Thirty-seven-year-old Kelly Griffin lives in Westborough, Mass., a small town about 30 miles west of Boston. She works in the neighboring town of Malborough as a data administrator for Hologic, a global women's health care company. This week, while her boyfriend is traveling, Griffin is flying solo as an ELCer, but based on her report, below, it looks like she is eating mighty fine in New England.

ELC guest blogger Kelly Griffin. (Family photo)

In light of the recent tomato salmonella scare, it was very easy to commit to the Eat Local Challenge. However, for me, there are two big hurdles to eating locally. The first is that I live in the Northeast and we are not blessed with a year-round growing season. The second is that I am the senior data administrator for a women's healthcare company. The kick off for the ELC was smack in the midst of our database re-launch and I have been working late nights and weekends. Being that busy, it would be easier to just pop over to the chain grocery store one mile from my house and get something quick. Instead I was very excited to head out this weekend to stock up for the week ahead.

The first and easiest local item was eggs. My father and stepmother live about 25 miles from me and have a small flock of chickens which lay great eggs. My other favorite local item is goat cheese. The farm (CrystalBrook Farm in Leominster, Mass.) is one mile from my Dad's house and has a phenomenal lemon and lavender goat cheese. I use that for a quick pasta dinner. I cook rotini pasta until al dente and drain it, reserving some of the cooking liquid. I put the pasta back in the warm pot and add a chunk of the goat cheese. The heat of the pasta melts the goat cheese to coat. If it's too thick, use the pasta water to thin. I throw in a bunch of lemon thyme from my patio and serve.

In addition to eggs and goat cheese, the other items I picked up were honey, lettuce, Swiss chard, milk, beets, tomatoes, zucchini, corn on the cob, herbs, baby spinach, arugula, yellow squash and cucumbers. I got my items for this week from several farm stands near my home so it took a little extra time than my normal shopping but it was much more fun and definitely worth it. I would miss citrus, tea, olive oil, kosher salt, avocados and nectarines if I could only eat locally. I love to bake and would really be stuck without vanilla extract, flour, and sugar.

After this experience I really do see myself continuing to try to incorporate more local items. It was great to know where my food came from and I am excited to go home after work and have items on hand for quick and very healthy meals. I plan to join my local CSA next year and definitely will keep making the effort to support my local farmers.

--Kelly Griffin

Coming up later this week: ELC kitchen adventures from Alison in Dallas, Tex., and Claire from Auburn, Ala.

Today is chat day: Join me and the other ELCers today at noon ET for What's Cooking.

Monday may be the dawn of a new week for most, but for those participating in the Mighty Appetite Eat Local Challenge (ELC), it's already Day Three. Since Saturday, July 19, 54 households around the country have pledged to incorporate 10 local food items into their diets for a week-long eating experiment. "Local" in this case means 100 miles from home, wherever home may be. (See the ELC Honor Roll for the geographic distribution of participants.)

KOD getting in on the eat-local action, at Arlington Courthouse market. (Farmer Forrest)

There are no Eat Local police on the scene issuing demerits for the use of non-local products, nor is anyone going to notice if your local perimeter extends to 150 miles. ELCers need not submit their shopping lists for approval (but they are certainly free to share them in the comments area all week long). Rather, the idea behind the ELC is to observe -- and ask ourselves what, if anything, happens when we focus our attention on sourcing our dietary intake from our respective food sheds than via an any-town warehouse-style supermarket? Is it easier -- or more difficult -- than you imagined? Is it more or less expensive? Is it fun or is it driving you crazy? Can you taste a difference?

All week long, you'll have the opportunity to respond to these questions and discuss any other issues that inevitably will present themselves in the course of doing this experiment. In addition, five guest bloggers from different parts of the country will be sharing their ELC experiences and lessons learned along the way.

On Tuesday, July 22, you'll meet Kelly from Westborough, Mass. Thursday, July 24, Alison and her husband Scott, in Dallas, Tex., are on tap (as is Claire from Auburn, Ala.), and we'll do a recap next Monday, July 28, with ELCers on opposite ends of the country -- Sheila and David of Portland, Ore., and Jon, who's right here in D.C.

Last night's ELC supper. (Kim O'Donnel)

And yes, despite the fact that movers are packing up my house one week from today, I am joining you in your efforts! Here's what I picked up over the weekend from two nearby farm markets (Arlington Courthouse on Saturday and Columbia Pike on Sunday):

Whole chicken, chicken livers, dozen eggs and some bacon (Smith Fresh Meats, Berryville, Va.)

Cucumbers and a pint of sun gold tomatoes (Red Rake Farm, Hanover, Va.)

Four Early Girl tomatoes (Wheatland Vegetable Farm, Loudon County)

Cantaloupe, potatoes and long beans (Pleasant Fields Farm, Hanover, Va.)

A few heads of garlic (Potomac Vegetable Farms, Vienna and Purcellville,Va.)

Quart sweet cherries (Toigo Orchards, Shippensburg, Pa.)

Half and half for my (non-local) coffee, plain yogurt for my breakfast smoothies and butter for those chicken livers (J-Wenn Dairy, Harrisonville, Pa.)

Pint blueberries (Flowers of the Forest Farm, Great Mills, Md.)

Little onions, almost shallot-looking, and a head of red-leaf lettuce (Stoney Brook Farm, Hillsboro, Va.)

Oregano and thyme from the back yard at Casa Appetite

Last night's supper was an ELC delight: that whole chicken, roasted with garlic and backyard oregano, (non-local exceptions: salt, olive oil, black pepper and a pre-ELC lemon), a salad of sun-gold tomatoes and cukes and a few potatoes, also roasted, with more garlic and fresh backyard thyme. For lunch today, I'm thinking a local BLT on bread from Bonaparte Breads of Savage, Md., or shredding chicken leftovers into a salad. Or maybe...some of that cantaloupe? Too many wonderful local choices.

There are pins and T-shirts, front-yard signs and bumper stickers, sippy cups and key chains -- the sundry memorabilia and tchotkes that say I Heart You Presidential Candidate Blue or Red. And now, with the presidential nomination season just five weeks to go, there's the cocktail. Brought to you by the folks at Skyy, there's a color-coded cocktail campaign coming to a lounge near you.

"Barack's Rocks." (Courtesy Skyy)

For Blue enthusiasts, Skyy is recommending Barack's Rocks, a drinky drink made the color of Windex, thanks to the addition of blue curacao. In non-election season, you might know this concoction as a "blue lagoon."

Sips for Thought: Do you think they picked this one because of Obama's Hawaiian birth roots? Do we know if he even likes vodka? And is the window cleaner blue just a tad too girly for the senator? The recipe, below, calls for a slice of pear as garnish; because the pear is a fall fruit, let's add some in-season blueberries or blackberries instead, shall we? After all, those pears wouldn't be working with the Dem's Lean 'N Green Guidelines that require 70 percent of all food at the upcoming convention to be either grown in Colorado and/or organic.

For Team Red, Skyy is recommending a "McCain Straight Up," a tequila-based potion flavored with pomegranate juice. If this sounds like a pom-a-rita, that's because it is.

Sips for Thought: Can you envision McCain sipping from a martini glass? The Arizona senator seems more like a vodka rocks kind of guy to me, which apparently is no longer one of his pastimes, laments NYT columnist Maureen Dowd. In light of the teetotaling, should Skyy come up with a virgin 'rita for the presumptive nominee?

"McCain Straight Up." (Courtesy Skyy)

Memo to Skyy execs: Pomegranates are in season in December -- AFTER THE ELECTION -- and are not to be found anywhere, even in California, until November. The recipe, below, will have to be adjusted accordingly -- but hey, it'd make a great Christmas-y sipper! And the suggested garnish of "1 edible petal" -- use a season mint or basil leaf instead.

One last random thing: The tequila in question is Cabo Wabo, a joint venture between Skyy and former Van Halen rocker Sammy Hagar.

Since the weekend is about to roll in, I'm rewarding you with recipe details for both cocktails. Should you decide to mix things up, please let me know how they turn out, but more importantly, if the designated drink suits the party. Actually, what I'm secretly hoping is that you'll be inspired to come up with your own original politically-motivated libations and share your bartending skills in the comments area. I'll drink to that!

Barack's Rocks
Ingredients
2 ounces SKYY Infusions Citrus
1 ounce blue curacao
1/2 squeezed lime
3 ounces Sprite or 7-Up

Method
Shake all ingredients in a shaker and pour into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with a slice of pear.

McCain Straight Up
Ingredients
2 ounces Cabo Wabo Reposado Tequila
1/4 ounce simple syrup
6 pomegranate seeds (KOD note: when pom seeds are out of season, use 1 ounce pomegranate juice)
1 ounce passion fruit puree
Garnish: "1 edible petal"

Method
Muddle pomegranate seeds in base of shaker. Add other ingredients; shake with ice and strain into chilled glass.

Yesterday, the bean counters at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released their latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), and on the surface, the picture ain't pretty. According to the report, food prices for the first half of 2008 shot up by 6.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, already surpassing the 4.7 percent annual increase for all of 2007.

Based on these numbers, that means that a 10-dollar bag of groceries is now closer to 11 bucks, and that 100-dollar weekly food bill is more like $111. Multiply those numbers by four, and you're shelling out $44 more per month -- for now.

Worldwide, however, the jump has been much more substantial. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which tracks global commodities such as rice, sugar and wheat, the food price index has increased 57 percent between March 2007 and March 2008. And here's yet another wrinkle: In many developing countries where the currency is tied to the dollar, a weak dollar means fewer imports, more exports and less local food to go around -- i.e. shortages. Shortages as well as prohibitive increases have resulted in riots around the world; check out this eye-opening map of food riots that took place around the world earlier this year.

I'm putting all of this on the table because I'm curious: Has the continually surging CPI trickled down to your own pocketbook? No doubt Americans have been feeling the sticker shock at the gas pump this year, (although we're still paying less than much of the rest of the world), but is your pain the same at the supermarket checkout counter?

What, if anything, are you doing differently with regards to your weekly food budget? And what are you hearing from friends and family in the developing world? Your stories, your comments, and your morsels of wisdom are all welcome in the comments area. Food for thought, please!

On a related note.: Today at 11 a.m. ET, consumerist.com editor Ben Popken is hosting a live Web chat about the "grocery shrink ray," a new phenomenon you may or may not have noticed while food shopping.

Morristown, N.J.: Whenever I make a blueberry buckle (like last night) the crumbly topping is less crumbly and more hard and sort of cracks when you press a fork against it. It tastes good, it is just not the right texture. Am I adding too much/too little flour and/or sugar?

When I first discovered buckle a few years back, I too had issues with the topping, as did many MA readers. In this case, the topping was too soft (too much fat, not enough flour) and would sink into the buckle batter rather than sit on top and behave crumbly, as a buckle topping should.

After several rounds of kitchen tinkering, here's what I've come up with: a buckle topping that yields plenty of crumb with just the right amount of fat to keep it from becoming cement.

Buckle Topping, Take 68
1/2 cup granulated sugar or light brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cold, cut into dice

Go here for the complete recipe, with tweaks.

Sterling, Va.: Hey Kim. My bf has very simple tastes...white bread, cheese, meat and a select number of vegetables. I try to eat whole grains, lots of vegetables and stay meat-free as possible. I would like to cook more for the both of us, but the gaps between our palates seem so huge I just get overwhelmed, give up and end up settling for some horrid instant-pasta dish. Do you have any suggestions for how to 'start' identifying meals and dishes we would both like? I am floundering and would really appreciate any help I can get.

Sterling, this is not just your problem -- it's his, too. Is he wringing his hands about the weekly supper lineup as much as you are? I'm thinking a big fat No. And I'd argue that if BF wants to see some of his food represented at the table, he needs to share the responsibilities -- be it meal planning, shopping or rolling up his sleeves in the kitchen.

The burden shouldn't be yours alone to tackle -- nor should it be even if your diets were more in sync. Not that long ago, Mister MA called me from work, asking me what was for dinner. "Hmm, I don't know," I replied. "What IS for dinner?" It was a rather uncomfortable moment for us, but a powerful springboard for further discussion -- and resolution (she says, crossing her fingers).

Before we start talking about meals for all mouths, let's scrape the stuck bits from the bottom of this pot and start talking. And this weekend, tell BF that the two of you are going out on a date -- to your neighborhood farmer's market -- for ideas and inspiration.

The last word:
In response to one reader's request for yogurt-based popsicles, Kelly from Fredericksburg, Va. shared her firsthand blogged report and recipe.

In a post-chat e-mail, Kara P., of Annapolis, Md., came to the rescue with a Washington area source for locally milled flour. She and her husband, who co-write a blog, recommend checking out Wades Mill, a family-owned mill in Raphine, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley, which accepts mail orders by phone.

More from this week's What's Cooking buffet table.

"Say thank you more often, every day, even if you don't say it out loud. Think it."

These are the words of the all-knowing Laura, an amazing holistic therapist whom I had the pleasure of meeting in January, when I stretched out on her massage table in Costa Rica.

At first, I was surprised by this notion. Who, me? I say thank you all the time! Doesn't everyone say thank you to the driver upon exiting a bus, when a flight attendant offers a blanket or when the supermarket cashier hands you your change and receipt?

But what Laura was getting at was something deeper, the metaphysical medium that she is. She was right: I had the whole "thank you" courtesy thing down pat, but a daily practice of giving thanks? Not so much.

Seven months since our little chat, Laura's words have stayed right with me on the front burner. In this country, expression of one's gratitude for gratitude's sake, is limited to one day of the year, the last Thursday in November when cranberries are jiggling on the table. What's up with that? Why is it so hard to thank ourselves for having lived another day or to thank the people we love for all that they do?

If you're thinking I'm proposing that we should all get some religion, that's not my point. Not at all.

Instead, I'm proposing that we stop a little more often than we do in our Blackberry-paced lives and smell the peaches. Bite into a cherry, close your eyes and taste it. Really really taste it as if it were the very first time. I'm proposing that we take just 60 seconds every day to express our gratitude for some one or some thing that makes our lives more interesting, more delicious or more beautiful. And I'm thinking, let's start tonight -- by dedicating dinner to someone who really rocks your world.

To get this party started, I'll dish up my platter of thanks: to my main squeeze, Mister Mighty Appetite, who's now living on the other side of the country. In the days leading up to his departure, I'll be honest: I couldn't wait to get him out of my hair. Now I'd give anything to slurp coffee with him and look at the birds in the backyard, to chop side by side in our teeny little kitchen where we're always bumping into each other, to eat off each other's plates.

Who will you give a shout-out to at dinner tonight?

Today is chat day; join me at noon ET for What's Cooking.

As of this morning, we have 46 households signed up for the Eat Local Challenge! I'd love to get four more households to make a total of 50; send me an e-mail by 1 p.m. today and I'll include you on the Eat Local Challenge Honor Roll.

6:45 a.m. Saturday: The clouds have yet to lift off the mountains, but as I peer out the window of the dining room at the Hampton Inn in Staunton, Va. (pronounced without the "u"), the skies of the Shenandoah Valley, are promising plenty of sun. I'm not the only one awake at this fine hour on a Saturday morning; the hotel's breakfast area is packed with people who, like me, are headed just eight miles down a bunch of narrow country roads to the little town of Swoope (pronounced Swope) about 150 miles from Washington, D.C.

A view of the Polyface fields, dotted with portable chicken and turkey shelters. (Kim O'Donnel)

By seven, my farmer-friend and I pile into her car and join the caravan of cars snaking their way through the valley until we arrived on a dirt road called Pure Meadows Lane, home to Polyface Farm, where we would spend the better part of the day. If you've read "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the best-selling and award-winning 2006 book by Michael Pollan, the name Polyface will likely ring a bell; about 10 percent of the book's 400 pages is devoted to the farm and the farmer -- Joel Salatin.

The author of several books (most recently "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal), Salatin, a self-described "Christian libertarian environmental capitalist" has become the rock star of back-to-nature farming. But let's get something straight -- and he'll be the first one to tell you -- just because you won't find a drop of pesticides, herbicides or any other industrial farming chemical on his family's 550-acre property, don't starting calling Polyface an organic farm. It's "beyond organic." And even though he raises cows, chickens, pigs and rabbits, Salatin refers to himself as a grass farmer. Salatin's passion for the "healing of the land" and working off the grid in which to do so, has attracted a legion of like-minded followers from around the country. At Saturday's event, there were 1,550 people registered, excluding the estimated 100 children and equal number of walk-in registrants, a total of nearly 1,800 people. My informal scan of participant name tags generated a list of 35 states (and Canada)!

Joel Salatin greeting his fans. (Kim O'Donnel)

Tickets for Saturday's event, the first in three years, were $90 ($150 after June 1), which included a 3.5 hour tour, an hour of Q&A in the open-air barn and lunch. If you can't wait another three years for the next tour, you can shell out up to a $1,000 for a guided two-hour tour (self-guided tours are free). Salatin is charismatic, passionate and highly opinionated, and the folks there are trying to sponge up as many nuggets of wisdom as they can to take home and implement on their own farms. Our "herd" of the interested and curious are shepherded by Salatin, who's perched on a tractor, as he explains the hows and whys of each part of the farm. The "Racken" (a marriage of both rabbit and chicken) house is where older, less productive egg-laying hens live with rabbits. The highly odiferous manure and urine of the rabbits, which drops onto the shed floor, is spread around by the hens, which create a compost floor. This is just one example of "stacking" that you hear mentioned throughout the tour.

Polyface's pasture-raised products (try saying that five times fast) are available for retail, kinda sorta. Other than driving to the farm, where the farm store is open on Saturdays only (or by appointment), getting your hands on Salatin's goods requires a fair amount of planning and dedication, through one of Polyface's metropolitan buying clubs. Twenty-some D.C. area drop-off locations currently serving about 1,400 families receive customized orders, all paid in advance. "Ninety percent of my buying club customers are organic supermarket dropouts," Salatin said on Saturday. Polyface recently began supplying Chipotle's Charlottesville store between six and eight pigs per week for its carnitas burritos and tacos.

The endless throng of Field Day participants. (Kim O'Donnel)

And if all that effort doesn't seem to make sense for your household, Salatin recommends seeking out another local producer doing pasture-based farming. The important thing, he says, is to support the folks who are "helping to heal the land."

Here's one of Salatin's nuggets to chew on for the road: "If every farmer practiced grazing, in less than 10 years, we'd eliminate the carbon produced from the Industrial Age." Thoughts?

P.S. Today is the last day to sign up for the Eat Local Challenge, which kicks off this Saturday, July 19. Go the ELC link for the details on participating.

A few months ago in this space, we told you about a casting call for Emeril Green, celeb chef Emeril Lagasse's new show on Planet Green, the 24/7 eco-channel at Discovery.

Now the show is ready for prime time, and it's coming out of the oven Monday, July 14, at 8 p.m. Emeril has cooked up a batch of 80 shows, each of which profiles a "cooking-challenged" home cook from the Washington area, including a handful of Mighty Appetite blog readers. Deepening the Washington connection is the Whole Foods in Fair Lakes, Va., where the entire first season has been taped, according to producer Marie Ostrosky.

Typically, the show will air Monday through Friday at 8 p.m., but the debut will be a "mini-marathon running six shows back-to-back, " says Ostrosky. "Then it's two shows a night for the first two weeks."

Two MA readers are part of Monday's lineup, including 39-year-old Laura MacLean of Capitol Hill and 29-year-old Bren Herrera, who divides her time between Falls Church, Va., and Atlanta, Ga. The following week, 29-year-old Samantha Cummings, of Arlington, Va., is the star of the July 23 show.

I asked this trio a handful of questions about their on-air experiences working with Lagasse. MacLean and Cummings responded via e-mail; Herrera spoke with me by phone from St. Maarten earlier this week.

What was your dilemma?

Laura MacLean: I am so busy with work (I have a full-time job, I teach spin classes at the Marine Barracks and I write a blog for Trek Bicycles) AND I train for different athletic events/races at night that by the time I get home around 9:30 pm, I'm ready to eat the paint off the walls.

I also lost over 100 lbs (you'll see me holding up my big pants on the show no doubt) so it's important for me to eat healthy and fresh food that's low fat and high fiber (and fast to cook). I asked Emeril to help me liven up my menu choices with some new ideas.

Bren Herrera: Pork. Anything and everything pork. I grew up Seventh Day Adventist, and we didn't eat it, we didn't cook it, even though I'm Cuban, and our cuisine is nothing but pork. Now I've got a catering company and I'm a personal chef, and I've got clients who want pork and I didn't have the first idea about working with it.

Samantha Cummings: My pizza was never pizza parlor quality pizza. It was mediocre "homemade pizza" that was a bit floppy, the center never cooked well, etc.

Did you learn what you wanted to learn? Did you learn something you wouldn't have expected?

LM: It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to learn from Emeril and cook with him. I'm probably going to sound like a broken record on the show -- 'I've never tried that before" -- because he introduced me to some new veggies and legumes. At the end of the day, the best part is that I had FUN.

My dish was layered with sauteed Swiss chard on the bottom (a new veggie for me); then topped with French green lentils (I love lentils but hadn't tried this kind) that we cooked in broth with sauteed carrots/onions/celery; added some roasted corn; all that topped with an egg Emeril fried in olive oil. There may have been a little Parmigiano shaved on top, I can't remember. I'm not a big egg fan, but the dish felt like it was something I'd get in a French bistro.

BH: I learned much more than what I wanted to learn. We went to the butcher, who described every cut of the pig. I learned how to use pork as a flavoring rather than using it as a centerpiece. I must admit, I really did enjoy the ham hock in the beans he made, and I learned how long pork barbecue takes.

SC: I just wanted to learn how to make good pizzeria-style pizza. I think my biggest revelation were the toppings. I was usually pretty traditional sticking with cheese pizza (or maybe olives and capers), but the variety of cheeses and toppings we used wowed me. Having to heat a stone for about an hour also was revealing

How did Emeril incorporate "green" in helping you with your dilemma?

LM: The "green" of my show is the health aspect of the food. There's also the component of food as fuel for my active life -- how will what I'm eating keep me going. We also made "energy bars" that he named NOLA Bars I can take with me when I do long bicycle rides instead of buying packaged/processed ones.

BH: We talked about the benefits of free-range pork (versus conventional) and the differences in the way pigs are fed.

SC: Not a whole lot of "green" in my episode.

Overall, was it a worthwhile experience? And have you made your dish since the taping?

LM: I have made my dish several times since the taping, modified slightly, without the egg. The dish doesn't suffer without it.

BH: I'd do it 10 times over. I got to teach him a little about Latin cooking as well, which he seemed open to. I've cooked pork loins, I've done the pork chop marinated in citrus and bay leaf. Now cooking pork won't be a problem.

[As for eating pork, Bren says she's curious, but is still practicing her religion and staying clear of the stuff.]

SC: Yes, it was. I make pizza all the time now. My husband thinks it is the best thing I make and requests it probably a couple times a week now. I definitely try to incorporate a few different types of cheeses into my pizza now.

Local tomatillos showed off their pretty chartreuse-y skins at my neighborhood farm market last weekend, which means only one thing at Casa Appetite: salsa verde.

Tomatillos waiting to be sauced. (Kim O'Donnel)

If you've never had the pleasure, now's the time. As a member of the nightshade family (eggplants, tomatoes, peppers), tomatillos show up when it's nice and warm. Even though it kinda looks like a tomato and it's got tomato as part of its name, the tomatillo is not a tomato, nor is it a green tomato waiting to turn red. Think of it as a distant cousin with a sweet-tart disposition.

Super-low in calories (1/2 cup is just 20 calories), the tomatillo is also a good source of potassium and Vitamin C. See for yourself what a great sauce she makes, proving her mettle in all kinds of flavor scenarios -- with grilled mains, rice and beans, scrambled eggs and of course, as part of a chip-n-dip combo. What I also like is that you can play with seasonings, making it as spicy or limey as you wish. Below, the results when I left Mister MA to his own devices and the food processor.

Raw Tomatillo Sauce

Ingredients
4 tomatillos, husks removed and cut in half
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled
Juice of 1 lime
Heat of chilies -- I used ¼ habanero, but use what you like
1 scallion, root removed, chopped
Small handful chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
Optional add-ons:
1 avocado, for extra creaminess
A few tablespoons of sour cream or plain yogurt to mellow out the heat from the chilies

Method
Place tomatillos, garlic, lime, chilies, scallion and cilantro in bowl of a food processor. Puree until well blended. Taste for salt and add accordingly. If using dairy to mellow out heat, add gradually and taste along the way. The same rule of thumb applies to the avocado -- if you add the entire fruit, the resulting sauce may be very thick.

Scoop out of the bowl and serve with tortilla chips, as a sauce for grilled chicken, steak or fish, with beans and rice, scrambled eggs, on top of chopped cabbage.

Makes about 1 ½ cups sauce.

Summer of 1988: I was a new college grad, making six bucks an hour at two jobs and living in a group house in West Philadelphia. It was ridiculously hot all the time in that skunky Philly sort of way. Other than developing a penchant for tequila, I remember my obsession with cantaloupe and vanilla yogurt. I made it for breakfast before heading to my six-dollar-an-hour job on my bicycle called Shirley, and I made it for dinner because most of the time, it was just too hot to cook. I'd buy my 'loupes from Al the Fruit Man, an old codger who sold produce on the U. Penn campus, or I'd pick one up at Sue's, a Korean-owned fruit shop on a corner in Center City.

Cantaloupe with honey and pecans. (Kim O'Donnel)

There is one caveat with loving cantaloupe melons -- and that's the uncertainty of the tasting experience. At least half the time, cantaloupes are more sour than sweet and more cardboardy than velvety, a highly distressing, unappetizing experience that makes for one big gamble when you're a cantaloupe enthusiast licking your chops for melon. But the remaining 50 percent of the time, when a cantaloupe is sweeter than honey, perfumed like a rose and almost creamy to the bite, I forget about all the duds that have dared pass my lips and I'm back in melon heaven.

Right now, I've got a sweet beauty in my midst, and I'm loving life. Her flesh is just as I remember, that gorgeous shade of pink-orange, like something you might see at sunset. And her scent - well, without sounding like too much of a pun, is honeybee-sent - nectar-y and as sweet as a midsummer's night dream.

Cantaloupe with olive oil, mint and cayenne. (Kim O'Donnel)

As I cut through my lucky melon yesterday afternoon, I thought about the many ways I can get my 'loupe on, other than the KOD way with vanilla yogurt a la 1988. Feel free to add to the list as you see fit. And if you don't share my enthusiasm, chime in on the other vined fruits of summer.

Ten Ways to Get Your 'Loupe On

1. Sauteed with bananas in a skillet, butter, a little rum, poured over vanilla fro-yo or ice cream.

2. Drizzled with honey and garnished with pecans or walnuts, for breakfast or dessert.

3. Dressed up with basil and/or mint, a spritz of olive oil, cayenne, lime and salt for a light yet luscious salad or elegant starter.

4. Draped with prosciutto and shards of Parmigiano-Reggiano, to make you feel like you're summering in Sicily.

5. Pureed into a refreshingly cold soup to take the 98 percent humidity edge off.

Cantaloupe with blueberries, yogurt and nutmeg. (Kim O'Donnel)

6. Partnered with grilled shrimp, threaded on a skewer, for a kebab unlike no other. The grilled 'loupe will intrigue and inspire.

7. As part of a seviche, fish and/or shellfish "cooked" in an acidic marinade that would make a very glam dinner party appetizer.

8. Featured in a gorgeous salsa, studded with red onion, cilantro, chilies, cucumber and lime, served with grilled fish or chicken.

9. David Lebovitz, author of "The Perfect Scoop," suggests using 'loupe for a variety of frozen treats, including sorbet and granita, spiked with a sparkling wine. I'm loving the idea of his melon in lime syrup -- 'loupe chunks steeped in a reduced lime-zested simple syrup. Yowza.

10. Tossed with blueberries or blackberries, a wee bit of lime and honey, and if you're feeling frisky, a tablespoon of diced candied ginger.