Decline of a tomato plant

Tomato plant shortly after potting up.
Everyone who saw it commented on how healthy and robust it was.This was my tomato plant in early July. I was very proud of it.

Here's what it looks like today. What happened to it? One word: 'August'.
Still producing fine tomatoes, though.

Roasted Vegetable Breakfast Strata

I've been practicing breakfast casseroles this week in preparation for the 'Welcome Breakfast' at Dokime on Tuesday. I'm planning to record the event as a 'Virtuous Meal', but in the meantime, here's a recipe I made up myself. I was very happy with the results and so was Abe - he ate 3 helpings. Note that the picture was taken with our new camera.

Roasted Vegetable Breakfast Strata
1 lb roasted vegetables (see below)
1 lb hot Italian turkey sausage
6 hefty slices of sourdough
1/4 c butter, softened
2 T olive oil (in addition to the oil used to roast the vegetables)
8 eggs
1 cup feta
2 cups milk

1 lb vegetables amounted to:
7 stubby ears of corn, husked and rinsed
1/4 medium zuke, cut into 3/4 inch chunks
1/2 eggplant, cut into 3/4 inch chunks
10 gloves garlic, peeled
1 mediuiml red onion, halved and thickly sliced
12 small plum tomatoes, sliced in half

Preheat the oven to 425 (conventional). Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper (spray the sheet with Pam first so the paper adheres). Put all the vegetables except the tomatoes on the sheet. Pour on 2 T olive oil. Sprinkle with sale and pepper. Move around with a wooden spoon to distribute the oil. Put in the oven for 45 minutes, stirring a couple times.

Move the vegetables aside to clear a place on the parchment for the tomatoes. Place them face down and return sheet to the oven for 15 more minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the sausage.

Take the veggies from the oven to cool. Reset the oven to 450/425 convect. Seperate the garlic from the rest of the vegetables and put a couple cloves in with the butter. Add the olive oil and mix into a paste. Spread on the bread slices and cut the bread into cubes.

Remove the corn kernels from the cobs and skin and chop the tomatoes. Add all the vegetables to the sausage and mix it all together.

Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with Pam and lay down half the bread cubes. Top this with 2/3 of the sausage mixture. Top this with 1/2 cup feta. Repeat with the remaining bread cubes, sausage and feta. Press down on the the layers with your hand and even out the top.

Mix the egg and milk with a hand mixer in a large mixing bowl. Pour carefully over the layers. Put on the middle rack on the oven. Bake 45 minutes.

As the picture shows, the top of the strata turned pretty black. This was the eggplant skin. Didn't look good but tasted fine. I might consider covering the strata loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes or so, the next time I make this.

Saturday Six: At This Instant

A trademark expression of a favorite colleague of mine is the jumping off point for today's Saturday's Six:

1. At this instant, I'm feeling....
2. At this instant, the other members of my household are...
3. At this instant, I'm wearing...
4. At this instant, I'd rather be...
5. At this instant, the loudest noise around me is....
6. At this instant, I'm very satisfied with...

Material Monday: from the sublime to the not so much...GUM Soft Picks

You'll recall my last 'Material Monday' entry was about the Daily Bible Email. Our local kid who questions everything wondered how this post met the 'MM' qualifications and I had a ready answer: 'MM' is about anything material or technological that makes our life here on earth better. Daily Bible Email (sponsored by the National Bible Reading Union) certainly does that for me. I look forward to each day's offering and can sense a deepening appreciation for God's Word.

So there, Mr. Skeptic.

Today's 'MM' winner, GUM Soft Picks, is a more obvious fit and solves another vexing problem for me.

We all know we should floss at least once per day, having been taught this stern lesson in grammar school via the talking toothbrush film strip and the pills that made the spots you missed while brushing turn a sad shade of pink. One hitch: I hate flossing and simply can't bring myself to do it except in the 4 days leading up to a dental appointment. My hat is off to you if you do it regularly.

Since the BWCA trip, when we brushed with baking soda rather than minty bear attracting toothpaste, I have developed a new toothbrushing routine. I noticed that the baking soda treatment seemed to leave my teeth feeling cleaner and my mouth fresher for longer. So I've thrown the Crest away and have continued brushing with baking soda.

I was searching around in the dental care aisle at Wal-mart for other products that would fit my new regime. I found this expensive but dragon-breath-defeating mouthwash there and the GUM Soft Picks. What attracted me at first, was the neat little travel case that's included in each package and how much they didn't look like dental floss.

At $2.40 for 40 picks, this verges on being a luxury item, and you have aim carefully because if you hit your tooth instead of the interstices, you'll bend the pick beyond usefulness. But besides that, they're just about perfect and remove one more item from my list of things to feel guilty about not doing.

Friday 5: Getting to know you

1. Early bird or night owl?
2. Shower or bath?
3. An hour early, right on time, a minute late or ???
4. Summer, winter, fall or spring?
5. On your day off: do you have every minute planned and get everything done, do you have a long list but end up not doing most of it, do you just wake up and see where the day leads you? Do you plan things with family and friends, or do you enjoy getting away and doing something alone? Will you go to a movie or a play or a concert or a party? Will you ride your bike, work in the garden, go for a run, read a book, do volunteer work, take a class, work on a project (what?), cook a fancy meal?

Wordless Wednesday: wonderful and weird BWCA flora

Material Monday: DailyBible Email

Yesterday, our pastor challenged us to increase the time we spend reading the Bible, to just start where we're at and make it more. This was very convicting to me since I realized that where I was at was practically zero.
Since I love things like email and online bill pay and blogging and surfing and online shopping, I figured I could harness technology to get me past this block, so I searched yesterday for 'daily bible reading' and found lots of possibilities. Most are geared toward reading the entire Bible in a year like this one from Crosswalk (which also features an audio feed) but I'm for biting off a smaller chunk, at least to start.
The service I'm trialing is called DailyBible Email from Global Networks. I didn't read any of the fine print so don't know if they have a particular ax to grind, but I like the parallel format (NIV, CEV and KJV) and the low-key approach. Today's passage was so inspiring; it drove home to me what I've been missing by not making this a regular part of my life. Read the passage below and see if you don't agree. One question for you Greek scholars out there: Both the NIV and the KJV read 'cloud of witnesses' but the CEV says 'crowd of witnesses'? Which is more correct? I prefer 'cloud' - it paints an image of being surrounded by saints.

Hebrews 11.29-12.2 from the New International Version (NIV)
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Hebrews 12
God Disciplines His Sons
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.