Pasta with Goat Cheese, Basil & Cherry Tomatoes; mutant sunflowers

This is such a simple recipe it really should not require any explanation….

But when I looked at the photo I decided perhaps I should say a few words.

First – the goat cheese I use is the kind that comes in a little square box. It’s called Chevraux in Europe and (I think) Chavrie in the U.S.. It’s very soft goat cheese, nothing added. Any soft goat cheese would work – or even cream cheese if you prefer.

Second – there are no chives visible in the photo. That would be because there were no chives available. I have chives in three separate locations in my herb garden. At the moment they are either suffering through an aphid infestation, cut to the ground to get rid of an aphid infestation or on the road to recovery but not yet big enough to use.

I am not having a good year in the herb garden (other than the sage). I see the aphids, I spray them with the oil / soap mix to get rid of them, they go away, the ants move them to a new area, repeat.

Lastly, my cherry tomatoes are a variety called ‘Black Cherry’. They are a dark purple rather than a bright red. I like them because they are slightly bigger and have a thinner skin.

The recipe is far easier than the explanation….

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We went for a bike ride today.

It’s a great way for me to clear my mind…. a bit like meditation but combined with exercise. I don’t try to empty my mind, just let it drift wherever it wants to go as long as there are no stressful thoughts.

Like… How can people actually be comparing Obama’s response to Hurricane Katrina with Trump’s response to Hurricane Harvey?

That’s not even ‘apples and oranges’. It would be more like ‘apples and broccoli’.

For those whose memory is somewhat faulty or for those not living in the U.S. or caring about U.S. politics: Obama was not president during Hurricane Katrina…. Bush was.

As to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey – my heart goes out to everyone. I cannot even imagine the scope of the tragedy. And I fear that we will see more of the same in the future unless certain people start accepting that science, and climate change, are both real.

I leave you with a photo of a mutant sunflower:

In case you forgot – this is what they’re supposed to look like:

One stalk topped by one big flower…. all the plants the same size.

The mutant is growing in the soy bean field.

Maybe it got confused….. There has been rampant confusion in the world recently.