Do you ever get the comment from repairmen, "You must be a teacher", or "Do you read all those?". LOL Even after heavy culling a few years ago we still moved hundreds of books. But they are my travel, my continuing education, solace and amusement. I've learned to garden from books, cook, do crewel embroidery and crochet (still amazed at what I can do with a curved stick and ball of yarn!), and so much more. I've a shelf of art books, diaries/memoirs, novels, history plus illustrated books on India. I''ll fix curry and hot tea and wallow in the Raj period for a few days every year or so. My fascination with India grew out of my interest in English political and social history .A few books on gardens and the early botanists and their travels led to still other books on sailing ships 'round all the continents and coaling stations on tiny ocean isles. Then to wonder how all those colonies fared...on and on. I don't want just a broad from the top historical overview, I like to read the novels or travel books written at the time. Strange to say, these type books aren't always available at my library...LOL And I'm hanging on to most I've collected. Other keepers are like E.F.Benson's Lucia stories or Trollope's many novels, John Galsworthy's work. The library may have a few but not all, and I want to read all by a favorite author. I do read some current fiction but rarely hold on to those books, (and even more rarely do I remember the characters or plot). My gardening books are probably less than300 but I still use them often. Taylor's Encyclopedia of Gardening in the mid 1960's was my first purchase after exhausting the library's shelves. I made notations on almost every page ...it's a 35 year record of my old garden...successes and failures. The others like Henry Mitchell and Margery Fish are like old friends Still make out wishlists from A.B.Graf's marvelous books on Tropicals...if I just had more windows!. I culled most cookbooks, kept Joy of Cookng, James Beard, Rene Verdon on techniques, Tassajara on Veggies and Bread, Julia Child, a few community cookbooks. A few interesting like the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook which has good recipes and gossip about the many authors and artists that hung out in the Gertrude Stein salon. And LaRousse Gastronomique which my Mom bought for me when I finally started cooking in my forties...LOL Actually, it's an interesting read, but I don't use it for recipes. Whew! But I do love books! josh

Susan, That is odd about the pumpkin, because they tend to like similar conditions to the butternut squash, so it seems odd the latter is happy and the former is a dud this year! Go figure. (SOmetimes lots of green but no flowers/fruit is a sign of too much nitrogen --- I don't know if there was anything that fertilized the pumpkins but not the squash that might've been nitrogen-heavy? Just one possibility.) But the harvest sounds great nonetheless. And good for you for planting those fall veggies. I rarely can get my head back into a planting space by mid-summer so I often don't get much more than a quick crop of lettuce in. I am just in harvest mode!!! But I saw Ken planted a fall pea crop the other day and with you getting all those goodies in maybe I"ll be inspired to do a bit of fall planting.... Hope your recovery is swift! Zabby

On Monday my wife announced that 6 people were coming over for dinner on Tuesday. I had a pound of Mahi Mahi and a pound of shrimp that I needed to use so I decided to make a jambalaya following the recipe I had posted earlier that day, but with the mahi mahi substituted for the chicken. The she told be that at least one and maybe two of them were vegetarians. I was focused on using the shrimp and fish, and focused on making Jambalaya so I decided to make it and then also make a pot of vegetarian jambalaya. I looked up a half-dozen recipes and made the following synthesis of the recipes I had read. Even the non-vegetarians in the group who tried it liked it. I tried some, and like the overall flavor, but wasn't happy with the texture of the Tofurkey smoked sausage I used. Note: I don't have accurate measurements for the spices I used because I left work at 4:30 P.M. and had to shop for ingredients on the way home and have both jambalayas and the rice and the cornbread casserole ready by 6:30 P.M. Also I intended to include chick peas based on the picture ynnej included above, but forgot to buy them. Vegetarian Jambalaya 2 medium yellow onions (chopped) 1 zucchini (halved lengthwise and sliced) 1 yellow squash (halved lengthwise and sliced) 2 cans diced tomatoes (drained half-heartedly) 1 small can tomato paste 1 bell pepper (cut into 3/4" square pieces) 2 stalks of celery (sliced) 1 portobello mushroom 1 Veggie smoked sausage (sliced) (I used Tofurkey brand) 4 cloves crushed garlic 1/2 tsp thyme ? 1/2 tsp black pepper ? 2 tsp smoked paprika ? 2 tsp creole seasoning ? 1 Tbsp diced pickled jalapeno 4 shakes Frank's Red Hot sauce Method: Cook onion in vegetable oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add thyme, black pepper, creole seasoning and paprika Add bell pepper, garlic, and celery, cook for another 10 minutes, Add diced tomato, jalapeno and red hot sauce, simmer While that is all simmering for each of the veggie smoked sausage, zucchini, yellow squash and mushroom: lightly brown them in vegetable oil in a small frying pan and add them to the pot Served on top of rice that was made with 50/50 water/vegetable stock.

grainlady, I didn't know about phytates in oatmeal; knew they were in wheat. If soaking gets them out, don't you need to drain off that water full of phytates and replace it with fresh? For my whole childhood I was "made" to eat oatmeal and hated it. The glutinous quality always got me. My mom would put a big chunk of butter on there (double yuk), maybe some cinnamon, even jam she tried. Hated them all. When I found I liked Cream of Wheat (a little) I was allowed to switch to that; could only get that down with chocolate chips tossed on and allowed to melt. As an adult my brother switched to steel-cut oats but I don't care for those either. Then making oatmeal once for my Dad at my house I found out what the problem was: overcooking. Now I actually like it. I use regular oats and cook it in the microwave for 2 minutes a bowl, just so it's soft enough but hasn't started releasing the gluey stuff. Now I cook it with dried cranberries in it and add 2 T of ground flax seed. The flax seed adds a LOT to the flavor: to me it tastes sort of like ground almonds. Then top off with a scant half teaspoon of maple syrup: a little goes a long way; it has so much flavor that you barely notice that amount of sweetness.