beans!

It is a beautiful evening on the prairie, after a stormy night last night and a rainy morning. The storms took away a lot of our heat and humidity and it is perfect outside right now. We just got back from a nice sunset walk along Walnut Creek, where we saw lots of deer and rabbits, and a beaver with its baby. The birds were singing in the trees, but don't ask Sarah about them, since one of them dive-bombed her head. This morning I judged barbecue at a contest in Ankeny, Iowa. It was a good contest, fun and well-run. The barbecue was a mix of decent and great stuff, with a few pretty bad entries mixed in, too. In addition to the 4 standard categories (chicken, ribs, pork shoulder and brisket), we judged beans. That was interesting, and some of the beans were really good. The people at barbecue contests are some of the nicest you could ever hope to meet, and it really is fun to judge. I am doing another contest next week in Waterloo, Iowa, which is actually a couple hours away. We haven't decided for sure, but we may turn that into a whole weekend trip. After that, I should have a few more contests to judge this season, including a possibility of judging at the biggest contest of all (stay tuned). Tonight was the first appearance for the summer of one of our favorite summer dinners. We had penne with fresh basil (from our garden!), tomatoes (from a roadside stand), garlic, and fresh mozarella. You just dunmp the hot pasta in a bowl with the other ingredients, and it warms everything up just a little without really cooking. It is delicious, and a change of pace after eating pounds of barbecue in the morning. For those of you who can't wait for the next potty training update :^), things are going great. Asher loves the potty, and also loves to talk about it. He really is hilarious. He also loves to sing along with country songs on the radio, repeating the last few words of each line right as it ends.