Salads

While recovering from all the traveling and fun of this past weekend, it seemed like the perfect time for some delicious salads.

I have had this curried chickpea salad on my recipe list for a really long time and finally tried it. Good thing I did because it was delicious! It was only onions, spices, cilantro, chickpeas and lemon juice. I was a little skeptical about a salad made almost entirely of chickpeas but the other flavors were so strong that I didn't mind. My only complaint is that the recipe only made enough for two lunch sized portions for Sean and I (yes, that does mean I ate an entire jar of chickpeas for lunch today). It would probably be great as a side to something, or on top of some greens, so you could get more use out of it.

http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/03/recipe-for-curried-chickpea-salad-from.html#more

The second salad of the week was a wonderful cucumber-dill salad that Callie made for us a few times while in Michigan. You can really use as many or as few cucumbers as you want. I used 4 tonight and it seemed like a lot at first, but as they lose water they shrink a ton.
Here is her recipe:

•Peel and thinly slice cucumbers
•Cover with a generous amount of salt and let sit for at least 30 min. They will start to "sweat" (lose excess water)
•Drain excess water and add a scoop of sour cream (a little goes a long way) and chopped dill
•Eat until you explode with cucs.

Delicious as usual and will make a good addition to my efforts to bring fruits and veggies to work everyday. I can only eat so many baby carrots and sliced cucumbers.

Now I have a ton of leftover dill and need something to do with it! Any suggestions?

Great weekend

That is Sean's "sexy" pose.

Back to Michigan

I'm enjoying another short work week as I'm supposed to be packing right now before our 4pm flight to Detroit. Since I have found myself at the airport way too often recently, I'm hoping this flight will be a little more pleasant since we're taking the trip for an awesome reason, Miriam and Aaron are getting married! Also the Delta booking person promised we had exit row seats together (which I do not trust as these seats are still "unassigned").

Sean and I are very excited that this weekend has finally arrived and we get to spend a few days in Kalamazoo with all of our favorite people. It is nice how my sister marrying his cousin allows us to see all of our family for a family wedding instead of just one half.

To Miriam (who will probably not read this until after the wedding anyways): Something is going to go wrong, like huge wrong, but it won't matter. Everyone will take care of themselves, they will find their seats, they will find the bar, and they will have fun.

And hey, at least Dad probably won't kill your flowers.

It's July!

And we are all glad that the month of June is over.

Fourth of July Weekend we took a long train ride down to Rockaway Beach (which is technically in Queens, although seems like it should be Brooklyn) to enjoy some sunshine and salt water. It's rough "swimming" in the ocean after growing up with the great lakes all around you but the water was still nice and a great temperature. Sean and I both came home with bad sunburns and I have resolved that the next time I go to a beach, I will purchase an umbrella and big straw hat in advance. Sunscreen doesn't seem to cut it!

This past weekend Jocelyn and I decided we should have my birthday "re-do" since Sean and I weren't in NYC to celebrate my actual birthday. We had dinner and lots of wine on tap with Jocelyn and Cory at my favorite Astoria restaurant, Vesta. Sean was super excited to see that the cat themed bathroom paintings were still up (we first saw them in February when Monica and John were visiting) and were not rotating art like the other pieces in the restaurant. Our favorite is Beloved Snowy, who stares at you while you use the bathroom and try not to laugh.


Sean also got me an awesome re-do birthday present, a new Kindle! I left mine on a Delta flight to Michigan two weeks ago and no one turned it in. I find that pretty depressing, since I know the first thing I would do if I found an electronic in my seatback was try to get it to Lost and Found. Now I have a brand new one with the exact same New Yorker case coming in the mail soon. Sean's happy that I will stop stealing his now!