It was hard to tell where May ended and June started. And with the extreme heat the last few weeks felt like July anyway. In fact it kinda feels like we have packed three months worth of activity into the last few weeks.
My USTA tennis team wound up play on a steamy hot night. Our season started out with some great wins but as the weather heated up so did our opponents. We finished in the middle of our league which was better than last place last year so we celebrated the seasons end with some team time together at Joe's for dinner. Several teammates are playing summer leagues but I'm looking forward to playing early morning beat the heat tennis for a while just for the fun.
The hydrangea bush that I planted several years ago has grown huge with the most beautiful light blue flowers. Beth, Carol or I have clipped flowers almost daily for interesting arrangements. My most unusual mix was to put fluffy blue hydrangea blooms with lacey white flowers from an overgrown cilantro plant. This turned out so pretty and reminded me of wedding flowers. And speaking of weddings, the boys attended a fun wedding recently. It was the first wedding of the newly graduated college crowd and I am sure there will be many more to follow. Weddings are such a happy time and the boys really enjoyed themselves at this one.
Work has been fun and exciting lately too. Hollywood came to Shelby for filming parts of a movie and that made for some new experiences around town for a lot of people. The thing that struck me the most was just how team oriented the movie business is. There are location people scouting for space, set designers, casting people, set builders, then prop people, art people, lighting people, actors, extras, directors, producers and a bunch of other people to house, feed, clothe, and otherwise support the production. It's even more team oriented than that in that first there were the three great books and whatever it takes to get a book to a script. Then after the 78 days of filming there will be editing and special effects and who knows what else before the movie is released next March. Needless to say you begin to understand why movies take so long and have such big budgets.
But the main thing I noticed in observing a fraction of this movie project was just how calm and courteous and professional everyone seemed. Even when it was way too hot and when there were a ton of different things going on. No doubt it takes a lot of discipline and patience to be involved with making a movie. One veteran told me that they are kind of like ducks on the water. On the surface the cast and crew seem serene and graceful and calm, but underneath they are paddling like crazy. Mostly, they all seemed to enjoy what they are doing and they seemed to enjoy working together. Definitely they were a joy for us and it was also good for the local economy.
We cooled off at the Lake a couple of times recently and enjoyed Music on the Martin Deck with Jackson and his Calm and Collective friends. Their Fusion Reggae with a Sax sounded great and while we missed some songs and friends from the old days it is fun to see and hear a new generation of Music on the Martin Deck. Here's to more music this summer and maybe a chance to fuse some "I Can't Stop Loving You" with some Beatles and Willie and CCR and The Honk into the mix. You never really can predict what might happen with Music on the Deck. But you can almost always predict that somewhere along the way there will be Dancing on the Deck.
While we were at the Lake I made our first BLTs and Fried Squash of the summer. It's hard to beat a BLT and fried squash and no doubt that will be on the menu again as the fresh squash starts coming in. (Fried Squash recipe on July 7, 2010 blogpost)
And speaking of the garden, we picked our first cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, sweet peppers and cucumbers this week. David IV had weeded the garden but I asked him to leave the volunteer zinnias because I love them. So now we have a strange mix of vegetable garden and zinnias growing together. Mama Crowder most likely would not approve of this. I ran into Dickie the other day and mentioned it to him. He reminded me that if you plant marigolds in the garden it will act as an insect repellent. We laughed wondering if maybe the same holds true of the zinnias. As a matter of fact I haven't noticed alot of critters on the vegetables so far.
Last night, I wanted to use the fresh cherry tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers from the garden for a cool refreshing salad. So I chopped some crispy cold iceberg lettuce and mixed in the fresh garden veggies. I added crispy bacon and sauteed chicken strips and topped it off with homemade Blue Cheese Dressing.
I have had a recipe called Jake Wade's Blue Cheese dressing for many years. The funny thing is I thought I had gotten this recipe from my neighbor, Mrs. Sarazen. The Sarazen's have travelled all over the world and tasted wonderful flavors from many places. I was certain that Jake Wade's Dressing came from an exotic restaurant somewhere that the Sarazens liked and I had always tried to picture Jake Wade. So I called Libby and Mrs. Sarazen to ask about Jake. Neither of them had heard of him. And they use a completely different blue cheese dressing recipe.
So now I have no idea where I got Jake Wade's recipe but I love it. Thanks Jake whoever you are.
Jake Wade's Blue Cheese Dressing
3 oz Roquefort Cheese*
4 oz Blue Cheese*
*I use all blue cheese but not the already crumbled kind. Buy a block and crumble it yourself.
2 Cups Mayo** (Hellmans for me)
**This dressing is really thick. To make it thinner, sometimes I use 1 1/2 cups mayo with 1/2 cup buttermilk. Or use 2 cups mayo and thin with regular milk.
2 TBSP vinegar (I used cider vinegar, but the recipe calls for wine vinegar)
2 TBSP olive oil (or less)
5-6 shakes celery salt
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp msg (I always omit this)
Dash Parsley flakes or fresh if you have it
Juice of one lemon (or one capful of bottled juice)
Combine everything except cheese and lemon juice and blend well. Then add lemon juice and cheese and blend. This is also a great dressing for chicken wings or for a vegetable dip with carrot and celery sticks. It keeps well in the refrigerator and gets better as the flavors mingle.
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