Last Days of Summer

In a somewhat backwards move, we had our first boating day of the summer on Labor Day. Yes. Oh, did I not tell you our boat sank Titanic-style at the end of last September? The bilge pump apparently failed in an early-fall storm. And so Telfer has been trying all spring and summer to either get the boat fixed OR to dump it before he spent too much money fixing an old boat. It was a process. I maybe wasn’t my most sympathetic. I was also a bit of a nervous nellie on our first outing – can you imagine sinking in the middle of the sound with two little girls on board? Well, I could and I was nervous. Poor Telfer! All went beautifully however and we did a little jaunt to Boston Harbor from downtown late afternoon on Labor Day. And it was beautiful. The girls had ice cream and played in the sand. Telfer and I shared a bottle of white wine. Lovely evening. Felt like an imperfectly perfect end to our summer.

Liz took me to the Walrus and the Carpenter in Ballard for a birthday dinner. I have been wanting to go for what seems like forever. We were there for opening (4:00 PM) and so we didn’t have a wait at all. The oysters, both raw and fried, were amazing. Shellfish is pretty much my favorite food. I also recreated one of the salads we had – greek yogurt, shaved, raw zucchini, pumpkin seed oil and sesame seeds. Doesn’t sound like much? Somehow, it feels really special. It also makes one less zucchini around here…

Speaking of zucchini, our garden has continued to do quite well. If you come over to my house there is a good chance you will leave with a zucchini (or three). We have grilled it, shaved it raw and pretended like it’s pasta, we have sautéed it, we have made fritters and soup and salad. This weekend I am going to attempt to can zucchini. I would have to say my favorite recipe from the Summer of Zucchini was sautéed zucchini with mint, basil and nuts (I used hazelnuts rather than the suggested pine nuts. I hate pine nuts – I feel like they go bad as soon as I buy them so I have stopped buying them). I also make a lot of homemade ricotta so this dinner was just beyond fresh and good. Our kitchen does however get intense early evening light (ahem, heat with no air conditioning) so after I stopped sweating from making this I really loved it.