Garden Vegetables are looking very good!
KAMALA’S CSA GARDEN
Tomatoes, onions, corn, peppers and squash are ready for pick up from Kamala Gamble’s CSA garden. (Photo by Helen Ford Wallace).
If you love freshly-picked garden vegetables, you might take a look at Kamala Gamble’s Community Sponsored Agriculture program. She has 85 people picking up weekly baskets of cantalope, tomatoes, squash, onions, okra, corn eggplant and cucumbers. She also grows herbs and her flower gardens in northwest Oklahoma City are outstanding.
Check her website at KamsCookery.com
Also, she already has her fall garden planted and here are a couple of her special vegetable recipes:
SUMMER CORN SALAD
6 ears corn, husked and cleaned
3 large tomatoes, diced
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
cook corn till done (7 minutes or less) – and toss with remaining ingredients. Chill.
SUMMER SQUASH CASSEROLE
6 yellow or pattypan summer squash
1 cup onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 stick butter
2 slices bread
1 medium bowl ice water
1 egg
Salt and pepper
1 cup cracker crumbs, or enough to cover casserole
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Peel and cut squash into cubes. Boil until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes, and drain. Brown onion, garlic, and parsley in 2 tablespoons butter seasoned with salt and pepper. Soak bread in ice water and wring out; chop fine. Add to onion and garlic mixture; cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add drained squash and cook 2 to 3 minutes more, stirring. Remove from heat. Beat egg and add, allowing it to absorb into the mixture. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.
Place in casserole dish or baking pan. Cover top with cracker crumbs and dot with remaining butter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crumbs brown.
Cook’s Note: You can refrigerate this dish for up to 2 days before baking, but you should add the bread crumb topping right before you bake.
Kamala Gamble shows her wonderful vegetables and behind her are the new plants for tomatoes and squash. (Photos by Helen Ford Wallace)
Helen Ford Wallace
Social columnist
Faith and trust online
I bought my first laptop computer through an online auction at eBay. It was used and the price was right. That was four years ago.
There is a thrill to online auctions that is not unlike, say, a fishing expedition. You get a big one on your hook and then fight to reel it in. When it’s yours, there is a real sense of accomplishment. Same for outbidding the competition for a used computer.
The difference is that when you are bidding online for an item that you’ve never seen from a person you’ve never met, there is a tremendous amount of trust involved. The used computer was the biggest item I’ve ever bid on.
I had heard the horror stories of online fraud, but still had faith to plunge into the auction. I read and re-read the auction page and looked at the photos, including one that showed a slight flaw in the top of the computer case.
So I bid and won. Four days later my faith was rewarded when the computer arrived by UPS. It lived up to its promises.
That old Powerbook traveled the state and nation with me until last year when technology passed it by and it began to have problems of its own. I sold it for parts to a new buyer who put his faith and trust in an online auction.
I hope it was all he envisioned.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
A sale: Dillard’s
How’s this for a midweek perk? Dillard’s is having its extra 30 percent sale starting today.
Take an extra 30 percent off entire stock of all permanently reduced merchandise. That means all those handbags that are already 25, 33 and 50 percent off are now another 30 percent off! Oh, and the shoes, clothes and accessories, too.
I spotted a brown leather bucket-style bag, originally $300, marked down to $180 and now it’s another 30 percent. It’s perfect for fall. Don’t you just love a sale?
Linda Miller, Fashion Editor
It’s a Woot-off!
Woot is one of the great online bargain sites. For the uninitiated, Woot offers one and only one item for sale each day. The deals can be remarkable. However, Woot also features occasional Woot-offs, when multiple items are offered one at a time. As each item sells out, a new item is offered. Today is a Woot-off day. For more information, check the official Woot faq.
There also is a shirt Woot site, and a wine Woot site that each follow the one-daily-deal business model from the company based in suburban Dallas. So start clicking and start saving.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Do You Like the “Big Pony” design for Ralph Lauren?
(photo from RalphLauren.com web site).
Have you seen Ralph Lauren’s “Big Pony” design?
It is really cool. Check with Macy’s, Dillard’s and Haggard’s Menswear locally for the new styles in Ralph Lauren shirts for men, women and children. The label has a whole series of designs including The Olympic Games Collection, the US Open Collection and the Big Pony Collection.
Their web site (RalphLauren.com) features a new array of fashions and a first look at fall fashions.
Helen Ford Wallace
Save $$$$ in Frisco, Texas
In a perfect world, Oklahomans would always shop in Oklahoma. Well, most of the time.
But many people like to shop in places outside their own back yards.
So, if you’re headed to Frisco, Texas — to shop, for a girls’ getaway or for a concert – take advantage of the city’s shopping coupons.
The Shop Frisco Savings Book is available to anyone who lives 50 miles or more from Frisco. The book is available at Stonebriar Centre, Frisco hotels, AAA, the Frisco CVB or the five visitor centers into Texas — Gainesville, Texarkana, Waskom, Denison and Wichita Falls. There are 40 discount coupons, including ones for Macy’s, California Pizza Kitchen and IKEA.
Frisco is about 20 miles north of Dallas.
Shoe sale: hoof it to Edmond
What: Shoe sale
Where: Pink Sugar Shoe Boutique, 15th and Bryant, Spring Creek Village, Edmond
When: Starts today, July 24
Details: Up to 50 percent off select summer styles, handbags, flip-flops
PARTY SHOES
THE BLUE SHOE
(photo from Neiman Marcus.com web site).
It is expensive. It is beautiful. Maybe it will go on sale. This Manolo Blahnik “Something Blue Satin Pump” starred in the Sex and The City movie.
This shoe is blue satin with a 4 1/4 inch heel. A crystal clip accents the toe. Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman has it for $945.
Helen Ford Wallace
Sale: Shop the percentages at Balliet’s
Here’s my kind of sale. The more you buy, the more you save.
Where: Balliet’s, 50 Penn Place, Oklahoma City
What: 50, 60, 70 percent off sale
When: Starts Thursday, June 24
Details: Buy one sale item, receive 50 percent off; two sale items, receive 60 percent off both; buy three or more sale items and receive 70 percent off all.
What you can expect to find: Spring and summer apparel, accessories and shoes.
See you there.
Linda Miller
Start holiday shopping now
Who wants to think about Christmas when it’s burn-the-bottom-of-your-feet hot in Oklahoma?
Yet that’s exactly where Clarky Davis, known as the Debt Diva, wants our thoughts to go.
Smart customers should consider Christmas in July, she said.
Doing some planning and shopping throughout the rest of the year will save money. If the economy continues its downturn, the holidays may be even more expensive. Have a plan in place, she says.
She suggests setting a budget now. Decide how much you want to spend and stick to it.
Then get organized. Make your shopping list, plan ahead and save money. Look for holiday gifts throughout the year. Keep a storage area in your home for these gifts and write down the presents you buy.
I’ve always kept a drawer or a see-through plastic box for gifts for my family and friends. My daughter is the easiest to buy for, and I often buy a year in advance. Already I’ve got cashmere socks to keep her legs warm as she walks across campus, costume jewelry for stocking stuffers, a picture frame, Italian pottery that she loves and collects and cute note pads. All were 66 to 75 percent off.
Save money now by starting a holiday savings account at your bank, Davis says. Clean out the garage and the closets and have a yard sale this summer. Sell valuable unwanted items online through eBay and Craigslist. Sign up for e-mail alerts on frugal online sites such as the Bargainist, www.bargainist.com.
Most important, don’t put off shopping and planning until Christmas.
It will cost you.
– Linda Miller
