Sunday Happy

This is the time of summer that hate or strongly dislike. The heat and humidity. All a bunch of bullshit. 😬

We went on our first camp of our camp season and I give it an A (not A+). Everything was perfect except that it was hot, like mother freaking stupid hot. So hot that when I made dinner (soup as always and forever) the mr refused to eat it .Me, well I ate it and dropped more sweat then I thought possible, So yeah it was stupid hot and yes we did go out in the kayaks at exactly the hottest part of the day (really bad choice) and sure I might have died a little but it was still all good. The stroll through the woods. The tiny little fire that I sat far far away from. My hot soup. All the stuff. And when we woke up the next morning the temperature had dropped enough to be a bit chilled, I made the coffee in a long sleeved shirt, walked to the pond for sunrise then packed up camp and home we headed.

Then the rest of the week. I blinked and it was over. First thing back I went to the dentist and had my teeth cleaned all nice and shit. Then I basically spent the rest of the days running around with my head chopped off. I was in the studio almost everyday loading and unload kilns, glazing all the stuff, and helping transition the new studio manager to the place. Wasn’t so bad given the air condition and all because, as you might also be dealing with, a stupid ass heat wave. Whenever I was home I was miserable and bitchy and cursing the sun back to hell. The house felt like a furnace and I did not deal with it well. Not my finest moments as a human but I didn’t literally kill anyone so I consider that a victory.

Sunday! Not only ar we going camping but we are bringing the crew with us. The 3 littles, Barb, and the mr and I are heading out to the woods this morning to do what we do best. We will hike and swim. They will fish and I will read (or run around with Coco). Got the frisbee and nerf ball and playing cards. And we packed a ton of food (healthy and junk). There will be fire and s’mores and when the wake up the get the full on meal along with breakfast hot chocolate. Sure there is a chance it gonna rain all night but I really don’t care because summer camping rain is just fine by me. We won’t melt, I hope anyway.

Some internet reads from my week.

-The Era of Climate Change Has Created a New Emotion . I feel the “eco-anxiety.” every damn day.

-Glamorous and unafraid are not the two words I think of when I here this design trend but hey, it’s actually pretty awesome. Not for me but I love to see it! Barbiecore Is the New Design Trend to Completely Obsess Over.

-This Is The Most Common Weather-Related Phobia. Can you guess my weather phobia? Yeah it’s definitely 100% thermophobia.

-Do cats and dogs remember their past? Obviously.

-I don’t got to restaurants but if I did I would want to know every single detail of what I was ordering. Is the Minimalist Restaurant Menu Over?

-Sad. Beloved monarch butterflies are now listed as endangered

-Crazy. This goat is all ears. REALLY! They may be the longest in goat history

-The case for caring less. All about caring less or as I like to say, not giving two fucks.

Pictures from the week.

Tomato Basil and White Bean Orzo Pasta Salad

Another heatwave. I tell you what, If I never live through another 90 + degree day, it will be too soon.

What to eat during a heat wave? Well maybe you don’t care and have air conditioning in your kitchen so you cook whatever. I don’t have air conditioning and after a few days of boiling temps, there is no freaking way I am turning on the oven. I can barely turn on the stove top to boil water, but I did, I boiled water, I just did it early in the morning before the temperatures starting rising again. (A pro tip for you.) That is one of the great things about pasta salad, you can make the pasta ahead of time. You can even make the whole salad in the morning and then you don’t have to do a damn thing when it comes to dinner besides lifting a fork to your face, which I know can be a feat when all you want to do is melt, or slap at something, but still.

This pasta salad, well it is not you everyday pasta salad. It has beans, fresh basil, and a dressing that is made by blending up the most delicious seasonal tomatoes until rich and creamy and dumped all over the orzos. . It is probably going to be the best tasting pasta salad you will ever eat. The thing is, you really need to make it soon because sure you can get tomatoes all year round but don’t do that. Do yourself a favor and make it now while the tomatoes are plentiful and at their peak of deliciousness. And also you don’t have wait for a heatwave to make it. This is a good meal to have at the ready all throughout tomato season, and just in case, a heat wave.

Now to the pasta salad!

The stuff. Just picked tomatoes, some fresh basil, cooked navy beans, orzo pasta, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and salt and pepper.

Rough chop tomatoes into small pieces. Also peel and dice garlic into small pieces.

Place the tomatoes, garlic, and a good pinch of salt into a blender (I used a hand blender) and blend unit smooth. Add in the vinegar and oil and bend until the mixture starts to emulsify and becomes smooth and creamy.

Cook and strain pasta as instructed. Keep in on the al dente side.

Chop up basil into thin ribbons or whatever.

Then dump pasta into a large bowl. Add in cherry tomatoes ( I cut mine in half) and beans. Dump in half the sauce and mix around then mix in the chopped basil.

If you are eating it right away, add in the rest of the sauce. If you are keeping it for later, place pasta and sauce in fridge and a before you are planning on serving it mix in the remaining sauce.

Looks so good right! Season with salt and pepper to taste and then you know…

Grab a bowl and eat it. Probably should grab a from too, eating this with your hands might get messy.

Stay cool friends!

-C

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Tomato Basil and White Bean Orzo Pasta Salad

serves 2-3 as a meal or more as a side

• 2 cups dried orzo pasta (12 oz)

• 2 large heirloom tomatoes (about 2 cups chopped)

• 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes)

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• 1 1/2 cups cooked and drained white beans ( I used navy but any white bean will do)

• 1 cup packed basil leaves

• 2 cloves garlic

• salt and pepper

Start with making the tomato dressing. Rough chop the 2 large tomatoes into smaller pieces and peel and chop garlic. Place the tomatoes in a blender (or a large jar if using a hand blender) with the garlic and a good pinch of salt and a little pepper. Blend until smooth. Add in the vinegar and oil and continue to blend until the mixture becomes thick and creamy. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed .

Prepare orzo pasta as instructed on package (make it al dente)

Grab basil and chop into smaller pieces.

Once orzo is cooked and drained, dump it into a large bowl. Add in the beans and cherry tomatoes (slice in half if they are on the large size) and pour in half if the tomato sauce. Mix unit incorporated. Toss in the basil.

Now if you are going to eat right away mix in remaining sauce. If you plan on refrigerating and eating later, save the remaining half of the sauce and mix it in right before serving.

Store left overs in fridge for up to 5 days.

It’s Hot Out. Make some Popsicles.

It is hot out Dumb hot. What do you do to stay cool? Me? Well besides spending my time splayed out on the kitchen floor (it’s the coolest spot in the house), I like to eat frozen food, sometimes in the form of popsicles. And it has been freaking stupid hot way too much already this year and I haven’t made nearly enough popsicles. That ends now. Dealing with the heat sucks and I deserve a freaking popsicles and so do you.

Here are a few of my favorites.

• Roasted Banana Strawberry Popsicles

• Avocado Mango Popsicles

• Carrot Ginger Orange Popsicles

• Toasted Coconut And Corn Popsicles

• Rhubarb Popsicles

• Pineapple Cucumber Spinach Popsicles

Next week I’ll share one of my new favorite, a sweet potato fudgesicle. I was going to share it this week but I ended up eating the frozen sweet potatoes that I had intended to use. Oops.

Stay cool. Eat popsicles!.

-C

Sunday Happy

Holy shit. I am so hot. Like heated to the very depths of my soul and can’t even think straight, hot. And It sucks, but what can we do about it? (Apparently I can bitch about it. Ha!)

We started the week off in the woods doing the camp thing. The park, Allis State Park, was just gorgeous. Nice and quite, lush and green, with a really cool fire tower with views for days. (I climbed it, the mr stayed on solid ground) The weather was amazing and it really was just what we needed. We went for a good hike, made lentils and zucchini for dinner, then just hung around and chilled by the fire. The perfect start to camping season even though I forgot my camp clothes. We were coming from a visit that required me to look decent and I forgot to pack a change of clothes and only grabbed my thin thermal underwear that I sleep in. But lucky me, the mr let me wear his extra shirt so I managed alright. That mr. Always looking out for me.

Back in town we did life as usual although with the heat and all we, especially me, have functioned at a much slower pace. We did manage to go for a bike ride lunch, another couple small hikes, and pick lots of flowers on top of feeding Megans cat everyday. And my garden is growing at a rapid pace and is now on the verge of being overcome by the onslaught of weeds. I just haven’t wanted to spend to much time weeding this week because again, heat and all. Other then that, same old, same old.

Friday I was really excited to spend the afternoon working at the studio. But when I got there, all the kilns were on and reaching maximum temperature so the studio was a bit toasted warm and not the pleasant cool I was looking forward to. After work, the mr and littles picked me up, (they just went to the movies and were complaining how cold it was… brat faces) we went home and I made them pasta because I couldn’t do much more. They played in the sprinkler then we tried to walk around the block but they just couldn’t make it around because of the heat, then Miley felt sick and had to go home. So the mr and Judah brought her home and went to get supplies. Ice cream and chips. We ended up watching Kindergarten Cop which I haven’t seen in like 20 years (it was terrible and Judah loved it) then made Judah a bed in our room so we could all crank the ac for the night and not melt.

Woke up, did the pancakes, went on a few errands, and dropped the boy off to his air conditioned family. Then the heat really just plowed me over. My brain tuned to mush, I cleaned a bit, picked blackberries from the yard, and basically just laid around on the floor and sweated. It was nasty and I was miserable. Meanwhile the mr was outside mowing the lawn because he is a glutton for punishment. And crazy. And that was the day. I was showered and locked away in the bedroom with the ac on by 7. And it was nice.

Currently sitting in the living room, with no ac, at 4am and the tempature is 87. It’s just not right.

Going onwards with the day we are headed back into the woods again and I am optimistic. Camping by a lake in a forest so we should be semi cool?? Or less hot then right now I hope. At the very least we can jump into water. But I am pretty sure the heat, or at least the humidity is going to break today. It has to or else I am a goner.

Hope you al are holding up better then I am. HAHA!

Linkage from the net.

-I am in the Spice Girl Generation. And yes, I loved them and still do. The Rise of the Spice Girls Generation

-The mr and I have been going back and forth between new sleeping pads or an inflatable mattress or just using yoga mats for camping…. Maybe the hammock is the way to go. Camping hammocks free you from tent tyranny

-How changes in barometric pressure affect the human body. I am so so so sensitive to it. I get head pressure and joint aches when it fluctuates. It’s annoying.

-Why Do We Yawn? Reading about yawning makes people yawn. You are probably yawning right now. I totally yawned.

-It is so hot so you should know exactly what your options are. What’s the Difference Between Ice Cream, Gelato, Sorbet, and Sherbet?

-There's An Explanation For Why You Always Get Sick During Time Off. I don’t get “sick” per say, but I definitely crash after a long stint of work.

-What the holy fuck. Arby’s mocks the fake meat trend with vegetables made out of meat (or “megetables”) But pretty dang funny.

-I love a good tile floor. Who doesn't? CHECKERED PAST.

-Hiiiiii! THIS is how texting has changed grammar & the way we communicate. I think by now we all know that a period at the end of a text is hostile. HA

-This could be my calling, or just a good way to get out of the country for a few years because, well you know. New vacancy for sheep dyke warden

Pictures from the week.

Cucumber-Cantaloupe-Avocado-Mint Salad

Cucumber melon is a classic food pairing. It also reminds me of when I was a young tween, stealing my older sisters cucumber melon face mask that you smeared all over your face, let dry, then peeled off like a layer of skin. I remember thinking that that stuff was the shit and if my sisters where using it, then I really should start using it too before I got an old lady face. Plus it was cool to peel off and made me feel grown up because I was taking care of my skin. So steal it I would until I eventually started buying it myself. Then one day I realized, I could get the same results with a bottle of Elmers glue and also I didn't really want to spend my money on face mask when I could be buying other unmentionable things.  And that was the end of that. 

I wonder if they still sell that shit.... I wouldn't buy it though cause you know it is probably really is just sweet smelling glue. Plus it's to late for me. I am already old. Ha. 

Anyway. Back to the cucumber, cantaloupe, avocado, mint salad. What can I say that the name doesn't? That is is f-ing fantastic and refreshing and easy to through together and required ZERO heat to make. Also that on the hottest of hot and nasty days, this here combination , what with the refreshing mint and crisp clean flavors of the cucumber and melon, really can make a shitty day feel a little less shitty, maybe even  a little brighter. I don't know about you, but this past super hot heat wave week was hard for food, like I didn't really want to eat anything. This salad was fresh and clean enough to eat all day, everyday. It was so good, even the mr liked it and he says he hates fruit in any salad situation. (I have called bullshit in this so many times. He actually does like it, he just wants to give me a hard time.) 

Fresh crisp, all sorts of refreshing. A true blue summer salad. Get on it. 

The stuff. Some cantaloupe, a cucumber or two, an avocado, a lemon, mint, cracked pepper, and even though it's not in the picture, sea salt.

Remove seeds and rind from cantaloupe then chop into small mouth sized pieces ans toss it into a bowl.

Cut the cucumber up into simutlar sized pieces as cantaloupe and toss into bowl.

. I ended up only using  one and a half of the cucumbers so the cucumber/ cantaloupe ratio was the same. Plus I wanted to eat the half of cucumber tight then and there.. so I did. 

Scoop the avocado meat onto the cutting board. Sprinkle it with sea salt and a little squueze of lemon juice and roughly chop. You don't want it mashed, but a little mashy avocado is good. Perfect cubes are ok too. You do you.

Mince some mint leaves. You know where they go.

It's all there. Cantaloupe, cucumbers, avocado, mint. Salt and pepper and all the lemon juice. Now just stir it up and you are good to go. 

A simple summer dish. No heat, not sweat, just fresh and clean goodness.

Stay cool friends.

-C

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Cucumber-Cantaloupe-Avocado-Mint Salad

Serve 2-3 

• 1/4- 1/2 of a fresh cantaloupe 
• 1-2 thinned skinned  cucumbers (like 2 Persian or 1 English) 
• 1ripe avocado
• 1 lemon
• 15 -ish mint leaves
• sea salt and cracked pepper 

Note. This salad is so simple and easy and really, you can adjust the quantities of any of the ingredients to your liking. You could also try subing basil or dill  for mint leaves and you could use any other type of melon for the cantaloupe. 

Remove seeds and rind from melon and cut into small mouth sized pieces and place into a big bowl. Cut cucumber(s) into small mouth sized pieces (same size as cantaloupe) and toss into bowl. Scope the meat of the avocado onto cutting board, add a sprinkle of sea salt and  a little squeeze of lemon juice and with your knife, roughlycut/ slighty mash it into a chunky pile. Scope the avocado into the bowl.  Mince the mint leaves and add those to the salad. Lastly, squeeze the juice of the lemon all into that bowl too. Grab a spoon and mix it all together. Sprinkle with pepper, a pinch more sea salt (to taste) and thats that.

Eat. Left over s last a day or two in fridge but you should just probably just eat it all right away.