Lately I’m beginning to think my blog is turning into a food blog. Not so. Not really. It’s just that we’ve tried a lot of new recipes recently and for the most part they’ve been very successful. And yummy. And tasty. And ... well, you get the picture.

I subscribe online to a weekly email from Food & Wine regarding seasonal or themed recipes. I always follow the links and it’s part of my morning routine, this scouting out of new things to eat. The following recipe is a result of just that. We tried them a week or so ago and fell in love with this “grown-up” version of hot dogs on the grill. Since we had the hot dogs already in the fridge, we had them again yesterday. (Note: we grilled early in the day knowing that we are supposed to get heavy t-storms this evening; hence no grilling.)

This recipe is called Cross-Hatch Hot Dogs on Grilled Croissants.

You prepare a cabbage slaw and toss with a sherry vinegar and honey dressing. The recipe calls for minced red peppers (hot ones) but since we couldn’t find any, we sprinkled some hot pepper flakes on the cabbage instead. Trust, me; these will do the trick just fine.

Next, the hot dogs** get skewered and sliced at an angle on three sides and rolled and coated in a ketchup/soy/garlic glaze. Here is what they look like when first tossed on the grill:

And here is what they look like after they “blossom” as they cook.

Spread the croissants with a dijon mustard and butter mixture. Grill them.

Assemble the sandwiches, eat and enjoy! I usually slice my hot dog in half so it lays on the croissant better.

For the full recipe just click on the link above.

**We used Applegate Farms Stadium Organic Uncured Beef Hot dogs with no nitrates added.

I just have to share this trick with you! I learned about it over on Mary’s blog.

First you need strawberries! These are from the Warwick farmer’s market and are really small berries so cutting the stems off would really cut into (so to speak) the meat of the berry quite a bit.

Take a straw and poke it into the bottom of the berry.

Push up until you’ve detached the leafy stem. It should pop right out.

You end up with beautifully cored, stemless berries!

This worked like a charm for these small berries. It cut the prep work down considerably. For big berries you will probably have to give an extra poke or two.

I was making a Strawberry-Rhubarb tart with them, and funnily enough looking back into my blog archives from last year I made the same tart on nearly the exact same day! How strange is that? And again with fresh strawberries and rhubarb from the Warwick farmer’s market! I won’t bore you again with the recipe. If you want it you can follow the link to last year’s post.

Now go and eat some tasty strawberries and use this trick!

Wait just a minute here! How did those pics get on here? I think the cats are feeling left out of my blog. Sam, the Maine Coon decidedly does not fit in the box. eBay however fits very nicely. But that is not the box I was talking about!

I meant our produce box from Bear Swamp Farm of course! Last week we got two gorgeous heads of red leaf lettuce, a small bunch of spinach and a bunch of kale. Oh, and the ever present garlic scapes.

I had never eaten kale before so I asked Pedro what to do with it. He told me that when it’s young and tender to just sauté it in a little garlic and olive oil until it just wilts. So, that’s exactly what we did and it was delicious! Who knew kale tasted so good? We also had some baby carrots from the Warwick farmer’s market which we roasted. Paired with a tasty pork chop it made a great dinner.

The lettuce just went into various salads, as did the spinach. I love the fact that it’s all organically grown!

(P.S. I had meant to post this last week, but on Wednesday I pulled a muscle in my back and I wasn’t able to really sit for any period of time. Getting better now!)

Oh. my. goodness. And I do mean goodness. I don’t think we’ve ever tasted anything quite as good as these Key Lime Bars.
Quick! Follow the link, get the recipe, run (don’t walk) to the grocery for the ingredients, make them, eat them.

Be warned—they are extremely addictive.

Such sweet joy.

I took this photo yesterday afternoon during yet another thunderstorm with heavy rain. I liked the reflection of my dining room light projected into the darkness outside.

Things have been strange this week. Lots of passings. Poor Farrah. She had the bad luck to die on the same day as Michael Jackson. Her death was totally over shadowed by that dark man. And by dark I am not referring to his color but to what a tortured soul he was. He was brilliant once upon a time. Maybe too much so. Everybody remembers what they were doing in life when Thriller came out. We were living in Germany at the time and whenever I hear songs from that album it takes me back there. Good times. Good memories. Where were you?

It was a strange day yesterday with a mix of clouds, sun, and of course, rain. Only two days this month have not registered any kind of precipitation at all. It’s been one of the wettest Junes on record. We have lots of mushrooms popping up in the yard and I even picked some fresh puffballs to contemplate eating. But, we aren’t completely sure of that even though we know they are edible. They smell wonderful and when cut in half have a creamy looking texture to them. Still thinking.

I mowed around this one the other day so I could take a photo of it. Not eating this one, but I think it’s pretty awesome!

The pool is warming up. Finally! The night before last we took our first skinny-dip. It was heaven. The pool temperature was up to 76 degrees. Still a little chilly but it felt great. We hope to get in some pool time over the weekend in-between the predicted afternoon thunderstorms. Hopefully some grilling can take place on the deck too. We still need to plan out our menus. I don’t want to get too carried away with planning because we are going to the Warwick farmer’s market tomorrow and will hopefully find some nice fresh peas. We did get peas from our CSA but they are too little to actually shell and must be eaten like snap peas.

We have used up everything in our produce box except for the peas. The romaine lettuce went into a wonderful Caesar salad. The recipe can be found here. The dressing was awesome and the homemade croutons are a definite must-do. I forgot to take a photo ... oops. We added leftover chicken for protein. (Leftover chicken from oven “fried” chicken the previous night.) We’ll be making this recipe again!

Last night we used the bunch of spinach in a delicious Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing. Just click for the recipe. This recipe we saw on Good Eats on the Food Network (Alton Brown). And, I did remember to take a photo before devouring it.

The day lilies have started to bloom. I just love it when they are blooming and the dragonflies do too! I took these photos yesterday after a little rain shower.

I love how the stamens look like an orange forest; the anthers covered in pollen, just waiting.

I know this is a strange mix of topics for a blog post, but it’s just what is on my mind this morning. I could show you a photo of how I’m coming on my embroidery but I think I’ve finally run out of steam for today.