Earthly Delights

Ah, the abundance of summer ...

It was late in the evening, and the air had cooled a little, and we were chillin' in the backyard with the in-laws and the mosquitoes, when a troop (or is it a pod?) of young men stopped by bearing paper bags.

My son was traveling with them, his buddies, from door to door, as they doled out the bounty of a grandmother's garden, slim sweet cucumbers and thick hearty zucchini. (I can't get my son to pick up his underwear, so how he ended up doing manual labor? Well, that's a mystery for another time ...)

Peering into those laden bags, instant visions of cool summer salads, cucumber and ripe tomato, and sauteed zucchini and onions ladled over al dente pasta (pasta is always part of my food fantasies, natch). Pure culinary bliss.

Having moved earlier this season, I didn't get to plant my own veggie patch, so I will have to depend on the kindness of strangers. Thank heaven for grandmas with overproducing zucchini and cucumber vines. And thank heaven for the boys willing to go door to door, delivering a little bit of earthy bliss, on summer nights.


To whip up a cucumber salad, go here: http://pauladeen.com/recipes/recipes.aspx?cat=20&Page=1

To find out a whole bunch of stuff about planting your own vegetables, go here: http://vegetablegardens.suite101.com/blogs.cfm