Missing Summer

Lemon-Miso Baked Veggies

It could be any veggie you like, really, and when you make this baked veggies dish, it will never fail to  extract oohs and aahs from your visitors. Such a pleaser and yet, it is so easy to make. This is just like my other dishes, that are a snap to put together. Just remember to group the veggies together by softness and hardness.

For example, in one tray put together, carrots,  cauliflower, potatoes, yams.....and in another tray, the  bell peppers, mushrooms, zuchinnis, asparagus, eggplant etc...you get the point.

How to:
Assorted veggies washed and sliced, grouped together in pans according to hardness or softness. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 375 F or 180C  for 40 minutes.

Meantime while the veggies are  baking mix together juice of one large lemon, 2 tablespoons (or more) of miso, a tablespoon of olive oil. Brush the paste on the veggies 10 minutes before you take them out of the oven OR after you take the veggies out of the oven.

And if you have leftovers, you can dice 'em up and cook into your beef or chicken soup.

Enjoy!

Umbrellas

Summer's long gone...and I miss it. The lazy days in shorts and cotton shirts...aahhhhh. Icy cold drinks  and beach chairs. Flipflops

Staring at space and drifting off to a dreamy nap. Colorful umbrellas that gives comfortably warm shades. Legs sprawled out and sand between toes.  The sound of  waves splashing at the shore.

A husband so nice and wonderful....always cool and at peace. The expanse of the beach and constantly blowing  salty breeze. Seven more months and I'll be with you again, Summer!

Cassava Cake (the recipe)

Once again I had the craving for sweet homey cassava cake last night. After dinner I  took out the four ingredients that's needed for  (my version) of cassava cake. Of course you can GOOGLE cassava cake and get all sorts of promisingly yummy cassava cake recipes. Those that have strips of jackfruit, strips of (mutant) coconut we call "macapuno",  butter, coconut milk,eggs, nata de coco....the works. My cassava cake is so simple you can make it with your eyes closed. I like my cassava cake simple and clean tasting. It has 5 ingredients. And the fifth one is optional

So while Zachary was busy being amused with the novelty of his new loft bed, I seized the moment to whip up the cassava batter, divided them in pans and  shoved them all in the oven. Soon after, Zachary was calling me to "spend time" with him. He suggested I grab my book  and the two of us will read up in his loft bed (whose instruction booklet actually says, Not for two people. I figured we are two slim  ahem! people so it should be okay)  That was a temptation I cannot pass up. It will be my chance to lay down my tired body, read my can't-put-it-down book about Jackie O,  play footsie while reading and lastly spend time with him.  About 45 minutes AFTER I shoved the cassava in the oven, the timer started beeping. We said his night prayers ( this is another story in itself!)  and I climbed down the loft bed with my bones literally creaking, and told Zach to go to sleep. I waddled to the kitchen sniffing the beautiful smell wafting in the house and took the pans out of the oven.
And for that craving that patiently waited, it deserved a good treatment and must be dealt with, pronto! don't you think? So I sliced me a dainty portion and made tea in my flowery teacup, all the time hoping Zach has gone to dreamland. I sat down and poised myself to start my nightcap, then...from the dark little room came a muchkin voice,
"Maaaaaa......what are you eating?"
I said....."Whadddddaaaaaa?!!!!!"

(this is an old picture of cassava cake I've made in one big pan)

Cassava Cake

Ingredients:
a small bag of ground cassava  (I'll have to put up a picture of this bag...soon :-)
a cup of sugar
1 can of evaporated milk
a tsp. of vanilla
Coconut Sport (macapuno)

Preheat oven to 375F or  180C. Mix all ingredients except coconut sport (macapuno). Divide between batter into two small round or square pans ( because I like my cassava cake thin and soft) OR  in one big pan.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Take out the pans at this point and put coconut sport (macapuno) on top of each  cake. Put the pans back in the oven for 5-10 more minutes. when the batter is all gelled up it's done.

Mikki's Visit

When a friend...a very, very good friend from my youth came for a visit. It was a most happy occasion. It was a time to catch up on everything that happened from the time we last saw each other. A time to know how much we've changed and how much we've stayed the same... to know what our new thoughts and ideas are, dreams and plans or simply what our opinions of things, even random things.


Sharing a simple but beautiful meal with a friend is precious. You look back down the road and reminisce the time you made special and you realize how fun and delightful it was. Things come to mind: the beautiful weather, the color of sunshine, the  leisurely dragging of  time on this lazy day, the small and long talks and  the sound and echoes of laughter.

Setting a cheerful table to complement our  happy mood. Lots of yellows and blues and reds and orange.
What a blessing to enjoy all these hues with our eyes that see.

There is nothing  better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. ---Linda Grayson

Life is an awful ugly place to not have a best friend. ---Sarah Dessen

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.  ---Aristotle

"We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?" asked Piglet.
"Even longer," Pooh answered.

Out  beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
    ---Rumi

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover someone else believes in you and is willing to  trust you with a friendship.  ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

No friendship is an accident. ---O. Henry

Milkweed Blossoms

Delicious boiled, buttered and salted.

Sumac and Blackberries

Foraging Sumac and  Blackberries on our way home from browsing the flea markets
in PA. The blackberries I made into syrup for cold summer drinks and the sumac I soaked in  water for the next day's drink.

Sunset Dinner Alfresco

Lounging. That's what we do best, especially in the summer when we are "rich with sunny hours and summer days." Reading, yapping, munching on nuts and berries, listening to music and taking catnaps.

The good thing about our lunch picnic was that we had leftovers which we easily augmented with some salad and boiled eggs accompanied by a bottle of rose' for dinner.

We brought our leftovers from lunch to the rooftop of the other building and set to enjoy dinner celebrating the sunset. (Mesclun salad with boiled eggs, cherries and daylily buds)

(of course the photographer is always the missing person in picture...:-)

The food, although beautiful, this time took the backstage and allowed the sun and the skies to take center stage. We ate and talked quietly enjoying each other's company as the sun lazily slid down the skies and sent out a burst of colors for us to be in awe of. From hereon starts the sky show and while you appreciate the burst of  colors I shall clip my pie-hole shut. Enjoy...