Baking

We are having another farewell potluck at the library today. So I was "baking" yesterday. Literally. I made the Barefoot Contessa Cheesecake. I used my big mixer and timed everything. If the recipe said "mix for 5 minutes", I set the timer and let the Kitchen Aid do it's thing. Five packages of cream cheese, 7 eggs, zest of two lemons, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. And then the baking. Well, it's summer and we have no AC so the cake was baking--- 2 hours total--- and I was baking. I still have to work on my farewell gift and make the raspberry topping. I will go out to get the raspberries in a while and then mix them with warm red currant jelly just before serving. Yummy! and it looks just like the cookbook picture. I may bake more often!

Garden News:
My tomato plants are now nearly six feet tall. And covered with tiny yellow tomato blossoms. Zucchini is coming along. The cucumber plants are climbing the trellis and are two feet tall. The red cabbage looks nice, the butternut squash are growing and I have volunteer potatoes and tomatoes growing in the compost heap. All the beans are up. My husband planted blue petunias and morning glory out by the mailbox and the morning glory is climbing the post and winding around the mailbox. Nice. Out back he planted double pink petunias in a big planter and they aren't nearly as nice as the single blue petunias. The back bed is full of dahlias and they are all coming up nicely. Red with lime green centers. My friend and I got a box of tubers from a gardener moving into assisted living. Got to keep them going for him. The blueberries are growing--but it'll be years before we get any berries. The raspberry bushes--well, they aren't doing very well and I may have to write or call the nursery they came from and get some advice or a refund.

My husband just got back from picking up houseplants from a neighbor. She is going away for a month and lending her house to a visiting family here to perform at the Bowdoin Music Festival. I volunteered to care for her plants. So I'll have "guests" on the sunporch. I think I'll go greet them.