The Early Tastes of Summer

It's official - after taking my last final at 8 a.m. Thursday morning (yuck), the semester is finally over!

Kicking off the summer in proper fashion, Eily and I celebrated that afternoon with a trip to Brownsburg Park in New Hope for a picnic, followed up by a quick jaunt on the Stockton-Lambertville section of the D&R Canal Towpath in NJ.

Eily has become quite a fan of parks as of late. The park in New Hope has a brand new play area for her to enjoy. But before playing, her mean mommy made her eat some lunch.





You'll notice she's no longer eating mashed up homemade baby food. Despite a serious lack of teeth, our little gourmand has no trouble enjoying chopped carrots and sweet peas these days. Of course, allowing her to get her hands on her own food brings a new enjoyment all in itself. The one-sided food fight:




Thankfully, Eily doesn't get too bent out of shape over a little cat hair in her food. She managed to gobble down most of what landed on the blanket. The rest we donated to the birds circling overhead on that clear, breezy afternoon.

Trips like this will be many, since my boss has agreed to allow me to keep the same work schedule over the summer that I had during the semester. This means Eily and I get Tuesdays and Thursdays to go on all sorts of adventures together. It also gives us Friday afternoons to do as we please. So yesterday we hit up the local produce market to get the ingredients for a yummy Black Bean and Pepper Salad.

Eily loves the produce market. The guys who stock the rows of produce bins always laugh at the big smiles and waves she has for them. Much to my dismay, she is perfecting the art of flirting at a very young age. In addition to providing a venue to practice her feminine wiles, the market also has a decent record for playing lots of 80's pop music while we shop. Lacking the self-control to keep myself from dancing whenever the upbeat tunes carry through the air, Eily is usually witness to some bad moves on my part and a lot of shopping cart swerving as we bop to the beat. Her squeals of delight do nothing to discourage me from making a spectacle of myself, either.

You can see for yourself just how happy she gets as we wander through the aisles of unfamiliar foreign goods (of which I have become quite a fan).




A special note about the above picture: This adorable shopping cart cover was handmade by Eily's Great-grandma Bev. This was its maiden voyage, which I promised to document. Eily says thanks and she loves it Grandma Bev!

The salad for which we purchased the ingredients on the trip turned out great. And while Eily is still too young to enjoy the bell peppers, she noshed the dressing-drenched black beans for dinner last night and was pleasantly surprised by all the new flavors they offered. With lots of leftovers, she had the same for lunch today. Hers is a "special" version of the salad, as can be noted in this video:



This salad is so good, I think I'll finish this post by leaving you with the recipe. (The cheese and cheerios you see in the video are optional and not included here in the original.)

6 cups of cooked or canned black beans

1 each of red, yellow, orange,and green bell peppers seeded and finely chopped

Dressing: ½ cup fresh lemon juice, ½ cup olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp powdered or finely diced fresh garlic, 1tsp sugar, 1-2 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp prepared mustard

Mix dressing ingredients together with wire whisk and pour over black beans and peppers. Toss until evenly coated.

This may be the first of many recipes I share over the summer, especially with the new kitchen getting closer and closer to completion!

For now, Eily and I are headed out to Scudders Falls to watch Jesse compete in the second annual Throwdown Hoedown kayaking competition. Stay tuned to find out if Jesse will defend his title as one of the top 3 all around paddlers on the water!