Burgers on the barbie

Although we use the barbecue all year long, tonight feels like we're nearing the end of its busy season.

It's cool enough that I've sliced potatoes and am baking them as 'French fries' in the oven. The Dear Man is doing the buffalo burgers outside, while all I have to do is scoot around organizing a bit of lettuce and condiments.

It's certainaly an easy supper, even if there's the slight aroma of nostalgia accompanying the meal.

Something crabby

Anyone who’s read this blog a few times knows I hate throwing out food – that I just about always seem to find some way to use whatever didn’t get eaten during a previous night’s meal. Tonight’s no different, only I’ll admit I had trouble coming up with what to call our supper-in-a-bowl.

After a bit of research, I’m still not much clearer as to what it is we’re eating tonight. Calling it a bisque isn’t really correct, because let me say it right off: I did not grind last night's crab shells with a mortar and pestle.

From what I can tell, it’s probably not really a chowder either. Whatever it is, we’re eating it and not surprisingly, it tastes pretty darn good.

A few garden potatoes went into the pot, as well as a fair bit of parsley and chives picked from out back.

Along with the soup/bisque/chowder, there’s a green salad topped up with the crabmeat we couldn’t quite finish last night.

Once again, aside from the bread (it’s the flour that makes it so difficult – wheat really doesn’t like to grow here), we’re dining within the bounds of the 100-mile diet, including a few of those tidbits that qualify as part of our 100-foot diet.

End of summer feast

It's hard to think of any food better than fresh Dungeness crab. The little darlin's were tap dancing in a bag not long ago at all. A quick trip to the steaming pot and they're ready for supper.

Along with sweet B.C. corn, a Caesary salad and crusty bread, it's another almost-annual gathering of friends, marked by celebrating with the best of local foods.

So many choices!

We spent today at the PNE, the Pacific National Exhibition. It started out 99 years ago as an agricultural fair, but today the farm aspects seem a small part of the show.

With so many differenct kinds of food -- everything from little doughnuts to emu burgers (and just about anything else you can think of in between), we settled for two combo dishes from a Vietnamese eatery. The styrofoam plates and plastic forks never add anything positive to a meal, still -- it was easy enough to 'do' the dishes.

We did a bit of exchanging this for that, so both ended up with a sampling of some very tasty foods.

From nuts to nuts

No soup in the equation, just pasta, slathered in pesto -- and the pesto's full of nuts, another of the about-to-become-forbidden fruits.

The basil out back is nearly bursting out of its pots, so I picked a lot of leaves today and even made a few 'base' batches for over the winter (oil and garlic and basil leaves only). When the time comes, I'll add cheese and some kind of nuts, as I've found that neither of those freeze very well.

There are nuts in the salad, and even in some brownies we snagged at an art show we dropped in on. Totally nuts, eh.

Good 'n grainy

I hadn't really meant for the photo to be so grainy, but I guess that's one of the things that can happen when you're in a hurry. All a result of the fact that I’m needing to go out to a community event tonight.

Because I only have one more day before I need to take a break from grains, I decided to have a rich abundance of them tonight.

The vegie stir-fry is served over top of seasoned bulghur, with sides of corn and tomatoes (both about-to-become-forbidden foods).

For dessert later, I’m planning on a big bowl of blackberries – ones I picked out back earlier this afternoon. I figure, for as long as I'm allowed, I'll indulge in all the seedy delights I can!

Still summer pizza

It was much more than changing the page on the calendar. This afternoon there were a few splatters of rain. And when the breeze picked up, I even saw some colourful leaves swirling down. So the signs are definitely here.

Still, a visit with friends who live by the beach reminded me that summer's still with us, along with the bounty it brings.

The friends were generous about sharing the season's ongoing crop of figs. The figs are perfectly ripe, so besides the one I ate on the spot during the picking, I used a few of them to make our evening's salad.

Figs and sliced pepper and chunks of blue cheese. While I played at making that, the Dear Man picked up a pizza to go with it. A few slices of easy pizza and all that luscious fruit made for a nice still-summer supper.