a perfect summer vacation rolled up into one long weekend: in photos & words

Friday was like a welcome surprise. I hadn't known about the day off due to the holiday. Now that--after 4 years of work--the bones of the garden were there, I’d bought flowers to plant over the weekend.
But I didn’t plant flowers on Friday.
I cleaned a little. I read. In the sun, lounging around like a teenage summer. I made hard-boiled eggs and aioli. And then I thought: nicoise salad. The perfect summertime meal when the temperature hits 90 and keeps going.


But in typical Portland fashion the day was at its hottest in the evening, still too hot to eat. We sipped on our sangria-- so easy to drink--and had some chilled beet soup with horseradish, dill and buttermilk and waited for the sun to go down.

So many things come from our garden-- the potatoes are the first we've ever grown. In fact, I wasn't even sure how to harvest them. They are the best potatoes ever.

Artichoke, peas, lettuce all fresh picked from the garden. Seared ahi. Aioli. Delicious.

Chocolate ice cream with cherries for dessert. Decadent, beautiful summer.