busy bee

We've had a productive week. Lots of cooking and house projects going on.
The summer CSA produce is starting to be abundant. Last week Mikey made a soup with our veggies of the week:
There was about a half of a jar of sambal hot sauce added as well. It literally burned. wowza.
I think someone has an alteriative motive of increasing my spice tolerance even more!

Our cooking herbs and potatoes in our backyard garden are finally to the point of harvesting. This was our first year of growing potatoes & herbs and they've been doing great! We dug out these babies- Yukon Golds- on Saturday (3 plants worth):
Within 2 minutes of coming out of the ground, they were turned into this:
Hashbrowns, pinto beans, tomato, avocado, salsa, cheddar cheese & a farm fresh egg. Mmmmmmmmmm

While Mikey worked over the weekend I was a busy bee around the house. When we took out the old bathroom vanity this past year, there was a gap on the wall where the new vanity sits lower. So, I did some scraping, sanding & peeling to get all the loose stuff off and ready to be patched:
I did a little research online (I love "This Old House" tv shows & website) to find out the best product for patching a wall made of plaster. I left Home Depot with this stuff:
I borrowed a trowel from Nellie & Bruce and got to work. It took 2 coats to make a smooth surface and I actually really enjoyed it! It's a nice project for perfectionists like me to putz away at:
I have yet to do the final sanding and painting so I'll have the finale soon! Oh, and my dad is bringing his tool up over Labor Day to finally install the hinges for the vanity doors. I can't wait!!

It was really warm and muggy this whole week and so we haven't been wanting to cook indoors to heat up the house. So, on Monday night Mikey was home and decided to do some grilling. He made the best vegetarian meal of my life!!
We purchased some quesadilla cheese, baby portabella mushrooms and arugula and had everything else on hand already (tortillas, onions, corn, salsa).
Here's the recipe:
1. Puree a couple sprigs of thyme & oregano (from our garden), a couple cloves of garlic and some canola oil (approx. 1/4 c.) until everything is blended. Use the mixture to marinate mushrooms (~1 container of baby bellas) for 15 minutes. Next, grill the mushrooms directly on the grill grate so that they get nice and charred. Let them cool and then finely chop them.
2.Sprinkle a small handful of cheese on a flour tortilla (I'll have to pay more attention to the brand next time because the cheese totally made the dish)
3. Spread raw onion (mixture of red & white because that's what we had on hand) on half of the tortilla
4. Take a small handful of arugula and put it on top the onion (remember it's just on one half of the tortilla)
5. Add a couple spoonfuls of the mushrooms to the pile
6.. Sprinkle sea salt & pepper over everything

They should look like this prior to going on the grill:
Next you fold the tortillas in half and brush some canola oil on one side. Put the oiled side directly on the grill. Then brush oil on the other half. Flip the tortilla once the tortilla is starting to brown. The cheese will melt and arugula will wilt. I think the cooking time on the grill was ~2-3 mins per side.
These suckers will be smokin' hot off the grill and ready to be devoured. I wanted to add some holding power to the tortilla so we came up with the idea of a corn and black bean salsa topper. It wouldn't be complete without a dollop of sour cream:
It was hands down my favorite thing off the grill this year!!

The house projects continued later in the week. One of the nights I went through all of my grad school papers and folders. Holy smokes! I had a lot of paper! I kept the syllabi just in case- god forbid- I ever go back to school and need to transfer in credits. Everything else got recycled or tossed. A glass of wine helped my effort:
It was a GREAT feeling to part with all of it!

Here's a peek into what my next house projects will be:
Our guest bedroom is getting overhauled:
and this bookshelf will get a face lift and a new home:
Finally, with all of the hot and sticky weather, we've actually had some storms. The big lake hasn't kept them away this summer! Someone was feeling a little insecure during a big thunderstorm: