Well, look at that.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian should be titled, "How to Cook Everything except Orach Vegetarian," as it has no recipe for orach in it. Hell, I barely know what orach is, so surely this expert should know more, right?

Well, here, you become more of an expert: orach is a purple, leafy and somewhat stemmy, vegetable similar to spinach in texture, taste, and, hence, uses. It came in this week's CSA box.

I chose Bittman's Rich Spinach Gratin recipe to use up three more eggs today. Gratin that tastes more like a custard? Really, sign me up.

I was entertained with the purple water that washing the orach produced, almost like purple beet water. I'm sure the compost heap enjoyed the extra anti-oxidants from the colored water.

Today, we use four more of the thirty eggs from Andy. After today's hike from hell, I wanted something simple for a meal. I offered crepes to Kris, who quickly jumped on the offer.

I doubled the crepe recipe to use up more eggs from last time. Here's hoping we can eat all of the batter.

I have discovered a new method for mowing lawns. Admittedly, this technique works best with lawns that have tall grass, but with the correctly sized implements, it will work with lawns with shorter grass, too.

The technique involves attaching a long leash to a fast moving, well energized dog. Said leash would need to be coated properly, I'm thinking with small blades or shards of glass, ala fighter kite lines, which does the actual grass cutting.

With Annie attached to a leader leash, I have demonstrated the feasibility of the technique, if not the lack of safety of such a mowing.

For taller grass, a larger dog is sufficient. For shorter grass, however, a small, yippy dog is probably required for this technique to work properly. Preferably one that can be punted into work, if required.

Oh, good lord, did I say last week's hike was the worst hike ever? Well, no, I meant that as foreshadowing. FOREshadowing. FORESHADOWING, as this week's hike was worse. Surprisingly worse.

Kris's goal was, again, to run up to Hunter's Point and back down to the parking lot three times, for a total of four and a half miles. There's one particular part that's a difficult climb, as it has an increasing grade just after a longer, also steep, hill. He loves to complain about that spot. I just like to climb up it without dragging the dogs.

Because I can't hold both dogs in one hand, and I sure as hell can't carry Bella down the hill again, I decided to take only Annie. Wow, that's a great idea, right? Take only one dog, how bad could it be? Charge up the hill with one dog, dash down with the dog, be done quickly.

Four minutes into the hike, going UP the hill, my knee locked up. Four minutes. Not more than 200 yards from the beginning of my hike, and I was unable to move. The dog, on the other hand, was just fine, and kept yanking me around, crying, let's go, let's go, let's go. I couldn't move up the hill, I couldn't move down the hill. I couldn't unlock my knee, couldn't bend it, couldn't put any weight on my left leg. Stuck, in pain and frustrated, I decided that THIS was the worst hike ever.

Eventually, I managed to massage my leg and adjust the brace so that I could bend my knee again. I limped up to the top of the hill, and eventually back down the hill. Kris managed his three times up and three times down lickety-split.

Kris has a habit of reading in bed before he goes to sleep at night. Bella has a habit of jumping on the bed and burrowing under the covers. Together, they make a really cute picture.