Yesterday was one of those days. The day was sunny and warm, but I had two back-to back writing projects that kept me at my desk. However, I was determined to go on a bike ride with my husband, Clif, when he came home from work. I was also determined to make a nice but quick dinner. Time to put on the thinking cap as I rummaged around my pantry—actually a coat closet repurposed for a pantry—and looked for the makings of a quick dinner.

I found two jars of Muir Glen Spaghetti sauce—purchased on sale, of course. One was roasted red pepper and the other was roasted garlic. Now, I could have stopped right there. Clif loves spaghetti sauce, and Muir Glen makes a good one. He would have been happy with jarred sauce and pasta. But, pressed though I was for time, I wanted to go a little further than just jarred sauce and pasta for supper. I thought of the peppers and zucchini in the refrigerator as well as a package of spicy chicken sausage.

There, I had the makings of something approaching a home-cooked meal. Out came the Crock-Pot and in went the two jars of sauce, a chopped green pepper, a small chopped zucchini, and the chopped chicken sausage—it came precooked. I set it on high and let it bubble.

I know you are not supposed to lift the lid of a Crock-Pot before the meal is done, but I can never resist tasting and stirring. It was a good thing I did. Because while the sauce tasted pretty good, there was a little something missing, and that something was red pepper flakes to jazz it up. I added about a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and let everything simmer on high. When the vegetables were cooked—four hours or so later—I turned the temperature to low.

I finished my writing projects, and I even had time to make a batch of corn bread. Clif came home, and we went on our bike ride. The evening was just perfect. Warm, but not too warm, and Maranacook Lake rippled with shades of blue and gray.

After we came home, I put on the water for the pasta and chopped a small bunch of basil to add to the sauce. Clif’s verdict? “Pretty darned good.” He had two-and-a-half helpings.

I know that with the use of jarred sauce this concoction has a Betty Crockerish feel to it. (In fact, the corn bread recipe did indeed come from a Betty Crocker cookbook.) But sometimes, when the day is busy, and you just want something easy and relatively healthy for heaven’s sake, you have to cut a few corners.

When the meal is tasty, and there are leftovers, well, that’s a real bonus, too.

Well, the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) is over, and my daughter Dee has gone back to New York. The day is cool and rainy, and you know what the song says about rainy days and Mondays. The Maine International Film Festival is always a blast—seeing lots of movies, getting together with friends, spending time with Dee—and while it is somewhat hectic, it is also a let-down when it is over.

To let ourselves down easy, my husband, Clif, and I went to Railroad Square Cinema last night—admission is $5.50 on Mondays, which is a steal, as Dee likes to say. We saw Museum Hours, a slow but lovely meditative film about art and friendship and loneliness and death. Because the pacing is so deliberate, this is not a film for everyone, and indeed my friend Joel Johnson really disliked it. But for people who don’t mind very slow films and who love art, this is a fine movie. The gist of Museum Hours is that art never stops. It is everywhere, if you just take the time to look. It was filmed in Vienna, Austria, and much of the movie takes place in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. I would actually like to see Museum Hours again, and if it comes to NetFlix Instant View, then I will.

At MIFF, I watched “only” 10 movies, which was perfect for me. Enough to feel as though I was a part of the festival but not so many that I felt like stale popcorn when the festival was over. Dee and Clif, true movie buffs, saw 24 movies—that’s a lot of movies in 10 days—but neither of them looked particularly tired at the end of the festival.

In between going to the movies, we managed to cook some healthy meals. This is July, after all, and despite the lousy weather—either too much rain or too much heat—the vegetables are growing. One day, I made a stir-fry using Farmer Kev’s zucchinis as well as his sugar-snap peas and garlic scapes. There is no recipe for this. I just season to taste with some soy sauce, white wine vinegar, sesame oil, and a little sugar. I don’t use a lot of the seasonings. I mostly want to taste the fresh vegetables.

Another day, I marinated some tofu in teriyaki sauce—Dee is a vegetarian. Then, Clif cooked it on the grill. We have grilled many things, but never tofu, and we were pleased with the results. I bought extra-firm tofu, and the sauce and the grilling gave it a nice flavor. Because this was his first time grilling tofu, it did not come out exactly as Clif would have liked. Next time, Clif will grill the tofu a little longer so that it is crisper, and we will cut the tofu in smaller chunks so that it can be grilled on all sides. Nevertheless, the tofu was very tasty, and we will be grilling it again sometime soon. We’ll have it with new potatoes and corn on the cob. August, high summer, is right around the corner, and Clif and I are hoping for hot, dry days and cooler nights, perfect for eating on the patio.

And as I have no Monday meetings in August, we just might see a few movies at the square. After all, Dee is right. A movie for $5.50 is a steal.

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What a rainy spell we’ve had. As I sit here typing, I am wearing a corduroy shirt over another shirt, and I am not exactly feeling hot. Not long ago, we had a blast of heat—too much even for me—and now we’ve swung the other way. I know. Compared with what’s happening in the Southwest, this damp weather is hardly worth mentioning. But for someone like me, who loves being outside as much as possible, it is a bit of a trial to be inside so much. I certainly hope that July and August will be dryer—without going into a drought, of course—than summer has been so far.

As we do most years, Clif and I will be hosting a gathering on the Fourth. In the past, we’ve had good luck with the weather on the Fourth, but with the way it has been this year, we both decided to keep things simple and to make a meal that could be served indoors as well as outdoors. After some thought, I decided to go with barbecue beans in a Crock-Pot and hot dogs with fixings ranging from mustard to sauerkraut to a broccoli slaw. What could be more American than beans and hot dogs? If the weather allows, then the hot dogs will be grilled. If not, then they will be pan-fried inside.

To say that Clif is thrilled with this menu is an understatement. He has a  passion for hot dogs that borders on obsession. (I can hardly throw stones. I have a similar passion for donuts.) Clif has been doing research on hot-dog toppings, and he is the one who came up with the sauerkraut idea. Clif also suggested grated cheese, which we will serve along with the other toppings.

In addition, for appetizers, I’ll be making a cranberry chutney—I still have a bag of cranberries in the freezer—which I’ll combine with some pepper jelly. I’ll spread this on top of softened cream cheese and serve it with tortilla chips.

Our guests will be bringing sides, and I’ll be making a vanilla ice cream pie with a raspberry sauce and a blueberry sauce to drizzle on top. Red, white, and blue.

Therefore, for the next couple of days I’ll be busy cookin’ and cleanin’, as Ida LeClair might say, and following her advice, I have a little schedule devised for myself so that everything doesn’t pile up at the last minute. Today, the ice cream pie, the chutney, and the dusting. Tomorrow, the vacuuming and the sauces for the ice cream pie. Tonight, I’ll soak the beans—white and black. Tomorrow, I’ll cook them so that I can throw them into the Crock-Pot on Thursday morning.

Dividing the chores over a series of days really does help make the preparation easier. Organization doesn’t come easily or naturally to me, but over the years I have improved. By Thursday, I will be ready for my guests. Now, let’s hope the weather gods will be smiling on us.

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A few weeks ago, I positively longed for fresh greens from a Maine garden. I’d had it with the insipid taste of bagged lettuce shipped from across the country. We belong to a CSA run by our own farmer Kev, and I was counting the days until the first delivery.

When that delivery came—I noted it on this blog—I felt as euphoric as a thirsty desert wanderer stumbling over an oasis with a fresh spring. We received two bags of greens, one of lettuce and one of spinach, and Clif and I happily indulged in big, big salads. How good those greens were, and by the end of the first week, we had pretty much finished all that Farmer Kev had brought.

But then the greens just kept coming, and rather than two bags, there were three or four. We ate more salads, some of which have morphed into wraps, and we hosted a salad supper with our friends Judy and Paul. But we still have an abundance of greens in our refrigerator.

What to do? Give some away, perhaps? That is always an option. However, when I was talking with my friend Liz Sienko, she told me about a recipe she had come across for chicken Florentine.  She made some modifications—it called for cream of mushroom soup. Instead, Liz used fresh mushrooms and made a Parmesan, garlic cream sauce. “It was delicious,” she said. And best of all, it uses a lot of spinach. You pretty much cram as much spinach as you can into a large casserole dish. On top of that go raw, sliced mushrooms, cooked chicken, and the garlic cream sauce. Then the whole thing is topped with mozzarella and baked for 20 minutes or so until the casserole is brown and bubbly.

I made Liz’s chicken Florentine a few days ago, making some modifications of my own. (Liz had also used a bit of pesto and some onions, which I omitted from my version.) To say that Clif and I liked this dish is an understatement. This recipe should serve at least 4 people, but by the time we were done with dinner, there was barely enough left for one small serving.

“I think we overdid it with the eating,” I said to Clif.

“Yup,” Clif replied. “But it was pretty darned good.” (Yankee-speak for it doesn’t get much better than this.)

It was pretty darned good, and best of all, I used at least 1/3 of a big bag of spinach.

Here are some pictures of how the casserole was constructed:

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At the end of last week, when the weather was still fairly cool, I made a large batch of spaghetti sauce with the intention of putting together a casserole with some ricotta cheese I have in the freezer. On sale, I had bought a package of chicken sausage, and I was planning to add that, too. But yesterday things heated up, and even though I like it hot, baking a casserole on a day when it was 90 in the shade didn’t seem like such a great idea.

“All right,” I said to my husband, Clif. “Here are the choices: I can freeze the sauce for another time. I can pick up some chicken at the store and cook it all in the Crock-Pot. Or, we can just have the sauce over pasta.”

Clif hesitated for only a few minutes. “Let’s have the sauce over pasta.”

As Clif is a huge lover of sauce over pasta, his choice did not surprise me.

With the sauce being pretty a much a stand-alone, it seemed to me that a few additional ingredients would be in order—peppers and mushrooms. Naturally, this is completely a matter of taste. Zucchini or summer squash would also be good additions. Or just the chicken sausage.

In a large skillet, I browned the precooked sausage in olive oil. When the sausages were browned on one side, I added the peppers and let them sizzle. Meanwhile, I had a smaller skillet of sliced mushrooms sautéing. When the peppers were soft, I added the spaghetti sauce to the large skillet. Ditto for the mushrooms. What else? A pinch or two of red pepper, and some leftover wine from the day before, about a quarter of a cup. (Less wine would be fine, too. I thought the sauce was a little sweet. Clif thought it was tasty the way it was.)

While the pasta cooked, the sauce simmered, and when everything was done, Clif and I took our plates out to the patio. The temperature had dropped to 80, just right for me. While we ate, drank iced tea, and chatted, a thrush played its evening song, going up and down on its little pan pipes. A slight breeze ruffled the trees.

With full stomachs, we lounged contentedly on the patio. Did we stay there for the entire evening? We did not. The air was heavy, but there was nary a rumble of thunder, so off we went for a bike ride, by Marancook Lake, where the loons called to each other as twilight came.

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Yesterday was a busy day. What with spring and gardening and writing and work around the home, there never seems to be enough hours to do everything. (No matter. I still love this time of year.) However, yesterday was also a Winthrop Food Pantry day. I had agreed to go in as a substitute for someone else, which I was happy to do, but how, I wondered, could I slide in a bit of gardening as well as a bike ride with my husband, Clif, and still have a nice supper afterward? Shari Burke, of Craftivist in the Kitchen, came to my rescue with one of her wonderful posts about a Crock-Pot meal involving chicken, sage, and sweet potatoes. Just perfect for a hot day with many chores.

Before I left for the food pantry, I prepared the meal. Shari had told me that I could use whole sweet potatoes, but I must admit I “flinched” and cut the potatoes in half. As it turns out, Shari was right. There was no need to cut the potatoes. However, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I washed 2 sweet potatoes, cut them in half, and poked them with a fork. I put a combination of drumsticks and thighs on top of the potatoes, and I used 8 or 9 pieces of chicken so that I would have leftovers for a salad. I drizzled olive oil on top of the chicken and then added 1/2 teaspoon of dried sage, 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme, and 1 large clove of minced garlic. I put the cover on, set the temperature on low, and pedalled my way to the food pantry, where, among other things, I discussed important food topics such as what to do with leftover sour cream.

“Use it in muffins,” one woman suggested. “It’s especially good in apple muffins.”

What a good idea! For some reason, I had never thought of using sour cream in muffins, even though one of my favorite coffee cakes uses sour cream.

When I came home, everything in the Crock-Pot was cooking nicely. The chicken pieces had generated a fair amount of liquid, and I turned the sweet potatoes so that they would be well simmered. Then, I had a snack on the patio, planted some tomatoes, and Clif and I went for a bike ride, where I was entranced by the smell of lilacs and the sweet greenness of spring.

When we came home, supper was waiting for us. The chicken was done—spicy, moist, and tender. But the sweet potatoes were definitely the star of the evening. Infused by the juices of the chicken, they were very, very soft and mashed beautifully. Smooth and rich with an undertone of chicken, the sweet potatoes were so good that I almost could have skipped the chicken and have made it a sweet potato night.

This is definitely a make-again meal. Thank you, Shari, for the great idea. And next time, I won’t cut the sweet potatoes in half.

Note: This meal is so simple that I’m not going to bother with a formal recipe. Just put some sweet potatoes in a Crock-Pot, cover with 8 or 9 pieces of chicken, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon each of dried thyme and sage, and add 1 large clove of minced garlic. Cook on low for 7 or 8 hours. There. I’ve included the instructions twice.