Basil BLTs for lunch today!

Had some extra bacon in the house today so I thought my husband might like some BLTs for lunch. We have an abundance of tomatoes and basil in the garden right now so I incorporated some basil! I made homemade french bread last night (recipe to come soon) so I used that for the sandwich bread.

INGREDIENTS

makes 4 small sandwiches

8French Bread or Crusty Bread, slices

8 Tomato slices or a 1 cup chopped small tomatoes

 4 Lettuce Leaves

 8 pieces Bacon

1/2 Mayonnaise or Plain Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup Fresh Basil Leaves

2 tsp Lemon Juice

1 clove Garlic

1 tsp Salt

DIRECTIONS

Start frying your bacon in a frying pan.

In the meantime, slice your 8 slices of bread. Slice your tomatoes. Prepare your lettuce leaves and basil.

Directions for Basil Mayo

Combine Basil, Mayo/Greek Yogurt, Lemon Juice, Garlic, & Salt in a food processor or small hand blender. Blend all ingredients together.

Slather each piece of French Bread with the Basil Spread.

Add a leave of lettuce.

Add 2 slices of bacon.

Add 2 slices of tomato or spoonful of chopped tomatoes.

Top with a leaf of fresh Basil.

Place other piece of bread on top.

Enjoy!

Funky Junk Show ~ Sneak Peak

If you aren't doing anything tomorrow, I highly recommend going to the Funky Junk Show! We had a blast today! So many great treasures- including another amazing vintage dress!

It's about 10 minutes north of Sandpoint off of Highway 200. The weather was beautiful today and worth the drive!

134 Sunnyside Rd.

Oden Hall Grange

My dad bought me this sign ~ perfect for my garden booth!

And I finally got to meet Hollie and her sister, Jennifer. They are the creators of Funky Junk!

Had a blast with my parents and Jessica and her mom! We found some great treasures! More to come soon!

Macchiatos from my Moka!

Would anyone like an afternoon Macchiato?

I like coffee! No, wait...I LOVE COFFEE! Good coffee, that is! I love an afternoon espresso or americano but those can start adding up especially when two of my favorite espresso stands are just down the street form my house! When I was in Italy 3 years ago, my cousins introduced me to a Moka! It changed my life!

You can make fabulous espresso right on your stove top with one of these beauties! The one pictured is not the one from Italy...that one melted and deformed from so much use on my previous gas stove top. We actually found the one above at Ross!

You pack your espresso in the disk, place water in the bottom chamber, screw the top chamber on and place it on the stove to percolate.

The espresso starts to bubble up out of the spout and then it's ready to pour!

I like mine with just a splash of half & half. If I had a steamer, I would add a spoonful of milk foam on the top like they serve these in Italy.

I got my little Macchiato cups and tray on the Almafi Coast! It is hand painted from a cute little pottery town, called Vietri, overlooking the Mediterranean sea! I wish I had bought a few more...next time!

The walls were decorated with pieces of pottery!

One of my favorite pics form Italy!

This is my husband and I outside of the little shop where I bought my Macchiato cups!

He proposed in Italy a few days later! (More to come someday about that story!)

Evening at the Park

Last week, we took Diesel took the park to get out of the house! Diesel thought he was in heaven because he got to ride in the car, water the flowers, and we gave him a piece of our pizza we couldn't eat!

Here are some more pictures form our favorite park! It was really smokey that day due to wildfires in the area so the photos aren't the best.

Here's some pictures from earlier this summer at the same park!

This big guy goes just about everywhere with me!

It's so lovely here!

Minestrone Soup for a cold September Day

It has been very cold here for the last few days of August and beginning of September. Very unusual but it makes me wish for that cold, crisp fall air! (and secretly wish for snow!) So we've been having soup! I used up a lot of garden veggies to make this Minestrone.

Ingredients

3-4 Carrots

1 large Yellow Onion

3-4 stalks of Celery

1 Zucchini

1 Yellow Squash

Any other veggies you have!

 I used some Broccoli Rabe, Kale, and Bell Pepper.

2 TBS Olive Oil

2-3 Cloves Garlic, grated

2 TBS Parsley

2 TB Basil

1 tsp Chili paste or Red Pepper Flakes

2 cans Diced Tomatoes

2 cans Kidney Beans

2 quarts Chicken Stock

Directions

Chop or Dice all the veggies the size you prefer.

 Begin sauteing onions, carrots, celery, and bell pepper in a tiny bit of Olive Oil until soft and translucent.

Add the rest of the veggies and the garlic, chili paste, salt and pepper. Sautee for about 5 more minutes.

 Add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Bring to a boil for. Add in Beans and Parsley and Basil.

If you want to add meat I would suggest ground beef or Italian sausage. You can also add cooked pasta when you serve it. I like to serve it with a crusty loaf of bread.

Enjoy!