Bacon, Chickpea, Avocado Salad

In the summer, I crave ice cream.  When I'm not craving ice cream, I love a good glass of sauvignon blanc.  But if ice cream and white wine aren't available, there's not much better than fresh food that is easy to throw together.  This quick salad is a great side dish, but also works well for meal for two.

You will need:

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 small, vine ripened tomatoes, chopped
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 4 sliced of bacon, crisped and chopped
• 2 teaspoons champagne vinaigrette
• 4 teaspoons olive oil

Combine the chickpeas, tomatoes, avocado, and bacon in a medium bowl.  Whisk together the oil and vinegar.  Pour the dressing over the ingredients and toss gently.  You can eat this right away or put it in the fridge for a few hours.  The avocado will stay green for a bit thanks to the acid in both the tomatoes and the vinegar.

It is so fresh and tasty! (and so simple!)

Saturday Snapshot: My Parent's Garden

When I was in third grade, my family moved to a different neighborhood.  I was devastated.  Our backyard was a huge, flat, grassy oasis.  It had flower beds, climbing trees, a swingset, and a sandbox.  It was every kid's dream yard!  My new backyard?  Not so much.  But as I got older, I grew to appreciate all the plants and beds that filled our woodsy backyard.  It's its own kind of oasis.

DIY Summer Citrus Pom Pom Tote

I'm a sucker for a tote bag, especially in the summer.  During the school year, I tend to stick with a smaller purse, using a canvas tote for my lunch and stacks of grading.  During the summer, though, I love to just have a big ol' tote bag to throw any and everything into.  Adding a row of pom poms and some felt fruit helps this tote feel especially beachy.

You will need:

• Plain canvas tote
• Felt: one yellow and one orange sheet
• Embroidery floss in contrasting colors
• Pom pom trim

Use embroidery floss to tack a strip of pom pom trim around the top of the canvas.  Cut a semicircle and three wedges of each color of felt.  Sew these pieces onto the bag, using a contrasting piece of embroidery floss.  It's as easy as that!

I'm excited to take this to the beach or the boat this summer.  Where would you take this fun summer tote?

Grilled Peach Caprese Pizza

Nothing says summer more than grilling.  Nothing, that is, except maybe peaches.  So why not combine the two into one delicious dish?  I love how the sweet and juicy peaches blended with the acidity of the tomatoes.  This was balanced by the smooth, creamy mozzarella and the fresh taste of basil to make one amazingly summery pizza.

To make your own, you will need:

• My quick and easy pizza crust recipe
• 1 ripe peach, sliced thin
• 1 ripe tomato, sliced thin
• 1 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
• Several leaves of fresh basil

Make the crust according to the directions.  Grill on a lightly oiled piece of tin foil for five minutes.  Flip the crust over onto another lightly oiled tin foil and add your toppings.  Grill for another 3-4 minutes, then place on a pan and allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing, serving, and enjoying!

What are some of your favorite summer foods?

Saturday Snapshot: Herbs

Herbs are one of my favorite things to plant.  I have several pots, each filled with an herb along with an annual flower or two.  Of course the plants are functional, but they are also beautiful: from the fuzz of sage, the shiny leaves of basil, or the sweet little lavender flowers, herbs are a surprisingly lovely addition to the garden.  I absolutely adore being able to go to my patio, pinch off some basil, and add it into whatever I'm making.  My new favorite is adding a generous amount of mint along with one or two basil leaves to my water.  It's so refreshing!

Do you plant herbs?  What is your favorite way to use them?

Painted Fish Stones

I have done a lot of little projects with river rocks, but these projects tend to favor the smooth, flat stones.  I always end up then with a pile of river rocks that are bigger and bulkier with more indents and character than I typically want.

The other day, I was looking at this pile of cast off rocks when all of a sudden, one of them stood out to me.  "That looks like a whale!" I thought to myself (I might have said it out loud, but my dog Inga is the only one who could confirm, and she was unavailable for comment).  So, I decided to grab a pile of my rejected rocks and paint them to look like fish.

This is pretty simple to do.  You only need to keep in mind two things:

1. Stay with the same color scheme on each fish
2. Work with, not against, the natural shape of the rock

Use white and colors nearby on the color wheel to mix and blend your paints into different hues, and just keep building color until you are happy with the result.

What I love about this is it can be as simple or as detailed as you want!

Sea Shell Bird Bath

Now that it is summer, I have been trying to do as much work as possible in our yard.  We moved into our home in September, so this is really the first chance I have had to make some gardening decisions.  I'll be showing some pictures of the flower beds in our front yard in a little while, but I've also been doing some work in the backyard as well.  One thing I wanted to set up was a bird bath.  It's so nice to see the bird enjoying themselves in the yard!  I think we might even have a cardinal's nest in one of our trees out back!

I don't know about you, but I somehow always seem to end up with a big pile of seashells.  I don't know if they're from the dollar store, collections from past vacations, or if they just materialize out of thin air and into my craft room.  However they get there, I always have a heap of them.  So I thought I would use them in my bird bath!  I actually got this idea from one of my parents neighbors as I was raiding her yard for plants to steal :)

I used some plain shells, a small flower pot, and a few metallic shells from an old DIY project I featured on the blog.  Then, I just added water!  It turned out pretty cute, and I've already seen a few little birdies hanging around their new pool.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

I've got a delicious Granny recipe to share with you all today, only it's not technically a Granny recipe.  It came from Granny's recipe box, but the recipe itself is from Marie Sipe.  So, thank you to Marie for this delightfully simple to make jam recipe.

You will need:

• 5 cups chopped rhubarb
• 4 cups sugar
• 3 ounce box of strawberry Jello

Combine the rhubarb and the sugar in a large bowl and allow to sit in the fridge overnight.  The rhubarb will release some of its water during this time.

The next day, pour the sugar and rhubarb into a pot and heat until  the rhubarb begins to get tender.  Stir in the jello, pour into jars, and seal them up!

It's really as simple as that- and oh, so yummy!

Summer Reading List

Ahhh, summer vacation is here at last!  I cannot believe that my first year as a teacher has come to a close.  It seems like an eternity has passed since the first day, but it simultaneously feels like it went by in the blink of an eye.  I'll miss my kiddos, but I'm definitely planning to soak up every moment possible of this summer!

Like so many things (dishes, laundry, shaving....), my leisure reading became basically non-existent during the school year.  The first year is rough, trying to plan and grade, and stay on top of things!  So, I'm excited to to finally have some time to read for pleasure this summer.  My reading list is... well, it's extensive.  I'm hoping to get through them all, but here they in no particular order:

Anne of Green Gables: This beautiful edition was gifted to me by an old friend from college who long ago fell in love with Anne.  I am just starting this book for the first time.  So far?  Enchanted! 

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning: This text is written by a war correspondent.  It is based on his experiences reporting on war, but offers insights as to why societies are drawn to war as well. 

Luncheon of the Boating Party: Author Susan Vreeland creates the story to go along with the same-titled Renoir painting.  It sounds like a fun concept, and I'm excited to read it. 

Invisible Man: A classic I'm embarrassed not to have read yet, I'll definitely be checking this off my list this summer. 

No god but God: Many of my students are Muslim, but I know so very very little about the religion.  This is a book that I hope will be a good introduction to understanding Islam. 

Portrait in Sepia: I started this near the end of the year, but didn't get far before finals pulled me into the dark hole of paper grading.  I loved Paula, and I'm looking forward to reading something else by Allende.  She's the sort of author who makes me forget I'm reading. 

The Language of Flowers: This is about a young woman who grew up orphaned and who uses flowers as a means of connecting with others.  I don't know much about it, but it's been sitting on my shelf for a while... looking at me. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain: As a dog owner, I anticipate crying like a baby. 

The Elegance of the Hedgehog: About a young girl living in a Parisian luxury apartment, the concierge, and a wealthy man who befriends them. 

The Memory Keeper's Daughter: In 1964, a doctor's wife has twins at home.  The doctor realizes immediately that his daughter has Down's Syndrome and instructs his nurse to bring her to an institution.  She takes the baby instead and raises her as her own. 

The Goldfinch: I'm the last one to the party here.  I know. 

Teach like a Champion: And just because it's summer doesn't mean I won't be attending trainings and reading at least one teacher education book.  This was given to the staff in our building, and while I have read parts of it, I'll be reading it in full this summer.

Alright, so what am I in for, friends?  Have any of you read these?  I'd love to hear what you thought!

Lavender Lemon Shortbread

I loved the shortbread I made the other week so much, I wanted to try some different flavor combinations.  Since I am also growing lavender for the first time, I thought that it would be fun to try some lavender recipes this summer.  This is my first!

Now, I know a lot of lavender recipes can taste like... soap?  And I also noticed that a lot of the recipes call for lavender flowers.  Well, I wanted to offset the potential soapy flavor, and our plants just weren't flowering enough.  So, I added the zest of one lemon, half a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice, and one heaping tablespoon of chopped lavender leaves to Add a Pinch's shortbread recipe.  The result was delicious, slightly savory, and not at all soapy!

Enjoy!