As another wonderful summer comes to an end, I have found myself with an excess of some of our favorite vegetables. Unlike my grandmothers, my mother and my aunts, I never got the knack for canning vegetables. I think after eating jar after jar of gray-colored green beans during my childhood, the idea of “putting up” vegetables just wasn't appealing.

When I was growing up, my mother's go-to salad was a wedge of iceberg lettuce topped with a blob of chunky blue cheese dressing. She and Daddy scarfed it up like it was candy. I turned my nose up. What was the appeal of this stinky, gooey cheese stuff? Of course, I swore that I would never eat blue cheese.

I wish I had a really good tale to share in this issue, but I don't. A combination of busyness and laziness has kept me at home for most of the week. I have, however, been trying some new recipes that I thought Vince and I would enjoy. So, they're my column for this week.