Friday Roundup #35

It’s National Peach Month, which in Georgia isn’t so much a fun fact as a civic duty. We’re the Peach State, and right now y’all could not stop me from putting peaches on everything if you tried. Here’s my August tradition: for years and years I’ve bought a box of scratch’n’dent peaches from Pearson Farm at the Alpharetta Farmers Market. Bruised, a little ugly, half the price, and every bit as sweet as the pretty ones, because the pies don’t mind. (That isn’t me being folksy. It was written right there on the box.) They weren’t there when I went last week, which put a small hole in my Saturday. Fingers crossed they’re back tomorrow, because I’ve got plans that involve a Dutch oven and an indecent amount of sugar.

If you caught #34, I promised the great dough experiment was finally happening: the fix for my crust that keeps snapping back on me like it’s got somewhere better to be. It didn’t happen. The Kamado has been out of commission (more on that in the P.S.), and you cannot run a high-heat pizza bake without the grill. The rebuild is this weekend, so the A/B test moves to the coming week. The real verdict is coming; I’m just not going to fake one to hit a deadline.

• Coming on the blog: Adventures with Mr. Grill, Baked Hot Dog Casserole, and Sun Tea because it’s hot and we need to stay hydrated.
• Garden Update: The Joro spiders have arrived with a vengeance. Walking through the garden now means a face-full of web whether you want one or not, so I’ve taken to heading out with a rake handle held in front of me like a fencing foil to catch the worst of it. On the hopeful end: I’m ordering collard seeds this week to direct-sow in early-to-mid September, with the goal of serving my own collards at Thanksgiving.
• What I’m Reading: Still sipping my way through the Frederick Law Olmsted series: The Cotton Kingdom [Bookshop.org*].
• What I’m Watching: Zach and I stumbled onto The Patient with Domhnall Gleeson and Steve Carell and got sucked in immediately. Ten thirty-minute episodes in two days, y’all. Both performances are mesmerizing. The Patient [IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes].
• What I’m Eating: Peaches, obviously. Cherries too, and there’s a whole post coming about those, so I’ll hush for now. Beef and cabbage taco filling on a weeknight, because it has never once let me down. And dinner at Ethiopiques Café, which has quietly become one of our favorite places: the mushroom wot and the red lentils are what I order every single time.

What are y’all reading/watching/cooking/dealing with this week? Let me know in the comments.

P.S. The Kamado took a rest this week, and not by choice. The replacement base and dome finally showed up, so this weekend is disassembly-and-reassembly weekend. If Zach and I can get a big ceramic grill apart and back together and still like each other on Sunday night, we can get through anything.

P.P.S. Zach’s YouTube channel is doing really well: eight videos in and he’s already close to 50 subscribers with a pile of comments. I’m a little proud and a lot smug about it.

* Affiliate link. The asterisk is doing transparency work. Details on the disclosure page.

Friday Roundup