Metamorphosis

Sometimes I think I should include the bad days on this blog, because really, life is not all sunshine and veggie boxes, and this blog is a way to record moments in our life. But, sometimes it is nice to not share all the bad days with the whole world (oh, who am I kidding, only a handful of people read this, but technically, the world could be reading this right now). In any case, I had a bad couple of days, and life went on. 

Our catepillar morphed into a butterfly! Luckily I stopped to check on the cocoon before we went camping for the weekend. I took a quick peek and with the paper blocking the top, I spotted an empty cocoon and a red liquid at the bottom of the vase. I thought our butterfly-to-be had somehow melted into a puddle of blood.

But I opened the top, and s/he (I have no idea how to sex a butterfly) was waiting patiently, stretching out the beautiful orange wings. And as I stepped away to load up the car for our camping trip, the butterfly was ready, and flew. Hesitantly at first, stopping on the garage wall, but not even long enough for me to focus the camera, and then up and away it flew. [Today I put a much larger catepillar in the vase - I am hoping we get to see the emergence this time.]

Thursday's veggies were like jewels. I made a fireside ratatoille with one batch; not Julia Childs' recipe but the simplified cast-iron smoke-infused flavor was amazing. Back home, I made it in the skillet, which wasn't quite as tasty, but lent itself well to tortilla-rolling along with pea shoots and some tart apples (from our trees!) with smoked Gruyere.

"Fake" Ratatouille:
Chop up some onion, sautee it in some olive oil, then add in some diced eggplant. Let the eggplant pieces brown before adding chopped peppers and minced garlic, then some zucchini. After that has cooked a bit, throw in some diced tomatoes, seeds and skin and all. Add a little water as needed. Add your herbs with the tomatoes. I used fresh rosemary, thyme, basil and a little oregeno from the garden. Salt and pepper and that is it.