Garden Salad

I invited myself over to my friends T's and Superfly's. I hadn't seen their two-year old in a while and I didn't want her to forget her Auntie N! They were nice to invite me over for some grilled pizza. I can't turn down grilled pizza! I volunteered to bring a salad since I had lettuce and tomatoes from my garden.



Garden Salad
This was inspired by what was in my garden and the peas in my refrigerator. I then read a recipe for Farmers Market Salad that used peas in GOOP (Gwyneth Paltrow's weekly newsletter). I liked that she used maple syrup in the vinaigrette and decided to try it.

* lettuce, well washed and torn (I had red leaf and some peppery arugula)
* fresh green peas (from my garden and supplemented by the supermarket)
* cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
* half an avocado, cubed
* rice vinegar
* maple syrup
* honey grain Dijon mustard (that's all I had in the fridge)
* extra virgin olive oil
* salt
* pepper

Place lettuce, green peas, tomatoes and avocado in a bowl.
For the dressing, place the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl, to taste, and whisk together. (I meant to measure but forgot. I was heavy handed with the maple syrup because I liked the sweetness it provided.)
Pour on top of the salad.
Tada!


Little P is already learning how took work a stove at her age!


P played while her dad barbecued dinner.

Nothings beats grilled pizza!

A side of salad makes it healthy!

Before & After: My Japanese Maple Tree

During the fall after I first bought my house, I bought a Japanese maple tree. It was on sale and cost about $50. Japanese maple trees come in a range of prices and can get quite pricey. I think mine was on sale because it was the off-season. The tree required a big hole; if the hole wasn't big enough, the tree would die within three years. It's been two, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I love this tree best in the fall because of the red, vivid colour of the leaves. In the summer, the leaves are green and rather blah; it's hard to differentiate the tree from the rest of the greenery. I don't think I realized how big this type of tree can get. There's a full size tree on my street that is beautiful but very big. Mine still has some way to go. It has grown a lot since last year!

In 2007, before and after a snowfall.

This year, my tree has grown quite a bit. It's very red right now. Lovely!

Drying Lavender

I did not have high expectations for my garden when I came back from Vietnam. My roommate G is not really a gardener and he travels a lot (who goes to Africa twice in one summer?). G did weed a couple of times while I was gone and I reapply appreciate it (Thanks G!). To my great surprise, I was happy to see the lavender that The Boyfrend planted last year was doing well and had greatly increased in size. It's lovely; every time I walk by, I get a great lavender scent!

I have a bouquet of dried lavender in my bathroom that my sister got. I really like it. So why not make my own bouquet, I thought. After researching on the internet, I found the simplest instructions on blurit.com and followed them. I pretty much cut the stems that had a flower to a similar length. I tied them with a rubber band because I read that as the stems dry, they may shrink and fall. A rubber band prevents this by contracting with the lavender.

Now, I just have to wait a few weeks until they are dry and find a nice vase to put it in. My house smells great now. If I'm not too lazy, I may dry more lavender to make sachets. We'll see...


Lavender on my table.


Lavender in front of my house.


Hanging lavender on my blinds.