Al Fresco

Last night we were eating al fresco. It cooled down nicely after a hot day. In the morning we cooked ourselves at the zoo, so it was so nice to be in our green backyard eating food that I made from our garden.
Here is what we ate.

Lemon basil penne with spinach and pork chops. The Blobster ate all of his and even said it was yummy.
Here is the view from our garden.

Here we are eating outside. It really was a great night.

And after dinner I had a lovely Avery IPA.

Such a nice night.
Makes me want to keep the kids up until the moon is out, but then we would have cranky kids on our hands. So I put the kids to bed and cleaned some lettuce for salad tonight.

What I’m looking at Today

I haven’t had much time to sit down and rest today. We are gearing up for the rest of the holiday weekend and are looking forward to some family visiting. Now it is afternoon, it’s getting cloudy (please rain, pretty please!) and I’m nursing a baby – so I have to sit down for a few minutes.

Here is what I’m looking at…

Vintage Chica: this was my first time to her site, which I jumped to from somewhere else. I love the look of her blog and liked the gardening section a great deal. Her discussion of swiss chard reminded me of what is growing in my garden and the pork chops with swiss chard that I made last week. I tossed the chard with truffle oil, lightly seasoned the chops and baked them together. It was easy and super good. (and made me smile because I’m starting to get to harvest things out of my garden.)

Anthropologie: love this tank! I’m not really in the market for new clothes right now, but I like to “window-shop”. This would be perfect for the hot weather we are having right now. 

So would this:

And a little of this:

I can dream can't I??

Random Observations

1. Pink ballet inspired socks don’t stay on feet any better than the plain white ones


2. English Breakfast tea doesn’t last very long at our house


3. Store bought cookies are never as good as homemade



4. Making a fort is fun no matter how old you are



5. Sod can be laid in a small backyard very quickly when several people help

Gardening

I’m really excited for my garden this year. Danny made me a new raised bed in the back yard in addition to the beds I had on the side of the house last year. I have planted all my seeds and got the tomatoes and squash in last weekend. It is wonderful to have fresh veggies from your own garden all summer.

My real battle is with the weeds in the flower garden in the front yard. I have beaten them back in some areas, but they are definitely winning out in a lot of the areas. I need a couple good sunny days and a cooperative son to get out there and pull those weeds. But as soon as I get one area done I have to go back and start all over again. They never go away! But I really find weeding pretty relaxing. I can let my mind wander while I’m doing it and I enjoy the physical labor and being outside. I may think differently in the middle of August, but right now it is nice to get some sun on my back.