The heat demon takes a different tack

Now that beets are out of season, the Local Box is treating me pretty well. I'm finally getting groups of vegetables that I can prepare without using recipes or attempting to cram them into a dessert, although I do think there is a market for a cookbook that consists solely of turning your CSA box into various cakes. Help me out, chefs! Anyway, we had some spinach and squash and farmer's market sausage and a little bit of non-local goat cheese just to prevent any total hippie smugness.

This meal is certified 95% smug.

So the temperature literally dropped 45 degrees to become pleasant outside for the first time in about five months, which is an unbelievable relief except OOPS the wind and rain-starved conditions have caused the entire center of Texas to catch fire. Having a pretty tough summer in these parts. Anyway, despite having a Labor Day that seemed perfect for grilling, we decided that going outside to set another fire probably wasn't a good idea, so we were confined to the grill pan, which means I was too busy being sullen about how poorly our birdhouse vent works to take any pictures of the very nice kebabs.

In general, we tried to be productive with our holiday weekend. Anna painted her new big girl room:

I know that edge is kind of a mess, but she's only two you guys.

We checked out the deeply depressing post-apocalyptic aridness that is our local landscape:

Anna only knows what rain is because she has books about the Time Before.

We also kicked back with a little black-market Four Loko:

Her painting is iffy, but she throws a mean house party.

Also, at one point the other day I said "I love you Anna" and she said "I love you lamp" and I absolutely swear she's never seen Anchorman, so it's possible that she's some sort of comedy savant.