vegetarian eating

During the summer, I'll sometimes lapse into a vegetarian menu. It's not for health or moral reasons, but because I'm too friggin' lazy and hot to cook a real meal.

 Giggity.

It's a Boca Chik'n patty on onion bagel with melted mozzarella. All fresh, all good. There's no recipe. Just stick the patty in the toaster oven, toast the bagel, put cheese on the patty while it's still hot. Add fresh veggies.Then, you eat it.

Still super tired from traveling and convention. 3 different time zones in a week is a bit exhausting. However, I really loved most of my experience at convention. I got to hang out with an amazing assortment of musicians, and hope that I'll get to work with them again in the future. For more info about the organization, go to www.inafa.org.

Strawberries for 99 cents, y'all.

What have I been doing with all the strawberries we bought on sale?

Strawberry-lemon shortcake

 In a smoothie, or

Smoothie pops. (That's chocolate on the right.)

With oatmeal for breakfast

Line them up...

and freeze 'em.

 Strawberry lemonade *

Made into syrup for pancakes

Though, fresh might be best.

*****************************************

* For an adult version of strawberry lemonade for a nice summer evening, leave out some water, and add some vodka or champagne.

Summer Sippers

A few weeks ago, we actually had a stretch of days where there was no rain, and it was actually warm. It was a hint of summer before a string of rainy days hit us (again). I loved it. It reminded me of early summers in the south--volleyball, cook outs, tank tops and shorts, watermelon, and flip flops. I actually find myself longing for heat and humidity now...That is, until I hear from my east coast friends that it feels like their skin might melt off whenever they go outside.

 Gas Works Park Spring 2010

While it was still warm, there were a few things that I simply HAD to do:

 1. Drink iced coffee. Lots.

2. Start gardening.*

3. Make sangria. I don't have pics of the sangria that I made (we drank it all)! I'm sorry.

Chau's Fast Sangria for 2 (maybe 4 regular) people:

1/2 bottle dry red wine

1/4 container of frozen juice concentrate (I used Old Orchard's Apple Kiwi Strawberry)

Sliced strawberries, grapes, and oranges (plus, whatever fruit you would like)

Sugar (to taste)

Sprite (optional. Aaaand I don't remember how much I put in. This is a terrible way to explain a recipe.)

Mix everything but the Sprite together. Let it meld together for at least 30 minutes in the fridge. Add ice and Sprite. Drink it all.

*My sister and I planted prepared some seed starters one day, and spent extra time drawing a diagram of it so that we could chart each plant. Maybe a week later, after some seedlings had begun poking through the soil, a random gust of wind knocked the seed starter kit over our deck railing. ALL of our seeds were mixed up. Now, we have no clue what's growing. We grew up on a farm, and we're terrible at gardening.