It’s fun playing with my mom. We’re both decent players and neither gives up. Sometimes she whips my butt, sometimes I whip hers. Here are samples of our games.

It’s fun because we can text back and forth even though she’s not on a phone. Now I’m playing with my mom every day. That’s pretty special when you think about it.

Now, the daunting task of unloading this thing and figuring out where it all goes, or whether we keep it, sell it, donate it, burn it, or what … well, it has me genuinely looking upon this thing and its contents as a bit of a monster.

On one hand, there are some seriously cool things to be found in a home continuously owned by one family since 1956. For instance, this killer slide projector, made in Chicago forty or more years ago. It works, I got it free, they don’t make them durable like this any more, and I can finally look at all the slides my parents took in the 1960s.

Today, I unpacked a gorgeous KitchenAid stand mixer that I can’t wait to try out. Like most things from Gary’s mom’s house, it came with all the attachments and undamaged instructions (not that these things are difficult to figure out how to use). I had to rearrange some of the kitchen to make room for it, but it’ll be well worth it.

Then, there are the items I unwrap and think, “Really? No. Really!? There couldn’t have been a garage sale? This was worth storing for two years and then shipping cross-country?” (Side note: for some reason I really want to ship this off to Jennifer Proctor.) But I recognize that, when you just want to get home, it’s easier to put it all in boxes and deal with it later.

Later is today.

Just a little tour showing progress so far. Nothing easier than rolling outside with my phone and shooting a little Qik video. I’ve got plants. Most of them I started from seed. Most of them grew. Hurray me! Soundtrack by local birds. Guest appearance by White Kitty.

We turned on Qik on my iPhone for a little while today. The mockingbird steals the whole show.

Now, I don’t remember what date I shot it, or what I wanted to say. Duh.

My favorite thing about buying locally grown produce is that it forces me to be creative in order to use whatever happens to be fresh. I go shopping with a general plan, but instead of knowing I need potatoes, I might know I need “some starchy vegetable” and I get my choice of all kinds of great stuff, but I could end up with jicama or turnips instead of potatoes. That means I have to be flexible and let the food inspire me. In turn that makes me feel very alive, instead of like a cooking robot sticking grimly to the shopping list and the menu plan.

So, the other night at the market there was this cutie little mix of Heirloom tomatoes, cherry size, that came in four colors. When I was washing them at home, I noticed I’d squashed one in my grocery bag, so of course I ate it on the spot. Oh! My! Goodness! It was super delicious, almost like a summer tomato, only less acidic, with a mellow sweet tang. I knew some of these babies would have to be lunch the next day.

In the cabinet I had half a pound of orzo pasta and in the fridge some leftover feta cheese. I remembered a Food Network recipe for Orzo with Feta and Tomatoes and decided to make it. It called for pasta, feta cheese, grape tomatoes and fresh parsley. Had all that stuff. But I also had a couple roasted red peppers left over from when I wrapped them around goat cheese last week, and half a handful of leftover chopped scallions I’d used for a garnish on some Thai noodles. Meanwhile, I had bought fresh dill at the market, and I love, love, love tomatoes with dill. While the pasta boiled, I did the minimal prep work of halving the tomatoes, chopping fresh parsley and dill, and cutting the peppers into bite-sized pieces.

So the improvised recipe turned out to be:

• half a pound of orzo pasta
• a handful of feta cheese crumbles
• fresh parsley
• fresh dill
• half a pint of mixed cherry tomatoes, halved
• two roasted red peppers, chopped
• half a handful of chopped chives
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. olive oil

After draining the pasta, I mixed in the butter and oil and feta, then dropped in everything else and tossed it a bit. It was so good I completely forgot about fresh ground pepper or salt.

This will serve 2-3 people as a meal, or four people as a side dish.