purple + golden plum blueberry clafouti

friday nights are usually pizza fridays

this past friday it was the usual for justin , large cheese- but for me it was clafouti night

say it with me

 kla-foo-tee

it's kinda fun to say, isn't it? well, i think so

what's not fun about having dessert for dinner?

cucumber + zucchini summer salsa

fact - i took 4 years of spanish

fact - i was addicted to my aunt shelly's chicken enchiladas (well, everyone in my family still is)

fact - my mom & dad ate chips and salsa every single night...they liked to warm their salsa in the microwave, is anybody else weird like that?

i am a fan of mixing salsa into my tofu scramble & omelets, topping burgers and loading up anything that includes daiya & a tortilla

heirloom tomato bruschetta

in my last post i clearly professed my love for tomatoes - so there really is no need to go on about it here

straight forward bruschetta is the best

made prettier with yellow & not quite red, not quite pink tomatoes

as my cousin put it best the other night

"these totally taste like summer" -sam

and i couldn't agree with her more

summer tomato panzanella skewers

august + tomatoes = love

i am in love with august for the simple fact that she gives us an endless supply of tomatoes throughout the last of summers months

i could eat tomatoes & cucumbers all summer long and be happy

oh brandywine i swoon over you

this time around i fell for a little basket of heirloom cherries - on a lower shelf at picnic rock, tucked away for the night, they caught my eye.

needless to say they were mine, love at first sight and coming home with me that very night

the cutest little carton of cherries sat on my counter for a few days- they were almost too cute to eat

but their destiny became clear the next day - with multiple family bbq's ahead i saw a panzanella future ahead for these cuties

peach almond upside down cake

growing up, pineapple upside ~ down cake was a staple in our house

what's not to love about an upside down cake - just sweet enough cake over caramelized fruit and sugar .....to me this cake belongs to the 80's, but after a little research the upside down cake has been around a whole lot longer - since 1924!

pure genius adding in the maraschino cherry - give that lady a super high five for creativity

home style baked onion rings

cravings for me come out of no where - like driving down the road heading back from joseph & the technicolor dream coat play that your friend was in , dreaming about ice cold beer & onion rings.

i couldn't stop thinking about onion rings - crispy, chewy, crunchy.

yep. that would describe the perfect ring.

we had one onion ready (shout out to matt, this is one of your baby onions; it survived!) in the garden

justin was dying to pull it - he pretty much asked me everyday if & when he could

my original grand plan was to use all the onions grown for salsa - problem was this onion was massive, and was ready to be plucked from the earth

thus the baked onion ring was born

Mount Cardigan

this post has been long over due, considering we hiked mount cardigan on july 3rd and it is now august 10th; yikes!

for those of you unfamiliar the cardigan trail here are a few fun facts:

AMC Outdoors , June 2005

Difficulty: Strenuous

Distance: 5.6 miles

Elevation Gain: 1,950 feet

Estimated Time: 4-1/2 hours

Highlight: One of the best places to be in New Hampshire, with its 360-degree views and open ridge walks.