sunnier

I got home from work in a not-bad mood on Friday. I couldn’t remember the last time that happened! Then I remembered how great it was to be in a good mood! So I kept it up :D The weekend included seeing The Ugly Truth (if you are easily offended, don’t see it, but I kind of LOVED IT!), hangin’ poolside, working out, bubble bath, a GREAT new book (The Cellist of Sarajevo- anyone read it?)—good things, in other words. We did start cleaning out my grandpa’s apartment, which is a little on the surreal side, but it was also sort of therapeutic to sit around with my aunt, swapping stories, laughing… good stuff.

So back to my good mood—how can my mood not be good? Look at all my tomatoes!

Incidentally, these are from three different sources, but all are local! The huge deformed (and thus delicious- we already broke into this guy!) one is from the Potomac farm stand. The regular ones are from the Ballston farmer’s market. And the cherry ones are from my sister’s godmother’s back patio, and are sweet as candy!

More goodness- cookies!     

My mom’s having a work retreat, and being a VERY nice coworker, decided to make everyone cookies (we were also visiting family this weekend, and brought some for them… basically at one point there were six dozen chocolate chip cookies in my house. Vair dangerous.) I suggested this recipe, which I’d been eyeing for quite some time.

It said they were crisp on the outside, soft in the middle.

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL and they were.

And, um, I hear the dough was pretty good too x_x Actually, I restrained myself and grabbed a biteful JUST as I was running out the door to the movies, because I have no restraint around cookie dough, so I had to eat it and immediately escape. My  mom, though, really went to town!

In the healthier but still sweet department, we had some super ripe peaches that would’ve been fun to grill but I lacked the energy to fire up the charcoal, plus it’d be stupid to do for just peaches. Thus, the saute. Heat up a wee bit of butter in a pan, toss in some super ripe sliced peaches and their juice (slice over a bowl)

 

Sautee til caramely, sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon sugar and lemon juice

And serve!

Delicious and easy.

Also sweet? My favorite salad dressing du jour!

We are not a family for bottled dressings, or for creamy dressings. However, this stuff is CRAZY TASTY! We got it quiiiiite awhile ago coming home from the beach and just got around to opening it, and it’s wonderful and sweet and tangy and flavorful.

And yeah, high in fat. But if you’re sprinkling a small quantity of it on raw vegetables, bee eff dee.

Crazy tasty salad!

Finally, another thing making me happy is something that always makes me happy- using up leftovers in a delicious way!

 

Leftover chicken became peanut chicken soba salad. Seriously, Cooking Light really delivers. I very rarely have one of their recipes that is not excellent. This was colorful, tangy, and texturally and tastily fun to eat. And healthy, no less!