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Something I find most aesthetically pleasing is a bare tree - deciduous trees that have lost their leaves. In addition to that, I appreciate "dead" trees whose remaining trunk is in an interesting shape. There is one such trunk that I see and on which I comment every time we drive the 31 miles to the church. Yesterday afternoon, my husband stopped on the side of the highway, got out, tramped through the dead grass on the side of the road and walked up a small grade on highway 41 in Madera County between Fresno and Coarsegold to get this for you

and this

For some reason, the lines of this tree are pleasing. It's really sculptural and I could see this copied in bronze.

The same family brought us more tomatoes last night. Wow. 18 red globes and lots of yellow pears - and some jalapenos!

Fresh food and flowers

I picked a lovely assortment of roses from the yard yesterday, so see, it isn't all bad.

Last week, one of the congregation members gave us many vine-ripened red globe and small yellow pear tomatoes. With the globes, I made two tomato-focused salads:
* chopped tomatoes * chopped onions * garlic * basil * EV olive oil * white balsamic

and a few days later
* chopped tomatoes * chopped onions * parsley * corn kernels * EV olive oil * honey mustard


Similar though they were to each other, there was enough variation to make it interesting. Sadly, I am allergic to tomatoes (migraine food), but I did sneak a bite of each, and they were delish - thankfully my wonderful husband thought so, too, as he is the one who had to eat both creations.

With the yellows, I made a sauce, which I think will be used in tonight's dinner. The sauce was super easy, too - just warmed up some light olive oil, tossed in some basil (which gave it a bit of a smoky flavor), added just a few chipotle flakes, let it all simmer to a nice mashy sauce, et voila!