It's HOT

That about sums it up: It's HOT!

The temperature at 06:30 was 75. I think we're expecting a high of 92 or so, not bad, but the humidity is so oppressive you feel like you're in a sauna and it's 10 degrees hotter. Last night Linda and I went for an leisurely stroll after 21:00 and it was still over 90 and the sun was below the horizon. Now, does this prove global warming, no but something sure is going on. Where's that swimming pool I always wanted when I need it?

I was watching a great show on PBS Monday night about "breakfast dives" and right about now I could go for trying one out. Of course maybe some of the appeal was that it was produced in the fall or winter because everyone was wearing sweaters, jackets and coats so maybe its a subliminal message of some sort. I don't know but I'm hungry.

Nothing on my agenda today, so far. We'll have to see how the day goes. More later...

Well so far the day has not disappointed. It was 94 degrees before 12:00n. Now that was on my car's thermometer so it's probably off a few degrees. The weather person on WNKU says we're supposed to reach a heat index of 105 later today.

I called my dad this morning to see if he wanted to go for lunch. He said he was already cooking his lunch and declined the offer. My mother was going to the Tennis Matches today; I sure hope they have plenty of cold water available. Since dad declined lunch Linda and I just went to Whole Foods and bought a gallon of Snowville Creamery heavy whipping cream (one for us, one for Charie) some Greek EVOO, a little jar of Coconut Oil and some organic avocadoes. While in the store I was comparing coconut oils. Whole Foods brand is called "356." Now, you can buy a jar of  "organic, expeller pressed virgin coconut oil" in their cooking oil section for $6.99/14oz. or you can buy "organic, expeller pressed virgin coconut oil" in their vitamins section for $9.99/16oz. The only difference I could discern was the one in the vitamin section came in a fancy black plastic container with lots of nutrition labeling and included an additional 2oz. When I asked Jenny in the vitamin section about the difference between the two she really couldn't come up with one. Who knew?

Now you might ask what Linda and I do with all that "heavy whipping cream." First Snowville Creamery is un-homogeneized milk from pastured cows (grass-fed). Heavy whipping cream has no carbohydrate in it and tastes great with just about anything: coffee, fruit, smoothies... you name the delight. But, more importantly, we make ice cream with it. Over the weekend we made plain vanilla and added crushed almonds; it was to die for! Today I'm going to make it again with 1/2 the sugar and see how it turns out. My suspicion is that it won't have as good "mouth feel."

For now, off to the library and maybe a coffee at Starbucks.

We didn't get to Starbucks but we did get to the library. Dinner was interesting. We used our clay roaster to cook two plump chicken breasts that I cut into halves and smothered them in an indian sauce made with tomatoes, curry and spinach. We roasted this along with a spaghetti squash for about an hour. It was spectacular. The chicken was perfect and the squash was a very nice accompaniment in place of rice or pasta. We simply roasted it with olive oil, salt and pepper then drizzled it in cultured butter.

Desert, however, was even better. As noted above I made vanilla almond ice cream with just a 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 cup of whole milk, 2 cups of cream and 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract. That's it. We served the ice cream over fresh picked peaches that were truly delicious.