My brother-in-law's wife is who you want to be when you grow up. She can do it all. She's hiked the Appalachian Trail. She's a civil engineer. She builds hospitals! She's run the Boston Marathon. Heck, she's run 5Ks into her ninth month of pregnancy. She's mother to a great niece and nephew of mine.
She's also an epic chef. Behold her Asian peanut slaw salad!
Now here is where I have to do a little braggin' on myself too. See, the purple cabbage that gave its life for this amazing dish was raised in our garden. And I would be remiss if I didn't brag on our boys, for they helped me put in the cabbage on a President's Day school holiday.
Every so often I post pictures of our garden on Facebook. It's a form of self-discipline. If people are going to see the garden, I've gotta weed it! Here's the situation as of today:
Not all that impressive, I'll admit. But there's a reason. It's a small garden, so we had to wait for the spring crops to finish up before planting the summer crops. And we have learned this year that brussel sprouts take up a lot of space and take their sweet time to mature. No wonder they're so expensive in the store. On Tuesday I pulled them, even though a lot of the sprouts were mere nubs. Gotta make way for the okra! And that's what I hope will fill that empty spot in the middle, where the brussel sprouts used to be.
Ah... tomatoes, summer squash and okra. Not the nasty, slimy boiled okra, but lightly breaded and cooked in a skillet with a little olive oil. If it weren't for the fresh vegetables, southern summers would be unbearable. As it is, I often wonder in July and August, How do we not starve the other ten months of the year?










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