i think this past sunday, father’s day, was the most gorgeous day of the year so far. it was warm, sunny, breezy, and my family and i sat at the table in the backyard, under the canopy tall, old trees for hours. to celebrate the special day, we had a barbeque and everything except the potato salad went on the grill, from the radicchio and peppers to the (meat-free) jerk “chicken” which was a huge hit.
the jerk marinade was my friend’s mom’s recipe and this weekend was the first time i’d tried it. it was smoky, savoury, and almost perfect–except that despite using two scotch bonnet peppers (crazy, right?) it could have been hotter. i thought the recipe overlooked the “deseeding and deveining” step, but no. it turns out i should have thrown the whole peppers in, as the recipe implied. can’t wait to try it again and i must ask to share that recipe with you. if you like jerk, i’m sure you’ll love it.
one of the nicest things about sitting in the backyard on sunday was getting to enjoy the flowers that had newly bloomed. when we bought our house last year, james and i inherited a stunning back garden. we haven’t lifted a finger this year and already the garden has given us something new to appreaciate every week. it was so well planned that as soon as something shrinks back, another gorgous set of flowers comes out of nowhere, like the fuschia and pale pink peonies (that’s my mom holding them in the picture below, but she’d kill me if i posted the full picture) and what i thought was a really lazy flower with a tendancy to crawl along the ground. which apparetly i’m supposed to stake, my mother told me with just the tiniest bit of exasperation. i’m just amazed anything is growing in my presence at all! like our tomato plants whose canopies are getting so big (hooray!) and the summer squash…but notice the little rows of mache in their pretty rectangular box, as small as the last time i showed them to you. the strawberry plants are also too sad to show you at this time. the hard rains have been tough on them. *sigh* i hope to have better results to share with you soon. i try to be patient with these plants and send a lot of positive thoughts their way. but this weekend, i was probaby sending panic thier way, cuz i’m freaking out a little. i need those wild strawberries to happen! it’s the start of summer now, time is almost up!
