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Watermelon and Feta Salad

July 15, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield


Anyone who knows me well, knows I kind of have a thing for Feta cheese. It is creamy and salty and pefectly delightful on so many different things especially salads.

I also have a thing for watermelon and mint. So why not combine all those favorites into one fun salad?

This was really simple and easy to make. It literally took just scant minutes to put together and turned out so bright and beautiful!

Ingredients

 

Mix up your dressing. I did not have rice vinegar and substituted what I had on hand - and it worked fine.

 

Cut your mint into little ribbons.

 

Sorry, I skipped a few steps in the photo process. Mix the mint and melon with the dressing then top with cheese and sprinkle on just a dash of seasoning. Garnish with mint and you are ready to enjoy!

Watermelon and Feta Salad

1 seedless watermelon

3 ounces feta cheese

1/4 cup fresh mint chiffonade

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. seasoning

Mix salt, oil and vinegar and set aside.

Cube, ball or chunk melon into bite-sized pieces.

Cut your mint into little ribbons (chiffonade). Mix together mint, watermelon and dressing. Chill.

When ready to serve sprinkle on Feta cheese and a dash of seasoning. Garnish with a sprig of mint and enjoy!

She Who Is Entranced with the Smell of Fresh Mint Being Cut

Posted in Easy Recipes, Recipes, Salads | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Popsicles

July 14, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

I wandered into the family room the other evening to find Captain Cavedweller sucking down his fifth, yeah – that’s  right FIFTH, Otter Pop of the day. Granted, he spends the bulk of every day out in the hot sun and comes home in need of something cool and refreshing. But this may have gone too far. Maybe.

He could at least eat a real Popsicle instead of the plastic filled tubes of frozen liquid sugar. The whole thing is so… unsportsman-like. Not summery. Icky. There is just something wrong with sucking on a plastic tube. It seems so uncivilized.

And while I’m on a rant today, I’d like to know what happened to the old-fashioned kind of popsicles. You know, the kind that came on two sticks?

I was going to prove to Captain Cavedweller how much better my frozen sugar on a stick was than his tube-filled thingies. Only I couldn’t find my popsicles anywhere. Believe me I’ve looked. The closest I could find was a box of single popsicles on one stick. But at least they had my favorite flavors of banana and rootbeer.

Captain Cavedweller can’t even identify the flavors he is inhaling. He brought a yellow tube for me to sniff to see if I could determine the flavor. I started to tell him exactly what I thought it smelled like and decided I better behave myself.

“Pineapple,” I said. “Definitely pineapple.”

So as the battle lines are drawn down the middle of our freezer this summer with Otter Pops on one side and sad little single stick Popsicles on the other, what kind of frozen treats are in your freezer?

She Who Still Thinks Popsicles are Best

Posted in Captain Cavedweller, Musings | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

In the Loco Weed

July 13, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

Drooley

Drooley, aka The Heinous Cat,  has been off adventuring again.

Only instead of coming home with pieces of his ear missing as he usually does, he came home limping.

The good news is, nothing is broken. The bad news is that whatever he did has caused him to go temporarily insane. Even worse than usual.

I’m telling you the little fuzzy dude has been nibbling loco weed.

Drooley has several places he likes to laze around our yard. Behind the lilac bush, in the chair by the front door and sprawled across my petunias are three of his favorites.

Since he came home injured, he has taken to hiding in the most obscure places, like burrowing into my lamb’s ear bushes, crawling under a pallet and climbing on top of the patio table. All that activity is strange, to say the very least. But the thing that has let me know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has lost his marbles is the fact that he let Miss Maizy, aka The Interloper, get close to him and rub her head on him. A previously unheard of event that normally ends with him swatting her so hard she either falls over and runs away.

I’ve said it before and I know I’ll say it again, but this cat is just one odd little duck.

She Who Will Never Understand This Cat

Posted in Musings, Pets | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Summer Party Ideas for Keeping Cool

July 12, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

If you are like me and sitting in the bliss of ocean breezes is not on your near or distant horizon, you can at least keep your cool as temperatures rise.

Did you know certain foods can help you beat the heat?

Why not host a summer party with a theme of “Keep Your Cool?”

Go Green

As in salad greens. This is an obvious and easy choice for summer meals. Lettuce contains a lot of water as do cucumbers, celery and carrots. The added liquid helps cool you down and keep you hydrated. Set up a salad bar with some basic toppings and make entertaining this way a breeze.

Think Spicy

Food in the tropics are often spicy. The reason for this is because “hot” food such as chili peppers lower your body temp because of capsaicin, a chemical that causes skin to prespire (or glow, as I prefer to call it). That glow cools you as it evaporates. Add a few spicy additions to your salad bar and see how popular they will be. (Except to those of us you have an aversion to spicy foods. I’ll just eat some chocolate to make up for it.)

Hint of Mint

Both peppermint and wintergreen contain menthol which has a cooling effect. Add mint to salads, side dishes, desserts and drinks. My BFF thinks I make peppermint iced tea just for her but I really enjoy it, too.

However you decide to entertain this summer, remember to relax, enjoy your guests and have fun.

She Who Now Craves Peppermint Tea

 

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Party Theme | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

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