Goodbye Tomato. Hello Blueberry.

I am finally running out of tomatoes in the garden. It's too bad they all come at once over a span of several weeks and then....nothing.

Is it weird that I'm actually in mourning over the fact that I now must eat non-homegrown tomatoes? And just when my basil plants are starting to produce more, too. Mmmm. Home grown tomato-basil-mozzarella tosti (that's like a panini or a grilled/toasted cheese sandwich in Dutch).

(Speaking of Dutch: shout out to the Netherlands for making it to the World Cup final for only the third time in history!)

I suppose if I lived further outside the city, I could just buy other people's homegrown tomatoes on the side of the road. You don't see that too much in the big city. My other option is the farmer's markets. Unfortunately, I have to work this Saturday and Saturdays are when the farmer's markets take place. And last Saturday we were busy picking two gallons of blueberries with some friends out in East Texas.

Can I just tell you, the humidity and sweat during two hours of blueberry picking is TOTALLY worth it when you can have the sweetest, freshest, most delightful blueberries for months on end! And at about 1/4 the cost of buying organic blueberries at the grocery store! It's fun, an incredible deal, and so tasty!

Here's our loot:


I see some blueberry cobbler in our future. Or maybe a blueberry pie.

Can you believe I've never made a pie in my life?!? Really, I haven't. I guess that means I prefer cakes, cookies, and brownies. But doesn't blueberry pie sound good?

In case you're interested in going out to a farm to pick your own produce, this website is a good place to start. You can find farms based on the state you live in and then narrow it down by cities or areas.

Fortunately, we had July weather in June (surface of the sun hot with absolutely NO rain) and are now experiencing June weather in July (rain, rain, rain, and cooler temps), so last Saturday was really the best summer weather you could ask for in Texas for blueberry picking - cloudy and only in the 80s...though it was pretty humid...can't have everything.

If this post is not yet random enough, I would like to just say that Dillard's has their swimsuits 40% off right now. I know this because after we saw Toy Story 3 on the 5th of July (a really great movie that really only made me shed two tears at one point near the end of the movie), we meandered over to Dillard's to look for swimsuits in preparation for a trip we're taking in a couple months (actually sooner than I realized!) to Hawaii (never been, can't wait, can't come soon enough, woo hoo!!!). I don't care how cheap swimsuits are, there is not enough money in the world to compensate me for spending hours looking at myself trying on suit after suit underneath florescent lighting. The one I came home with still has the tags on because I'm not fully committed yet. I still have 28 days to make that decision.

But maybe you'll have better luck. The selection was still really good considering almost everyone has probably already done the dreaded deed of swimsuit shopping this year.

All this thinking about swimsuit wearing is making me rethink the blueberry pie idea.