* Singles: Boyfriends + Banana Bread

If your partner bakes you it, he or she is a keeper in my opinion.  

Came home last Sunday morning to a surprise treat, baked by my boyfriend, still warm from the oven.  Yum.

* Singles: Ice-O-Mat

Isn't she pretty?  (I couldn't even pick just one photo!).  I recently bought a vintage Ice-O-Mat at Goodwill in Mill Creek for $4.99.  The retro design, typography (more the name, than the type as I looked closer), and pea green color caught my eye an aisle away.  I immediately gravitated towards it, figured out what the heck it was, administered a mold and smell check, and made sure the steel blades were still sharp.  I cradled the top-heavy little lady in my arm like an infant around the store before check-out.  Can't wait to christen this puppy and make my favorite go-to cocktail of simply vodka on the rocks.  Here come the holidays!

 

* Singles: Homemade Lasagna

I was looking for a meal that would last me the week.  I like to cook in the beginning so I can reheat meals for the upcoming days.  I do not do well or make wise choices when I come home hungry, so I need to prepare ahead of time if I can.  Hannigan's Market on Peaks Island is only open until 8pm, so there is no running out for last minute things as I typically get home after that.  

I pretty much followed the recipe on the Trader Joe's box of lasagna noodles.  I rummaged in my freezer for other items and added a package of frozen spinach and meatballs to each layer.  I topped with fresh mozzarella slices and tomatoes, Maine Sea Salt, and  fresh cracked Stonewall Kitchen Pepper (as always!).  Feel free to contact me, if you want more specifics.  I even impressed myself.  Remember, cooking is a relatively new thing for me, so it's probably the second lasagna attempted in my life.  It was delicious!  Good comfort food.  Try baking your own! 

* Singles: Celery Leaf Salad + Tuna Melt

This year is my first growing celery, and I am a fan.  Easy, relatively quick growing, and you can eat the whole stalk.  Jim Lausier, the local Peaks Island gardener and owner of Lausier Family Gardens, informed my landlord that the celery leaves can be clipped off and included with your salad and regular lettuce.  I'm certain this would be tasty, but I just decided to go for an entire celery leaf salad.  The leaves are a tad thicker and tougher than lettuce, but I welcomed the hearty roughage and strong flavor.  I couldn't pin point the flavor, but I think it is a bitter tasting leaf, so I countered that with sweet stuff -- cherry tomatoes, extra ripe peach, and rice vinegar.  The rest of the celery was finely chopped into my tuna, added a little mayo, melted swiss cheese on the only bread I had, and voila... my lunch.  The creamy tuna melt also helped counter the celery leaf flavor.  I really have no green thumb at all, so if I can grow celery, so can you!

* Singles: Homegrown Lunch

Nothing like a rainy day says caprese salad, eh?!  My homegrown lunch.  Well, half homegrown.  Freshly picked basil and a jet star tomato from my garden.  Store-bought mozzarella from my local island market, Hannigan's, drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper from Stonewall Kitchen.  Yummy simplicity at its finest.  I could live off these salads and will be once my tomato plant starts yielding more crop (I started growing a bit late this year)!  Go make one for yourself.... you know you want to.

* Singles: My tasty lunch

This looked so delicious to me I had photograph it.  I'll keep working on my food photography though... something I do enjoy shooting.

Baked fresh cracked pepper salmon, organic lettuce cut just now from the little vegetable garden my landlords and I have, avocado and Olivia's Garden cherry tomatoes from the Rosemont Produce Company on Commercial Street, sliced mushrooms and peach, topped with hot pepper sesame oil for dressing.