July Update... what's happening?

     
     It's mid-July.  My garden, my French Bulldog, and my family have been keeping me busy. 
     What's ready in the garden?... beans, zucchini, beets, cucumbers, eggplant and jalapeños.  And, of course, all of my herbs.  My first Early Girl tomato (that and my Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes are the only hybrid tomatoes I grow) will be ready for picking tomorrow; that is, unless a squirrel gets to it before I do.  Lettuces, except for the potted ones in the wheelbarrow above, have been pulled due to bitterness.  My peas are also done for.  Too many 90 degree days this summer.
    Today I'm dealing with 3 pounds of zucchini.  Some of it has gone into baking Chocolate-Zucchini Bread; a nice little treat with our cappuccinos tomorrow morning.  The rest, most likely, will be pan fried in olive oil and finished with Parmigiano-Reggiano... a favorite of mine, or possibly stuffed.  There will be many more to pick in the next few days.  Three zucchini plants give me an endless supply.   

     We took our annual July trip "up north" last week, where my husband, daughter and her boyfriend picked 20 pounds of strawberries!  And, as usual, I made fresh Strawberry Shortcake for dessert one night.  Is there anything better?  (my favorite recipe HERE)  The remaining strawberries were brought home and frozen, used in spinach and strawberry salads, and made into freezer strawberry jam.

     I also made a Blueberry Galette during our stay in the north woods.  When I'm up there and making tart crusts (or shortcake), butter is cut into the flour with dinner knives and dough is rolled with a wine bottle.  A rustic galette is the perfect dessert when you have limited resources.  I served the finished Blueberry Galette with whipped cream, but had I been at home, I probably would have mixed up Vanilla Ice Milk to serve alongside the blueberry wedges.  

+ BLUEBERRY GALETTE

• Pastry dough... your favorite, or my recipe HERE
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
• Grated zest of one large lemon
• 1 egg, whisked
1.  Preheat oven to 400˚F
2.  On a large sheet of lightly-floured parchment paper, roll the dough into a round approximately 13-inches in diameter.  Slide the parchment and pastry dough onto a baking sheet.  Chill in refrigerator if the dough becomes too warm.
3.  In a bowl, combine the sugar and the lemon zest.  Add the blueberries.  Using a thin rubber spatula, gently combine until the sugar/lemon zest is evenly distributed.
4.  Scoop the sugared blueberries onto the center of the rolled pastry leaving a 2-inch border.  Gently lift the pastry border and begin pleating the dough over and around the blueberries.  Using a pastry brush, glaze the top of the dough and underneath the pleats of dough with the beaten egg.  Brushing egg underneath the pleats will keep them from sliding during baking.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with additional sugar.  If you have Turbinado sugar, use that.
5.  Place the baking sheet on middle rack of oven and bake for approximately 35 - 40 minutes, or until the the crust is golden.

   Bisous will be turning 8 months on Saturday and weighed in yesterday at 24 pounds.  I have no idea what I should even expect his full-grown weight to be.  I am thinking he has now reached his height and his length and will begin to increase his width and head size... but what do I know??  Frenchies grow for 18 months. 
   Also... to all of you who are trying  to access recipes from Living Tastefully on your cellphones, I apologize.  I never go that route, but I have been told that it's impossible to pull up recipes on a phone.  Last year I changed my URL from livingtastefully.weebly.com to livingtastefully.com, and that is what created the problem with cellphone access.  It's a multi-step process to change the URLs.  I'm working on it, but it is slow going.  There are hundreds of recipes ;-(
     I have also been asked recently why I am not posting as often onto LivingTastefully's Passions to Pastry.  Life is keeping me busy, but I am posting many photos on Instagram.  I'm really having fun with it.  Most of the photos are taken with my iPhone and I've met some wonderful, creative people.  If you're interested in checking me out on Instagram, click HERE.

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