The Tomato Bounty Begins....

This is my favorite time of the summer. No, it's not the unbearable heat and humidity. No, not the smell of chlorine on all of my clothes from hours (and hours) of swimming with the kids at the community pool either.

It's the appearance of sweet corn (the world's finest, IMHO) at Kern's Farm Stand in Pennington, NJ. And the arrival of tomatoes in our weekly farm share at Honey Brook Organic Farm. What you see above is about 16 pounds of New Jersey's finest contribution to civilization, and I know it's just the beginning of a veritable landslide of lycopene heading my way.

Honey Brook has been putting out tons of great basil in our weekly share, too. So can you see where I'm going with this?

I'll be pulling out a big stock pot soon....stay tuned.

SACRE BLEU!

For the first time in a long while, I'm virtually speechless.

Who saw THIS coming? C'mon now, be honest.

Wow.

KETCHUP

It's been over 5 weeks since I last posted something on this blog, the longest gap between posts I've ever allowed to happen.

I'm sorry, but I have been ridiculously busy.

Beginning with a nearly 14-hour birthday party for the twins (where I grilled almost 200 various kinds of sliders--- a gamble that really paid off--they went over big!), lit and cut TWO birthday cakes, and had lots of 90-degree weather fun watching the twins and their friends bounce and waterslide (thanks Aunt Renee, it was a BIG hit!) themselves crazy, and continuing with a government-related project that I am prohibited to discuss, my days and nights have been full.

In between all that there were a few stops during Philly Beer Week (only McGillin's Olde Ale House's 150th Anniversary was well attended; the others were....much quieter), Ben and Sophie's touching "graduation" from pre-school, a slew of other birthdays (including my mom's 75th!), some BBQ at Sweet Lucy's for MY birthday last week, and some favorite beers shared in our weekly beer chat, the "No Bull Inn," on starchat.net.

My dear friend Lew Bryson lost his dad last week to pancreatic cancer, after a long and courageous fight. His tribute to his dad is another example of how great a writer and son he has been. Don't pass up reading it.

Bob Sheppard, the voice of Yankee Stadium for half a century, passed away Sunday. And today the Yankees' owner, "The Boss", George Steinbrenner, died after suffering a massive heart attack.

So we have a lot to catch up on. And I need to get back into the rhythm of writing again. I missed the interaction, reaction and feedback. I promise I won't wait this long again.