This is a test of the Monarch iPad app...

Tuna and Garlic Pitas with Sunflower Seeds

I am consistently bored with lunch food and always trying to find something new to get me through the day. Today's attempt was found on the back of the package for the Toufayan pitas I buy. I modified it, as usual.


Ingredients
1 can tuna, drained
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c. onion (red or sweet yellow)
4-6 Spanish olives, chopped
Salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice to taste
1 tbs. reduced fat feta cheese crumbles
1 tsp. all-nautral, raw sunflower seeds
1/2 whole wheat pita loaf
1 tbs. your favorite hummus

1. Mix the first 7 ingredients in a small bowl.

2. Toast the 1/2 pita loaf until desired browning.

3. Open the pita and spread the hummus on both sides. Stuff with mixture. Enjoy!

P.S. You might want to make sure you have gum or mints with you if you take this to work for noshing. I was thinking about titling this post "Bad Breath Pita." It's worth it though, trust me.

Juicy.

I am greatly enjoying what will most likely be my last watermelon of the season. 
So far this summer I've made watermelon smoothies and over the last two months, have eaten probably close to a whole entire melon by myself. 


I recently read about watermelon martinis becoming quite the cocktail trend. I don't do vodka, but if you do, you should try this and tell me what it's like! 


From Glamour.com
"Watermelon is a rich source of lycopene, an antioxidant believed to help reduce your risk for heart disease."


Here's to the perfect summer cocktail! 

Ingredients

1 c. fresh watermelon juice (press watermelon through a sieve or cheesecloth or juice it in a juicer
1/2 c. (4 oz) Vodka

juice of 1 lime

ice

Optional

1/4 c. simple syrup (optional)
3 tbl. sea salt (optional)
3 tbl. cane sugar (optional)
Watermelon slices, for garnish (optional)

Mix everything together into a martini shaker. Shake, shake, shake. Pour into martini glasses garnished with spare watermelon slices. 

Local Honey and Peanut Butter Cookies

I adapted this recipe from a basic peanut butter/honey cookie base I found online. I had the urge to bake after watching Cupcake Wars on Food Network last night and as I'd been feeling sinus-y throughout the day, I think my body kind of lead me to make something with local honey. If you're going to eat a cookie, this is the way to do it: packed with protein, full of natural ingredients and still sweetly a total treat. Click here for more information on the other benefits of local honey.

Added bonus: these cookies are super easy to make and would be a great activity with kids!


Ingredients
½ c. unsalted butter
½ c. local honey (I like to use wildflower, but any will do)
1 free-range, organic egg (I like The Country Hen)
½ c. natural peanut butter (I like smooth but chunky would work)
½ c. dark brown sugar
½ tsp. sea salt
2 c. whole wheat flour
½ tsp. baking soda

Optional
½ c. chopped nuts
6 oz dark chocolate or carob chips

Pre-Baking
*Preheat oven at 350
*Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and spray very lightly with olive oil Pam.

Steps
1. In a large bowl, cream butter, honey and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. In a side bowl, beat egg well. Put well-beaten egg into large bowl with above ingredients. Mix.

3.) Add peanut butter and mix.

4.) Sift flour and baking soda together. Stir into batter.

5.) Add all other ingredients and mix well. Batter should be pliable and just slightly sticky.

6.) Form batter into small balls, about the size of a heaping tablespoon. Place about 1/2 inch from each other on the cookie sheet.

7.) Dip a fork in flour and press down in two crossed directions on the tops of the cookie balls to flatten dough.

8.) Bake at 350 for about 11-15 minutes. Time will vary depending on how large you made the cookie balls. Check every few minutes after 11 to make sure they're not burning. When they're done, they should still feel pretty soft, but the dough will no longer be sticky.

9.) Take hot cookies off the sheet and place on a linen towel to cool. Eat one with a glass of milk as soon as you can stand to touch it :-)

John took all but what we eat last night to work with him and they were almost gone by 2pm! 

Beach Picnic

I made mahi pitas last night for dinner and we walked across the road to the beach to eat on a blanket at sunset. I cherish living so close to the ocean almost as much as I cherish having such an amazing man in my life who is always game for my adventures.

Old Blog, New Tricks

Working on my syllabi for the Fall semester, watching the rubber tree outside the office window blow sideways in the sea breeze, listening to Jane Monheit sing about Spring, I drifted off... I haven't blogged in over two years. I've started various little creative projects and undertaken some pretty huge academic ones. I am living the first steps of my professorial dream. I've found a man I love like milk and we're building a rich life together. Things are like, better than good.

Instead of starting a new blog, I've revamped this previous one. Kind of like life, right? The Venn of V served me well previously. It's a good surface scratch of me as a person and I think, is useful to readers. This new start is in the hope that some of my inspirations will pay forward to others and we can all spread happiness like peanut butter. :-)

I Skipped June

I wanted to blog at least once every month and I skipped June.

Such is life.

Today is July 4th. "America's Birthday".

Want to know what I wrote last July 4th?

Here it is:

"Bottlerocket to the Brain
Current mood: awake
Category: Life

Tonight as I was swimming, cutting through the perfect temperature water easily like a knife through butter under a vanilla sky, I caught myself.

When my world is quiet, when I'm drifting in and out of here and there, my mind goes backward. I started thinking about 4th of July's past; how this one feels so different, how this whole summer feels so different...and how that's bothered me -- how I've felt like I've been failing myself for not having the adventure-filled sun-soaked days I recall in summers past.

I have been putting so much pressure on myself to make this summer so memorable...when it already is!

When I think back about shaving cream fights, communal showers, night swimming in a cloud of firework exhaust, shucking raw oysters, live bands, road trips to Alabama, Red Stripes with lime, BBQ stains on t-shirts, conversations that stretched into the morning, hangovers that stretched into the next day, pictures that spin in my mind like a movie reel, touches that felt like they'd last forever...I get lost. The truth is, most things are much better in my memory than they were at the time.

There is nothing that can compare to the past, just like there's nothing that can compare to the future. Moments, memories, bonds. I will never be 5 again. I will never be 15 again. I will never be 25 again...and I'm glad. For right now, I am where I am. I won't be here long. In 10 minutes I'll be in another room, doing something else. In 10 years I'll be so far from where I am now this stage in life will seem like a foggy dream.

I've seen so many fireworks in my life and they punctuate me. I may not be lighting them off this year...for the first time in many...but that doesn't mean I'm not celebrating inside.

The price of postage has changed. The way I wear my hair has changed. The way summer feels has changed. I have changed. It hurts to say goodbye, which is what I've been doing for months now, but it's needed. Memories are strong, but the present is stronger. There is nothing in life that's as constant as change...

A Monday can be just as exciting as a Friday, if I let it be. Often I find, it's the things I don't put any effort into other than being present, that turn out to be the best. It's the things I let go of, the times when I allow myself to loose the need to control, that resonate the strongest within me.

Boom, snap, crackle, fizz. Happy 4th of July. Happy day of independence. Happy day for me of another step in independence from the past."

______


It's funny how in a year, so much has changed and yet it feels like I could write the same blog today. Perhaps it's because the lessons I'm learning at this stage are lessons of self. Perhaps, like complex fractions, it's because the lessons I'm learning at this stage keep stumping me, again and again.

I have no answers today. Instead, I have a sunburn, sore muscles, a good book and homemade potato salad. Tonight: fun at The Port with Matt and Jackie.

I'm here now. Less in the past than in the past and less in the future than in the past. Sometimes "here" is less exciting than I wish it were and sometimes "here" feels like it will never be anything other than it is. However, here is here and I am here. For all that's worth, for all that I choose to make it. That's what I've got.

Me. Here.