Herbs and a Birthday

So I know I've been bad about posting what I've been doing with all my herbs! Well, I did dry a shit ton of mint, and made iced tea last week. Delish!

To be honest, I've been a little intimidated, its still scary to throw herbs in something unless you know it'll be good. The thought of it being awful and therefore having wasted otherwise perfectly-edible food is horrific to me, but its pretty hard to mess things up with a few herbs! (The irony of course is when I'm feeling especially ballsy, I just throw in a ton of different herbs and hope for the best, and this is of course when its most likely to turn out badly!)

Tonight I made my go-to mushroom&cheese burger sandwich (I am always comfortable buying mushrooms because no matter how many I use, I can throw the rest into this burger-like masterpiece just before they go bad and save the day!) but I threw in some marjoram, which turned out well! And topped off with the last of the mixed greens from the CSA a few weeks ago.

And I have so many cucumbers from last weeks CSA, but luckily my Melissa's Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce by Cathy Thomas had the trick:

-peel, slice & remove seeds from the cucumbers (even though I hate peeling/de-seeding cucumbers because they're fantastic in all their wholesome glory!)
-heat up in a skillet with some olive oil for 3ish minutes
-add 1/4 cup water and a pinch of cumin, boil until water evaporates
-add 2 tbsp basil/tarragon/dill (and of course I picked all 3)


and voila! it really was good too! (And then an apricot, followed by several too many peanut butter cups from trader joe's, sigh.)

Enough about food, I forgot to share photos from Elizabeth's birthday this weekend! We did all sorts of things, mostly walking around, enjoying alcoholic milkshakes at PYT, followed by more walking around, some shopping, and dinner at my favorite Cantino Dos Segundos. We attempted to get ice cream at the leukemia fundraiser Saturday night at Penn's Landing, but it was sort of insane, and we didn't get to a prime viewing location in time for the fireworks, but we all had a very nice time, so many Swarthmorons at once!

Elizabeth had a birthday!
Kate flew to visit from Chicago!
I met the infamous Jack!
Even Toby and Julia were there!

Andrew showed up too, just in time to miss the photoshoot, but this blogpost documents his presence.


And for those of you at the edge of your seat, I *did* end up bringing my camera to Making Time, and I *did* have a good time. Maybe I'll even do something with the two rolls I shot, eventually...