Pasta With Tomatoes & Fresh Basil

One of my favorite summer meals.

This is just a can of diced tomatoes, a small diced onion, a small spoonful of honey, salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh basil for sauce over spaghetti. You can really use any sort of pasta - I plan on making this same sauce with a different pasta tonight.

Updated Entryway

Before:

After:

Added Bonus:

Instead of painting the inside of the door white, I was too lazy. And my sander was at my mother-in-law's house to help her with her kitchen. So I organized instead. There's now room for my boots at the bottom AND there's extra space for more shoes. SCORE!

CSA Recipe - Pork Tenderloin With Grilled Veggies

Delish!

I purchased a pre-seasoned pork tenderloin at the grocery store and it was fantastic - so I decided to try another one, this time teriyaki, and grab some of the veggies from the CSA box to grill.

The tenderloin was easy - sear all sides of the tenderloin and move to indirect heat for 25 minutes.

Veggies:

Instead of veggie or olive oil, use sesame oil (YUM!!!), a dash of soy sauce, salt, pepper & I sprinkled with a little ground ginger. I tossed into the veggie basket and let grill away! I used snow peas (or snap peas, I don't know which, I'm not exactly the best pea-identifier), asparagus, broccoli and green beans.

Belated Wordless Wednesday

CSA Recipe - Grilled Cauliflower

Since I've obtained a grill basket, I've become much more daring with the grill. Bimmer Man grills hot dogs, I grill meals, just to clarify our relationships with the grill. I LOVE trying new ideas, recipes, veggies all the time and if it were my choice to purchase certain veggies at the grocery, I probably would not. When cauliflower and broccoli ended up in the last CSA box, I was pleasantly surprised!

And to the grill they went! And into the grill basket so they wouldn't fall through the grates...

All that's on the cauliflower - Moroccan seasoning, salt, pepper and veggie oil.

Quick tip: Veggie oil has higher smoking rate than olive oil, so I try and use veggie oil on the grill instead of olive oil if I can remember!

Funny Story About Shaving Cream

Yes, yes, that's right. Sometimes I tell stories about things that happen to me.

Like my dog is an asshole (really, he totally is. But if he were a person I think he would either be a laid back surfer dude or maybe just a d-bag. Some days it's hard to tell!).

In any case.

Remember having roommates in college and your bath stuff would disappear pretty quickly? I never really understood until after I moved in with Bimmer Man and shaving cream would last two months instead of two weeks. Or how I always seemed to need new razors, shampoo, conditioner and body wash weekly but then when I moved in with Bimmer Man he didn't really want to smell like girly bath products so I didn't need to buy them so often. Huh. Makes you wonder, right?

Well, I've been buying the Skintimate Shaving Cream for as long as I can remember. It's pretty floofy and foamy but still, it's shaving cream and it doesn't give me razor burn.

So today I used my new stuff (thank you, Costco for carrying Gillette Sensitive Skin and letting me try this stuff out).

I put the same amount of shaving cream in my hands that I normally use and BAM!!!

That stuff foamed up faster than you can say Minnesota.

I'm almost embarrassed about this. Almost. 

There was so much foam, that if I wanted to, I probably could have shaved my whole body. Seriously.

Ok, so maybe for a nanosecond I thought about shaving my head so I wouldn't waste shaving cream.

But I just wanted to share with you my new love of Gillette Sensitive Skin shaving cream. It's foamy. You don't need to use too much (because if you do, you'll end up having to clean the whole entire shower of shaving cream OR realize when you're done cleaning that shaving cream somehow managed to reach the ceiling when you were trying to shake it off your hands and the razor because it didn't exactly rinse off as easily as your old shaving cream), and it doesn't give you razor burn.

Is this post because Gillette paid me? NO. It's because I wanted to warn you before you use it and have to clean up a mess of shaving cream.

Happy weekend!

Minnesota Government Shutdown = No More Beer

Boo. Any liquor distributor that did not renew its license cannot deliver beer to Minnesota.

See here.

And here.

So, hopefully no booze will get people motivated to decide upon a budget and get state workers back to work, truckers able to pee at rest areas on the freeways, campers back into state parks and well, beer to be stocked on the shelves!

Grilled Peaches

Anything and everything seems to be grilled this week so be prepared.

For grilled peaches - prepare your grill before you light it (either spray Pam on COLD grill grates OR use veggie oil on tinfoil to coat HOT grill grates). Grill over medium-high heat for about 7 - 8 minutes. The peaches should have sear marks and should be soft, but not mushy. I served with Caramel Macchiato Ice Cream (but I think I would have served with Dulce de Leche ice cream instead).

Delish!

New On The iPod This Week

What's new on my iPod?



And I'm such a dork - Bimmer Man sent me the link (and I don't think he even knows this) but it's also on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack so...

And Ellie Goulding:



And of course, the Duchess Kate likes the Black Lips so I had to google them too.



So for something different I thought I would share a bit of my playlist for your entertainment at work. And um, if you really get bored, feel free to listen to The Flying Burrito Brothers.



Happy Tuesday!

10 Random Things About Me Today

1. I've got the urge to sew this afternoon.

2. I LOVE my orbital sander. Thank you, Bimmer Man.

3. I am wearing a Journey T-shirt today.

4. I've got leftover pasta with tomatoes & fresh basil for lunch

5. I've hopped on the skinny jean bandwagon a bit late but they make my short legs look longer.

6. I wish that we would've done the CSA weekly instead of bi-weekly. At least there's always next year.

7. Bruegger's. I love bagels.

8. The awful carpet needs to be ripped out of the basement.

9. And I'm going to paint the entry-way Persimmon. It's my goal to be achieved this weekend. Oops, I forgot to tell Bimmer Man. Well, it'll either be a surprise when he reads this or gets home from racing.

10. I need to stop procrastinating and get this darn tunic sewn. Saturday, people, I will do it on Saturday. Oh, wait - that's when I'm painting. Ok, Friday night maybe?

Shh... I have a secret....

This is where I find a lot of recipes. And guess what... I've been looking at the quiche and tart recipes this morning. I think I might make one for dinner later this week. Delicious!

We also got our CSA box on Thursday:

Peas
Broccoli
Cauliflower (grill recipe to come later this week)
Mint
Green onions
Fennel (GAH - what do I make with THIS??? Put it in a quiche, maybe?)
And lots more...

Happy weekend!

Hi! My Name is Patty & I Lose Shit

Like, you know, a pair of expensive skinny jeans. That I wanted to wear today.

I guess it's time to attack the pile of laundry in the basement and find some shit. That, well, you know, I might want to wear.

So, happy Friday. If you've lost something, good luck finding it. Could you send some my way too??? Thanks.

Le sigh. Happy soon-to-be-weekend.

Help Me With Growing Grass

This is the part of our backyard where the dogs play. They tear up the grass, rough house, roll around and pretty much ruin the grass. I've taken the liberty of showing you the WORST spot in our yard.

Why?

Well, because I need some help. How in the world do I grow grass here? You can tell that I'm experimenting with grass seed - I spread out a bag of black dirt, tossed some seed and kept it watered. This is after a week. I just don't know if it's worth it to do the rest of the dead part or not. Well, unless there is some secret grass that holds up to dogs (anyone know?).

I think I'm going to rope it off next week and throw down more black dirt and try to seed the rest of the dead spots. GAH. It's just grass - I shouldn't care too much, but I just HATE when Rusty comes in with muddy paws.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I tried to embrace the mud but I just can't do it anymore. I'm not a fan.

Wordless Wednesday - Fresh Salmon

Sew Liberated Tunic

Here's my very first garment project. A tunic. It should be easy enough, right? I think there's only about 25 steps and I'm halfway through Step 1 (which is to trace and cut the pattern with butcher paper, as you can tell, I had a little help with Mich Golden Light).

I guess this is a pretty popular pattern, so hopefully if I get stuck I can google directions or tutorials or maybe find some pictures on Flickr.

And here's the fabric that I picked out - it's Michael Miller. The stripes go the long way, not the horizontal way, I don't want to look any fatter than my size 10 self. I was looking for gray stripe fabric like in the picture but I couldn't find any, so here is this stripe instead. I'm hoping that it doesn't look too awful when I'm done.

Crochet Project - Baby Blankets

So I hope that I'm not ruining any surprises here (because the baby shower hasn't taken place yet!) but I think I'm safe to post because I don't think the new mom reads my blog (ok, I'm crossing my fingers here!). New house projects and sewing projects have taken a back seat to this project because it takes me about 3 - 4 weeks to finish each blanket and I just found out about the date of the shower back in May so I've been crocheting like a mad woman.

And from the pics below - can you tell it's twins?

I HATE baby colors - baby blue, baby pink, nope, definitely not for me. I like bold colors and mostly I like them because that way the finished piece looks store bought and not homemade. I hate that. Looking homemade is the bane of my existence for crochet. Mostly because homemade items then get put in the next garage sale or whatnot. Yep, I know. I know - people keep stuff only because a certain person made it and not because they like it. Yes, I've been on the receiving end so I know!

The zig-zag stitch is super easy for crochet, it's just about counting stitches and making sure you've got enough rows to match your length so it's a square at the end (or a longer rectangle if you're making a throw blanket). I'm almost finished with the blue one, I just need to weave in the ends of the stripes and get the edging done. For that, it's just simple - like the pink one.

I hope the babies and the mom enjoy the colors (I'm fairly certain the girl next door likes the colors and she's 4, I had to ask because I don't what's popular for girls now, I haven't baby-sit in a VERY LONG TIME). 

Happy 4th of July!!

Yeah, sorry. I've been getting distracted lately by the AWESOME weather. It's been warm, sunny and just perfect to work outside, sit outside and read, cook on the grill, swimming at a friend's pool. Minnesota in the summer is the BEST. So I apologize for not sharing in the fun.

But I have a problem in my garden - my Clematis died. Again. This is the only plant that I kill outside. Continuously. Well, besides the tomatoes that I had to replant. Whoops. Mostly because I don't think the Clematis is in a spot where the soil drains well. I think I'm going to have to go to Sunnyside Gardens and get another one and then plant it right next to the house on a trellis since that soil seems to drain well. GAH. Gardening. It never ends!

Recipes I've made:
Mostly brats on the grill. Who wants to see pictures of brats? Well, not me.
Potatoes AND asparagus on the grill (this is sort of a weekly staple in our house in the summer, I never bother taking pictures because otherwise I'd be posting the same thing over and over again - just seasoned with salt, pepper and Moroccan spices for both veggies)
Chicken on the grill - seasoned with Mediterranean seasoning and sprinkled with lemon juice
Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast

See - I'm boring when it's nice outside. But I found a recipe for Cherry Crisp, so I think I'm going to run to the store and pick up another bag of cherries and maybe make that for dessert tonight. Simple, but delicious!

Happy 4th of July - be safe with the fireworks and hope that everyone's day is AWESOME!