Summer Salad

I love seasonal eating, and it's never easier than in the summer. It also helps when you have neighbors who are going away for a couple of weeks and need to clean your fridge...the combination can be quite tasty.

Mediterranean inspired salad:

-lettuce from the garden
-cherry tomatoes from the garden/farmers' market
-cukes (from the store, but the garden ones are coming along nicely!)
-olives & some amazing turkish farmer's cheese from the neighbors

Chop it all up and add a dressing made from balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil & a dash of salt & pepper.

It also helps when your fellow potluckers make a delicious meal that suits your salad perfectly.

A delicious cilantro infused slaw, savory bread pudding & roasted chicken. We had the requisite ice cream for dessert. Yum and Yum.

Sumptuous Summer

I love summer potlucks...

Firing up the grill.

The first taste of local corn.

The kids playing outside, running between the sandbox and the kiddie pool.

Okay, not that last one. I have a super visceral reaction to the thought of wet sand near food. But, after we hosed the kids off, they joined us at the picnic table for this amazing meal...

Hot dogs, corn, sesame kale, quinoa & zucchini salad & homemade pickles.

With the exception of the hot dogs, everything else included local ingredients. The pickles were made with local dill, cukes, turnips & beets, the quinoa had local zucchini and the kale (and broccoli leaves!) came right from our garden. The fruit salad at the end was the perfect dessert, followed by a handful of blueberries picked on Sunday.

The kids seemed to enjoy the meal as well.

As for the kale...that was our offering and couldn't have been any easier (as is my method during the summer). I picked a bunch of dino kale from the garden, and then snagged a few broccoli leaves as well, because...why not?

I steamed those up, and while they were cooking I toasted a handful of sesame seeds in a wok. I added some olive oil, minced garlic and a tablespoon or so of tamari and mixed in the kale. Delish.

Pesto Potluck

So...it's been a while.

Summer seems to have that effect. Between RV trips whisking us away and other summer happenings, it can be tricky to ensure that we keep our Monday nights going. Thankfully, last night we were back in full force, packing in our house with a lot of people and food!

When it came time to decide what we were going to whip up, it was really a no brainer. Our garden has been overflowing with basil lately, so we went with our go-to dish...pesto pasta.

The garden. Overflowing with basil *and* weeds. We'll get right on that.

Everyone seems to have their own version of pesto that they love, and to be honest, ours changes on any given day. There's no real measuring going on, and I even change up the ingredients from time to time. Here's what we did this week.

1. Pick a bunch of basil.

About that much.

2. Clean it up.

3. Toast some pine nuts in a skillet for a couple of minutes. (I probably used 1/4 cup or so of pine nuts).

4. Blend together: basil, pine nuts, salt, pepper, one minced cloves of garlic, and some olive oil (1/2-3/4 cup? I start with a little and add more as needed). I use a hand blender, but a food processor or regular blender will work just as well.

5. Add to cooked pasta.

6. Serve to friends and eat alongside their awesome food.

The pesto pasta went perfectly with chips & green salsa, greens/cheese fritatta, fresh garden salad, potato salad & a yummy peach/rhubarb cobbler for dessert!