Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Joys of Mid-Summer

This time of year, I just love my job :~). Since my husband and I both teach, we get several weeks off in the summer. It is so awesome to have some kick-back time. We try to make good use of our time, but it's nice to just be more relaxed! Our young friend, Andrew spent the night last night, so we stayed up late watching "Kindergarten Cop". It was great, and I hadn't seen it in a while. Unfortunately, it did make me realize how quickly our time back at work is coming. . . .so I really want to enjoy the rest of my time off.

It's mid-summer, so it is wickedly hot here in southeastern NC! We slept in a bit this morning, had awesome TexMex omelettes, then we went outside for a while. I picked peas from the garden while the guys vacuumed the pool. The we swam and exercised for a while. The guys left, and I spent another 30 minutes or so scrubbing and treating the pool. Then I grabbed a Jude Deveraux book and actually started reading!!!!! Right out in the sun by the pool. My mother-in-law does this often, and I understand why! After a while, though (about 30 pages later), it got pretty hot out, so I came in and showered. By then, it was getting close to lunch-time, so I jumped on my bike, rode about 1/4 mile up to the mini-orchard and picked some pears and a few figs. I had in mind to do roasted pears and figs with goat cheese.

I decided to do it in the form of a salad, and it was SOOOOO good -- absolutely beautiful! One of the days when I realized maybe I really should photograph my food -- at least sometimes. It was gorgeous! So today, I'm sharing that recipe with you. I hope you make it and I hope it's a s beautiful as mine, and that you enjoy yours as much as I enjoyed mine. Here's to mid-summer and days off!

A Mid-Summer Pear-Fig Salad (for 1)


2 cups lettuce (I used an organic mix of spinach and arugula)
1 pear
3-4 small figs
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (mine was fig-orange infused)
goat cheese
honey
thyme
salt
pepper
walnuts

Line your plate with a couple of cups of lettuce. In the meantime, slice your pear into 8 slices and cut figs in half. Drizzle with olive oil. Put pears on a pan and roast off at 350 degrees. About halfway through cooking, turn pears over, and add figs to the pan. Roast for another 10 minutes or so. When the fruit is browned slightly, arrange it beautifully on the bed of lettuce. Drizzle any leftover oil from pan onto salad. Cut about 3 nice slices of goat cheese and arrange on the salad. Drizzle olive oil over the salad. Then give the salad a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Drizzle a little bit of honey over the top. Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper. Give a little sprinkle of thyme. Tope it off with some chopped walnuts. AMAZING!!!!!! Wonderful blend of crunchy and soft, earthy and flavorful, savory and sweet.

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