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I’m Back

Last I left you here on the blog was at my exit into book authorship, about to embark on researching and writing the Food Lovers’ Guide to Queens manuscript. I thought I would be blogging here during that time, but that obviously did not happen. I’m sorry for abandoning the blog for a spell – I was unprepared with how my life would be consumed by the book; it was pretty much all I thought about for months.

I spent time traveling around Queens, pounding the pavement on my way to restaurants, shops, and markets, while stopping in at places that looked intriguing but were not on my “official” itinerary. I stopped cooking and at 99.9% of my meals in Queens. I ate constantly, sometimes to a gut busting capacity. Some of the things I ate I normally only indulge in occassionally, but during this period it was no holds barred.

I developed tastes for new things, as well as relished the things I already loved, especially traditional dishes from various countries – Colombian cholados and pandebonos; Mexican chicharron preparado; German krainerwurst; Thai pork larb; Bolivian salteñas; Japanese sashimi; Vietnamese iced coffee; Bosnian cevapi; Peruvian spicy ceviche; Taiwanese bubble tea; Korean kimchi stew; Uruguayan pastries; North African brik. I could go on and on and on.

I turned in my manuscript on Friday, June 22, dazed by all the editing I had done that day, and so happy to have completed it. It topped out at about 108,000 words; no doubt the copy editors will trim it down. I’m back to eating mostly at home, and it has been wonderful to be back in the kitchen. I’ve enjoyed a lot of raw vegetable salads, pastured eggs and bacon, kombucha and kimchi, sprouted wheat and almond flour pancakes, raw cheese, yogurt, and cream. My CSA started up, which has been awesome, and the fresh fruit has been incredible – last week we got sweet, tart, and almost creamy raspberries and this week lots of plums and cherries. The veggies have also been just excellent, too.

I look forward to spending more time here, and sharing recipes and stories with you. Thanks for waiting, and here’s to a livelier Harmonious Belly!

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What’s New

Yellow Pear Tomato

So, what’s new:

As you can see from the picture above, my yellow pear tomatoes have started to ripen!  They are a little funny looking, kind of like bowling pins, and they are very tasty. My plant keeps producing them, even as most of my other tomato plants are on their way out.

My paste tomatoes suffered from a lot of blossom end rot, but not nearly as bad as the Prudens Purple.  The mystery volunteer tomato did fine, as did the Silver Fir.  Both of those plants produced small to medium sized fruit. Larger tomatoes just had problems this year.

I had a bumper crop of lemon cucumbers, too.  I will definitely grow those again next year.

Soon, it will be time to pull up the tomato plants and consider what to grow for the fall.  I like the idea of carrots especially, and some more tatsoi.

Apart from the garden, I’ve done a lot of canning.  I made 6 half pints of fig-orange-honey preserves, which turned out great, and keeps getting better as it ages.   The figs came from the backyard trees – can’t get more local than that!

I’ve also canned tomatoes and made salsa – 9 pints of crushed tomatoes, and 4 pints of salsa, 3 of which are lacto-fermented salsa. The tomatoes came from my CSA in the form of a 20 pound tomato share, and were fabulous – really healthy, firm, and meaty.  Not to mention tasty.

I have a lot of nectarines and peaches, so I may make preserves out of that as well.

My social life ramped up for a little while, and that meant dinners out, and less cooking at home.  I’ve also been sick, so little appetite.  This will all change soon.

This weekend I pick up my salmon share! Very exciting!!

More soon!