those juicy red summer jewels

When summer gives you an abundance of tomatoes, why not whip up a quick, easy, summery tomato sauce? I promise this is such a simple recipe, anyone can make it ~ even if you think you can't cook.

 Chop half an onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic and saute for a minute or two in 2 T. olive oil. I made the chopping easier on myself and used my mini food processor.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the onion-garlic mixture.

 

Simmer on medium-low for about 10 minutes, stirring every minute or so. You will start to see the tomatoes breaking down and getting nice and "saucey".

 

Near the end of the cooking time, add salt and pepper to taste, then thrown in a handful of chopped, fresh basil. (Another thing I have a ton of in my garden right now.)

 

Simmer and stir for another minute, and that's it! This sauce is fantastic over any kind of pasta, grilled chicken or steak, as a hamburger topper, or even mixed into scrambled eggs. If you don't use it right away, it keeps in the refrigerator for a few days. Or, you could even freeze it and pull it out in the winter and enjoy a little taste of summer!

 

Bonus: When this is cooking, your house will smell like an Italian trattoria. ;-)

 

hello monday

 Hello to sunny skies with poofy clouds and the rolling farmland of Wisconsin...

Hello to the little Swiss village of New Glarus, Wisconsin...

and beautiful window boxes full of flowers on the fronts of restaurants.

 

Hello to the cool copper kettles at the New Glarus brewery...

 

Hello dragonfly with its stick body, lacy wings and bulbous head...

 Hello to juicy red tomatoes from the garden...

 

 

Hello sleepy kitty lying on the newspaper...

Hello to a clean, organized desk drawer...

and hello to painting projects...

 

 What are you saying hello to today?

 

for the love of houses

In my previous post I said that last Sunday we took a day trip to Evanston and that we walked around a neighborhood so I could take photos of beautiful houses and gardens. I have always had a fascination for houses - inside and out. Even as a child, I loved going to look at model homes with my parents.

These are some of the ones that really caught my attention...the architecture, the colors, the details, the gardens. All so stunning and so much personality.

 Love the red door on this house.

This to-die-for porch. Why weren't the owners sitting out there, sipping their lemonade and watching the passers-by?

This house has so much attention to detail. Check out the window box full of flowers on the upstairs window.

Looks like they divided this stately home into two living quarters. See the two front doors and address numbers with the low wall in-between? I wouldn't mind living on just one side. ;-)

A purple house? Somehow, it works.

 

This house was a few blocks away, right across the street from Lake Michigan. And, guess what? It can be yours for just $2.2 million, because it's for sale! Click here for all the details. (The back yard and interior are gorgeous.)

You cross the street from the above house to a tree-lined, grassy park with this view.

That's part of the Chicago skyline to the right.

 

 And now for some of the gorgeous gardens.

Something unique we noticed while walking around neighborhoods and even in the shopping district...colorful knitted yarn pieces wrapped around tree trunks...

hung on fences...

 

and even wrapped around utility poles.

We were wondering what this was all about. Through a Google search I learned that Evanston's Public Art Committee did their first "yarn bombing" this past winter. You can read about it here if you are interested. I love the color and whimsy it adds to the city and thankful that vandals have left this art untouched. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

long summer days and weekends

 I've been taking a walk every evening once the sun starts going down and it's not so hot. Everything is so alive and vibrant this time of year...yards are exploding with color and lush greenery, baby bunnies are hopping all over, cicadas are buzzing, kids are outside riding their bikes, and well, mosquitoes are competing for human flesh. All can't be perfect.

 Most evenings, my walk takes me down to the lake. That's where I like to pause for a few minutes and reflect on the beauty around me.

 We celebrated Brian's birthday this weekend. After talking with Brian and Tim, we decided it'd be best for the three of us to just chill at home on Saturday instead of going out to dinner. The boys fired up the Weber and grilled pork tenderloin and corn-on-the-cob and I made all the sides, plus dessert. 

Brian's plate...that corn was delicious. We had gone to the farm stand earlier in the day and got the first fresh corn (non-GMO!) of the season. I simply brushed the corn with olive oil, sprinkled with a little salt, pepper and chili powder and the corn was put on the grill just like that - without the husks. They only took about 10 minutes to cook, but Brian and Tim turned them every couple of minutes to prevent total charring.

Brian's favorite birthday cake is banana cake - his mom used to make him banana cake on his birthdays when he was growing up. We've ditched white sugar, so I searched the internet for a banana bread/cake recipe that didn't have sugar in it. I found a recipe on Yummly here that uses honey. And then I searched for a cream cheese frosting recipe and found one that used pure maple syrup instead of confectioners' sugar. You can find that frosting recipe here. We agreed that this cake was really good. We didn't miss the white sugar at all - and so much healthier using an unprocessed sweetener.

 

After we stuffed our guts, we headed to the family room to watch a movie. We were in the mood for a comedy, and after looking through Netflix, we somehow decided on Hi Fidelity. I think it was seeing that Jack Black was in the movie that did it for us. 

 On Sunday, we took a day trip and had lunch at our favorite little pizza place, hit some sidewalk sales, relaxed at the beach and read for awhile, walked around a beautiful neighborhood so I could take photos of gorgeous homes and gardens (I'll save those pics for another time), and happened upon a pretty little park filled with roses.

 

We did great at the sidewalk sales. I got this handmade pendant on a sterling silver chain for only $4. 

Found some cool thrifting stuff for 25 cents each, like this rooster pitcher...

A pretty fall pottery vase...

 

A shallow vase that I'll use for succulents...

 

and this interesting, large green tray. It's much prettier in person than in the photo. I had my mom and her house in mind when I saw this. I can picture it on her buffet and possibly filled with candles or plants. I'm going to her house later this week, so we can play around with it and see how it looks. If she doesn't like it, no biggy - I'll just donate this piece. For 25 cents, it's worth a try!

 

And the best bargain of all...FREE! A little book and music shop had everything outside listed for $1 each, but let us know that at 4:00, everything that was left would be free. We did buy a couple of books and a CD at the dollar sale...and then we showed back up at 4:00 and got all these books, two DVD movies, and a few music CDs (Smithereens and Sting). Score! There were a ton of LPs too, but it was so crowded, we just grabbed what we saw at first and got out of there. The owner of the store kept putting out more boxes of stuff. He had a booming voice and was joking around with everyone about taking all they could carry. He yelled, "Heck, if you have a truck, pull it up to the curb and fill it up - I'll even help you load it!" 

Happy Monday - hope your week is off to a good start!

Blessings ~
Melanie