Good morning, Everyone. Right now we have our doors and window open for the morning air. But we expect the temps to go to around 90 with a strong probability of thunderstorms this afternoon so we might have to put the air on. I have to finish off the pickles and stewed tomatoes today. By the time they were ready for me to package them for freezing I was totally wiped out. So I shoved everything into the fridge till this morning. I have a few other small items to do up--like a couple of the Marconi peppers that I should clean out and cut up for freezing. Do you get the notion that we use our freezer a lot? Well, we do. It takes a lot less processing and much less equipment.

Thanks, Kay. We are on the mend but bronchitis always seems to hang on forever. The notions of 'moral hazard' and 'transparency' are ideals that are, as a professor who taught several classes I took used to say, more honored in the breech than in the observance. And in this political economy are very selectively applied. I hadn't heard of freezer pickling until I picked up a couple of new cookbooks over last winter. They have some interesting recipes.

The mortgage fraud morass keeps getting stickier and messier. Now the NY State Attorney General has been removed from the executive committee trying to come to some settlement with the major mortgage banks on the charges. He has been pushing for a thorough investigation with criminal charges where warranted. But the powers that be and the too-big-to-fail banks want a quick resolution with a token payment to (supposedly) be used for the relief of foreclosed homeowners and broad immunity from future investigations but without any admission of guilt. Cushy wouldn't you say? Some animals are definitely more equal.

Well the tomatoes and pickles are done. Two quarts of tomatoes and three pints of pickles--minus a little for freezer expansion. I looked at the remaining vines and figure that the Brandywine and a few of the Rainbows could be put into either sauce or stewed with a bit of additional plums. Those I will have to get from the farmer's market because my plum varieties are pretty well spent.