Last Night's Dinner (and the night before and tomorrow's)

Luckily I'm the type of person who can eat the same thing regularly if it's really good.  It helps, of course, if it's something I've worked for, in this case I'm working hard for my tomatoes.  The work involved makes it worth it to repeat.  If I were served it everyday, that might be a different story, or if I were eating this when the produce wasn't in season or fresh, I might think differently.

But since, I am toiling and creating it, it doesn't seem to get tiresome.

What am I talking about?  Caprese salad of course.  Last night I changed it up a bit and added a sliced cucumber care of my friend, Cliff from Chateau Z Vineyard.  It was deliciously sweet and I was kicking myself for not getting more than one.  Tonight I'm fixing some of his zucchini since mine's not coming in yet.  I have two little baby ones for dinner and a big "husband club" that I will use for zucchini bread.

Today I picked several more pounds of tomatoes, although they're starting to fade a bit.  Checking on the plants, I noticed a few teeny cucumbers starting, some blooms on zucchini, melons and eggplants and a little round eggplant that is a bianca variety I think.  tomorrow, I'm going to have to hit the garden again with some spinosad, because although I found one dead squash bug, I also found a live one in the process of laying eggs.  The flea beetles are hitting the eggplant and my cucumbers, too.  Those things are nearly impossible to eradicate.  Next year I will experiment with planting eggplant in pots aon the deck and in various spots in my flower beds.  The one I have in one of my beds is doing exceptionally well. It's nestled among the zinnias, Russian sunflowers, dahlias and lisianthus.  Maybe those flowers are a deterrent or are attracting some pest eating insects.

Enjoy your fresh tomatoes while you can get them.  I'm pondering some late plantings of tomatoes, and definitely starting some more beans and my fall stuff.  Yes, people it's time to start thinking about a fall garden.  More on that later.....

Oh, and please, please, please use GOOD quality balsamic on your caprese salads.  Those tomatoes deserve it and so do you!