Volunteers

 Does anybody know what this is?  I have two clumps of them in two different places in the garden.  They were volunteers, I didn't plant them.  When they first came up they looked kind of like squash- or cuke-type-things, see the rounded leaves on the bottom?  And they came up all in a clump, like maybe it was something from the compost.  Could be anything.  But now the leaves on top are all kind of pointed, and I'm at a loss as to what they might be.  I guess I'll find out when they bear...something. Alien pods, maybe.

Came home from work today to find this little goldfinch parked on the corner of Preston's shed roof (and I say "Preston's" shed because we do have his and hers.  Best birthday present I ever got!)  I don't know if he's a baby or not, I don't want to get too close and scare him, but he watched me looking at him and taking his picture and didn't seem inclined to move.

So yesterday I was droning on about nutrition. I think the key is,  baby steps.  One thing at a time.  I started looking at things like cooking methods.  I cook with canola oil, when I use oil at all.  Turns out, that's a pretty good choice.  Olive oil is better if you're putting it on salads or whatnot, but we don't do that and canola is actually better for cooking.  So that's good.  And I looked at the margarine I use, Land O Lakes buttery-taste spread.  Also a good choice as far as margarine goes.  No trans fats.  But I usually use stick margarine when cooking, because it's easy to measure.  NOT a good choice; I found out that all the stick margarine brands, at least all the ones my local store sells, contain trans fats.  So I won't be using that anymore. I don't know how soft margarine will work in baking, but I'll worry about that in the fall when the baking bug bites me as it always does.

I already stopped using salt when I cook, and as I said I don't miss it. Preston misses it, and still puts it on stuff.  But that's on him.  It was salt-free when I served it.

We bought a gas grill a couple weeks ago.  I figure if I can't get him to give up burgers, at least I can use the healthiest cooking method.  We used to have a grill, but it rusted out and we never bothered to get another one, easier to just cook on the stove top.  But I like having it, especially since we have a small house and it's summer, so the more heat-producing things I can move outside, the better.  It even has a side burner, which I thought was ridiculous since there's just the two of us to cook for, but I've used it twice already to cook corn on the cob.

Speaking of the gas grill, it's time to go fire it up.  Tomorrow I'll talk a little about meat and what I've learned in THAT department.