Frank on beauty.

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

- Frank Lloyd
Wright

Hello Pre-Fall, my you are lovely.

Very dangerously in love with this year's Pre-Fall collections, and most tangibly with J. Crew's. Excellent work J. Crew, simply lovely. Cardigans and blouses, and the JEWELS. oh man. Simply lovely.
shop my fancy.

Ten Things That Make Me Happy

1. My new living room makeover
2. Farm Fresh To Me box!
3. A quick visit to my hometown and catching up with the dearest friends who made time for me.
4. A weekend in AZ with my grandfolks, with my grandfather doing much better, praise the Lord, and telling me about his younger years: the war, flying army planes made out of canvas they'd build themselves, hunting Gustav, and the beginning of his legacy, meeting and marrying my grandmother.
5. Amazing pedicure I got while in SoCal, where great pedicures are standard, inexpensive and available on every block, unlike in SF where they are harder to find and expensive when found.
6. Cucumber Mint Lemonade!
7. Red Hawk cheese from Cowgirl Creamery
8. 4th of July!! my favorite holiday, and it felt like it should, bbq, Taboo! decent weather (or just enough sweaters and blankets), sitting on the marina lawn and actually seeing the fireworks, margaritas, and great friends.
9. My mom, who loves me, and wants the best for me, but lets me be me.
10. Thursday morning farmers market at the ferry building (and especially THIS thursday's visit and morning with the amazing C-star Green.)

Little Green Boxes

I finally joined a crop share! Farm Fresh To You is now sending me a "small box" of organic fruits and vegetables from their local farms every two weeks. I got my first box yesterday, just in time to use some of the things in my Vegetable Stout Pie. I'm so excited for Wednesdays!! Every other one brings me a new fresh box of surprises!
This weeks box consisted of:
4 Japanese eggplant
4 nectarines
1 cantaloupe
3 large heirloom tomatoes
3 yellow summer squash
1 bunch of Italian basil
4 peppers

Sign yourself up, and tell them I recommended you and I'll get a free shipment!

Happy Birthday Chief

Andy's 26th Birthday was celebrated with a small dinner party that bled beer when pricked.



Way to go Champ, Way. To. Go.


Beer-Steamed Mussels --Fantastically easy, and looks fabulous. I found my mussels at Whole Foods for $4.99/lb, and used Stella Artois for the broth.

Beef and Stout Pie --I also made roughly a third of this recipe for two little meatless pots and substituted a Japanese eggplant, two small summer squashes, 4 ounces of white mushrooms and a handful of baby portabellas and criminis (I think? from my mixed mushroom bucket Ferry Building score) for the beef. I also used an extra 1/2 C of Guiness to replace the pot gleanings. --however, I think I only halved the recipe for the stilton pastry, which next time, I would use a little less of for individual pots.

Green Beans (sauteed in the leftover Stella)
Birthday Peach Cobbler (my cobbler didn't rise properly, but still tasted yum, with vanilla ice cream and sweetened whipped cream)

Thanks Sportsfans, it was a fun night.

Summertime is for Lemonades

I found this recipe in People of all places, while getting a pedicure last weekend! I made it and served it for some of my favorite ladies, and think it's DELICIOUS and refreshing. I'm betting it would also be excellent spiked with gin.

Cucumber Mint Lemonade

1 cucumber
hand full of fresh mint
1 C lemon juice (about 6 or 8 lemons?) plus one lemon for garnish
1 C sugar
1 Cup boiling water
4-6 Cups cold water (depending on how sweet/strong you like your lemonade)

peel and dice the cucumber, saving a small hunk at the end to slice for garnish. coarsely chop the mint. Make simple syrup by adding the sugar to the boiling water. In blender, blend cucumber chunks and mint leaves with a little of the lemon juice, until pureed. In lemonade pitcher, combine lemon juice, and simple syrup. Strain cucumber puree into pitcher through a mesh sieve and add water. Add slices of lemon, cucumber and a few sprigs of mint for garnish. Chill. Pour into glasses and sip on a patio, or poolside...