We’ve been having the loveliest summer: the weather has been glorious and our deck garden is in full flower. We’ve had some fabulous visits with a number of guests over May and June, and our Summer Friday Feasts started up last weekend with a celebration of Bid’s birthday.

And we’re FINALLY out of dog prison….for the most part.

I tell ya…it’s been a trip.

We were THOSE people who were under the misapprehension that small dogs don’t need training.

And then then Shelby, our new puppy, inspired some….aggression in Poppy, and we became hostage to keeping the dogs separate at all times. When we were at our wits’ end, we discovered an amazing trainer on-island–Jamie Prowse–and our lives have been transformed.

After a few months of hard work, the dogs actually play together!! Poor old James is STILL arising at six AM every morning with Shelby, and we still experience the occasional skirmishes between the pups, but all of our lives are 1000% better!

It’s a Summer Solstice miracle!

On another note, I’ve been experimenting with that simple seitan recipe I discovered online a couple of months ago, and today I adapted it for meatballs.

Succulent Seitan Meatballs!!

Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl:

• 1 cup vital wheat gluten
• 3 TBS nutritional yeast
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 TBS Italian spices (dried oregano, basil, rosemary)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 TBS onion powder
• 1 1/2 TBS garlic powder

Whisk together wet ingredients in a small bowl:

• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 1/2 TBS tomato sauce (or ketchup)
• 1 TBS soy sauce
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 3 TBS almond milk
• 1/3 cup water

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until no dry ingredients are evident. Do not knead. When the dough comes together, pull off pieces of either an ounce (or half an ounce if you like smaller meatballs) and roll each one between your palms to form a ball. If you make one-ounce meatballs, you should get about sixteen; if you make 1/2-ounce meatballs, you’ll get about thirty-two.

I prefer the smaller meatballs, but the pictures here are of the larger, one-ounce meatballs.

Roll the pieces into balls.

Place pieces in an oiled, heated cast-iron pan and fry all sides until brown.

Pour into the pan:

• 1 TBS BTB vegetable base dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water

And let simmer until the broth is almost gone. Roll the seitan balls every few minutes, and let simmer until the broth is almost gone.

Remove from the pan and let cool on a rack:

Heat in your favourite pasta sauce until warmed through and serve over freshly made spaghetti!

As an aside, I used to make my own pasta sauce on the regular until I discovered Rao Marinara Sauce. At about $12/jar, it’s outrageously expensive for a jarred pasta sauce, but we try to stock up when Costco has a sale. You know what a cheapo I am when it comes to food, but Rao Marinara is SO good that I’ll gladly pay for it. I’ve even tried the dupe recipes, but they’re nothing like the real stuff.

Today is the 70th birthday of our dear friend, Bob. He and Susan and his sweet daughter and grandson were supposed to be up for a visit this week, but couldn’t get a ferry reservation. They had to postpone their visit until mid-August!

So because Bob is a Saskatchewan boy, the song of the day is Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” from her 2022 concert. I have to admit that I find Brandi Carlyle, etc., a bit obnoxious, but I do love Joni’s mature voice in this video. And I love that she wrote the song when she wasn’t even twenty-five years old. It seems much more meaningful to hear a close-to-eighty-year-old Joni singing it.