Gosh, what a lovely weekend, huh? I can't remember a summer with nicer weather than we've had this year - warm, dry, I'm really trying to savor every minute of it. Man, when it so chooses, Minnesota quite RAWKS. Nice.
I opened the rawkness with an uncharacteristic bit of baking, motivated by my lovely CSA blueberries. Blueberry muffins, in fact, basically crazy-good. Yeah, warm muffins, plenty of French Roast (decaf, I'm a wuss), nice start to the day.
Post-muffin(s), it was high time for a lovely, sweaty walk, today 'round Lake of the Isles, through Lowry Hill, along Mount Curve, and through Kenwood Park. Just...gorgeous. (Mos def topped my buggy, humid walk through the usually lovely Clifton French Regional Park on Wednesday, OMG, I was flat-out attacked by gnats and biting flies, OUCH!)
My stinky self stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home and ran into Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius - they were picking up dinner ingredients after paddle-boarding on Lake Calhoun.
(Dinner at their house next weekend, by the way, with Rudy& Ana, yays!)
But just a family dinner here at the hacienda tonight, so I picked up a roasting chicken, loads of naan (flat bread, the kids go crazy for it), and baba ganoush (the Whole Foods brand is particularly tasty). I roasted the chicken on the grill with my faboo Weber roaster, grilled the naan (spritzed with a bit of olive oil spray and sprinkled with a pinch of Kosher salt), grilled CSA veggie sharezucchini (sliced thin, same treatment as the naan), and tossed together a quick salad of tomatoes (from my own pots! Finally!), cukes, onions, artichoke hearts, and roasted red pepper. In other words - a Mediterranean feast, more than I had even planned. I didn't quite know where to start when I faced my plate - so many favorites, so little time!
Heck, not even bat guano could distract me from digging in (we have a couple of bats who've taken up residence in our oft-closed shade umbrellas - seriously gross 
when you pop the umbrella and guano showers down on the table. Uh, yuck. But that's what shopvacs are for - that and disinfectant kitchen sprays, shiver).
Post-Whole Foods, pre-cooking dinner, I snuck in a little time at the pool with John and Nathan. Hot sun, cool water, a spooky book (Ghostwalk, by Rebecca Stott), all good. And what is it about a pre-dinner shower on a hot day? So decadent. Best if warm-not-hot, fragrant (Molton Brown Energising Seamoss, smells like the ocean), quick, no fuss. Followed by a sun dress, swipe of Chanel Glossimer, spritz of Annik Goutal Les Nuits d'Hadrien, ready to cook! Little al fresco dining, blogging, call it a day...
G'night!
Moderate it: I think olive oil spray is one of the greatest inventions ever. I used it to grease the muffin tins for this morning's blueberry muffins and to oil the naan, chicken, and sliced zucchini before salting and roasting them this evening. Low-calorie, tasty, effective - virtually indispensable.
A Perfectly Summery Sunday
L'Chaim!
L'chaim! Yep, I get dinner out with my minxes tonight, woo hoo! We're hitting up Bar Lurcat this time, for gazpacho, mini-burgers, and those irresistible, cursed frites. I even have straight hair (for now) since I got my hair cut today - a blow out in this weather is only worth it if someone else does it. Since that happens, oh, about every 8 weeks, it's feeling a bit rare and swingy. Whee! Hey, what can I say, I measure my days in dewpoint, always have. It's a frizz
thing, not a curl thing (I can handle curl, curl is cute; frizz is, uh, I'll let you fill in the alliterative blank).
Anyhow. Just quick meals lately, last night nothing more than good ol' spaghetti with meat sauce for Wild Wednesday, although I did grill thin slices of zucchini to go alongside. Way easy - brush both sides of slices with olive oil, sprinkle with a bit of salt, let sit a few minutes to soften, then grill away. Eat hot off the grill, as is or showered with fresh herbs, maybe even a grate of Parm. Mmmm...
Oh, speaking of zucchini, I can't forget to pick up my La Finca CSA veggies on my way to pick up the girls (Thursday is pick-up day, just a few blocks down). Maybe some tomatoes this week! I received two huge, juicy beauties as a little gift this week, OMG, so good. Nathan and I had BLTs for breakfast today, loving every juicy-crispy-salty-smoky bite. We agreed that whoever made up that blessed sandwich was a genius. So simple - which means the ingredients have to be top notch. Nueske's bacon, a garden-ripe tomato, crisp lettuce, good toasted bread, and real mayo. Oh man, pretty hard to beat.
Moderate it: BLTs don't have to be unhealthy - on whole-grain bread, easy on the mayo, two slices of well-drained bacon, heavy on garden-ripe tomato. Fabulous.
I’m Stephanie Meyer. If you're looking for fresh, delicious food to share with those you love - welcome! In addition to the recipes you'll find here, I post Tuesday recipes at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly magazine with a focus on local, seasonal ingredients. I also cook and take photos for Andrew Zimmern's Kitchen Adventures/Food & Wine magazine, post gluten-free recipes at Stuffed Pepper, cook with food photographer Susan Powers for Shooting the Kitchen, and organize the Minnesota Food Bloggers. Let’s eat!
