Salsa!

It's hot and it dulls my brain...kind of like "Stupify" in Harry Potter, if ya know what I mean! On days like this, I recommend--salad. In the comments here, we were all talking about what kind of salad this is...so I shot a photo. Now, bear in mind that I didn't peel the cukes from the garden because the skin was still so tender and sweet. (most people peel) Husband thinks that maybe I snuck in a yellow squash by mistake, but no, I think it's just a cucumber with yellow peel. Honest! I'm not making people who hate squash eat it--not me!


A runner-up to salad is homemade salsa. Today I made 11 cups of it! A friend mentioned that maybe I should be giving out recipes with all the food I post, and I will, someday. The truth is that I'm sort of an off the cuff innovator. I enjoy designing and cooking enormously, but I find the notetaking a little annoying and ponderous. This salsa recipe is based on a tomatillo recipe that was on the back of a box of canning supplies. I substituted some tomatoes because I didn't have a lot of tomatillos. I used fewer chilis, for a "medium/hot" heat...and lemon juice because I didn't have lime. Most of my recipes are like that. Good mostly, but changeable.

Harry's adventures for the week have included showing me the carcass of a very disgustingly stinky dead squirrel. (Lucky me, I got to remove it.) Last night, he brought a baby 'possum right up to the back patio. I screamed. I am not enamored of 'possums, alive or dead. My beloved dog Lucy, may she rest in peace, loved to kill 'possums. It must run in the Seiff adopted dog family gene pool or something. I thought the 'possum was dead or injured but as soon as Harry dropped it, the husband tried to remove it with a shovel. It was alive, with only slightly matted down fur. While attempting to get it over the backyard fence, it reached out while soaring through the air and attached itself to a tree. Baby 'Possum 1, Harry the dog Seiff--0.
Last night (before the 'possum adventure), we had a photo shoot. I am hoping to post a *free* pattern to my website soon, because summer pattern downloads are practically non-existent...and I'm hoping to boost business. Here's Harry helping me with the modeling. This will be for a stole I mentioned back in April. I am thinking of calling it: (It's a) Boucle Wrap! What do you think? What's the difference between a stole and a wrap, anyway?
Last but not least, there's this:
I'm working on a sock innovation, much like the salsa, above. A little bit of this, a little of that... It is inspired by Anna Zilbourg's book and the Heart's Crook pattern, but I'm not doing a traditional Turkish sock, so I'm only thinking about her pattern. I like how it thinks of the traditional heart shape, and then makes it less cheesy, more like the way I feel--that the heart is full of nooks and crannies, with affection even for 'possum killers like Harry. Blogger's not letting me post another photo, so I'll save Heart's Crook for another day. Stay cool.