Sometimes there’s one bell pepper that just doesn’t get eaten in salads and just sorta gets forgotten, not intentionally but there it is still in the fridge.

 

 

That was the story of this pepper until I spotted the can of garbanzos in the cupboard. I’d been planning to make hummus at some point anyway and today was the day!

 

The instructions said to turn it using tongs -- not thongs.

Though Georgiana told me she actually  thought that they were called thongs for some time. She said people would have this funny look but nobody said anything!

Her husband thinks it’s hysterical and insists on continuing to call them thongs. I wasn’t aware of any of this when I came to dinner.  He said he’d get the thongs to serve the spaghetti.

  I may have forgotten a bit. I was busy looking at recipes wondering if I could make pita bread to go with the hummus. I did not actually make any pita bread but I did imagine myself making some. In the middle of such imagining I did remember to turn it a few times. Actually it was the wonderful slightly smoky red pepper aroma drifting through the house that reminded me I was roasting a pepper! I think I could roast red peppers just for air freshener, what a good smell.

When the pepper looks like it’s died an unnatural death I dropped in into a bowl and let it steam under a lid for a bit. That’s supposed to help the skin come off I guess.

 

And it certainly did.

The skin separated quite easily.

 

red pepper ready and waiting.

 

Next I went out to my backyard garbanzo tree and picked some garbanzos.

Aren’t they called chickpeas before they’re cooked?

While the garbanzos are draining I squeezed the juice of one lemon not two because I only had one lemon.

I also minced the garlic, I only used one clove, I was scared to put too much in.

 

Next I put everything in the blender, garbanzos, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and tahini

The blender was not at all thrilled about blending all of that! I had to keep pushing the stuff back onto the blades. I ended up using every bit of juice from the red pepper and persisting with the blender.

There it is just sitting there waiting to be eaten.

 

Roasted Red Pepper

Roast the pepper at 450 turning every 10 min or so. For 30 min.

Set in a bowl and cover to steam for 10 min. Then slip off skin.

 

The hummus

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil or fresh if you have it

Directions

1. In an electric food processor, combine garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini, and lemon juice. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add roasted peppers and basil; process until the peppers are finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer hummus to small bowl, cover and chill until you are ready to serve.

 

You know It’s zucchini time when you think twice before visiting your neighbors for fear they’ll give you more zucchini.

So, as it so happened I had some zucchini and looked for something different to make, that’s when I came across Closet cooking’s recipe for zucchini herb and feta quiche.

 

Grate the cheese.

 

And toss it into the egg you just beat and didn’t remember to take a picture of.

Mix well enough.

Press it into the pan

 

Scrape the very last out just use your hand ‘cause they’re already sticky and getting a spatula would require stopping and washing your hands just to open the drawer. Then when you’re done wash you hands and put the crust in the oven that’s probably crazy hot by now.

 

Chop green onions. Or grab some onion tops from onions that are trying to grow in the garden.

Grab anything handy from the garden, here I have mint, dill and parsley.

 

toss the zucchini in with the eggs.

 

I didn’t have a whole cup of feta so I used what I had.

 

Then add the herbs and mix.

Note: right about now would be a good time to add a little salt and pepper. I forgot completely and I must say, trying to add it to each slice when serving is just not the same.

 

Pour into crust and bake until the center isn’t runny. I think that’s what they mean when they say “set”.

 

Adapted from

Herbed Zucchini and Feta Quiche with a Brown Rice Crust from Closet Cooking
(makes 6+ servings)

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup cheddar and mozzarella  grated
1 egg
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups zucchini (grated, squeezed and drained)
1/4 cup herbs (such as dill, mint, parsley, chopped)
2 green onions (chopped)
1 cup feta (crumbled)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix the rice, cheese and egg in a bowl.
2. Press the rice mixture into a pie plate, about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Bake in a preheated 450F oven until the edges and bottom just start turning golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Mix the eggs, milk, zucchini, dill, parsley, mint, green onions, feta, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust.
6. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until golden brown and set in the center, about 30-35 minutes.

 

 

Somewhere in the garden there is parsley, lots of parsley.

It’s just a matter of finding it. Nope, that’s basil.

Well once you find the parsley we can make parsley potatoes.

Wash it first, there always seems to be a little dirt on it.

Mince up the garlic too.

Cube potatoes.

Then put potatoes in with water, olive oil, parsley and garlic.

Boil until tender.

 

season with salt and pepper and serve immediately

 

Potatoes with parsley

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 cups cubed red potatoes

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring mixture to a boil Cover and reduce heat to medium-low; cook 20 min or until potatoes are tender when stabbed with a fork. serve immediately.

 

 

White balance settings have always been on my camera and I’ve always tried to use the correct one for the moment but tonight I used them to get different effects on the same shot and see what the differences were.


I first tried the setting for direct sunlight.


Then I set it to cloudy. Not a lot different but a little redish.


This is the fluorescent setting. Blue, I like that.


This is the incandescent setting. Similar to the fluorescent.


And the shade setting.
I wasted a bit of time changing settings, I changed it through the menu. Depending on your camera you may have a dedicated button you can change the white balance with.
I do, I just forget to use it.


I do shoot in JPEG and Raw so I probably could get all these effects on the computer later. I like Raw,  I went to the computer to see just what Raw can do.

This is what it looked like. All yellowy! That is not the way the sky looked. That’s when I saw I still had my white balance on direct sunlight.

Same photo AFTER. I changed the white balance with the computer and played around with every possible setting, color, hue saturation, brightness, contrast.
Hope I haven’t confused you with that but have inspired you to  play around with some of those buttons on the camera.
And don’t always follow the rules. Break a few,
just not all
Well not all,
all at the same time. 
you might get some photos you really like because of it.

 

If about 20 gallons of water got on the floor would it ruin your flooring? I mean like get under it and make it bubble up badly in places?  I was just wondering.

 

To make cinnamon roll ups  just roll out some pizza dough into a rectangle, or sort of a rectangle.

 

Would  vacuuming up all the water and a bunch of fans with all the doors and windows open dry the place out?

 

Spread soft butter on dough.

 

If it’s so damp in the house that the doors wont shut would shutting all the doors and all the windows while leaving the fans going and turning the AC on high help pull moisture out of the house?

 

Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar or mix it in advance to have on hand for occasions like this. Leave the end un cinnamoned and un sugared So you can pinch it together when you roll it up.

 

Roll up and pinch end together.

slice about 3/8” and if they squish badly just push them back into shape on the baking sheet.

Bake not quite as long as I did and yours will come out softer than mine.

 

 

Cool on a wire wrack and serve immediately

About how long would it take to dry out a house?

Like I said, I was just wondering.

 

 

Cinnamon rollups

ingredients

• refrigerated pizza dough
• butter
• sugar
• cinnamon

Roll out dough into a rectangle. Spread with soft butter. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar. Rollup and slice. Bake at 375 until lightly browned. eat immediately.