Things I Love: Summer Edition

It's a perfectly raining day in the neighborhood . . . but that wouldn't keep me from talking about some of my favorite summer things.  Some new, some old - but all rank at the top of my summer fun list.

Repeat after me: Bath & Body Works annual summer sale is dangerous.  Great bargains were there for the taking.  So I partook in the taking.  One of my favorite things that I snagged was this lovely lemon concoction - Summer Vanillas: Lemon.  It smells like vanilla/lemon pound cake.  It's not overpowering and as far as lotions go (remember I'm crazy picky about lotion) it's not bad.  I also picked up the body splash in this same scent.  I smell fresh and lemony - perfect for summer.

I am behind in my reading.  It's one of my favorite things to do in the world - curl up with a good book and just get utterly lost in the characters and plot for an hour or a day.  I'm finally getting around to reading Kim Harrison's latest Pale Demon - I remembered it was on my shelf after watching Disney's Tinkerbell and the Great Faerie Rescue - sad, but true.  I will also be finishing The Help in time to go to the theater with my mother.  To me summer is all about reading brain candy - and while, for the most part, I don't read trashy romance novels I read plenty of things that are just good old fashioned fun.  I can't wait!  Oh - and any of you out there have a recommendation for a good book, please let me know.

First let me say this: I have a thing for pineapples.  They're cute in that whole "if you pick me up wrong I could hurt you" kind of way.  I only have a few pineapple things, because really it's so easy to overdo when collecting.  I picked up these wonderfully summery sandals at Target at the beginning of the summer and was stoked to wear them that first day.  The thing I love the most about these is that they look like they could have been very expensive, purchased on a tropical resort somewhere.  They are really the perfect summer shoe - classic design with something unexpected.  I get complements every time I wear them.  ♥

I love pudding.  A lot.  I'm not sure there's anything better than enjoying a pudding cup at then end of the day.  Curling up on the couch and spending a few minutes indulging in chocolaty goodness.  Especially now.  Have you tried Jello Temptations?  OMG.  They're wunderbar!  Now they contain more calories than the normal sugar free pudding I eat . . . and they're more expensive, but totally worth it in the "I want to spoil myself" category.  I've tried the Double Chocolate Pie and French Silk Pie varieties.  Yum!

Now, as much as I love reading (I am after all, a word nerd) there's something special about summertime TV.  The nice thing about these shows is that they are on later (and even if they weren't there's always the trusty DVR) so I can still play outside, hit the gym, cook dinner, read, paint, etc BEFORE I curl up on the couch with a glass of milk (or wine, depending on the day I've had) and watch my summer favorites.

Take Your Dog to Work Day

This is Milton.  He's a 6 pound ball of fluff, also known as a Pomeranian.  His bark sounds like a squeaky toy.  He was very excited to be at work this afternoon.  He made lots of new friends. 

He belongs to Noreen.

 

I think I might steal him and bring him home with me . . .

Yummy Garlic-Butter Mushrooms

Before I came across this recipe I pretty much had one way that make mushrooms - sauteed in butter with Italian seasoning then simmered in red wine.  It is a recipe my father managed to get from the chef at some steak house in Poplar Bluff, MO - I think, or it could have been somewhere else entirely.  All I know is he was out of town on a business trip and he came home with a recipe for red wine mushrooms.  Not my best story, I know.

I made these lovelies to go with pork chops, wilted lettuce and grilled corn - I had my folks over for dinner (which is really a weekly tradition when they're in town).  Apparently they're French mushrooms.  I think the French have the market on anything that involves butter.  Just saying.  And I don't know if these are anything like the mushrooms from Julia Child's cookbook . . . I should pull my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking down off the shelf and investigate.

ps - I crowd the mushrooms.

Mushrooms Sauteed with Garlic Butter (original recipe found here)

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons unsalted Butter

1 Tablespoon garlic; finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 lbs small white mushrooms; wiped clean and sliced in half
2 Tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley; chopped  (optional)

Directions:

1.  Melt butter in a lidded saute pan or skillet over low heat. Add garlic, salt and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

2.  Add mushrooms and toss with garlic butter to coat.

3.  Cover pan and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, and making sure garlic doesn't burn (if necessary, reduce heat to very low).

4. Just before serving, toss mushrooms with parsley.

Summer Spinach Salad

Some weeks ago The Lady from Dallas was in town and I met her, her husband, her lovely mother and the Thumprints crew for dinner at a local restaurant - Wild Horse Grill one evening after work.  Dinner was lovely - the company even more so.

The best part of my dinner (and really it was all great) was the Side Spinach Salad - a glorious compilation of baby spinach, strawberries, glazed walnuts and Borsin cheese crumbles tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette.  I liked the salad so much that I decided I would make it one night to go with a wonderful summer dinner.

Only it wasn't quite the same.

Why is that? Whenever I try and mimic something I had at a restaurant I can't quite get it to come out the right.

It was still a delightful salad, but it was missing something . . . though I must admit that I didn't use a balsamic vinaigrette, I used a Greek vinaigrette.  I blame the derivation for the lack of sameness, something I will remedy when I make this again.

In Less Than Two Months . . .

I will be heading to Des Moines to visit Marenarunner - a buddy from college that I haven't seen since spring 2005 - and she's taking me to the Iowa State Fair.  I love fairs.  Especially the bovine creatures - but that is a topic best explored later.  Possibly with the aid of shadow puppets.

To say I'm excited to head up to Iowa would be a gross understatement of the feeling of sheer exuberance that takes hold when I think about the caffeine fueled awesomeness that will consume one weekend in August.  I'd like to think of it as a mini version of our trip to Europe - but with more coffee and fewer creepy guys with thick accents trying to pick us up late a night on the streets of Brussels . . . or was that Paris?  

Counting Down the Days,
Thummprints

Edna Mae's Rhubarb Pie

Today it's one of my favorite pies, I literally salivate at the mere mention rhubarb, but when I was a wee little thing and my G'Ma would make pies (that's multiple folks) at family gatherings - and we have a small family - I wouldn't eat rhubarb pie for anything.  No way, no how.  Why?  I thought it was celery pie.  My hand to all that is holy, I thought my family was eating celery pie.  In my defense the rhubarb that my G'Pa grew was more green than red and let's face it, rhubarb is vaguely celery shaped.

The days of thinking there's celery pie being eaten are long gone, in fact - on most occasions I'll arm wrestle someone for the last slice of rhubarb pie.  And when I win I immediately put my slice in a bowl and drown it in milk.  Yes, I said milk.  This quirk of mine developed for three reasons:

1.  I am a milk fiend. 

2.  Milk is healthier for you than ice cream.

3.  Drowning pie in milk insures no one else will eat it, thus it is MINE, ALL MINE!

So really while the first two things are true, the whole thing developed because of the third thing - it is my one and only move to safely secure one of the last pieces of pie.  There are two things where gorilla warfare must be deployed while visiting my grandparents - pie and gravy.  Most fruit pies are covered by the milk clause (there is no hope for refrigerator, creme, or strawberry pies . . . ) and gravy is covered by building a moat with mashed potatoes - but I'll cover that some other time.

Edna Mae's Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:

3 cups Rhubarb

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon grated orange peel

3 Tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 450 F.

2.  Combine all ingredients in bowl - mix until rhubarb is evenly coated.

3.  Fill 9” pastry lined pie pan; dot with 1-2 Tablespoons butter.

4.  Add top crust.

5.  Bake at 450 F for 10 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 F for about 30 minutes.  

**NOTE: If rhubarb is green, add a few drop red food coloring when mixing together ingredients.