Ode to Summer Produce.

Field hockey started a few weeks ago, and since I'm away from home just about every afternoon, I'm not making the deluxe dinners I was able to pull together this summer just by virtue of having access to CSA vegetables as well as the tomatoes and herbs growing in the long, skinny garden patch in our side yard. The best I can do is throw sausages on the grill, boil some corn, and pull out the leftover pasta salad from two nights ago. And that's actually a congratulatory effort.

So let's reminisce. Remember the beets, roasted, and then served with goat cheese, olive oil, and just-picked oregano or rosemary? Good times.

Even better: pasta with a half-primavera, half-meat sauce. This one was loaded with zucchini and basil, and I could've eaten the whole pot.

And then there was the eggplant I didn't know how to deal with. And I felt like it was multiplying so I finally caved and covered piles of slices in bread crumbs and Parmesan, and then even Marley and Rudy had some, inspired perhaps by my fancy display.

Last night, Rudy had cereal for dinner.

It will take me a few days to get my groceries and pantry and Crock Pot in order. Weeks filled with my away night games and practices, and Marley's dance class, and Todd's meetings make it hard to do dinner the way I'd like. But I know that acorn squash stuffed with sausage and spinach (Thank you, Liz) is forthcoming, and there are still some tomatoes in the garden. So we'll do what we can. And in desperate situations, especially when I'd like to reward myself after coaching a team to victory, there's always Thai take-out.