(e:Paul) challenged me to a pear war with the warrior ants and the swarm of bees in (e:PMT)'s garden. It was not a pretty sight.

There were fallen pears all over the place being viciously attacked by HUGE crazy ants, bees that possibly had a nasty sting and quite horrendous-looking fat blackish worms that looked as if they had crept slowly out of the scarier zombie movie scene. I think I accidentally brushed my hand on one. UGH. Maybe I should consider amputating it now.

For a while I debated kicking the bee-infested pears around to dislodge and rescue the pears but I was really worried about painful repercussions. Wisdom prevailed and I left them alone. But I did blow the ants off many a fallen fruit and got quite a haul of awesome pears.


(e:matthew) walked in on my grand-bug-war-for-pear-rescue halfway through and threw in some tomatoes into the mix. I know I am totally overdosing on tomatoes today but these mini ones were TOO delicious not to eat as soon as I got back! Thanks so much, (e:matthew)!


And now the quintessential dilemma. What does one do with 20kg of pears?


I am thinking slow roasted red pepper/tomato-pear-basil-soup spiked with red chillies and garlic...

I realized that I had far too many tomatoes on my table to make it fungus-free through the week and hit upon a really easy way to use them up.

Free-spirited roasting:


Followed by a rough chop and toss with lentils, garlic, kale, basil, red peppers and buckwheat high fibre spaghetti.


Simply delicious!

Hmm. more chemicals that I don't know about in my shower soap:

• Sodium laureth sulfate
• Cocamidopropyl Betaine
• Polyquarternium-7
• Glycol Stearate
• Decyl Glucoside
• Hydroxypropyl
• Methylcellulose
• Sodium PCA
• tetrasodium edta ( this is a chelating agent, it prevents blood from clotting. I guess it must be preventing clumping here. but what effect does it have on the skin? how potent is this?)
• triethanolamine
• methylchloroisothiazolinone
• methylisothiazolinone

Probably okay

• Water (Well of course)
• Sodium Chloride (ditto for this)
• Butyrospermium Parkii (Shea Butter)
• Panthenol (Pro Vitamin B5)
• fragrance
• citric acid

The list is the scariest because I really have no idea about some of these.

The label is not on the bottle of dishwashing fluid so I had to look this one up on the Colgate website

:

• Water: Consistency
• Ammonium C12-15 Pareth Sulfate: Cleaning and Foaming Agent
• SD Alcohol 3-A: Controls Thickness and Clarity
• Lauramidopropylamine Oxide: Cleaning and Foaming Agent
• Sodium Chloride: Controls Thickness (okay, this is salt)
• Magnesium Sulfate: Controls Thickness
• Fragrance: Pleasant Scent
• Poloxamer 124: Controls Thickness
• Pentasodium Pentatate: Maintains Product Stability
• Preservative: Maintains Product Freshness
• Sodium Bisulfite: Maintains Product Stability
• Dyes: Color - yeah, what exactly?

I don't know about many of these chemicals. Their descriptions seem tame enough but who knows what lies beneath. I am somewhat rushed for time to verify each thing on that list. So there it is. I am exposed on a daily basis to these and I actually like washing dishes.

Italian Raisin Bread baked in a brick oven. Distributed by Mastroianni Brothers Bakery Incorporated (518) 355-5310
51 Opus Blvd, Schenectady, NY 12306

• Potassium Bromate.

Good grief. I am merrily eating this while it has been banned in Sri Lanka and China and has escaped a ban here because of a bureaucratic regulation loophole.

In the United States, it has not been banned. The FDA sanctioned the use of bromate before the Delaney clause of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act—which bans potentially carcinogenic substances— went into effect in 1958, so it is more difficult for it to now be banned. Instead, since 1991 the FDA has urged bakers to voluntarily stop using it. In California a warning label is required when bromated flour is used.

I am on the last slice. It's delicious but I am placing a personal kitchen ban effective from the next minute. And I just wrote to the store to consider discontinuing this bread.