they'd have a nice salad let alone any vegan food, so I brought a Viva La Verde salad (thanks, Roger) and a blueberry parfait. Not only did they not have anything vegan to eat, but they were 50 meals short, so my food looked really good to at least a few other folks! I had brought watermelon to eat for breakfast on my way down, so I was a happy camper. We had black grapes to nibble on the way home, and I couldn't have been happier. (Of course, the really great class and company on the trip didn't hurt either!)

Found another new dessert to try today: vanilla panna cotta, an Italian custard dessert we are making with coconut milk instead of the traditional dairy. Hopefully those who try it will like it. It is topped with a fruit coolis; I haven't decided which fruit yet. I'll see what we have an abundance of tomorrow when I start packing up for the market. Other desserts this week are the pumpkin pie and chocolate mousse layer cake.

Another new treat I've been wanting to try I've called CRUNCH MEISTER. There is a non-raw version of it and I wanted to make it healthier. It's almonds, pumpkin seeds, and cashews. So far everyone that has tried it has loved it. It's a nice little pick me up. We're still making curried cashews which I love too along with candied pecans. Darius says all of these make great guilt free salad toppings.

I also experimented with some date treats. One is stuffed with a baklava mixture (equal amounts of chopped almond, walnut, and agave nectar), so we'll call it "Greek Dates". The other has some chocolate ganache in its little center, and it's topped off with an almond. Fun, fun, fun.

We've also made some delicious queso dulce (cashew cream cheese mixed with raisins) to celebrate the gorgeous celery we were able to get in this week. Made some crema and picante mayo while we were into the cheese. Gotta have those elotes con crema. I don't think we can go a week without them. It was good with those albondigas tonight too! Loving the queso verde with the bumper cherry tomato crop. It makes a really nice hors d'euves with or without a cucumber slice under it. Cucumber salad is still really appealing to us as well.

We don't seem to be able to give up our salads even though we can't find a local lettuce green within several hundred miles. I confess: we're bringing in our lettuce from California. I know, I'm so ashamed, but I love salads, what can I say? We can stretch it with kitchen grown sprouts, and maybe a few garden weeds, but we still want our Romaine for the base. Well, maybe it will get cool soon, and we can get a new batch of lettuce started. The guilt is killing me! We're going through a gallon of Ranch dressing every 4 to 5 days, so I thinking there are plenty of others to share the guilt. Don't even try to tell me all the ranch is being used to dip carrots; they're coming from California too! We'll be shredding up some locally grown squash/zucchini this week to have with peanut sauce (no peanuts; it's made with almond butter, ginger, honey, and lemon juice). Does that help redeem me in any way?

We've got a fresh batch of everyday bread for some open face sandwiches with all the yummy tomatoes. Also made some corny chips for some monster nachos (corny chips, elotes con crema, guacamole, tomato salsa, crema, olives) this week.

Well, I guess that about covers it for this week. Wishing you and yours a wonderfully "fruit-full" one as well.