Shanty’s brother Seamus is here visiting for a couple of weeks. Shanty is thrilled, Piper, is not so sure. I think he is wondering just how many dogs we are expecting him to welcome into his home.

All dogs seem to have their own little quirks. We had one Cocker Spaniel who had a taste for lettuce. His name was Cody and he stole my father in law’s wallet out of his pants pocket and ate all the cash. I might have mentioned before another Cocker of ours, bless her heart, called Ticker. She stole my dental floss and draped it all around our bedroom. The next time I went to the dentist and the hygienist asked if I had been flossing, I explained that I honestly couldn’t because the dog ate my floss. Years later, I noticed a scribbled note in the margins of my chart with words to the effect of “she says her dog ate her floss”.

Great bounty in the garden today. I pick my tomatoes a day early to beat any hungry animals to the punch. They ripen up just great in the kitchen over night.

I really have no idea what I am doing with the jalapeño peppers. They seem slow to turn red so we tested a salsa recipe yesterday using them green, as they are now and the salsa was plenty hot. So, I harvested a ton of the bigger peppers today to dry while we wait out the rest to turn red on the plant.

Now that the canning of preserves is starting up for next winter’s pantry, it is time to accept that some of last year’s yummy, filled jars need to be used up sooner than later. With little company and no ability to entertain, a lot of my usual chutneys etc. weren’t eaten. I need the larger jars for canning my tomatoes so we are forced to make apple pies for every day consumption, you know ‘cause we need the jars. A lot of the jams etc. can last another winter so it looks like only the sauce and salsa will be canned this summer.

I looked up on the google how best to dry jalapeño peppers and dental floss was suggested as an excellent thread to use for hanging them in the kitchen. Without Ticker around any more to play with my dental floss and with two new dogs with their own different creative quirks, I am only too happy to use my seemingly infinite amount of accrued dental floss for drying peppers in addition to using it to cut cheesecake slices like

I always have.