this week’s highlights

Saturday / It’s not often that we make it up to La Jolla on the weekends, which is sort of funny because that is really the only time that we can anticipate less traffic. But today we did. And not just for errands. In fact, no errands were run. It was purely for enjoyment. We stopped into one of our favorite little wine shops here in San Diego for their weekly wine tasting, and it was the perfect way to hit the pause button on the weekend.

Sunday / This weekend’s farmer’s market run brought us the delight of the very first signs of Fall, persimmons. But in other news, it is anything but Fall here in San Diego. It appears that Summer has finally decided to make her appearance, and brought with her hot, hot temperatures and humidity. This Wisconsin girl is not amused.

Monday / Most people probably spend their Labor Day doing nothing. But for whatever reason, we both woke up this morning with the itch to do a little end-of-Summer “Spring” cleaning. And on my list of tasks today, was to harvest the last of our tomatoes, followed by making a huge mess with all of the dirt. Lucky for me though, Ryan very generously and sweetly cleaned up my big mess. I guess that’s what hubbys are for :)

Tuesday / So we’ve been hitting the whole pizza for dinner thing a bit harder than usual lately. But you know what? Why mess with a good thing? We actually didn’t have plans for pizza tonight, it just ended up being the easiest and most convenient thing for us to throw together. . .especially when made on the grill. Tonight’s toppings were another inspiration from our time in Calabria – sweet cherry tomatoes and oregano. Italy really seems to have a way of reminding us that simple is always better.

Wednesday / I think that we all have those days when we find our fridge slightly less stocked than ideal. And for us, today was one of those days. As the lunch hour rolled in, neither one of us wanted to eat out, but we weren’t exactly well prepared to make lunch at home either. Lucky for us, I suddenly remembered a David Lebovitz recipe for a fresh herb omelette that I had recently looked at. We had eggs, we had some mixed fresh herbs, and we even had the fixings to make a little french vinaigrette to toss with some butter lettuce. What was about to be a peanut butter and jelly kind of lunch day, delightfully turned into something that made us both feel like we had been whisked away to Provence.

Thursday / Today was the best mail day that we have had in a long time. Our niece surprised us with some of her beautiful artwork. . .but even better, a note saying that she missed us and loved us. My heart basically melted into a puddle, and I’m loving it.

Friday / So Ryan has been trying to make this for me all week. The “soup mix saves the day” pasta recipe cut out from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ages ago. It was a dish that my Mom made a few times when I was growing up, and for whatever reason, it was one that always stuck with me. Unfortunately though, Ryan had a heck of a time tracking down the secret ingredient, the Knorr Leek Recipe Mix. But finally after hours of driving around town and making phone calls, he found it, he made it, and I was in absolute pasta heaven.