Have a favorite? I know your favorite herb is basil…which got me to thinking. I do love a caprese salad. And a caprese sandwich- melted– sounds like a stroke of goodness.

Grilled Heirloom Tomato and Mozzarella Melt

5 to 6 sandwiches

—

One large Heirloom Tomato, sliced thick

One ball of Fresh Mozzarella, sliced

One handful of fresh Basil leaves

One 4 0z. package Prosciutto (optional)

One loaf Rustic White Bread (sliced extra thick)

Good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar for drizzling

Freshly ground Salt & Pepper

If using a panini maker, pre-heat and adjust for thick sandwiches. If using a griddle or a heavy frying pan, heat 1 T olive oil or butter until bubbling. Assemble slices of tomato, mozzarella and prosciutto into thick slices of bread. Drizzle with E.V.O.O. and balsamic vinegar and generous amounts of salt and pepper.

Grill sandwiches until mozzarella is just beginning to melt, turning once if cooking on a griddle. Overcooking will cause the tomatoes to release too much liquid. Open sandwiches and layer in a few basil leaves. Serve immediately.

Heirloom tomatoes look and smell like the authentic, picked-off-the-vine, dripping-when-cut, summer ripe tomatoes of our childhoods and our grandparents’ childhoods. These ancestral vines creep back to a time when goodness and sustenance were grown with love and respect, from shared seeds and strong hands.

And they just taste better. So, do break down and buy one (if you haven’t tried one) and make your imperfect, beautiful
self a sandwich!

Dear Summer,

Please don’t end. I will behave.

I will wear my bathing suit in front of others and not be mortified. I will go to the gym. I will buy the running shoes I promised to buy. I will make homemade ice cream. I will boil peanuts outside and share with my neighbors. I will drink from a watermelon rind.

I will start buying less-cheap chardonnay. I will go barefoot. I will dance under the full moon. I will cut off my jeans. I will attempt another crop of tomatoes. I will wear sunscreen. I will read a paperback. I will swim in the ocean. I will play well with others. I will sew a sundress and wear it. I will go see a drive-in movie. I will streak my hair with lemon juice.

I will play the harmonica. I will listen to the Beach Boys. I will rent a canoe. I will fish off the dock. I will wear a flower in my hair. I will act on a whim. I won’t tell. I will be brave. I will jump higher. I will bewilder my loved ones. I will kiss the ground. I will make amends. I will use my thoughts for good.

I will wonder. I will do a cartwheel. I will laugh at your jokes, like afternoon lightning storms and humidity and mushrooms blanketing my yard. I will stop my car by the side of the road and run through a field of tall grass. I will whistle along to Home.

I will tell people YOU are my favorite season.

After I massacred my tiny, fragrant bouquet, I hit the streets, desperately looking for a new source.

Found it– an international store nearby work. (I swear I heard a small Yippee! from somewhere deep inside my heart.) This time, I bought a huge bag. And tonight, I’m back at it, chopping and sprinkling and pairing it with peaches in a spicy (hot!) salsa that just might numb your tongue.

Rich goes back for seconds and says, “This is really good.” If you know the man, you know he’s not one to hand out an adverb.

So, what’s your favorite herb? Think before you type.

Grilled Shrimp with Spicy Peach Salsa

Serves 3 to 4
—
Salsa
—
3 Large or 4 Small Ripe Peaches, chopped
1 Jalapeno, sliced thin (I leave the seeds in)
1/2 Red Pepper, minced
1 Green onion or 1/4 Red Onion, minced
Juice of 1 Lime (~ 2 T Lime Juice)
1 T Chili Sauce
Handful of Thai Basil or Cilantro (chopped)
1/4 t Kosher Salt
1/4 t Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

—
15-18 Medium to Large Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 Handful Thai Basil or Cilantro (chopped)
Serve over Couscous, cooked with butter and/or handfuls of Fresh Spinach
—

Prepare Salsa and let it steep while you peel and prepare shrimp. A good amount of liquid will accumulate. Grill (or flash fry) shrimp in a hot, lightly buttered pan or on a griddle. Remove while still pink and toss with a large flaked salt, such as Kosher or Sea Salt and fresh Thai Basil. Serve immediately over couscous and/or fresh spinach greens, piled high with spicy peach salsa.

Go forth and craft an heirloom. Or just munch on a bag of popcorn and watch the tatoo’ed girls in the film make spunk outta junk.

Here’s a quick pic of my crafty sculpture-in-progress and my girl, Mazy. I’ve finished the first round of paper mache and I’m letting it rest for a week while checking it for size in its future home at mid-stairwell. I’m also removing it from my kitchen to improve my sanity for the week. Hint: if I still played with Barbies, they would have cocktails on top of this baby, everyday at five sharp.

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” — Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

How about 65 minutes of adrenaline-pumping inspiration that will electrify your crafty little fingers? Oh yeah. This is the summer of L-O-V-E. It’s the Paper Apron’s first-ever Give-a-Way, Share-a-Way, Craft-a-Way! I’m sending a copy of Handmade Nation: the Rise of DIY Art, Craft, and Design to one lucky winner, hidden somewhere inside one of our 50 united states.

Wait. There’s a hitch. Read the small print:

To enter, leave a comment sharing the name of one lucky person that you will pass the DVD along to, after you watch it, should you win. First names, nicknames, names made up to protect the innocent, whatever- this is the honor system. It would be super duper if that lucky person passed it along, as well, and so on, and so on and so on and so on. Until one day, it shows back up on my doorstep, tattered, and scratched and years beyond my memory of the yard sale where I’d sold my obsolete DVD player for pennies. But I should probably keep my one-with-the-universe aspirations in check.

View the Trailer & Snap along to the Opening Title

In about two weeks, (let’s say Wednesday, August 4th, 11 PM EST, if I can stay up that late) I’ll write everyone’s name down on a scrap of paper (I’m a purist) and I’ll ask a random passerby to pick one name out of a hat. I’ll write you to get your mailing info and you, my lucky winner, will be off to the movies.

In the meantime, I’ve started my own summer crafting adventure. Any guesses as to what it’s going to be?

]]> http://www.paperapron.com/?feed=rss2&p=4315 15 http://www.paperapron.com/?p=4287 http://www.paperapron.com/?p=4287#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:27:19 +0000 Kim http://www.paperapron.com/?p=4287 Issue 12 | Post no. 4:  I could subsist carefree and happily on fruit and vegetables during the summer:  a bowl of peaches and blueberries for breakfast, a tomato and cucumber salad for lunch. And for supper, a bowl of warm butter beans and an ear of sweet corn on the cob. I actually eat plenty of meat, but as long as we’re milking this vegetarian fantasy, if I were allowed a dairy cow and a hen, I’d make a fire by the beach (yes, my fantasy farm is on an island off the coast of France), whip up veggie-filled, Gruyere quiches and eat happily-ever-after as Madame Crusoe.

Quiche is one of my favorite summer meals. There’s no crust to roll out and you can use up a lot of the veggies from your garden. Right now we have tons of jalapenos so I’m throwing them into every meal I make. When you remove the seeds, they add a subtle, spicy crunch to salads, pizzas, guacamole and omelets.

Our tomatoes are refusing to grow in this heat and we don’t even attempt to grow corn, so I find myself pulling off at my local market almost every night on my way home from work. Thank goodness for real-live local farmers.

Sweet Corn and Tomato Quiche

Serves six
Butter or Oil for pie plate
1 1/4 cup grated Gruyere Cheese
1/2 Sweet Onion, chopped
3 to 6 Jalapenos/Banana Peppers seeded and minced (optional)
2 ripe Tomatoes, sliced thin
2 ears Sweet Corn, off the cob
2 T chopped fresh Basil and extra leaves for chiffonade topping
4 Eggs
1 small can (5 oz.) Evaporated Milk
1/8 t freshly Ground Pepper
1/4 t Salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch pie plate with butter, cooking spray or oil. Layer the Gruyere cheese, then onion, peppers, and the slices of one tomato. Add the corn and top with slices of the second tomato. In a medium-size bowl, crack four eggs and pour in one small can of evaporated milk. Add salt and pepper, whisk, and pour over vegetables. Add basil and another grind of  pepper. Bake for 30 minutes or until center is set. Smother cooked quiche with basil chiffonade and serve immediately.

The Caring Forest, by APAK

Today’s post is a mismatched, stream of consciousness celebration of the creative, colorful spirit that summer brings out in us all. Plus, I saw the movie Handmade Nation last night, and it’s driving me crafty.

Here, listen to this while you read on: Handmade Nation Theme by Noisola.

Oh, about the print above: BuyOlympia.com sells this enchanting print- The Caring Forest- for $35.00. It’s a great little online store, if you’re staying inside and chilling with the A.C.

The Little Friends of Printmaking sell this lovely orange lady print as well as the pink skull print. These two print makers are on the edge of artsy/ crafty/ crazy.

Handmade Nation: the Movie

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this exposé about the rise of the underground crafting culture in our nation, but Holy button holes, Batman; it is truly inspirational. From the handmade title animation and sing-songy, clapping “Hands On” theme music (are you listening to it? isn’t it great?), this documentary weaves its tale through the mouths of dozens of artisans, telling their stories with a deadpan seriousness, often wry and darkly humorous. Suddenly, you find yourself hooked like a handmade rug in the DIY spirit. And if that handmade rug has a naked woman or an oversize skull on it, then it’s surely circa 2000-2020. Craft has gone a bit subversive. It laughs at itself now and it has one wicked sense of humor.

The film succeeds at elevating wonky felt monsters and mittens-as-punk-band-swag to a hip, refreshingly real, reflection of the times, which in many ways is an anthropological, evolutionary consumerism backlash against anything sold pre-packaged in plastic at Walmart. Ho boy. I just realized my fascination with Anthropologie is a direct result of their manipulation of the handmade, unique item, one-and-only-vintage, foreign/thrift-store appeal cravings that we are all having. Yet, they are riding the wave with a mostly mass-produced sales floor. Well, aren’t they sly and stealthy geniuses?

(Oh, and to slip quickly down another rabbit hole- here’s a link to Anthro’s chief buyers TV show:  Man Shops Globe. Haven’t seen it. Can’t wait to, though.)

We Rejoin our Regularly Scheduled Movie Discussion…

Besides, leaving a theater with a rediscovered desire to break out your glue gun, is what I call a fine use of an afternoon. If you haven’t seen it, yet, you may want to check the schedule to see if/when it’s coming to a theater near you. Or, buy the book. Yep, there’s a book.

June Apron | Eliza Kate Designs

This is the spunk. This is the spunk we all need more of. I love this pose. I love those boots.

Our June apron (really a child’s apron dress) can be found on Eliza Kate’s Etsy store. And as we all know, Etsy is the ultimate online sales tool of stay at home crafters and professional artisans.

Are the Scandinavians cool or are the Scandinavians what?

Those stylish Scandinavians are at it again. They’re having fun with modern shapes, materials and graphic design. Here’s a melamine chicken tray from huset that is pecking away at my heartstrings. Is a product designers mission nothing but to entice you to buy what you never knew you wanted?

True, this chicken tray is possibly mass-produced, but it sure has the look and feel of a crafty style.

It’s Madness, I Tell You

Oh, and I’m reading these craft books. And I have my sewing kits out- this is progress! And here’s a handmade bustier that I made years ago, back when I was feeling quite crafty and totally crazy and well, less bust-ier. I’m off to get into some trouble. Enjoy your day!

Today, I wake up to a peaceful, sleepy street, whose dew-kissed lawns and draping oak arms, coax me out onto cooled, old concrete. Or, perhaps it’s Mazy doing the coaxing. Nonetheless, the experience of an early urban summer morning, without the grandeur of a lake sunrise over a mile-long horizon, is still worth the effort. The peace and quiet are still here– every sweet, humid Southern morning. And getting out for an early walk is nothing less than ceremony.

Mazy is a good companion. Today, we wandered the streets of nearby Wales Garden, hoping to get a call from Rich (leaving on his daily Charlotte trek), who indeed met us and handed me a paper cup of piping-hot coffee. Half-way through our walk, Mazy took a dip in an old horse fountain. Nearing home, we had grown into giants. And as the sun climbed over the rooftops, we were well on our way… to breakfast, of course.