A Slow, Simple Weekend in a Heat Wave

My husband made me an epic vegan sandwich for lunch yesterday - big slices of fresh garden cucumbers on grainy Tuscan wheat toast with Veganaise, and a touch of pink salt

It has to get insanely hot for me to start complaining about the weather. Well, it was hot this weekend. So hot, the only time I spent in the garden was quickly picking cucumbers, tomatoes, and green beans before fleeing back into the house. The food garden needs a weeding, but when the temperature exceeds 100 degrees, and the humidity is nearly as high, the weeds can wait. I can’t believe I just wrote that.

It was also too hot to plant the autumn greens seeds. This isn’t good. It’s now or never for getting the autumn food going.

My husband made me an epic vegan sandwich for lunch yesterday. I had picked a few garden cucumbers, and he asked if I wanted a cucumber sandwich for lunch. I hesitated. What’s this meat-and-potato man’s version of a cucumber sandwich involve?

The answer was big slices of fresh garden cucumbers on grainy Tuscan wheat toast with Veganaise, and a touch of pink salt. It was an amazing, garden-fresh sandwich. I made Veganaise coleslaw earlier. What a great meal. I munched out and felt grateful for him.

It was decided yesterday that it was too hot to run the oven or stove. But we needed rice. Thankfully, I didn’t give away our old rice steamer. I forgot how perfectly rice is cooked in it. It’s great for making a big batch of rice too, when you want rice for meals for a few days. In a half hour, we had three cups of perfect, tender basmati rice, and the stove got to rest.

Sunday is usually about household chores and making food, but with the weather, we ended up sprawling out on the couches and moving very little. The heat wave gave us both permission to rest all day. I continued reading The World Peace Diet and kissed Lily Dawa’s face for hours. I even got in a nap. My husband watched pre-season football and made awesome sandwiches. We kept it simple and slow. I’m good with this heat wave.

I had an opportunity this weekend to talk with my Mom about a vegan lifestyle. She has tremendous compassion, and suffers greatly when she hears of the suffering of animals. I didn’t have to talk much to reach her. I promised her some awesome homemade vegan meals. We went out to lunch Saturday and had tempeh Reubens and iced coffees. She loved it. She’s the best.

Tonight’s dinner will be another yummy garden-fresh tomato sandwich. I’m eating as many of these now as I can stand. Because a month from now, the garden will be telling us it would like to wind down for the season, and the tomatoes will begin to wane.

Live in peace.