A new delicious salad and a pie

I am bushed tonight, y'all, but it's been a productive, good week. We received several letters from the boys; Jack sounds positively ebullient, and Oliver does too, in his own understated way. No one who knows him will be surprised to find that with all manner of found object -stones, cobwebs, pine needles, etc- he has erected Tent 7 Town Hall underneath his tent (they're raised structures) at camp and is running it in his down time. We know not who else participates in T7TH but perhaps that doesn't matter. 

I am really starting to miss them and will be beside myself with anticipation one week from Sunday when I first get to lay eyes on them. Aah!

In the meantime, a beautiful pie and a new salad to share.

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The pie is a strawberry rhubarb balsamic. Because yesterday was so humid, I could take great liberties with my oil-based crust. It's often quite finicky but is a snap on a wet day. So, fleurs.

And this salad arose from a burst of creativity and a need to use up some produce. I shaved a bulb of fennel and a nectarine, halved a few cherries, and chopped some fennel fronds and mint. I had some pepper-crusted goat cheese and roasted pistachios too, so those went on, and then I drizzled the whole thing with salt, freshly ground pepper, peppery olive oil, and some pear balsamic. Dreadful photo, scrumptious salad. Summer on a plate!

not the prettiest photo, but alas

not the prettiest photo, but alas

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Kale-coconut juice round 1, 10½ pounds of cherries

This morning, the boys and I watched a YouTube video on how to break into a fresh coconut -that husk is HARD!- and when we realized we would need a hammer, they were thrilled. T hammered a screwdriver into the bowling ball-like holes so that we could first drain the coconut milk. Then, we put the coconut into a freezer Ziploc, sealed it shut and went to town with the hammer. It worked extremely well though did take more bangs than you might imagine. With that (and now I really appreciate the cost of coconut milk, meat, and drinks), I made this breakfast/juice; it also included kale, orange and lemon. Not quite as smooth and flavorful as its counterpart at the juice bar, it was nonetheless, really good and I'll keep working on the ratio and such. Doesn't it just scream, "I am good for you!"?

After dropping Jack off at camp, I went to get some cherries and came away with 10½ pounds. Y'all think I better get busy a'pitting over here? Wow! If I've not showed you my new cherry pitter before, here it is, in the flesh. Thank you, OXO.