Pickled okra, watermelon rind pickles, dinner and to bed

As we're leaving town tomorrow, I felt quite an urgency today to clean out the fridge. The thought of any part of my farmers market haul going to waste compelled me to get on the pickling stick, so I put up 4 pints of pickled okra and, at present, have a double batch of pickled watermelon rinds on their second round of brining. Yummy!

In the meantime, I have been overwhelmed by the number of enthusiastic, supportive, incredibly kind notes of congrats from the food52 community. Thank you everyone! My mint-pistachio pesto and I love you right back!

In the vein of slash-and-burn fridge purging, I also threw together a random but good compost dinner salad. A little kale here, some steamed potatoes there, a roasted beet here, some fresh tomatoes and grilled bread there. And to dress the mess, a lemon-tahini-garlic dressing. Pretty, healthy and satisfying.

For dessert, I finished up one batch of plum-basil jam with nothing but a spoon in hand. Jesus H that jam melts my butter. I cannot get enough. It's like my first experience with hamantashen years ago; like a train whose brakes have failed, I roared through some ungodly number of chocolate hamantashen in a frighteningly brief time. This jam is definitely the second coming of those cookies.