Fruit Salad, Algae Soup

Good news, I managed to find a recipe that was slightly less effort than tomatoes on bread: three kinds of fruit mixed in a bowl.

Not much to say about fruit salad except that one child discovered that she loves apricots and one child informed me that she does not like watermelon, which is new information. Both children kept abandoning most of the fruit on their plates:

...which is weird, because they are generally very good fruit eaters. I also found that I was not as enthusiastic about grabbing the bowl of fruit salad out of the fridge as I usually would be, which makes me think that this specific combination of perfectly good fruits is kind of wonky for some reason? Are the...shapes incompatible? The flavors? This is a genuine mystery and if any of you have a grand unified theory on fruit salad combinations I'm all ears.

Anyway, I then welcomed Dan back to town with a steaming bowl of algae soup, if you want to add that to your mental picture of what it's like to be married to me.

Slimy!

Always promising when a dish can be obtained from killing Mutant Grubs

It's actually Miyeok Guk, because it seemed to me that seaweed soup was essentially the same as algae soup and after some dinner table disagreement/internet-referencing it was determined that seaweed is in fact a type of algae. BEHOLD, MY ACCURACY. All of which is too say that if my children can't even be enticed to eat blueberries, it seems unlikely that they would go for--

Huh. Some sort of summer miracle, I see. Or simply a part of their diabolical lifelong plan to just...confuse me at every turn.

ASSESSMENT: I am still reeling from the lack of consternation regarding this soup, and baffled by everyone's middling response to the fruit salad

PROJECT STATUS: Well who even knows anymore, honestly 

Bruschetta

Austin is predicted to hit 100 degrees this week, slightly ahead of the start of astronomical summer, which is kind of my version of Groundhog Day--triple digits pre-solstice tends to indicate several more months of "What if dinner, but it's basically just a plate of bread?" Combine that with the fact that I am solo parenting this week and the amount of effort I am currently willing to put into meal prep landed directly on bruschetta.

And not the version where I make the baguette myself

...or the version where I follow directions and roast the tomatoes first

I appreciate that the children went to such lengths to make sure their dinner table wardrobes matched the general vibe of "raw tomatoes and bread."

ASSESSMENT: Bruschetta is always delicious, I ate so many tomatoes the top of my mouth still hurts, +5 lycopene boost

PROJECT STATUS: Maybe when Dan gets back I will turn on the oven again

Escape to Stardew Valley

After climbing Mt. Sea Cucumber last month, I could feel my project motivation dropping off precipitously, almost in tandem with the rising temperature, if you can believe such a thing *glances back wearily at nine years worth of depressed summertime posts.* Fortunately, I took a quick sojourn this past week to the Pacific Northwest, which, as it turns out, is definitely where Stardew Valley is located, and also is sometimes so chilly in June as to make me very slightly glad to be back in Texas and shorts. Truly a miracle.

Peach trees and flowers, just right there in one place, now I know what region is hogging all the plant bounty in this country, and frankly it's appalling 

Rivers...

*and* mountains? What indulgence, what absolute intemperance of nature  

The real tip-off was that all the ingredients I have been scouring Central Texas grocers in search of--fiddlehead ferns, morel mushrooms, flowers that look very much like Blue Jazz--were just piled up on tables right next to each other, mocking me and my limited carry-on space.

There is no taunt like the taunt of a highly regional expensive foraged item

Anyway, now that I have been to the very source of the thing, this magical land where plants seem to stay alive without Herculean effort, I am feeling refreshed and ready to make *checks notes* I dunno, hashbrowns or something. The journey continues...