summertime

Not only is today the last day of classes for the quarter, the temperature has climbed into the 80s! I've already turned in grades, and I'm free from teaching until late September. It truly feels like summer now. This summer I'm working only ONE job, and only part-time -- what a luxury. That means more time for my research and writing, as well as for knitting, hitting the farmer's market, going for long walks, and petting all the neighborhood dogs. ;-)

I picked up a couple delicious heirloom tomatoes at the Green City Market yesterday, and put together a Parmesan Tomato Tart for lunch today. Wonderful recipe -- it's all about simplicity and high quality ingredients.

I've switched to Trader Joe's frozen puff pastry rather than the standard Pepperidge Farms stuff after reading Nicole's review. It's packaged flat (rather than folded), so it's much easier to use; also, the ingredient list is much less frightening.

Other recent successes in the kitchen:

- Low Fat Fudgy Brownies ~ semisweet Callebaut chocolate worked very well

- Chicken Souvlaki (from Cooking Light) ~ I doubled the amount of chicken so that we would have leftovers for lunch.

Alison (AKA brainylady) sent me this beautiful sage-green yarn as part of her laceweight leftovers swap. It's just lovely! There's a pretty good amount leftover -- perhaps enough for a whole scarf.

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