green tomato leaf martini

Nothing in the world smells better to me than green tomato leaves-- and I have tried unsuccessfully for years to infuse that smell into vodka. I finally realized that by muddling them in the drink a little and garnishing with leaves the scent comes through much better. So I made a dirty gin martini (I don't really like vodka except as a base for infusions) added plenty of tomato leaves and finished it off with a little pickled green tomato.

happy summer

brown sugar lemonade with mint and strawberries from the garden

strawberry

cat lady II

Sorry it took so long to get to this, I was installing a show and trying to finish midterm grades. But I finally drew out the dimensions-- the table top is drawn to scale, the grass box is not. I am a sculptor and frequent furniture builder so I just kind of made this up as I went along using reclaimed and scrap wood that I had laying around. The wood that I had dictated teh dimensions more than anything else. The tabletop bit is a random piece of wood that someone left in my studio... I guess I have a reputation for collecting old pieces of wood no one else wants. (note: don't ever say "I like old wood" to your sculpture class. They will giggle a lot.) The solid piece of wood in the tabletop is quite thick-- about 2 inches and is screwed directly to the box holding the plants. The whole top was then trimmed with more reclaimed wood which is approximately 1/2 and inch thick and 5 inches high. 1x 6's would probably be a close match size wise. (This covers the discrepancy in the thickness of the table top versus the planter box and just generally looks nice.) My legs are outdoor grade 4x4's that are cut to 2 different lengths to accommodate the planter box- mine are 12 inches and 9 1/2 inches. Make sure that you use outdoor treated wood or seal everything with exterior poly. I made my planter box entirely from wood (mostly 1x4's and some other scrap) and sealed it really well- you could also find a plastic planter of the correct size and build that in, but wood is what I had laying around. Either drill holes in the bottom or do what I did and leave small gaps between the seams of the box. Because the legs and some of the scrap wood were not reclaimed I stained them gray to blend in with everything else. These dimensions can be altered to fit your space/ materials. If you are unable to find a larger solid piece of wood for the top you could always use several side by side or some old butcher block or something. Hopefully I explained this in a way that makes sense- if there are any questions let me know. Thanks for all of the interest! My cats love it- hope yours do too.

cat lady

I had been planning to make a rustic looking coffee table for my deck for some time now- in my head it will be paired with this couch even though it is far out of my price range. Some day. So I had some flaky white painted wood (which has been sealed so they can't chip it off btw) and for some reason that I can no longer recall decided that I should make a channel for grass in the table. I think it was originally to make the pieces of wood I had work out better. It then occurred to me that the cats would like it (they are grass fiends and there isn't any in the yard) and I added a second planter for catnip. It has turned out to be such a successful cat table that I don't really get to use it much. On the bright side this (so far anyway) has cut back significantly on the sitting in/on potted plants that was starting to be a problem. So everyone is happy. Now if only I could get that couch...



***Update*** I added directions hopefully they make sense.

grilled corn

Grilled corn with cilantro butter, chili powder, queso fresco.

fried squash blossoms