At long last, the yellow squash seems to be coming to an end. I don’t know if this is part of the normal squash life cycle or if the plants are being bothered by something, but in any case we’ve had enough yellow squash this summer to last us a lifetime. Last week a Penzey’s catalog arrived, and in it is a recipe for a cinnamon quick bread that uses yellow squash. I’ll be making that. My next-door neighbor was glad to take some squash off my hands this week as her young adult children are home for the summer and are both vegetarians, so that’s good to know.

The pepper plants are gearing up. There are a number of habaneros out, and a few of the green bell peppers have gotten quite big. I have two eggplants getting bigger by the day, and the other night I picked a cucumber that would’ve made any gardener proud (it must weigh two pounds — it probably should’ve been picked much sooner, but it was hiding). The tomato plants are heavy with fruit, but so far we’ve only been able to pick and eat one Big Boy. It was delicious, but I’m looking forward to having juicy, sweet cherry tomatoes for my salads.

The herbs are doing wonderfully — I’ve been making nearly daily use of the parsley, mint, dill, rosemary and basil. The lavender is doing well, too. I wonder when it’ll flower. The mint is doing what it’s supposed to do, and seems poised to take over the world, which just means we need to drink more mojitos, and quickly.

Yesterday we were pondering what we might like to eat over the weekend, and Jim requested steamed mussels for this evening, one of his favorite dishes. I love them too, not just because they’re good and constitute an absolutely minimalist meal, but because they’re so easy to prepare. We’ve enjoyed (and I’ve made) some wonderful steamed mussels with a spicy marinara sauce (oh so good over linguine), but tonight I’m making them in a bit of white wine.

This is about as simple as it gets, and even simpler if you can find decent frozen mussels. I’ve used fresh mussels plenty of times, and if you’ve ever scrubbed and de-bearded fresh mussels then you know that little task removes this from the realm of quick and easy. A few years ago my fish guy started carrying very good quality frozen mussels, which you cook frozen right out of the bag, and I no longer have to summon the ambition to clean the little critters. These are clean-shaven, free of grit, and ready to go.

Ingredients:

• One large onion, chopped
• 3 medium cloves garlic (or more or less, to taste)
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil1 to 1.5 cups white wine (don’t buy anything fancy, but don’t use crap either - it should be good enough to drink)
• Handful of chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper
• Two 2-lb. bags of frozen mussels (do not thaw before cooking)

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or other pot large enough to hold all the mussels.
2. When oil is shimmering, add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent.
3. Add the wine and cook for a few moments until the alcohol smell dissipates; add the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Raise the heat a bit, and when the contents are at a lively simmer, add the mussels and cover the pot.
5. Cook for five minutes or so, or until the mussels are open. Don’t cook them beyond this point or the mussels will toughen.

Serve large portions in shallow bowls accompanied by a hearty, crusty bread for sopping up the juice.

See what a simple supper this is?  This serves the two of us as a meal, but it would easily serve four if you were serving it as an appetizer. We are going to precede this with a simple antipasto of dry salami, a good hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano, some marinated artichoke hearts, some olives, and perhaps a few roasted peppers. We prefer beer  with this, but a chilled wine will do nicely — perhaps some of the wine you used to steam the mussels, in fact.

I’ve not been particularly good about updating, not for a lack of things to write about, unfortunately. Finding the time has been a challenge, so here’s to a little writerly discipline.

In spite of today’s rather extreme heat, I spent some time working in the garden. A couple of days ago I harvested our first-ever cucumber, which was kind of neat. Our herb garden has been providing flavor accents for our meals for quite a few weeks now, and fresh mint for delicious mojitos. Yesterday I noticed a few munch-holes on the yellow squash (and at least one pepper) and decided that today was a workday.

So far this morning I have harvested a batch of basil for tomorrow night’s dinner (fettuccine and walnut pesto), gathered what’s left of the late-season lettuce (it’s regaining its crispness in a big bowl of ice water as we speak) and cleared out the stalks of the lettuce plants that have gone to seed, and harvested five yellow squash. As soon as I’m done with this coffee, I’m going to water the tomatoes, the herb garden, and the big vegetable garden and then spray everything with some Capt. Jack’s Deadbug (organic, of course) in the hopes of defeating the critters who would eat our plants.

And after that, a shower. Jim’s been outside pruning trees and dragging away the brush all morning, so I think we’re both going to want lunch before too long.

Tonight’s dinner: sausage and peppers made with house-made Italian sausage from a local meat market (of the old fashioned variety — these people are butchers who know their stuff and sell quality), and a salad of the last of our romaine and our very own cucumber. I’m going to dress that with some of the koroneiki olive oil and 18-year-old balsamic we bought in Vineyard Haven, and it’ll be good.