I ended up having to go to the doctor for the poison ivy rash. He prescribed a twelve day taper of Predisone along with Bactroban ointment for the worse area on my forearm. Relief and healing began immediately. The steroids gave me an enormous amount of energy and I have been channeling that for good.
The garden is producing good things to eat! We have had our first two large tomatoes and a few cherry tomatoes. The lettuce is finished and the Swiss Chard is coming big time. I harvest the Swiss Chard on the spot, right before I want to cook it. It cooks down to nothing, like spinach, so I gather a big armful for the two of us. I plunge the stack of leaves into a cold water bath in the kitchen sink. It amazes me that there are never any bugs or dirt on the leaves.
Once the leaves are trimmed of stalks and sliced into ribbons, it goes into the pot. This night we are having Greens and Beans. This is an Italian dish that my mom cooked every summer from my dad's garden. It uses lots of garlic and chard, chicken broth, cannelloni beans, and olive oil. That's it! It is so healthy and delicious and satisfying to eat. I served some roasted Italian sausage on the side. A good sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan is a must. The best way to eat it is with crusty Italian bread but Steve and I are foregoing bread most of the time these days.
