A pleasantly domestic Sunday after all the travel and adventure of the past month. Up at 5:45 for an early run with my marathon group, then brunch with B and Plevin at M. Henry. Then we baked bread*, harvested all of the basil and made a year’s supply of pesto,** and turned CSA cucumbers into pickles. I assembled the week’s lunches, prepped my work week and planned workouts. Planted some new basil and flower seeds in the pots on the back porch. Processed honeymoon photos while B fiddled with electronic bits that will one day be his kite-powered webserver (yes, really). The cats napped, chased sunbeams, traded insults across the DMZ, and napped some more.

Grilled salmon and corn and zucchini for dinner. Berries for dessert. Golden summer evening light. Early bedtime.

* I’m going to say it: I like my own bread better than any bread I ate anywhere in Europe. Crusty outside, chewy glutinous crumb inside, slightly sour fermented flavor, enough whole wheat flour to taste and enough bread flour to make big yeasty bubbles. Mmm.

** The recipe, for when I do this again next year and can’t remember the recipe again:
9 c loosely-packed basil leaves
8-9 cloves of garlic, depending on how strong the garlic is
9 TBS pine nuts (DO NOT use walnuts as a cost-cutting measure)
18 TBS olive oil (DO NOT use vegetable oil as a cost-cutting measure)
18 TBS grated parmesan cheese
9 pinches salt flakes

blend the whole thing in food processor. I like to do it in several batches, tasting as i go along and adjusting ratios as necessary.

yields about 3 cups of pesto. freeze anything that you won’t be using in the next week or two.