I took a drive yesterday after filling the tank (glad it’s cheaper!). I don’t know what is going on with my truck but I’m definitely not complaining. Listen closely to my tale of “WHOA!”.

It seems as though the gas mileage on my truck has somehow increased. After the fan and A/C compressor were replaced I was getting 19.5 mpg yesterday during a long drive. WHOA! Before that I was getting around 15.5-17.2, and THAT was after I upgraded to a K&N air filter which gave me a little boost in both mileage and performance.

I’m hoping the work done on it will also help out mileage when pulling the trailer. I know it won’t be 19, but 13-15 would be awesome in comparison. That’s the best it’s going to do. Good to dream, though…like I said I’m not complaining!

I went through my packs and found four or five to get rid of. I also have figured out a few more things to sell as well. I figure if I haven’t used an item in a while why not part with it to lighten my load, make a few $$ back on the item, and also help someone out for a decent price? It’s good for everyone.

I saw something interesting in more than one travel article about the things people “don’t leave home without”. Now, to me this means it’s life or death, stinky pits, or bad breath. But no…one thing I saw in a few articles was people taking an Apple TV box in their suitcase. I don’t get it, but hey…we all travel differently. Usually I’m in a room only to sleep; otherwise I’m out exploring. TV is not a high priority on my list normally, but it’s way down at the bottom when I am traveling. Plus, I’m carrying a travel pack whenever I fly so the last thing I want is more weight and less room. But, to be fair they may be traveling for business and it’s a little piece of home. Plus they are probably checking their bags.

It’s been a humid, hot one today. Surprisingly hot for this time of year and there’s a few more days of it coming this week. STOP IT!!! Seems awfully late to be in the 90s still at 7:00 in the evening. But it’s gonna do what it’s gonna do.

I harvested a sweet pepper and a single tomato earlier this evening. This particular tomato is firm like a Roma and is labeled as good for sun-drying. Just a single one isn’t much to sun-dry so tomorrow I may just cook it up in olive oil along with the pepper after I roast it, with some olives and garlic (and whatever else I can find on-hand) for a quick primavera sauce over pasta.

I cannot believe the habaneros and tomatoes are not ready yet. There’s a lot of peppers on the plants and the tomatoes are still covered in flowers. I guess they are late-bloomers”🤣🤣🤣. If they ever fruit I’ll be getting a lot of tomatoes so I guess I need to figure out what I’m gonna do with them and look for recipes & ideas.

I’ve been looking at pasta recipes and have learned much about the different shapes and which shape with the different types of sauce. It’s interesting (to me) how someone has engineered these shapes of different pastas to catch the various types of sauces.

I picked up a few new pasta shapes to experiment with, along with some craft pasta sauces – all on sale. One sauce is Mediterranean, one is a vodka sauce, (which I’ve never tried before but wanted to), and one is from The Hill, a famous Italian neighborhood in St. Louis, MO. I’m anxious to try them all along with a couple of Aldi refrigerated pastas I picked up – a Calabrian pepper and smoked pasta ravioli; the other a Parmesan/prosciutto tortellini – and another Italian pasta sauce. I may need to stock the freezer with more of those seasonal Aldi pastas. I got a few packages of dried tortellini that were also on sale. It’s good to stock up when you can.

I really like Aldi (and Trader Joe’s) not only because of the prices; they have very interesting and delicious stuff on the shelves. Problem is some things are seasonal but never come back. I found that with some of their spices and a tomato jam that I really liked. I will have to make my own tomato jam since they quit stocking it and some of the spice mixes I have to reverse engineer after I get the ingredients. Luckily I have most of the ingredients already so I only need to find a few things like tomato flakes.

I have two scales I can use to weigh small amounts of ingredients so it should be simple (no one ever said!). Perhaps I can adapt my Pestle app to help scale small measurements into a larger amount. I will mix the jar well and get out a tablespoonful (or two) of it, separate the ingredients & weigh, then scale it up and I’ll have the recipe! SOUNDS simple at least! Plus it kinda sounds fun to do.

I hoped to get the griddle out but I found a problem that I don’t know I can work around. The regulator is not seating correctly so the cannot light it. I hope to get a look at it the next few days and get it straightened out. I may be able to use one from my portable camping grill but I probably will have to contact the manufacturer and see what they will do. This is the second problem but they took care of the first issue pretty quickly.

That’s about all for this post.