My Maine.

As many of you likely know, I had to cut my cookbook tour short due to a knee injury. It was really disappointing, I had a few other really exciting things planned as well, but c’est la vie.

Anyway, I’ve had two rounds of x-rays, seen an orthopedic specialist, and had an MRI last Sunday. And finally, I have a diagnosis.

I have a “degenerative tear of the medial meniscus, including the central root, and some subluxation of the meniscus”. So I’m looking at least a few more weeks of the brace, icing, and elevating. But thankfully no surgery - and possibly not even any PT. It was recommended that I get one of those recumbent under-the-desk pedal things, so I bought this one and have been using it for 15 or 20 minutes each day to keep my muscles lubricated and the blood circulating. It’s nice and quiet and smooth. So far so good.

More summer tips for helping your chickens deal with the summer heat are in order. You can find all my best tips here. And for the TL;DR crowd, here are 5 simple tips in a condensed version and the 5 best summer treats are here.

I had heard a few positive reviews for this book and it looked like a fun read. Perfect for summer. Laying in the hammock, sipping iced tea or a frozen lemonade….I’m about 3/4 of the way in and it is fun. And I have a feeling it’s about to get messy - in a fun way.

Can’t decide between a salad or pizza for dinner? Well, you don’t have to if you make my BLT Ranch Pizza. It’s super easy and so great in the summer.

I start with a store bought pizza dough and stretch it out onto a lightly oiled pizza pan, skillet, or baking sheet. Cook a few slices of bacon until crispy, then drain on a paper towel. Brush the pizza dough with some of the bacon grease.
Then add a layer of thinly sliced tomatoes and thinly sliced fresh mozzarella. Sprinkle the edges of the crust with sesame seeds.

Bake for about 10 minutes at 450 degrees in the bottom third of the oven until the crust is golden and the cheese bubbly. While the pizza is cooking, shred some iceberg lettuce and crumble the bacon. Whisk some water into a small bowl of ranch dressing to use for drizzling.

When the pizza is done, cut into slices, then top with the lettuce and bacon. Serve with the thinned ranch on the side.

Three of my summer recipes were featured in the latest issue of My Maine magazine and on their website! My Three-Cheese Tomato Tarts, Chilled Watermelon Soup with Feta and Mint and Open-Faced Scandinavian Sandwiches make good use of all the summer produce (and eggs!) available right now.

We picked our first blueberries this week! We have 5 or 6 high bushes plus a small patch of wild Maine blueberries that grow wild. I have so many great blueberry recipes I wait all year to make, and with all this news about cyclospora, growing our own just makes me feel so much better!