Getting into the Summer Vibe with Mondays

As a student, the beginning of summer always depressed me. I never quite knew what to do with myself. As a teacher... well... I find myself in the same place. And then I feel badly because my non-teacher friends would kill for this much time off.

But that doesn't stop me from being a little bored. Shh. Don't tell anyone. I miss my students.

To keep myself from weeping softly into my elbow, we've been busy doing a few things. I only have one regular date though, and that's my Monday Night Cooking Date with Kat.




Confession: Actually, the whole purpose of our GTGs is to watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette together. Try not to judge us too hard. It's dramarific!

As you may remember, Kat is a vegan, so we've been having fun times making alternative recipes.

We've done almond parsley pesto pizza (with sheep's cheese on half for me and my husband) with zucchini, artichokes and roasted red peppers.

The Crust  recipe can be found via the link and here's the Pesto Recipe:

Basic Pesto Recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook

3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
3 to 4 large cloves of garlic
1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup Parmesan

Blend it all up in the food processor and toss desired amount with hot pasta. We switched it up and used fresh parsley and almonds instead of the walnuts and basil.

Kat brought over these totally delcious local tomatoes from the Farmer's Market and topped them with chopped garlic, a basil leaf (also from the market) and a cashew nut mousse. I'm pretty sure she got the recipe out of this cookbook: Ripe from Around Here. She was one of the recipe testers for it!

Much like with our bread attempt, I thought this would be weird. It was delicious. Anyway, continuing the nut theme, she also made an amazing Red Lentil, Coconut and Cashew Curry.

Mmm. It was SO good! I love curries of all kinds.

So. Those are my Monday nights. Anyone else have a regular play date with someone?