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Ever since I saw what this month's challenge would be with the Daring Bakers, I kept trying to decide if I would do it or not. It wasn't so much because it was challenging and time consuming. It was more about the fact that I've already gained a couple of pounds recently and it was clear this was going to be a calorie-filled pastry. Sure, I can share my creations with other people, but usually my husband and I willingly devour what we make.

For the last three years or so we have done container gardening. It isn't quite the same as doing regular gardening where you have your own land, but it is a decent substitute. We usually grow about a million tomatoes (slight exaggeration), and a few other random items. This year we're trying to grow artichokes, have successfully grown radishes and turnips (more on that in a future post), and strawberries.

Another thing we grow, but never manage to use all of, is basil. It is probably one of the absolute easiest things to grow, but we rarely take full advantage of it since there is so much of it.

Ah, summer. It seems that we've finally gotten there. With 100+ degree days in spring, it kind of makes wonder what to expect for the next few months. If it's anything hotter than what we've had so far, I am not sure that I want to be turning on the stove - or at least for very long.

It has been amazingly hot here in New York City. "Heat wave" doesn't even do it justice. It has only been yesterday and today that we've seen a reprieve from 100+ degree weather - today was high 80s, and tomorrow promises to be a cool 82 degrees.

A couple of weeks ago, however, when the weather was more tolerable I spent some time in front of a hot stove and made some Indian food. While I've made food from other cuisines like Chinese, Mexican, and Italian, I've rarely made Indian food, aside from that mango lassi I made in February. Perhaps I've been too intimidated by it - the exotic spices, the unusual breads, the aromas... The whole cuisine is almost other-worldly.

Back when my husband and I tried the raw food diet for a month we wound up making a lot of food from scratch that we might have normally purchased at a store. One of those things was almond milk. At first making this sort of thing was truly intimidating, but once done we realized how easy it could be. Prep time is minutes, although twiddling your thumbs takes hours.