Homegrown

Posing "The Price Is Right"-style

Homegrown tomatoes,
Homegrown tomatoes,
Ain't nothin' better than homegrown tomatoes.
There's two things that money can't buy:
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

Back in my church camp days, one of the camp nurses and a camp cook would get up in front of everyone during the talent portion of the evening and sing that song. It was kind of strange. But upon sitting down last night to eat the first of my own homegrown tomatoes, I couldn't help but sing it despite the double negative. It's pretty true though. There's nothing like eating a tomato that you've watered and worked for, that's warmed by the sun, with just a little salt. It's just magic.

Maybe I love tomatoes too much.

What I'm loving Wednesday

Linked up at This Kind of Love

I've kind of missed doing this the last couple of weeks. Now that I'm in my online class, Wednesdays are online discussion days and I have to get my first post finished. And, if you know me, you know I wait until the very last minute to do so.

I'm loving my new haircut! Last week I decided it was time for a summertime change, so I decided that what was good for one Jennifer (Aniston, in this case) was good for another (me). I was a little shocked by the amount of hair on the floor when it was all over, but the result was perfect!

I'm loving my Kindle. I'm almost obsessed with it. I love having however many books I want with me in one tiny place. Plus, there's none of that awkward-positioning-while-holding-a-giant-book. I struggle with that. Really, it's great. Now I'm afraid the books on my shelves will starting flinging themselves off my shelves to attack me.

I'm loving the return of "White Collar." While some USA original shows have been a little disappointing (cough — "Covert Affairs" — cough), "White Collar" never is. Even though I hate USA's wonky season scheduling, I do appreciate it when all of the other September to May shows go away.

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And of course I'm loving my sweet husband!

Bits & pieces: Blue Bunny birthday cake ice cream sandwiches (there's frosting in the ice cream!); this kid waking up to Waka Floka; my owl necklace I bought in Oxford; the Hanging With Friends app (I'm JenH829); and this girl and her extreme love of cats.

Summer lovings

While summer in the South can be a stiflingly hot and humid three or four months, it is still one of my favorite seasons. Even though I no longer get the summers off, it still holds that feeling of freedom and fun. There's just an energetic buzz in the air (that could be the mosquitos, though).

Here are some of my favorite summertime staples:

Playing bean bag toss in the back yard

Cute, colorful sandals

Dresses!! (Summer dresses are my weakness.)

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The squeals of the neighborhood kids playing in the sprinkler

Reading on the beach

My grandma's homemade banana pudding

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White we're on the food topic, ice cream, popsicles and The Bulldog's strawberry shortcake

Warm evening drives with the windows down

Fourth of July fireworks

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Riding bikes

Banishing the winter pale in favor of a summer tan

And of course, going on vacation!

Taken with my cell phone last year

What do you love most about summer? 

(Click here to read a similar post I did last year for fall.)

I caved (or "How I turned a pile of old textbooks into a Kindle")

When the e-readers came out, I made like a Y2K conspirator and, instead of hoarding canned foods and zombie spray, surrounded myself in a fortress of paperbacks. No one would take from me that old book smell, broken spines, dog-eared pages and comfort that only the printed page could provide. 

However, my small town's limited library made it hard to check out all of the books on my reading list, and there was something so pretty about the sleek lines and ease of this new technology. Plus there are lots more bells and whistles to an e-reader. A Kindle can read to you. Its e-books cost less than their hardcover counterparts and even come with a loan option. And since my sister has a Kindle, we can share our e-books. Besides the fact that I had a certain nostalgia for real books, the Kindle stacked up to its competition. I was sold.

Then my sister told me about Amazon's textbook trade-in where you can trade in old textbooks for Amazon credit. Scott and I rifled through several boxes of textbooks collected from our college days like they were hidden treasure we'd just discovered. It was like rolling all the change you found in the couch cushions. With the help of his heavy M.B.A. and interior design textbooks, we earned enough money to buy my Kindle! (I'm sad to say my numerous Norton anthologies were basically worthless — as if English majors don't have enough post-grad trouble just trying to find a job with a B.A. in English.) All we had to do next was box up the books and ship them to Amazon (they even pay for shipping!).

After that, getting my Kindle was easier than saying "Accio Kindle!" (Hello, Harry Potter nerds.) I tend to agree with Tom Petty when he says "the waiting is the hardest part," especially when you opt for the free Super Saver Shipping that takes 5-8 days. I was tracking that thing daily, wondering what was taking it so long in El Paso.

It arrived last night and is beautiful. It's really easy to get used to. My only problem is that I keep trying to touch the screen like its my iPod Touch or Scott's iPad. Amazon already had it synced to my account with them (the crafty little badgers), so it was really easy to download Tina Fey's Bossypants and The Help. I also got a cover to protect it from the sand and surf when I take it on vacation for my beach reading in a couple of weeks. 

Overall, I'm slightly smitten with my new Kindle. It's taunting me while I finish reading my education textbook for homework. I can't wait to laugh like a crazy person while reading Tina Fey's book, which seems to be the general reaction.

Do you have an e-reader or are you still clinging to real books?

Thoughts from the mister: My egg obsession

I'm shocked that I'm about to type these words, but today Scott is guest posting. Yes, my Scott. The man who eschews all things technological and that are therefore somehow intrusive to his private life, the one whose Facebook I created, who grumbled whenever I'd text him, and whose eyes roll when I talk about my blog. That Scott. So sit down and try to savor this moment. It's like a rare astronomical event — who knows if or when it will happen again.

As a kid I preferred my eggs scrambled with an abundance of cheese. I eventually grew into eating them fried, but, at my request, my mother would mangle the yolk and cook it into oblivion. I don’t actually remember the first time I indulged in a runny yolk, but to my matured tongue it must have been a revelation. These days I enjoy an egg on anything. Seriously anything. Fried, poached, or soft boiled, an egg is the perfect topping. Who needs a sauce when it can be replaced with a rich and viscous egg yolk? Chef and food writer Anthony Bourdin has proudly called himself an “egg slut,” and I would make the same observation of myself.

During a recent visit to Oxford, Miss., Jennifer and I enjoyed a fabulous meal at James Beard-award-winning Chef John Currence’s nightspot Snackbar. I indulged in the Duck Confit Croque Monsieur. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the French classic, croque monsieur is the French version of a hot ham and cheese sandwich, made with a gruyere béchamel sauce and ham, served on toasted bread. Currence’s version replaces the ham with duck confit and includes the addition of homemade pickles.

At Snackbar the Duck Confit Croque is offered two ways, Monsieur and Madame — Monsieur being the classic way and Madame adding a runny, fried egg. Yes, I said it, a runny, fried egg. The Madame was something I could not pass up. The dish was spot on in both flavor and texture, delivering a hearty richness with the duck and egg and balanced with the fresh tart pickles and whole grain mustard. The meal was an egg lovers dream, and my compliments to Currence on his reinterpretation of the French classic.

There is something magical about the maturing and changing of taste buds, allowing the discovery of new foods and new food obsessions. As far as my taste buds go, I know which came first between the chicken and the egg, and I am so happy that my taste buds chose the best for last. For those of you that live scrabbled and hard lives, loosen up! Take a chance on the beautiful uncompromised joy of a runny egg. Your taste buds might surprise you, giving birth to a food obsession.

Three hours down, 32 to go!

I just wrapped up my Faulkner intersession class and, if you couldn't tell by the garish clip art right here, I made an A!!!

For most of my scholastic life, grades weren't that big of a deal. Yes, I wanted to do well, but doing well at all costs wasn't my thing. The majority of my time grounded in high school was grades-related because my parents knew I could do much better if I just applied myself. But that took a lot of work and watching TV is much easier.

In college, social club fun, late nights watching random YouTube videos, and hanging out with Scott trumped studying until Scott made me shape up. He helped me focus more and do better my last two years in school. Once we got married, my GPA looked a lot better too.

Now that I'm in grad school though, my mindset has been a little different. Seeing Courtney and Scott with their fancy-shamcy honors cords and symbols by their names made me want to do better. Plus, I like to think I'm older and therefore wiser and would apply myself better than 17-year-old me did.

It was this overwhelming need to make an A in everything that crippled me. I was staring at my blinking cursor getting ready to write my first grad school assignment, and I couldn't do it. I was afraid of failing before I'd even started.

Now that I have a little reassurance that I can do it, I hope that the next 11 classes don't intimidate me so badly. And, whether or not I end it all with a 4.0, I'll know I tried my hardest. (Insert the "The More You Know" rainbow.)

Flip-flops swap and other summer sundries

(Try saying that five times fast.)

Sometime last month I signed up for my first official blogger-y thing: a flip-flop swap. Hosted by Lyryn's blog, Breaking Through, I would get partnered up with another blogger and, armed with their shoe size, by them a pair of flip-flops while they were buying some for me. I love anything and everything summer related, and what's more summery than flip-flops? I was in.

These pretties popped up in my mailbox this week, thanks to Jennifer from My Dance of Joy. I love the beads on them. They're definitely a step up from my plan old black ones sitting on the back porch. 

Speaking of things sitting on the back porch, check out ol' Sally. She's turning yellow! (Ignore the dead leaves. I'm growing a tomato, not leaves, OK? Besides, someone might have forgotten to water Sally before she left for Oxford.) It's a race to see who will turn red first, and subsequently find themselves on my dinner plate.

Flip-flops and tomatoes — looks like summer to me!