Summertime in San Diego

The vegetables that were planted in mid-April are starting to mature; we've harvested the first two yellow pear tomatoes and were understandably thrilled at their spicy sweet flavor. The red and yellow bell peppers are also growing; not to mention my Thai Bird's Eye chilies.

I have not cooked anything too ambitious lately although I did put together my first layer cake. Because I liked the taste and texture of Alton Brown's Tres Leches cake so much, I decided to use the cake as the base of my layer cake. After baking it in three small five-and-a-half inch pans, I cooled, turned out and trimmed the layers, and assembled with the Marscapone creme filling and the homemade organic strawberry jam.

The whole cake was slathered with a whipped cream layer and topped with sliced strawberries. It's not the most professional-looking cake; but as a first try it qualifies as a darned good showing. It's going to my mother-in-law's for a good "ooh-ing and ah-ing" over.