Good Day

Today has been good.  Aaron and I had a coffee house mini-date in the middle of the morning while kids were at Friday classes.  I've been working on the kids' Halloween costumes and I am now done.  They turned out pretty cute.  I'll post pictures of them once they get them all on tomorrow. 

Here is my pile of peppers I picked yesterday before the frost.  My plants are now mostly dead, so I just need to get out there sometime and clean off the garden and prepare it for winter.  Yea! 

I was feeling the need to organize my hat/mitten/scarf mess yesterday too.  Normally, it's in two baskets on the floor in the closet.  Ideally mittens go in one, hats and scarves in the other.  It very quickly turns into an unorganized mess as everyone rummages through looking for their own apparel.  I saw this idea in a magazine awhile back and thought it would be a perfect solution to my problem.  Before picture:

And AFTER!  How nice!  We each have our own row for our belongings with the top row for extras of anything that doesn't get used as much.  It pleases me now when I open my closet door and find it so nicely organized.  It also helped me to realize that David somehow lost his gloves from last year.  Good thing to know before he actually needs them! 

And finally, last night's supper.  It's my very favorite summer meal - using fresh garden produce and lots of basil.  Since I picked the last of everything from the garden yesterday, I needed to celebrate one last meal of the season.  It's even more spectacular when you have fresh corn instead of canned that I used.  I usually use chicken, but decided to have a special last meal of it with shrimp and even a few scallops.  Yum!  I serve it over pasta. 

Here's how I made it (it changes everytime, so don't hold me to it!)

Saute some onion, green pepper and a lot of garlic in a bit of oil.  Add tomatoes, corn, broccoli, zucchini, and/or whatever else looks good or you have on hand.  Then I add about 3 T. fish sauce, salt, pepper, a huge pile of fresh basil, finely chopped nuts (usually use walnuts), any other fresh herbs you have on hand like mint, chives, dill all work well.  I usually add in some sort of meat too - either grilled chicken or seafood - but also good without meat.  I've never tried it with beef, but I suppose it would be good too.  Cook until everything is tender.  Mix in noodles (last night was linguine - other times its corkscrew pasta or whatever I have on hand).  Sprinkle on a bit of parmesan or whatever hard cheese you like.  It's pretty quick and oh so yummy!  Can't wait for next summer to eat it almost weekly again!