A Different Sort Of Friday

Well, look here! Someone grew up and got big enough to pick! Hurray! I am SO hoping that the dozens of tiny cukes I'm seeing will make it to fruition and a happy ending in a jar with vinegar, salt, and spices. 

As I keep saying- we shall see.

I already cut one of those up and made a little salad of it with some green beans and scallions and a dressing made with the juice from the tomatoes I cut up today to roast. And why was I roasting tomatoes? 
Well, I'll tell you.
Lis is coming! She'll be here in just a little while. You know I'm excited. 
As we always say, Lis and I, when we find ourselves alone in a situation where there may be adventures or martinis, or martinis and adventures- "I can't believe we're getting away with it again!" 

We're so crazy. 

Anyway, when she called earlier in the week to tell me of her plans, she gave me strict instructions not to do a thing. That we could eat cotton balls on toothpicks and that would be lovely. This is an homage to the night that Lis and I truly bonded. A mutual friend had invited a bunch of people over to MY HOUSE after Lon and Lis had a gig, for a gathering and party. 
I had nothing in the house for people to eat. Just- you know- mom food. But Lis got in the kitchen with me and together we did a sort of loaves and fishes thing and created party food out of thin air. So it was  a cotton balls on toothpicks sort of deal but not quite. 
And that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. 

Oh wait. I haven't told you why I was roasting tomatoes! Because instead of cotton balls on toothpicks, I decided to make a tomato pie. Lis still talks about the one I made up in Asheville one year when we'd gone up to visit Ms. Jessie. We bought heirloom tomatoes at a farmer's market that were absolutely prize-winning and it's been a tradition for me to make at least one tomato pie a year. One is enough, really, because a tomato pie's ingredients can block an artery with one bite. 

Here we have homemade pastry, tomatoes roasted with olive oil, salt, and garlic, and four types of cheese, an egg, and...MAYONNAISE! And some fresh basil and scallions. 
See what I mean? 

Of course, when Mr. Moon finds out that I've made the annual tomato pie when he wasn't here, he's not going to be happy so I'll probably be making another one before the summer's over. The tomatoes have to be garden grown, otherwise there is no way to rationalize making such a thing.

Speaking of Mr. Moon. 
When they were tying up at the dock last night when they got to the island, he dropped his phone in the water. And it's gone, I guess. This is a major catastrophe. It just is. I know we used to get along fine without cell phones, even in the time since we've owned that house on the island. But it's insane how much we depend on them now. He can use Chip's phone and that's fine, but who knows all the phone numbers these days of all the people we talk to? And he talks to a LOT of people. Fishing buddies, business people, his family. He's got one friend he's been making fishing plans with who has probably been calling him repeatedly and getting no answer, is most likely worried to death. He told me this morning (via Chip's phone) that he feels like he's missing a limb. He can't look up how to do things, he can't watch FSU women's softball (they're in the finals!), he can't check the weather, he can't take pictures and send them to his wife, he can't do ANYTHING! 
We laugh about how dependent we've become on our phones but it's a real, true thing. And there are parts of that which are truly frightening and there are parts of it that I feel are incredibly beneficial. I call them our "second brains" and by golly, they are. At least my phone is for me. 

So that's the news from Lloyd and Dog Island. Some of it good, some of it not-so-good. But at least it's been a beautiful day and there will be cucumber salad and tomato pie from the garden tonight. I am almost giddy at the thought of how surprised Lis is going to be by that pie. 

I would send pictures to my husband of both the pie and the cucumbers but they would only end up in a phone on the bottom of the bay where the alligators play. 
Not kidding about that. There are always alligators in the water by the dock on Dog Island. That's just part of the deal.

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon