finally summer

Always a great start to the summer to have long-distance cousins in town (Tim and our four-year old cousin)...

and taking a jaunt to the local antique mall.

 Our evening walks take us down to the lake where we watch the sunsets...

 and another weekend day trip was in store where we to a vintage market and then had drinks on a rooftop overlooking the town.

Rain, rain and more rain, now in the form of thunderstorms....

 But I guess on the plus side, all this rain has made everything SO green.

 My herb garden...

The butterfly garden is looking fantastic, though nothing is in bloom yet except the columbine. That's purple coneflower in the foreground, then sedum, lamb's ear, bee balm, phlox and black-eyed Susan.

 It's also mulberry time, which means our neighbor's tree is dropping these berries all over our patio, the patio furniture (which is why the chairs are moved to the side for now) and in the plants and mulch all leading up to the patio. We can't use our patio unless the berries are cleaned up first and they ruin our plants. They rot and smell and then attract flies. They stain our patio and the furniture. We've had our neighbor's tree trimmed back to her property line a couple of times, but it doesn't do much good. Those berries still (obviously) find their way to our property. It also costs a lot of money for a tree trimmer AND this neighbor is very nasty about us trimming her trees, even though we have every right to. 

But back to better things about the patio...summer nights sitting out there with a glass of wine is peaceful and relaxing...

And now that the hot, humid weather has hit (low 90's this weekend!), it's time for more salads. I had this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. It's brown rice pasta tossed with steamed asparagus, baby spinach, artichoke hearts, fresh basil, salt and pepper, Asiago-Parmesan cheese, and then a homemade lemon vinaigrette (fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, a little raw honey, and extra-virgin olive oil). I toasted some pine nuts and added them to my salad, too. Leave out the cheese (and the honey in the vinaigrette) if you want/need a vegan dish.

Happy summer!

picnic for two

  It's been about four years since we've gone on a picnic. Because we didn't have a picnic basket, we threw food into a cooler and headed to the State Park. It was still lovely and fun - we ate at a picnic table nestled by the trees. 

When Wayfair emailed me about their latest campaign - Life's a Picnic - I was in. I needed to start a tradition of going on summer picnics again! 

 

As a member of the Wayfair Homemaker program, I have been compensated for this post. All ideas and opinions are completely my own.

Since I needed a picnic basket, I chose this one (it also comes in red), as it's insulated, can hold a lot of food, and comes complete with two place settings. Wayfair has a fantastic selection of picnic baskets and backpacks for your picnicking needs! 

I was impressed by the quality of this insultated picnic basket. It's sturdy, easy to clean, has a velcro, padded grip around the handle, pockets for place setting storage, and the inside is deep, so it holds a lot of food. 

Pocket to hold plates and napkins (included).

The pocket on top could hold a tablecloth.

There's even separate pockets for silverware (included).

We didn't get the chance to go to the State Park again for our picnic, so we decided to have a picnic at home on our patio. I made a tuna pasta salad and a jug of mint tea and packed it up in the picnic basket. As you can see, the interior was both wide and deep enough to hold both these large containers.

Picnic for two!

So it doesn't have the ambiance of a State Park, but why not make things special at home once in awhile?

I really like that this picnic basket includes the place settings and has pockets for them, too. Makes it so much easier to have an impromptu picnic. Just grab and go.

Technically, the glasses that come with the basket are wine glasses, but this was a lunch picnic and we weren't in the mood for wine (who am I?), so iced tea it was.

We had such a relaxed, enjoyable lunch, I can't wait until we have more time and can head to the State Park with our new picnic basket/cooler. How long has it been since you've been on a picnic?

labor day weekend

This long weekend included a little bit of everything.

Having lunch on the deck of a local restaurant...

Antique shopping...

Cleaning out our very messy and dirty garage...

Now it's decluttered, organized and clean...

(Well, as clean as a garage can get.)

A simple and delicious pasta salad...dressed it with extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, a teeny bit of cane sugar (all organic), Dijon mustard, fresh herbs, pink Himalayan salt, and freshly ground pepper. It was a perfect side dish for grilled burgers. Leftover pasta salad can be tossed with Wild Planet tuna the next day for a healthy lunch...

And baking strawberry oatmeal muffins. I added some bittersweet chocolate chips to some of them. And yes, some of the muffins are wearing spring tulip wrappers. Use what you have left in the cabinet, right? I haven't baked muffins in a long time. You can find the recipe here. 

What were you up to on this Labor Day weekend?

patio time, pasta salad, and painting

Oh, how I love these late spring days before the heat and humidity set in and we're plagued by mosquitoes. These are the days where we can actually sit out on the patio without being eaten alive. Yes, we've tried everything natural to protect ourselves against mosquitoes. Nothing has worked. It's that bad. We are surrounded by trees, creeks, and a lake. And our little village doesn't spray for mosquitoes. Which, in one way is a good thing, as that means the air, trees and grass aren't laden with chemicals.

This time of year is also perfect for lighter meals. One of our favorites is to make a hearty and healthy pasta salad. I made this one for our lunch on the patio today. Bow-tie pasta; two grilled chicken breasts, cut into chunks; an assortment of fresh veggies that you have on-hand (I used red onion, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, sugar snap peas and olives); and fresh herbs. From my garden, I picked dill, cilantro and chives. For the dressing, I used extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. That's it! Easy-peasy to make and delicious. Brian said he had to stop himself from eating the entire bowl. ;-)

 

While the weather's been so nice, I've also been finishing up with painting the three drawers that will be going in this chalk-painted nightstand. I'm going for an ombre look with the drawers. Stay tuned...I hope it will look nice!

the beginnings of may

We have been having such beautiful weather here in northern Illinois that I've been spending most of my spare time outdoors. There's always so much yard work to do in the spring, and Brian and I both love it for the most part.The trees and bushes are finally filling in, most of the hostas are unfurled, dogwoods and redbuds and cherry trees are blossoming...and my allergies are going haywire. I've been digging weeds (and the ever invasive mint) out of my herb garden, making room for a couple of new plants. I planted these chives last year and could not believe how big this plant is this year and how it's already developing flower heads. I read online that once these flowers are in bloom, you can actually use them in salads.

My first hanging basket of the year looks a little pitiful, but I know with some TLC and sunshine, that it'll perk right back up. I was just so excited to actually see flowers on my porch once again that I bought the first hanging basket that I saw at the grocery store. ;-)

Brian put down a couple of bags of fresh mulch the other day and I've been spreading it out and raking it around the hostas and the stone path on the south side of the house. We still have to mulch the butterfly garden and another flower garden in back of the house.

I mowed the lawn yesterday for the first time this season, too. This is the north side of my house. You can see our compost bin in the back yard, surrounded by lilies. The silver metal thing sticking out of the ground by the sidewalk is our well cap.

 

Brian's going to be working on a big project. Our little front yard slopes down into a ditch next to the street. We planted lilies in the ditch several years ago to help make it look nicer and we also had medium-sized rocks at the edge of the slope for a border. Well, erosion happens after time and so last year we had to remove the rocks. That area then looked so sloppy. We've been thinking about what to do with this area and then lo and behold, a neighbor offered us some extra landscaping retaining wall pavers. Brian worked in the heat yesterday, carrying these pavers several at a time from the neighbor's house to our house, because neither of us have a wheelbarrow! Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess he could've used the car and piled these in his trunk. Oops. His project will now be to dig the ground and get these pavers placed to make a little wall.

The patio accessories were looking mighty dingy this year. I spray-painted the metal table a bright yellow and I'm debating on what color to paint the wicker ottoman. I don't know if I necessarily want to make it a color that matches the throw pillows on the chair because I'll probably be replacing those pillows in the next season or two. I can't wait to start buying colorful annuals to plant in pots to place all over the patio. It still looks so bare to me. You can see that the hosta plants alongside the fence still look like asparagus spears in this area. That's because they don't get much sun. They're always the last hostas around our house to full open. And the little green things all over the patio itself...some kind of seedlings from the neighbor's trees. Every time the wind blows, they shower my patio with these seedlings. I've given up on sweeping the patio for now. It's like trying to shovel during a snowstorm.

Storms are now moving into our area, so Brian's outside firing up the grill in preparation for dinner before the rain hits. Unfortunately, our extended forecast is showing thunderstorms through Tuesday, then either cloudy skies or rain for the next 10 days! Glad I got a lot of yard work done this weekend. To go with our grilled bratwurst tonight (which I got from a German deli just four miles up the road - they make their own sausages), I made a pasta primavera salad. Aren't these spring veggies just beautiful? Trader Joes carries organic tri-colored carrots (orange, yellow, purple) and I thought the purple and yellow ones would be especially pretty in this pasta salad. To make, just boil one pound of penne or orrecciette according to package directions. Two minutes before pasta is done, throw in fresh peas, 1/4" pieces of asparagus, and 1/4" diced carrots. Drain (save 1 cup pasta water) and put in a large bowl. Add lots of chopped, fresh herbs (I used chives and dill; you can also use tarragon and/or parsley), crumbled feta or goat cheese, 2 T. olive oil, the juice of 1/2 lemon, some grated lemon rind, salt and pepper. If the pasta salad seems a little dry, add a little bit of the saved pasta water until you get the right consistency. Nom nom!

 Hope you had a beautiful weekend!