Why I Oughta...

For the past three or four years, this delicious salted cured meat has been in my life.  It must have been a pizza blog (likely Slice ) that turned me onto the meat.  Needless to say, I'm a Sopressata evangelist now.   That's a slice of the stuff in the photo above.  As you can see it looks a lot like salami or pepperoni, but is more oblong shape instead of round.  And, it is spicier and (of course!) tastier. It won't be taking over pepperoni on your regular run-of-the-mill thin crust pie, but at most artisan pizza joints these days, you'll find this meat gracing many a skin where regular old pepperoni would have done. We buy ours at Caputo's in Addison and the care they put into packaging our slices speaks to the importance this sliced meat holds in the hearts and minds of Italians.  When my pizza oven comes to life next year, the second pie out will be a Sopressata one.  First?  Has to be Margherita, right?

Back in early May, I planted some seed potatoes using the "Grow new potatoes in a garbage can" method and relatively quickly, the stalks shot up and were growing like crazy .  Being the impatient type, I couldn't really just sit back and wait for 3 months and *hope* that little red potatoes were being grown below the surface. Yesterday, I had enough.  I couldn't stand it.  I really needed to know if there was actually something doing under the soil.  We're the seed potatoes actually sprouting more spuds? I carefully moved some of the mulch aside and pushed some of the dirt away from the base of one of the shoots.  And lo and behold....guess what I found?  That's right!?!?  A tiny red potato.  The garbage can method is INDEED working. Another 30 to 60 days from now and (hopefully) these will be much bigger. If the production turns out to be high volume (which...because of the size of the can the plants are in, really can't be that "high"),

I finally bit the bullet and bought a 5 gallon drum of concrete paver sealer.  Menards (of course!) ran a sale on the stuff and with the 20% off discount, it was priced well.  I've been slowly watching our backyard patio slowly fade from a beautiful multiple-color paver patio into a mostly blah tan-looking average patio.  This stuff - Ultra Gloss Sealer - not only claims to brighten/bring back the true colors of the pavers, but it also seals them down (plus the sand joints) and gives them a "wet look" permanently.  Well...permanently in this case is a few years until we have to re-apply.  I have to hit the pavers with a powerwasher to clean them up, replace the lost sand in the joints and then leave it to dry.  The next morning, I break out the roller and cover the surface with this stuff.  24 hours later, the patio should look almost brand new.  As soon as I get to this project (hopefully) in the next week or so, I'll report back.  This 'to-do' list is g

My *mostly* plum tomato plant strategy is beginning to play out with the emergence of the first substantial tomato from the Opalka plant.  Opalkas are of Polish origins (which is nice for me!) and they're seen as the superior canning variety by some .  I only have one of these plants this year so it won't bear a ton, but hopefully enough for me to can a few jars and taste-test them side-by-side with the other varieties which have multiple plants. 

About a week late (hey!  I was on the road.), but I finally was able to get my beans and snap peas trellis'd.  I'm using the elements that are already there (fence and raised bed) instead of building another stand-alone trellis/structure.  Based on the tentacles that I trained up the trellis netting already, I know it will work, but I'm wondering if the weight will be too much.  The pace of growth in the beans is pretty staggering, so it won't take long to find out.   

Have you been in the new Terminal 2 at SFO?  It is home to American Airlines and Virgin America and it is spectacular.  Well...at least as far as airport terminals go it is. The chairs are nice.  The outlets are plentiful.  The bathrooms are spacious and clean.  But the best part?  They have a candy place called Natalie's Candy Jar.  I *had* to stop by on my flight out.  They weren't open when I was departing, but I told the guy in the store that I couldn't go home without some over-priced by-the-weight candy.  After a bit of negotiations, I boarded with a small bag of licorice.  Mission accomplished. 

Wine = just ok. Bocce Ball = great fun. We spent an afternoon at La Nebbia Winery in Half Moon Bay for a team-building activity this week.  I had a great time, but that was mostly because I was able to spend a few hours outside with my team.  Not so much because of the wine. 

I soooo want one of these in our house now.

Early last spring, my sister Vic gave me a few onion sets to plant in the garden.  They were little tiny onions that eventually grow into big onions.  Or so I thought.  I planted them in May or June and by September, the scallion part (the green shoots) were growing nicely, so I presumed that the onion underground was getting big and bulb-y.  Thus, I dug one out.  Only to be really disappointed.  The onion had not grown much at all.  It had about doubled - from the diameter of a dime to the diameter of a golfball, but it wasn't much of an onion.  I had about 6 of them in the ground, so I just left the rest.  Not sure what would happen to them over winter.  Fast forward to this spring and much to my surprise, the onion plants sprung back.  And they got HUGE.  And, they formed these really pretty buds that started (just this week) to expand and break out to show a set of even more tiny buds.  Based on the guidance from the folks at the U of I extension , I may never get my dry bul