Tomato Basil Goodness

So how awesome was guest post from Darcy yesterday? For real. She’s the best.

The past few days, I’ve been eating a lot of tomatoes, basil, cheese, and sprouts. And it’s been great. So fresh. So wonderful.

The first time was at Emily’s house for her birthday dinner. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY! Her mom made us a super tasty bruschetta for an appetizer.

Then, last night, inspired by Darcy, we made the same sort of dish before dinner. The base is farmer’s market bread with butter and garlic salt, toasted for a few minutes in the broiler. Then, we layered tomato (from the garden), fresh basil, parmesan, and sprouts.

So tasty. And so easy. And so lending to variation. Switch up the kind of cheese…try fresh mozzarella. Try different kinds of bread: pita, rye, or skip the bread entirely and use the tomato as the base.

If you want a traditional bruschetta (a la Emily’s birthday dinner), just chop the tomatoes and basil finely, add some EVOO, and serve on a bread substance of choice. Yum!

Officially my new favorite, easy to make, summer appetizer!

Winona Lake by Day

On my way (sort of) between Michigan and North Carolina, I stopped to visit Rachel and thought it would make a fun guest post.  Rachel scampered off to work in the morning and I set out to discover Winona Lake on my own, armed with a book and some insider info as to where I should stop.  Of course, the first thing I did was head down to the water to look for sailboats.  The lake must be fairly shallow because all I saw were small catamarans.
Such a cute fricken town. All the little shops have signs out front.
So I wandered down by the water and found the Killarney Castle (PRIVATE RESIDENCE). Right after I took the picture I saw a woman cleaning right by the window. Oops.
I tried to make myself round to blend in with some park art.
I figured I could knock out the downtown shops in about ten minutes, as it’s a pretty small area. However, by the time I made it to the cafe that Rachel said I MUST stop at, it was nearly 11:30. It is blazing hot outside today (hence the sundress), so going into the cafe was a nice relief. As promised, the ginger cookie was delicious…
…and it went well with my recommended book, Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design . So there I sat, munching on my cookie and reading about spark plug design.
But, as I said, it was 11:30 so I didn’t linger too long. Rachel was coming to take me out for my first sushi experience! Yes, that’s right. My name is Darcy and I have never tried sushi. I’ll confess. And being the research maven that I am, I can tell you that what we ate today is called makizushi (literally “rolled sushi”). I tried a spicy Siren maki (right after I learned how to use chopsticks).
Rachel was an old pro at it by then. At least, she seemed like it, until she had to pour some soy sauce onto her plate. We admired the rectangular plates.
So it’s been a busy morning! And now I sit in her office, using old-fashioned html to insert my photos because WordPress is apparently furious at me (undoubtedly because I went with Blogger rather than WordPress for my blog).

But the day is only half over! Stay tuned to hear more about Winona Lake by Night!

Two birds with one stone

After a night of pizza eating and champagne drinking, a work out was in order for the morning. In order to accomplish all the errands I needed to do, I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I pulled on the bike shorts, donned a backpack, and clipped in the bike shoes. Hit the road!

First stop, Walgreens. I needed to pick up the order of photos that I uploaded last night to be printed. Here’s my hot ride:

Next week, I’ll do a post featuring the final product of the new prints that I have 🙂

Next stop, Owens. I had to pick up bananas and PB. Goal for this year: bananas and PB together do not create a meal. ALSO: each jar of PB must last 2 weeks. Unless I bake something.

Moving on… then I biked into town, yelled at a bunch of stop lights for not turning green in time, and thus making me unclip my pedals, and deposited my paycheck at the bank (payday!!)

Last, and most certainly not least: farmer’s market!

There’s a great little farmer’s market within a mile of my house. I like it bunches and intend to take full advantage over the next few weeks of harvest-time goodness. The goods include:

• green beans
• tomatoes
• green peppers
• a purple pepper
• a yellow pepper
• a loaf of wheat bread
• eggs

Pretty much just the basics. But, since I never really grocery shopped last week, I haven’t stocked up on anything, and so, was in need of the basics.

Off to the beach this afternoon to soak up some of the last of summer’s sun! Woot!