^ Speaking of the dumpling, my wife made a whole bunch of them yesterday. We freeze them after they are made and then store them in plastic bags. I baked Amish White Bread (yeast) yesterday.

 

I went to visit my mother as she needed a haircut, and my wife cuts her hair. She was so happy to get her hair done.

While we were there she gave us a big batch of basil that was growing in the garden, she also gave us some organic olive oil from Greece and some organic olives. My mother has a friend with an olive grove in Greece and she just brought back a big shipment of olives and olive oil from that olive grove. The olives and olive oil are unlike anything you would find in the retail market, nothing really compares when you get the stuff straight from the farm / olive grove direct.

I went home and made fresh pesto sauce with the basil and olive oil. I tossed in some slices of speck ham that I had left in the fridge to jazz it up a bit. We had some dried penne from Italy and it made a great pasta dinner. My wife said it was the best pesto pasta she has ever eaten in her life, better than any restaurant she's eaten from in the past. It turned out great, you can't beat fresh basil and high quality olive oil for a recipe like this.

 

home made chicken souvlaki tonight for dinner. We marinated chicken skewers in lemon juice, oregano, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper for one day, then roasted them on the barbecue until golden brown and carmelized.

 

We are now getting locally grown cantaloupes, once again these are fruits that are many times better than stuff they send us from other countries during the off-season. I've never had cantaloupes in other countries that are remotely as good as our ours in Canada during peak growing season.

We are heading on vacation Monday. The country we are visiting is a lush tropical place with 12 months of growing weather, yet they can't produce a fruit that has any taste to it. It is so odd that Canada can grow better fruit, but then again the entire agriculture system in Cuba is a disaster, all they seem to grow is sugar cane and tobacco. By the 7th day we yearn to get back home to eat our local fruit and vegetables that are so good during our summer season. We have visited a few other carribbean countries that grew very little fruit, I know a few countries that had no oranges and orange juice was a terrible powdered mix of a drink.

 

I noticed the two times I bought blueberries this week they were from Canada.

 

We grow some amazing blueberries here , it is a very short growing season though. And wild blueberries from the East Coast of Canada are the best by far, nothing compares to them.

 

best blueberries are from Maine.
tiny and tart.

 

I visited my mom yesterday and she gave us some big garlic bulbs from the garden, almost like elephant garlic, big ass cloves. We had some gnocchi to use up in the fridge so we made gnocchi tonight, tossed them in a simple olive oil and garlic sauce, I got some fresh parsley and chives in the garden, topped it with grated cheese, black pepper , red pepper, salt, it was great. We had a side salad and olives to go with it. Fresh fruit for dessert. My wife loved it once again.

 

Vito’s mom sent me some of her delicious eggplant back with him. She is a really great cook.

 

My mother sent us a supply of veal and chicken cutlets in a care package lol. We don't eat them too often as they are fried, but my mother makes them great. Hers are pounded out very thin. She adds a nice bunch of Italian parsley to the coating which I love, and I eat them with a good squeeze of lemon once they get to my plate. Yummy.