Well, I'm another Californian with hot dry summers. But I grow a lot of irises, all kinds of lilies, dahlias, salvias, dianthus, foxglove, peonies, clematis, centaurea, pelargoniums, echinacea, snapdragons, guara, echinops, hellebores, heucheras, alstromeria, glads (altho they don't do that well), african daisies, asters, mums, euphorbias, gazanias, gaillardias, gerbera daisies, marguerites, rudbeckias, penstemons, shasta daisies, tracheleum caeruleums, lion's tail, verbascums, veronicas, lavenders, scabiosa, lantana, eucomis, caryopteris, stachys.... The best of them are the dianthus, echinops and lilies. The irises have to be thinned out about every three yrs or they become invasive and quit blooming. Salvias can get overwhelming. I have three "Hot Lips" in one bed and by summer's end they engulf the whole bed. The tracheleums are lovely, but they also get huge and spread all over, and have to be deadheaded. Asters and mums have to be hard pruned and thinned. Same with Shasta daisies. Euphorbias get really innvasive too, but they make nice fillers, until you have to deadhead. Snails and slugs like the gerberas. Dahlias have to be staked, or they become trailing groundcovers! Dang I hadn't realized just how many different plants I have put in the yard.. Not to mention the many Japanese maples and butterfly bushes, azaleas, camellias, rhodies, daphne, witch hazel, pieris japonica, etc all in the shady areas. Yikes.... Now, if I could just get delphiniums to grow!....

I mill durum wheat into flour for noodles, and mill a coarse grind similar to semolina for making pasta (fine flour for noodles, and coarse flour for pasta). Durum wheat is the type of wheat to use for noodles and pasta making, rather than hard or soft wheat varieties. You'll find the type of wheat used makes a lot of difference in the finished product. I make sourdough egg noodles (a traditional lacto-fermented Russian recipe) and make a very large batch so I only need to make noodles a couple times a year (at most). It's all about the clean-up, so I make it worth the effort and dehydrate the noodles. Noodles dehydrate very well and I store them in canning jars and vacuum-seal the lids on them. When you dehydrate noodles/pasta, be sure to use powdered whole eggs, powdered egg yolks, or liquid egg substitutes, for making the dough since these products are pasteurized, as a food safety precaution. Quick-freeze fresh spaghetti (or other types of noodles) in serving amounts and vacuum-seal them into a FoodSaver bag and store in the freezer. I use an Imperia Pasta Maker. I also have a noodle rolling pin (link below), and both gadgets make quick work out of the whole thing. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Lehman's - Noodle Cutter

I cook the sausage in a very old, very seasoned cast iron skillet, using a slotted potato masher to squish it down, then scrape it with a wooden flat beveled spoon - spatula. I continue doing this while it cooks over med high heat. It breaks up nicely and you can easily get it to the size crumbles you want quickly with very little clean up. This is a recipe I have cooked for years and adapted it to our ever changing tastes. It came from a magazine that adapted it from "The New Chili Cuisine" by Nancy S. Hughes. I am cooking this for dinner tonite as the rain, chill and gloom just won't seem to leave. ~* My changes (almost the entire recipe, but I do not want to take credit for the original ~ which I have included) SAUSAGE, WHITE BEAN AND PASTA CHILI 1 lb mild Italian sausages, casings removed ~* Hot Italian 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained ~* Del Monte Petite diced tomatoes w/ jalapenos ~* Onion - coarsely chopped 14 oz chicken broth ~*32 oz homemade chicken or turkey broth 4 oz chopped green chilis, rinsed & grained ~* 1/2 c(?) chopped sliced jalenpoes from jar I always have - amt - to taste so not to spicy 2 tsp paprika ~*omit 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ~* Chipotle red pepper (McCormicks) 2 T ground cumin ~* Chipotle Tabasco sauce to taste 15 oz can Cannellie beans, rinsed & drained 2/3 cup tiny pasta, cooked - makes 1 1/3 cups ~* omit often Cook sausage breaking it into small chunks until lightly brown. * Remove sausage and blot excess grease Saute the chopped onion and chopped jalapenos in the same skillet until tender. In a small dutch oven or heavy saucepan, add the tomatoes and their liquid, chicken broth, green chilis, and spices. Add the sausage & onion. Stir well to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat & simmer, uncovered for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in beans & pasta ~ * I add the pasta to the individual bowls. Reheat & serve. ~ Top with fresh Parmesan. Serve with cornbread and or tortilla chips. This is very quick and easy. I hope all my changes don't intimate you. You can make this as spicy as you want - or not! It also freezes very well!

Price point is an issue for me. I buy whole wheat and usually the cheapest brand I can tolerate. That is often Barilla or Ronzoni. It is what it is. Yes, that whole Guido Barilla comment on homosexuality was bizarre, why should he care one whit about the sex lives of his pasta customers, and why alienate a whole set of them. Discretion is the better part of valor, and a wise man knows when not to pick up a hand grenade laid at his feet. PR was obviously not his strong suite. I love that they addressed the problem and made changes.