When it's hot and humid, I like to heat up the kitchen.

We've had a beautiful summer up to now - it's been pleasantly warm, not too hot, not much rain. Suddenly we have had three humid days in a row, lots of rain, and tonight we're having a huge thunderstorm! I got out the big golf umbrella yesterday to carry to my dentist appointment, and used it again tonight to come to work. I wish Diana was here to enjoy all this weather!

Rich and I went to girls camp on Thursday and it was kind of fun. Except for the miles and miles of walking to get from one part of camp to another. Rachel had been walking from one side to the other all week, and she was getting pretty tired. She wasn't getting enough sleep, either, because there were emergencies every night! We had an exciting trip home when we found the entrance to the highway was blocked for construction and there was no clear detour. It was a bit surprising to find ourselves in Iowa, but we finally did get home.

Kim was gone this weekend, visiting a friend in Wisconsin, my favorite state for being lost and needing a bathroom, but she managed to get in and out safely. Rachel came home from camp on Saturday and Rich and I met her at her place to help unload her car and take her to lunch. She was eager to get a shower and a nap, so we didn't stay long.

While we were at camp, we were given a bag of over-ripe bananas for reasons too complicated to explain, so I brought them home and made banana bread. I made two loaves on Friday, two more on Saturday, and there will probably be two more loaves tomorrow. Kim is loving it!

I don't know why, but I've been cooking a lot this weekend, in spite of the miserable humidity. I made a Shepherds Pie on Saturday, with a layer of polenta on top instead of mashed potatoes, and today I made Ratatouille with vegetables I bought at the farmers market on Tuesday. The Ratatouille was so beautiful that I took a picture of it, sitting next to a loaf of banana bread:

The recipe is here . It's stacked Ratatouille, which means the pieces are all lined up in stacks. The picture with the recipe looks nicer - it's much stackier than mine - but I got tired of stacking oily slices of vegetables, and I let mine fall over into more of a slanty stack. I'll try to make my next batch look prettier.