Life has conspired to keep me from updating for a while: we’ve had a hospitalized cat, we ran to NY on a work night for a concert (and paid for it the next day in lost sleep), and have been beset by other sundry details of living. My weekly menu planning has become slightly disorganized — we’re eating, and we’re eating well, just not as predictably. Nonetheless, we’ve managed to keep tabs on the garden, which is in its full-blown August fury of overgrowth and bounty.

Some of the week’s highlights include: eating the first tomatoes from the garden (delicious, in a light salad with fresh mozzarella, a sprinkling of olive oil, and the barest touch of salt and freshly ground pepper), we have harvested (but not yet eaten) four gorgeous zucchini (one more to come inside today), and the jalapenos look like they’ll be ready for picking within a few days. A week or so of hot, sunny weather has caused things to riot in the garden (although, sadly, still nothing that looks like an eggplant). Oh, and there are bell peppers beginning to grow, too.

When we were in NY on Monday, we stopped for dinner at P.D. O’Hurley’s, an Irish-type pub on the upper west side not far from the Beacon Theatre (our eventual destination). We’ve been there before and the food is decent and reasonably priced. Jim ordered a piece of banoffee pie for dessert. We had no idea what it was before he asked the waitress for details, and we thought it sounded good. Good doesn’t really begin to describe it. I’m making one today. Will report later. For now, there are two unopened cans of sweetened condenesed milk simmering in a pot of water on my stove top. That sounds crazy even to me.