Homemade Pizzas!

I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen for Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza, and I absolutely HAD to try it. I am just rabid for goat cheese, and I have (well, had, I will get to that in a later post) plenty of zucchini on hand from my backyard garden. I tweaked the recipe a little bit, added some fresh basil and tomatoes from my Mom and Dad's garden, as well as a bunch of spinach. I used garlic-herb goat cheese instead of plain for a little extra flavor.

The ingredients

Fair St. Louis

We finally decided to go to Fair St. Louis this year; I haven't been since I was a small child and a stranger gave me my first piece of Trident gum while watching the fireworks under the Arch. The bf digs the Counting Crows, and seeing as they were putting on a free show at Live on the Levee, and the weather wasn't searingly hot, we decided to head on down. Lucky for us, the bf has a primo parking spot in a downtown parking garage courtesy of his work.

Summer Smoothie Time!

I love me some smoothies! The bf has the most fantastic professional blender, it has a metal drive! (Whatever that means, it sounds fancy though!) It works superbly, when I am not breaking it, and at this point we have shelved the ice-cream maker to make room for the blender to stay permanently (for now) on the counter top. I have a very simple smoothie recipe (can't remember if it came from Cosmo or from Women's Health), all you need is a couple of ingredients, which you can mix up to your liking.

Watermelons R Us!

Hey y'all, we got watermelons! Really, really, really blurry watermelons!

At least, I'm pretty sure that's what they are!

Garden Amendment

The other day I found out that all of my "watermelon" plants (that I grew from seed beginning over 4 months ago) are in actuality "zucchini" plants. That makes sense, because I planted the two sets of seeds next to each other in the same little peat starter pods. I guess that's why gardenistas always tell you to label your plants! Ha! Minor amateur gardener faux-pas! That really explains why all of my so-called watermelons look so much like zucchinis. And why the new zucchini plants look so much like the old "watermelon" plants. Good thing I love zucchini!

Soulard Farmer's Market

Yay, it's been a while since I last went to the Soulard Farmer's Market, but it is as awesome as ever, if not even better! There are the obvious signs of improvement; previously abandoned buildings redone as "Soulard Market Lofts", and the old parking lot across the street repaved and turned into an electronic pay lot.

Dorie Greenspan's Tartest Lemon Tart

Dorie Greenspan is a fancypants chef, cook, baker, food writer of delectable treats. Laurie, from Quirky Cupcake, runs a site called Tuesdays With Dorie, in which amateur cooks across the world all attempt a different Dorie recipe each week, picked by the floggers from one of her books. It is fascinating the way that one recipe can have so many variations among bakers. Participating in the blog sounds fun, but there are a couple of reasons why it is not logical for me.

1. It would get expensive buying all those special ingredients every week
2. I absolutely do not have the time for baking something new each week, it seems like each day is over before I know it!
3. I would probably weigh about 400 pounds if I had to eat an entire pastry every week. Not that I wouldn't LOVE to, or think that I couldn't, because I certainly would dig in and eat the entire dish if there were no consequences! I think I will try to keep my dessert-making down to about once a month!