July Foods and the Room Switch

July of 2011 was the only part of the summer that we spent in Ontario. I thought it would be fun to do an end-of-the sitcom, "what have we learned?" kind of post.
1. July is the only "hot" month in Ontario. So eat something cold.
By that I mean we had a week of temps in the high-80s to mid-90s and a fair bit of humidity. Our central air fought bravely, but it was stuffy in our apartment for a while. Our solution to this was to keep the oven and stove off as much as possible and expand "Salad Night" into "Dinner."



A caprese-style salad with mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and arugula.














We also made potato salad for lunches with this recipe and an amazing strawberry pesto pasta salad that I didn't photograph, despite its beauty.





















Other salad favorites this month: Greek barley salad and this delicious, extremely simple chickpea salad. Those chickpeas are going to be on the menu again soon, and would be perfect to take to school or on a car trip.

When my parents were here, we decided to show off the fabulous Asian grocery store we've recently fallen in love with, United Market. We bought these red bean ice cream bars as a sort of experiment, and John and I LOVE them! They're so creamy (and full of sugar). It's a totally different context for beans and it's delicious.



















The same company makes a lot of other flavors and now I want to try all of them.


2. When it's hot, get out of the apartment and go to the beach.
This one shouldn't take a lot of 'splainin. The beach is awesome and breezy. It's currently John's favorite place to take a nap.





































Even though this July had the hottest day on record in London, ON, I managed to give myself frost bite by leaving an icepack on my hamstring and then falling asleep while watching "Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Isrealites." Please enjoy this picture of the back of my thigh, just above the knee. It stung for a day or two, and then went away, kind of like a sunburn. Giving myself frostbite on what was literally the Hottest Day Ever was one of those moments when I felt grateful for my now 8 years of higher education.


That red shape is from the ice pack wrinkles.














3. Say yes to rearranging your furniture.




















The above photo was our bedroom, and now it's The Den. The ceiling fan in that room was a plus, but it also has eastern facing windows that allowed Mother Nature to wake us up really early every morning. The sun is so strong that I felt like I was getting a tan line from my pjs. It's also a small room, so we bumped into each other as we got dressed, and I whacked my leg on the bed pretty much all the time (because I'm obviously coordinated; see above).

And now our big, former living room is our big, current bedroom. No apologies for the unmade bed.





















From the perspective of the bed. The curtains are temporary and make it look like a harem.












We are in love with the new arrangement, as all of the air conditioning/heat vents are now free and the air circulates better. We also have tons of room to get dressed and exercise in the space near our dressers. It makes sense to keep our living room in the smallest space, since we use it the least of any room, and we rarely have more than 2 people over at once. It actually makes the apartment feel bigger than before.
That pretty much wraps up July.
During August, John and I are spending several weeks in Chicago so that he can do research. I'll be doing school work, too, but from my aunt's couch, thus allowing me plenty of time for general fun in the city. If you have a recommendation for a Chicago activity/place to eat, please let me know! I hope to have some fun pictures and things to post here from that trip.


Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Strawberries, two ways

London has been caught up in the heat wave that a lot of midwesterners and the east coast have been experiencing this week. I'm starting to get a sense of why people in London complain about the heat in the summer. Not that Bloomington wasn't this hot. A 90 degree day was pretty normal there, and probably lower than the average John was accustomed to in Tennessee. But London deals with it differently (re: poorly). A lot of buildings don't have air conditioning, or don't turn it on very high. Our apartment building is really cool in the basement and ground floor, but upstairs it's pretty warm. We have air conditioning, but we've also been running a lot of fans.







Can't find the 6th mold. But 5 outta' 6 ain't bad!








One way I've been coping with the heat is to eat a lot of cool foods, including these homemade popsicles.



























I didn't have much of a method with these, except that I looked at a couple of homemade popsicle recipes with similar ingredients. The sour cream was kind of a last minute addition, but basically, what I did was this:

(Makes 5 popsicles...increase them for your size and number of molds. Ours are about 3" tall.) Blend together about 1 and 1/3 cups strawberries (hulled), 1 banana, scant 1/4 cup plain lowfat yogurt, and 2 tsp nonfat sour cream. Pour into molds and let freeze for at least 3 hours.

I think the sour cream adds some richness and takes away from how sweet the fruit is. These taste really good, and definitely help combat the heat.





























The next strawberry recipe was also sort of a shoot-from-the-hip experience. I've read a lot of blog posts about strawberries and balsamic vinegar, and I consulted a few internet sources before trying it myself. I ended up combining these:

About 3/4 cup of hulled, halved strawberries
Small handful of crumbled feta
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
3/4 tsp mint leaves, chiffonaded
2-3 pinches brown sugar


I made this partially because our lettuce has started to look old and I wanted a salad. It was pretty tasty, and satisfies that salty/sweet tooth I have. Strawberries are good on a mixed green salad, right? I feel like this is the same premise.

I'm trying to convince John that we should go to Lake Erie tomorrow to beat the heat. But the thunderstorms may have started by then and that may solve the problem.

Sweet Biscuits

Part of London's Canada Day fireworks.














This weekend is a weird holiday limbo, since Canada Day is passed and everyone I know in America is celebrating the 4th of July.



























A friend invited us over for dinner on Friday night and asked us to bring dessert. I associate strawberry shortcake with the Fourth of July, and my friend had berries that needed to be eaten, so we brought sweet biscuits and whipped cream.

Two years ago we went to Fort Wayne for the 4th and Sargibso made sweet biscuits instead of angel food cake for the dessert. I guess that's how southerners do it, and it's my new favorite method, too.




















I didn't get a good picture of the assembled short cakes, but they were definitely a hit. The recipe is a lot like a scone recipe, and pretty simple. I'll definitely make these again!


Sweet Biscuits (for Strawberry Shortcake)
from Fine Cooking.

For the biscuits:

13-1/2 oz. (about 3 cups) all-purpose flour
3 Tbs. granulated sugar; plus about 3 Tbs. for sprinkling
1-1/2 Tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. table salt
6 oz. (12 Tbs.) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1-1/2 cups heavy cream; plus about 3 Tbs. for brushing
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For the strawberries:
5 cups 1/8-inch-thick strawberry slices (from about 3 pints)
1 to 3 Tbs. granulated sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries

For the whipped cream:
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbs. granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Make the biscuits:

Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Toss with a fork to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. Combine the cream and vanilla in a liquid measure. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour the cream mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined; it should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand five or six times to pick up any dry ingredients remaining in the bottom of the bowl and to create a loose ball.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer the dough to the parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and trim about 1/4 inch from each side to create a neat, sharp edge (a bench knife or a pastry scraper works well, or use a large chef’s knife, being sure to cut straight down). Cut the dough into 9 even squares (about 2-1/2 inches square) and spread them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. With a pastry brush or the back of a spoon, brush each biscuit with a thin layer of cream and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown on top and the bottoms are golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

Prepare the berries:

Toss the berries with 1 Tbs. sugar and taste. If they’re still tart, sprinkle with another 1 to 2 Tbs. sugar. Let sit at room temperature until the sugar dissolves and the berries begin to release their juices, at least 30 minutes but no more than 3 hours.

*Note - I didn't do the berry preparation listed here, but I did make the whipped cream according to this recipe and it's pretty standard. Next time I plan on using the berry instructions, too.*