We'll it's been a bit since we've posted. It doesn't, however, mean we haven't been cooking some tasty dishes. The thing with the summer is that we tend to veer towards simplicity in our cooking. We don't always want to make something fancy, we just want to appreciate the fresh produce that we find at our local market.
. But where is the shrimp in the picture? Nowhere, but rather little slices of andouille sausage. I don't have exact measurements for anything in it, but here's what to do.
This is how it usually works, I get onto baking kicks. All I want to do is bake, bake, bake. You might notice that when I blog I usually post multiple days in a row, and then nothing for a month. That's just the way it goes. I end up getting baked out and telling myself the next thing I make is coming from a box. Don't worry, it doesn't, but you get what I mean. So even after my foray into clafoutis yesterday I still wanted to do more baking.
. I've never been a huge Martha fan, but I've heard countless times that her recipes very rarely disappoint. I ended up making Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread. Her original recipe calls for orange zest, but having no oranges on hand I went with lemon instead. I helped the lemon flavor along by replacing the vanilla extract with lemon extract. 
Hello blog, I've been a bad blog mommy and neglected you so. Unfortunately sometimes we go through phases where nothing we eat is exciting or fun, or we get really lazy and eat out a lot. But...SUMMER'S HERE!!! and that means lots and lots of stands at the farmers market full of delicious produce and more.
, and reading In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan, I've really had to rethink my relationship with food and my duty as an inhabitant of this planet. It really is so important to try and eat locally and organic. The impact that industrialized food has on your body and on the earth is not worth the cheap prices or "delicious" taste that they supply. I know fast food is easy, so are microwave dinners and other prepacked meals. It's also certainly cheaper to buy industry food, but, BUT, think about it. The nutrients in industrialized are so lacking compared to naturally grown food that you have to eat so much more of it. So yes, organic food may cost more, but you will have to eat less, and you will probably enjoy it much much more. Okay I won't go on and on, but I urge you to read more about it and educate yourself about the food that goes into your body and the impact it may have on our planet.
Steve and I live on the second floor of a very old building, situated in such a way that we get no air flow through our apartment. Come summertime, we live in a sauna. The minute we turn the oven on it's like we've moved into the center of a volcano. So this summer we've decided to get smart about it and stop roasting giant pieces of meat when it's 90 degrees outside, and start eating things that are fresh, easy, and require zero use of the oven.
So last night we decided to make some things we've been wanting to make for a very long time: hummus and pesto. In fact last year when we bought a food processor, the main reason was so that we could make these two things; we hadn't yet. We also whipped up a tabbouleh salad which is something we've been making a lot lately cause it's sooo tasty.
We had also picked up a delicious loaf of bread at the farmers market on Saturday so we used that to dip into our hummus and pesto. Preparation was easy, no heat was created, and the results were spectacular. When it's really hot out and you just want something light and refreshing, this would be a meal I would highly recommend.
