I have good news and bad news. The good news is that it's FALL! And fall is one of the best seasons for delicious food creations. The bad news is that I had to destroy my garden this August. It was incredibly sad to dismantle something I'd spent hours and days and months creating.

However, I've recovered well... I have new things growing. And when I learned that I had to move, I rescued some of my baby Orange-glo watermelon plants and brought them to my aunt and uncle's house in Roseville. My aunt and uncle are named Dick and Jane (I'm serious!) and have one of the best backyard gardens I've ever seen. Not only are their fruits and vegetables consistently healthy and delicious, but the place also has something warm and complete... it's so relaxing to go there and feel things growing all around you. (I took my dog there once and it was as if she was in her ideal amusement park... a wild adventure for little Mardy.) Anyway, Dick and Jane weren't sure if the watermelons would develop into anything, but guess what... they did! They were big and beautiful and golden on the inside.

I didn't put up the recipe, but I'll tell you what... get a yellow or orange watermelon sometime. Cut it in half. Set one half with the meat exposed in a tupperware so it stays still. Stab (lovingly and neatly, of course) into the watermelon, then just pour in as much vodka as you can. Snip some basil and mint fresh and stuff them artfull into the watermelon. Let sit in the fridge overnight, then serve in small pieces at a summer bbq. This one is for adults only, but they'll feel like kids again.

So my new garden is simply lovely. It used to be a nasty looking chain link dog kennel. The previous owner had a little German Shepherd puppy that grew to be nearly 200 lbs before it was a year old. Surprise! So they had to expand their concrete kennel, using cheap pavers and chain link. By the time I moved in, there were plenty of weeds growing up between the pavers. Over a couple of days, I pulled up the pavers, dug out the weeds, bought a firepit, and got rid of the chain link. I have little solar powered blue LED lights from Ikea that look like mini light sabers. I planted salvia, coreopsis, yarrow (a great garden gaurdian), white delphinium, and creeping thyme. I thought I'd wait to plant anything until the spring, but when I went through my leftover seeds from the summer, I saw that I had lots of lettuce. It only takes a couple of weeks to grow big enough to eat, so you can plant it two weeks before frost. Lots of rain in the midwest this week, so the seeds are already sprouting. And something you might not know - baby lettuce greens are less bitter and more flavorful when touched by frost.

So you see, good and bad things can happen, and we make vodka watermelons, new gardens, and late season baby greens.

Until I have a family, my roommates serve that function in more ways than one... but especially having meals together. With my last roommate, we'd cook or order calzones (hawaiian ones) and watch a movie with a glass of wine. At this house, there is simply more quantity, so cooking is an event as much as eating together.

Before I moved in, my roommates apparently rarely ate sit-down dinners together, and by rarely, I mean Never. So of course within a few days of my arrival, Italian nona that I am, I had them all sitting with me, eating and talking. Since that day, we've all taken on some pretty incredible meals. The most recent was a great breakfast of whatever we had in the house... turned out to be brownie pancakes and foamy lattes. I added sprinkles for festivity.... And because I didn't have to flip pancakes, I created a table setting that I think warmed up the morning and made everyone feel special. Echinacea (purple coneflower), Monarda (bee balm), ferns, and Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan, state flower of Maryland) were a colorful centerpiece and we all got over our guilt from eating brownie pancakes eventually.

Another fun way to make a family meal an experience is to take a bike ride beforehand or a digestive walk afterwards... it really does help you digest and it brings everyone together in conversation!