Chocolate-mint deliciousness

I've made mint chocolate chip ice cream a few times this summer (and apparently haven't posted it; I'll get on that some time in the near future). I wanted more chocolate, though. When I got back from vacation, my mint plant was out of control, so I needed to put it to use. Hence, chocolate-mint ice cream!

Beach thunderstorm dress

I made this wrap dress for vacation, too! The night I wore it, a storm was on its way. We made it out to dinner but had a long wait, so we went miniature golfing. Unfortunately, it started raining just as our table was ready, as we ran across the parking lots to get back to dinner as the big drops started falling. Oh well. the dress was fine despite the hair's frizziness ;)

Pesto, my favorite food

My favorite food: pesto pasta with shrimp

Pesto pasta with shrimp has been my favorite food for the majority of my life. It's what I asked for for every birthday dinner. I hold out every summer to have enough basil to make my own, and by combining some of my own with some from my CSA, I made some great pesto last night!

I use basil, garlic, romano cheese, pine nuts, lemon juice, and olive oil in my pesto. You could use a different nut or a different cheese if you'd like.

Basil for the pesto: mine on the left, farm share on the right

The Waterspout Dress

I designed the pattern for this dress all by myself! I wore it twice on vacation--once the night we played charades, and once the night we took family pictures on the beach. Earlier that day, we saw a tornado on the ocean (called a waterspout). I love the way I can twirl in this dress like a waterspout, so that's what I named it :)

Waterspout over the ocean!

CSA update

I have to apologize for not posting much. I have been creative--I've made three dresses, cooked quite a bit, and coaxed my garden to stay alive despite construction on my fire escape (where the garden belongs). I have just been super busy with work and then a vacation and haven't been posting!

What does this mean, though? Well, it means there will be a ton of posts in a few weeks updating you on all this awesomeness! For now, here's an update of my CSA, weeks 5-10. I haven't been updating as much because most of the food I've been getting hasn't required much cooking--lots of it has been good raw or just very simple--steamed or sauteed, so I haven't taken a ton of pictures. That being said, here are a few of my favorites meals from the past few weeks!

Week 5

Week 6