Vacation

So I have returned from 10 days of delicious relaxation. Yes, I went on holidays to the Okanagan Valley, possibly the hottest part of Canada last week. We swam, we ate, we shopped, we ate and then we topped it all off with copious amounts of Naramata wine and summery, girly sangria's. Now that my shoulders are burnt and every freckle on my nose is showing, I must come home and face up to the grim truth of the scale - vacation food is not kind. Luckily for me, Bon Appetit's August edition has arrived and it is full of Farmer's Market inspired recipes. I am so excited to cook some healthy meals where the veggies will not all taste like hothouse mealy cardboard.

For starters, I went grocery shopping which was sorely needed in my house. I must admit I over-indulged on items such as cheese, but what else accompanies a summer salad better than a sprinkling of Greek feta or a few crumbles of blue cheese? To test my theory on cheese and salad, I made a baby spinach salad last night with thin shavings of red onion and a gorgeous pint of raspberries. Then I added cubed goat feta - the only kind there is! - and we decided to try a new viniagrette from the produce section - Guava Pear. I think the dressing was amazing but I don't think it was amazing mixed with this salad combination. I had the remaining salad for lunch today with Kraft's Poppyseed dressing and it seemed much better. But the Guava Pear with fresh baby greens, toasted pumpkin seeds and tomatoes I think would be heaven.

Anyway, stay tuned for the new recipes (and of course I managed to find a dessert in there that I just have to try) and with any luck I will be back to my energetic self, the kind of energy that, sadly, only seems to come from vegetables and fruit.

As an aside, my dear fish Martin was given two new buddies a few weeks ago, in the hopes that he wouldn't feel lonely. Well, I thought he might be lonely, Josh doesn't think that fish can possibly have feelings. Anyway, we bought another goldfish and a creepy algae eater that was definitely not my idea but Josh thought he was cool. Two days later, Frasier II was dead. Then, yesterday upon arriving home from our vacation, creepy algae eater was dead as well with moss growing on his head. I have come to the conclusion that Martin does not play well with others. I think I will keep him an only child.