Not-Quite-Greek Salad

Last night I was called on to make the salad for our meal with B's grandparents. My MIL had picked up a beautiful butter lettuce from the farmers market that morning, so that was where I started.

I knew we had some feta cheese, and some kalamata olives, so I figured I'd make a Greek/Mediterranean style salad. Once I had all the ingredients out I realized there was no cucumber! Grr! Oh well, I just substituted some sugar snap peas. So now I guess it's a not-quite-Greek salad. Good enough.

I thought the ingredients were so pretty, and I have B's nice camera available now (yipee!) so I took the veg outside for a photo shoot.

When I went outside to pick some of our fresh oregano I found these pretty freesias hiding in the sage bush! Surprise!

So here is the salad, pretty much done. I ended up using the whole head of butter lettuce plus a few large leaves of red lettuce. One tomato (because that's all we had!), some chopped kalamata olives, crumbled feta, 1/4 yellow bell pepper, fresh oregano leaves, sugar snap peas, and sunflower seeds to top it all off. We added a bit of mediterranean salad dressing when it was served.

This went pretty well with our BBQ chicken (I know, it's just been a BBQ kinda week) and corn. Tasty stuff!

You'd think I would have been satisfied, but half way through watching the new Clash of the Titans (which was an awesome effects movie that almost had a plot and acting in it too!) B and I went on a dessert binge! I started innocently enough with some dark chocolate covered cranberries, then moved to a square of Valrhona dark chocolate (my absolute FAVORITE! Love the smooth richness, the decadence...but I digress.). Did we stop here? NO! We also had a small slice of pie each (ok, B's was about a sixth of the whole pie) with some vanilla ice cream on top. Oh man, I think I can see that ice cream sitting on my hips as I type!

After Clash of the Titans B and I went out for a short walk around the yard, ending on our bench with a great view of the sky. The stars were so bright, and the evening was so mild. We stayed there for a while, just gazing. Our wait was worth it, because we ended up seeing our own mini meteor shower! There were about 6 very fast shooting stars pretty close together. A great finish to our day!

Salad weather and strawberries

So i actually managed to give Izzie that long-needed bath and trim. She's pretty good about baths, and surprisingly patient with the trimming. It was worth it! She's a bit fuzzy now, but so much cleaner and more comfortable. Isn't she cute?!

Before and after


After being sprayed with water by my little dog i decided i needed a snack. I cut up some of the bread B had made the night before, a nice multi grain loaf, and toasted a slice. Topped with peanut butter and a little nutella, it was yummy! I also had a smoothie with fresh strawberries. I love strawberry season!

Dinner was made by my MIL, and was so good! She made us big salads with lettuce, grated carrot and zuccini, red onion, tuna, hard boiled eggs, white beans, and a dill yogurt dressing. We had some fresh kalamata olive sourdough made the night before. Just right for a hot evening.


While B and I ate our cool tuna salads we watched the last episode of the made for TV series of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was made in '81, and looks it! What a hilarious show! I recently read the book, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Smart, funny and decidedly odd. Good stuff!

So 9:30pm sees me at work, baking away, rocking out to System of a Down and Third World (the benefits of working during the night...music as loud as you can blast it!). My boss had bought some local strawberries from a little market for me to use, and they were the BEST i have ever eaten!




So, other than smoothies and fruit salad, what to do with all those amazing fresh berries? I decided to make classic tarts to sell. You bake off the tart shells, fill them with pastry cream, arrange sliced strawberries on top, and glaze (hopefully i'll remember to post those recipes soonish). They looked amazing, and unfortunately tasted great!I didn't promise that all my recipes would be healthy, did I?



This morning I had one of my usual breakfast choices, 1% plain yogurt with Nature's Path hemp plus granola and sliced strawberries, chased with a mug of jasmine green tea. Very yummy, and it really lasts me for hours. A good breakfast choice.



B and I had a lazy morning to kick off the weekend, then got ready to go. We hopped onto his BMW motorcycle and rode off to the Show and Shine car show, a Pender classic! Once home we went on a hike around the property with all the dogs (my exercise for the day!). We took a tour of our garden while coming up with dinner plans, enjoying the perfect temperature, and all our flowering plants.

Now, off to the kitchen again!

This is my island, in the sun...oi oi!

Is it hot where you are? Cuz it's hot here!!! So hot, that i have been loathe to do any exercising. Actually I haven't moved much yet today, and it's almost 5pm! (Please remember that I am a baker, and work from 9:30pm until 3am. I'm not as lazy as all that!) I think it might be cooling off a bit now, and the ocean breeze is making it's way up from the coast. Ahhh!

This morning (2pm-ish ;) i tried to eat a bit of blueberry bran muffin that B made at work last night, but it seemed to stick to my mouth. Not because it wasn't delicious and moist, because it was, but because of the heat! So, after downing a few bites i gave up and just drank my tea. Of course, this lack of breakfast meant that i was ravenous an hour later. Luckily we have been doing lots of shopping lately, and have tons of wonderful fresh fruit in the house. I ended up with a bowl of chopped strawberries, honey mangoe, and cherries with a little lime juice sprinkled over the top. I thought this whole luscious bowl of goodness was for me, but when B came over to see what i was up to i suddenly only had half a bowl full. Ah well. The point is, it was amazing! I'm sorry i didn't manage a picture of this, but it was gone so fast!

Last night, to beat the heat, B made a big shrimp and scape salad for dinner (which is likely what we'll have tonight too). Here it is in all it's glory!


Not the prettiest thing ever, but sooo good! lettuce, mushroom, cucumber, avocado, toasted almonds, mangoe, and a saute of shrimp and scapes. What is a scape you ask?

Scapes are the shoots and flowers from growing garlic. I had never heard of these until this week! My father-in-law says they're called scapes because after you eat them everyone want to 'scape from your breath! Ha ha! Not sure how much truth there is in that one. There is a garlic farm down the road from us, and they gave a lovely bag of these to us! Yay! They have a mild garlicky flavor, and can be eaten raw or cooked. We just chopped them up and tossed them in with the shrimp for a quick saute, chilled it, then tossed it on the salad. What a great new discovery!

I'm not sure what the rest of today holds for me, but i think i see a smoothie on the horizon. I bought some vanilla rice milk in town, and we have strawberries that need to be eaten. Oooh, i might be having smoothie sooner than i thought, it sounds good!

I also need to give poor Izzie, my dog, a bath and a haircut. Then, it'll be off to work for me, although it is my Friday! Hurray!

When it's super hot like this, what do you guys have for dinner? Just wondering.

Well, have a happy evening all, until next time!