I have been really pleased with the quality of the little amount of vegetables we planted.  The tomatoes were spectaular.  The peppers unbelievable…

Tonight, dinner was planned around two items – a pepper and a crookneck squash.  The pepper was ours, the squash from our neighbor.  I was originally planning the Closing Ceremony Dinner, but my tastebuds were calling for a salad, so salad, it was.

I grilled the pepper and squash, grilled a bit of beef, hard cooked a couple of eggs, and dinner was ready in minutes.

We’re thinking that next year we’re going to expand our repertoire of garden vegetables to include a few more items.  If we moved a couple of rose bushes to the side yard, we could expand the vegetables a bit.  There is just nothing better than REAL vegetables fresh from the garden.

None of this grown for looks and no flavor/shipped halfway around the world stuff.  Good, honest, local stuff.

The older I get, the more I notice just how poor and flavorless the stuff we buy in the supermarket is.  And how much I miss those flavors of my youth.  Since the food industry isn’t about to start growing real food any time soon, it’s time for me to start doing it, myself.

Already, I very rarely will buy something out of season.  I just don’t believe in eating fresh strawberries in January.  It’s wrong.  I want my acorn squash in the fall and my watermelon in July.   I like cooking seasonally.  I like eating seasonally.

And I’m really looking forward to growing more of my own…

Okay…  Since I’m gonna grow my own food, I might as well make my own ice cream, too!  Hell – since a “half-gallon” is now 1.5 quarts – and the price has gone up for less product – it just makes sense.  Hell – no one’s ever accused ME of being pigheaded or stubborn!  Uh-uh.  Not me.  Nope…

I used 2 cups cream (NOT ultra-pasturized, either!) and a cup of whole milk, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 2 tbsp vanilla.

It is soooooooo good!