Vegetable Dilemma...

So, this summer has been drrrrrryyyyyyyyy and hooooooooooot. Meaning that I haven't had great turnout with my garden this year, much like last year (Except the reason for my low turnout then was punk ass squirrels, late planting, the first year of the garden and too much rain. Basically, last year's garden was just a crap concert). However, the garden has been putting out lemon cucumbers, black krim tomatoes and mint like that is its damn job! Well, I guess it is the garden's job, but that's neither here nor there...

I am ENAMORED with the colors of these foods!

Anyway, today I had several lemon cucumbers and tomatoes picked and ready to do something. I just wasn't sure what. I also had a half a bottle of red wine and some triple sec. There was some salmon in the fridge that I was planning to grill off tonight for dinner. I usually just make some pasta with a sauce made from the salmon marinade, but it was too damn hot to turn the stove on. So I figured I would grill the cukes and tomatoes, since I already had the grill going. And clearly, wine + triple sec = sangria. I mean, duh. Check out this magic that happened:

Honey soy grilled salmon.

Rosemary mint grilled lemon cucumbers.

Garlic rosemary mint grilled tomatoes. 

Lazy Girl Sangria.

Lemme school you on this sangria...(Really, I just eyeballed the amounts) Half a bottle of merlot. Half a cup of triple sec. Two teaspoons powdered sugar. One teaspoon powdered ginger. 2 cups of frozen fruit medley (the one that I buy has strawberries, mango, peaches and grapes). I may or may not have combined all those ingredients in a tupperware container. Scratch that. Let's be honest. I did combine them shits in a tupperware container, which was the best decision of life. Screw the top on and shake. Pour it into a classy glass, top it off with sparkling water. Or drink it straight out of the tupperware. We're not judging here. Do whatever floats your boat. There's no fruit cutting, no measuring. Literally just Pour. Shake. Drink. This will make a good sized glass for you and one for a friend. Or it will make you drunk by yourself. Again, no judgement ;-)

Light, super flavorful, and so easy. Perfect summer dinner! And the fee-yawn-say is gonna make me some marinara sauce with the leftover grilled tomatoes tomorrow. Double score :-D

Weeds...bah!

Over the past couple of days, I've had to get out in the hot hot heat and weed my garden. Let me just tell you, this is a recipe for disaster: a couple days of rain + a couple weeks of sun - any sort of weeding = a damn jungle! I've kept it watered, but I get so anal about the tiny weeds that aren't doing anything. Because of that, I have just let the weeds grow, so that I would have something to actually pick. It's a very satisfying feeling, ripping up a handful of weeds and tossing them into the waste bucket. Not so much when you have a shoot the size of a tiny screw with one sad little leaf on it.

So I let them go...for about 3 weeks. To let them grow. Not to mention the fact that it's just been hot as hell, and I get eaten alive by mosquitoes the second I set foot in the backyard (P.S. Those OFF belt clip fan doo-hickies are a big, fat, non-mosquito-repelling lie!). A couple of days ago, I decided to suck it up and get out there. Well, was I in for a surprise! 5 hours (over the course of 2 days) and 15 buckets of weeds later, it's finally clear. Mostly. I've decided I'm not going to deal with the ones that aren't directly around my veggies. I will say this though. Conditions that are ripe for weeds to grow are also pretty dang good for the veggies to grow too! I have tomatoes, cucumbers and okra all putting out fruit! I can't even wait for the cucumbers...just the vines smell so delicious, like I need to make myself a cucumber martini, STAT!

Yummo for fresh produce :-D