Summertime, Summertime and a Give-Away

I have so many blog entries I need to catch up on, but am still so busy with summer activities that it'll probably be awhile before I finish the many drafts I have 'pending'.  I do need to make the time to get on here though as I want to do my 2nd Annual Anniversary Blog Giveaway.   In mid-July I passed the mile-stone of two years on a vegan diet.  I am so very proud of this accomplishment and decided to celebrate this year with a give-away of two of my favorite vegan cookbooks.  I'm giving away a copy of Robin Robertson's "Vegan Planet".  This is one of the very first vegan cookbooks that I purchased and even though there is oil in many of her recipes, they are usually easily adaptable and it is just a fun and inspiring cookbook.  Here is a link to Robin's page describing this monster of a book.

http://robinrobertson.com/vegan-planet/

I'm also giving away a copy of Lindsay S. Nixon's first book, Happy Herbivore.  This cookbook is definitely one of my 'go-to' books and is where I got my oft-used and very satisfying ranch dressing recipe...giving up ranch dressing was one thing that really bothered me when I switched to a vegan diet and finding this recipe really filled that gap.  Here's a link to more info about Lindsay's book.

http://happyherbivore.com/cookbooks/

You don't have to do anything snazzy to enter; just leave me a quick comment...if you'd like to let me know what you've been up to this summer, that would be cool too.  I'll run the contest for one week and draw a winner next Friday, Aug. 31st.  Be sure to check back for the announcement of the winner as I'll need shipping info at that time to mail you the books.  Good luck!

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Here is some of what I've been up to this summer.....

Fresh-picked from the garden......poor quality photo from my archaic cell phone

Baby praying mantis....love these guys....we have tons of them, always gives me a thrill when I spot one in the garden.

Two of my three raised beds

Broccoli!!!  Finally able to grow some-I used Agribon as a cover to keep the cabbage moths out.

Various heirloom tomatoes including a yellow pear.  I foresee lots of tomato sauce in my freezer soon.

Redo of front flower bed that has been a total weed-fest....dug it completely out.  Sometimes in gardening (as in life) you simply have to start over.

Time with my precious grand-daughter....she's an awesome veggie eater

Indulge one more of her cuteness

My beautiful horse, Sky.  Restarted his training this summer.

The girls enjoying the pasture which is hanging in there despite sporadic rainfall---lots of work this summer on fence repair and general farm maintenance.

I'll swap this out when I get a decent picture of my beautiful girl, Dani, half-sister to Sky.  I've been riding most mornings after regular farm chores are done and am finally getting my 'riding chops' back after a bad fall I had last spring.

More yummies from the garden....these purple carrots were wonderful and found their way into a carrot cake snack bar recipe

which is pictured here and I'd give you the recipe except it really wasn't very good--definitely needs tweaking.  Stick with just berries, like these from our local farm market.

Happy Summer and Happy Anniversary to Me!

Sue, savoring summer, in Ohio