banana muffins filled with fig jam

I am in the baking mood, so I gathered a few things I had around the house and scraped them together into some muffins. I also wanted to try out some new liners I got. Cute, huh?

oatmeal banana pecan cookies

Happy Friday! Today, I am mentally preparing myself to participate in the Atlanta Metro Dash. That is the least I can do since I haven't physically preparing myself. Nope, 4 weeks of traveling and eating yummy food in Asia and New York does not count as training for a 30 element obstacle course.

Anyways, like many athletes in training, I was a bit concerned about nutrition, as if I haven't been nourishing myself enough with Peking Duck and lobster rolls. What I needed was a yummy, energy-packed cookie! So I started to gather ingredients.... bananas for potassium {check}, oatmeal for fiber {check}, whole wheat for more fiber {check}, pecans for protein {check}. After eating a few of these, I feel more confident about tomorrow.  Mind over matter.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

sweet corn salad

Sweet corn always reminds me of summer. When I was interning in Washington D.C. (many many years ago), I often went by Eastern Market to pick up some freshly picked corn and other goodies. It must be the sweetest corn I ever ate. I still think about it today. And now that summer is here, I must have some! Luck for me, our weekly csa bags have been full of ears of corn.

This salad is so easy to make. I threw it together in less than half an hour. One of our latest local discoveries was the Vintage Olive. They carry an abundant array of olive oils and vinegars. For this salad, I used a sweet onion and cilantro olive oil we got from the Vintage Olive. If you don't have a favorite flavored olive oil, you can use any brand of extra virgin olive oils.

roasted summer squash

We've been getting a lot of squash from our CSA from Randle Farms. And I mean A LOT.... so much that I'm getting a bit scared of squash. Well, good news for us, this week was the last of it. My favorite way to eat squash is plain and simply roasted with some olive oil and sea salt. Along with our mountains of squash, we've been getting fresh dill, so I threw some of that into the squash as well. Turned out perfectly.

summer gazpacho

Summer is here! It is HOT, HOT, HOT! To cool down, I concocted this watermelon gazpacho up for dinner last night. It was so refreshing and light, what a perfect end to a sweltering day.