fresh & fruity

Posted by marne on June 22, 2008 in cook, stitch | 4 comments

Well, it is now confirmed. I have some very smart blog readers. Thanks to everyone for telling me about the swallows. Since they eat flying insects, I’m going to let them stay. Eggs have most likely already been laid, and I don’t want to disturb them. Once they leave, I’ll probably knock down the nests, because they are right above the door to our shed, and stuff is dropping, and by stuff, I think you know what I mean. That wouldn’t be a huge problem, after all, I dodge chicken poop all day long since our chickens are spoiled and get to free range around the entire yard, but this is over a door I walk through several times a day, and I don’t want to be pooped on. Also, it’s still kind of creepy when they come pouring out of their nests and circle around and around above me. Silly birds, I was here first, and if I bug you so much, maybe you shouldn’t have built you little swallow colony above a door I go through several times a day. Doh! Also, there is a lot more bird poop on my car, and I think we all know who to blame that on as well.

Let’s change the subject, shall we? Sheesh, it was hot this weekend, well over a hundred on Saturday, and today a much cooler 98 or so. One good thing about summer, at least, is all the delicious fruit. So I made a lovely, cool fruit salad. This is a great recipe, because it works with whatever fruit you have on hand. I’ve made it with all sorts of different combinations and it’s always delicious. The only things you really have to have are oranges and fresh mint.

Today’s version had strawberries, red grapes, nectarines, and a french-kiss melon that I got at Trader Joe’s. It looks like a small cantaloupe, and it was so sweet and delicious. So here’s my fruit salad secret: cut the peel off an orange, so there’s no white pith-y stuff left, and hold it over your fruit salad bowl while slicing out each section, again, leaving the white membrane in between the sections behind. Once all the sections are cut, squeeze all the juice out of what’s left of your orange. Then chop up some fresh mint and toss everything gently. It’s just perfect. I’ll be eating lot’s of variations on this theme all summer long.

I managed to get a couple more curtains done, but my sewing room is our little guest house, which has no air conditioning, so I didn’t make as much progress as I had hoped. Instead, I decided to start on something cool and cute to wear.

Inspired by this smock/dress from Noa Noa (and really everything on their site is so pretty and inspiring), I got some white cotton/linen on sale at JoAnn and this pattern (view D), and thought I’d add a little embroidery to the front band, and make it wider. So I sat in the cool, air conditioned house, and did a little stitching with red perle cotton.