The Hand That First Held Mine

Maggie O'Farrell's The Hand That First Held Mine may not be the most challenging piece of fiction I've read in recent months, but it is definitely one of the most enrapturing. The novel tells the vibrant tale of two seemingly separate lives led in different time periods in London. First is Lexie, a 20-something girl leaving her family home for adventure and freedom in the city in the mid-1950s. Though she's long dreamed of escaping her roots, it isn't until a stranger named Innes stops by her house seeking assistance with his broken-down car that she finally decides to flee. The relationship between the two grows ever stronger once Lexie arrives in London and the charming Innes, editor of a small Soho-based art magazine, absolutely dotes on her, showing her the ins and outs of the publishing world and London at large.

In parallel we follow Elina, a new mother who suffered a great deal of blood loss during the recent delivery of her baby son. From the first her memory comes in fits and starts, so she finds herself unable to recall how she passes the time or gets from one room in her house to another. Her concerned husband Ted is a movie editor, tied to a demanding job but more preoccupied with the wellbeing of his wife and premature child. As they both learn to juggle parenthood with their marriage and Elina's health issues, Ted begins to suffer torments all his own.

The Hand That First Held Mine is one of those novels that tells two stories in tandem, keeping readers guessing at what ultimately ties them together. Lexie and Elina are connected in ways that you'll think you have figured out, only to realize you've been mistaken and misled. The novel becomes quite bewitching, especially by the halfway mark, earning it definite page-turner status.

Not quite a romance novel, nor pure family saga, The Hand That First Held Mine tells the haunting story of two women whose lives run very much in parallel, despite the span of a few decades' time. The thread connecting Lexie and Elina is, however, much more concrete than it first appears and O'Farrell weaves a wonderful story of it all. Though I wasn't completely hooked until the mystery began to more fully unfold, O'Farrell tells an exceedingly vivid tale that had me up until 2:00 in the morning anxious to reach the last page.

A Few of My Favorite Weddings

Mike and I just tied the knot yesterday! We're currently recovering from yesterday's festivities and basking in the early glow of newlywed life. I've got some posts scheduled during this newly-wedded week and then when we go on our honeymoon in early June, so Radiator Tunes will stay up and running even while I'm busy being a newlywed. For now, instead of my traditional Monday Week in Words and Photos post, I've got a few great weddings to share that have particularly important in helping me to shape my wedding day!

For obvious reasons, in the past few months I've been particularly drawn to bridal blogs. I'm at times inspired and at other times dismayed because of the unrepeatable beauty and originality of these weddings. I want to emulate these gorgeous ceremonies and receptions but I also think that a big part of the magic of these weddings is that they are so personal and unique to the individuals they bring together.

Nonetheless, I still am a true believer in drawing inspiration from elements that you love and I definitely did plenty of this for yesterday's wedding extravaganza (okay... it wasn't really that extravagant, that's just not my style. But it was an extravaganza in my life). Potted herbal centerpieces, origami peace crane details, and a selection of assorted pies in lieu of a cake are just a few of the details that Mike and I incorporated into our wedding that weren't 100% original idea. But when it all came together, our day was be perfectly suited to my new husband and myself, no matter where we drew our inspiration and ideas.

Anyway, the reason I'm going into all of this is because there are some weddings out there that are just too beautiful to pass up. I've highlighted a few of my favorites here but I've been combing wedding blogs for months now so I know there are plenty of weddings that I've seen and fallen in love with but have failed to include in this post. Feast your eyes on these!

Lex and Loren via Green Wedding Shoes

This is actually the wedding that inspired me to do this post. Not only is this couple frickin' adorable, they created a great backyard wedding that I totally envy. I love the decor - subtle natural elements and a bit of sparkle here and there - and the feel of the whole day - rustic and vintage with a touch of whimsy and a whole lot of fun. The bridal party was decked out in all mismatched black and white, allowing each girl or guy's personality to come through a bit. Their cake was placed atop an old record player, complete with vinyl albums on the shelf below. Everything about this wedding is classy and romantic but still personal, a bit casual, and completely one-of-a-kind.

Sherry and John via Young House Love

The first time I came across this couple I kept thinking to myself "They stole my wedding!" I'd wanted to do a backyard, DIY type reception which is exactly what Sherry and John did with style and class! Their backyard was perfect for hosting the ceremony and reception and a bunch of loved ones were involved in making their day complete. Food was primarily prepared by the couple while their parents manned the grill the day of, the decor was simple and centerpieces were very eco-friendly: beautiful lemons and limes gathered in large clear bowls. They also had a photo booth at the reception - one of the biggest wedding trends at the moment - but actually mimicked the photo-strip style for their adorable Save the Dates. They made their wedding day entirely their own, from start to finish, and I love how flawlessly they pulled the whole thing off!

Carrie and Eric via 100 Layer Cake

I knew that I wanted to do something sustainable and useful in my own wedding - it doesn't make sense to me to make a waste of so many beautiful cut flowers for centerpieces and the like. That was why I thought about using potted herbs instead. These would still be useful and beautiful beyond the wedding day and would fit in with the blue and green color palette in my head. Enter Carrie and Eric's inspiring wedding. I fell in love with the lavender bouquets, the potted herb centerpieces, the rock place settings, the outdoor ceremony. This wedding just feels so natural and peaceful and sweet and I'm completely in love. I also dig the bridesmaids' dresses - they're wearing a bright teal that isn't too garish nor too pastel. It nicely compliments the style of the whole day.

Jordan and Nick via Green Wedding Shoes

Jordan and Nick are just the most adorable couple. Maybe it's because Jordan reminds me of Taylor Swift and has that all-American sweetheart charm. Their wedding is 100% original to me - from the altar created with vintage photo frames to the lamp centerpieces and mismatched chairs, the decor and vintage style of this wedding is truly unique. Once again, this is a backyard wedding which I obviously adore. And I think it's awesome that the bridesmaids did waitress duty. Not that I think they should be spending the majority of their time serving food but it's a nice homey touch that I find very sweet. I also love that Jordan walked down the aisle to the much-covered Bob Dylan tune "To Make You Feel My Love" performed by a friend of the couple's. And Jordan's shoes were great. So much to love!

Sarah and Jaime via Intimate Weddings

What a bright and beautiful wedding! I love that Sarah and Jaime weren't afraid to be colorful and bold for their wedding, that they used a wild and vibrant palette and didn't hold back one bit. The turquoise and hot pink are just too much fun. I love Sarah's dress and her shoes - how her whole look is just as flirty as the rest of the wedding decor. They also kept the guest list small and I love intimate weddings. With a smaller guest list, it is easy to keep in mind what the wedding is ultimately all about. For some couples, planning a huge and extravagant wedding becomes a distraction from the reason for a wedding in the first place: their commitment to one another. And how about dessert: red velvet cupcakes and a candy bar? Now that's my idea of awesome wedding dessert options. This wedding is brimming with personality and looks like it was such a good time for Sarah, Jaime, and all their guests. And at the end of the day, I think a wedding should be a good time for the couple and their most beloved friends and family.

I promise wedding pictures once we're back from our honeymoon in mid-June!

La Blogotheque

Some years ago when I was feeling particularly inspired by the independent music scene, I stumbled upon this great little collection of YouTube videos known as the Take Away Shows brought to the world by La Blogotheque. These videos capture some of the most popular indie artists performing their songs in stripped down and intimate settings. My favorite is this video of "Oh La La" performed by the Kooks along the streets of Paris. By the end of the video, fans are crowded around the lead singer, joining in the chorus and I just wish I could have been there.



Here are a few of my other favorites from La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows collection. If you visit the YouTube site, you can find performances from artists of all sorts. I highly recommend checking it out to see if your favorites are among those captured!







PS - Tomorrow is the big wedding day! I've scheduled plenty of posts to keep Radiator Tunes up and running during this exciting but busy time... During the middle of next week I hope to be back live for a bit before heading off on our honeymoon on the last day of May!

Let the Great World Spin

"...everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected" according to Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin. His National Book Award winning-novel is the literary manifestation of this very belief in the interconnectedness of all that occurs in the great city of New York.

McCann's story is centered around a tightrope walker who managed to suspend a tightrope between the twin towers and walk, dance, and run across. It is New York City in the 1970's and the fateful day of the tightrope walker's performance plays a pivotal role in the lives of many of the city's people, from prostitutes prowling the streets of the Bronx to Park Avenue's mothers of Vietnam veterans. (Though there was a real-life tightrope walker, Philippe Petit, who completed this feat in August of 1974, the rest of the novel is entirely fictional.)

McCann introduces us to a multitude of characters whose seemingly disparate stories are ultimately intricately linked. These connections are drawn without sentimentality, however, and all serve to enhance McCann's portrait of New York as a living, thriving organism. He touches on generosity, love, loss, loneliness, desperation, and hope - a whole range of emotions to reflect the wide range of characters portrayed throughout.

Let the Great World Spin is hard to succinctly summarize, composed as it is of fragments of multiple lives that we see firsthand for a fleeting period, then never revisit in such close proximity again. It is a brilliantly crafted work, one that perfectly balances simplicity in theme with the complexity of the content of theme. In other words, McCann never tries to make his story more than it is - a tale of interconnected lives in the big apple. But by giving life to these complicated connections, the whole narrative becomes more than just the sum of its composite story parts.

I have a tendency to religiously read any and all quotes or passages included prior to the first page of a novel upon first delving in. Rarely, however, do I revisit them upon reaching the last page. Luckily, this book was an exception to that trend. And I think that the excerpt McCann chose from Aleksandar Hemon's 2008 novel The Lazarus Project provides a very apt summation to Let the Great World Spin. He wrote "All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is." I don't think better words could have been chosen to provide closure for this must-read novel.

Steel-Cut Oats

Looking for a hearty, nutty, and delicious breakfast? You're in luck! We all know (and hopefully love!) good old oats of the rolled and quick-cooking variety. Well steel-cut oats are a more complete and wholesome version of the whole grain oat kernel. They take a bit longer to prepare but have many more health benefits for the breakfaster and a lot more texture and flavor.

Steel-cut oats can either be soaked before cooking or prepared dry, but the drier they come, the longer the cooking process. I didn't plan ahead very well in my attempts to prepare these oats for the first time so I did it the long way and simmered the oats in salted water for about 25 minutes (Wikipedia recommends anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes). Since these are such a filling meal, I only prepared about 1/4 cup of the oats with approximately 1 1/2 cups of water. A few stirs throughout the cooking process is all you really need to ensure that your oats turn out just right.

With a little added sweetness and whatever variety of fruits, nuts, and seeds you prefer to add, steel-cut oats can be transformed into a most delicious and flavorful breakfast to fit anyone's taste! I added some peanut butter, a little bit of agave syrup, cinnamon, raisins, and flaked coconut. These oats have a bit more bite and texture to them than traditional oatmeal, so they're a great alternative for people who turn their noses up at mushy foods. And they've got plenty of nutty flavor all on their own, so you don't even need to add toppings and such to make it edible. All in all, I'd say this is my new go-to breakfast food!

Week in Words and Photos

Aromatic and beautiful Mother's Day flowers.

Snapshot of a beautiful Baltimore evening.

For Mother's Day, our family traveled up to Fair Hill Natural Resource Management Area in Elkton, MD. A picnic at the park and a low key hike on a beautiful spring day - the perfect way to spend some time with Mom!

Apologies for this somewhat abrupt and relatively brief post. It's been a week full of graduate assistantship interviews, Mother's Day hijinks, final wedding preparations, and awful sore throats and fevers.

How was your week?

Garden Tour

I'm a huge advocate of the backyard veggie garden. Growing your own produce is ultimately one of the cheapest, most convenient, most satisfying, and healthiest ways to get your hands on some produce. If you're willing to put in a little bit of work, you will be happily eating well the whole season through.

I'm fortunate enough to have a pretty sunny backyard with few squirrels and other hungry pests. The majority of my gardening work consists of weeding, watering, and generally keeping a good eye on my garden every day. I used some landscaping fabric and hearty mulch this year in the hopes of reducing the number of weeds to be pulled... we'll see how well these efforts pan out.

And for those of you who don't have a yard or have to deal with neighborhood pests, I highly suggest bringing the garden inside. Container gardens can add some lovely color and life to your windowsills. Plus, they keep the goodness coming at harvest time and are pretty low-maintenance as long as you keep an eye on them.

So here's a little tour of my backyard garden. Last year was the first time I ever managed a full-on vegetable garden entirely on my own, so I'm still in the process of learning from my mistakes (ie. failure to adhere to recommended distances when spacing plants) and successes (growing my own arugula!).

In the hopes of diminishing the number of weeds that jump from my neighbor's yard into my garden, I've lined the space with bricks. I'm generally into clean lines and such aesthetically so this also creates a nice edge that is very pleasing to the eye.

First up is my herb garden. At the moment it's a little sparse but I'll be transplanting other varieties of herbs (hopefully thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, and dill) after they serve as wedding centerpieces. For the time being, basil and parsley are the main staples making their way in the garden.

I am stoked about all my lettuces for this year. Last season I tried buttercrunch and arugula, both of which I loved. This year I added some spinach and romaine to the mix. I cannot wait for fresh salads and arugula pesto!

I'm hoping that last year's blueberry bush will yield some real fruit this year. It's looking pretty good so far so I'm crossing my fingers for more positive progress! I've also got a raspberry bush that I'm hoping will do well. It was a $3.00 impulse buy from Walmart so I'm a bit skeptical but I would love some bright and fresh raspberries to add to cereals this summer!

This is the first time I'll be growing string beans, broccoli, and cauliflower. I've harvested string beans while volunteering at a local urban farm so I've got some semblance of an idea of what to expect there. As for the broccoli and cauliflower, I look forward to seeing how they grow!

I'm a huge fan of sweets so I naturally tend toward fruits over vegetables. I've never grown so many fruits before but I'm trying out strawberries this year. I can already see the beginnings of one, so I have high hopes. I just am not sure what to expect in terms of output - any idea how many strawberries a single plant can yield?

Tomatoes are one of the fruits of the season that I most anticipate bringing to harvest. Tomatoes from the backyard are invariably better than the mushy variety sold in supermarkets and cheaper than the farmer's market's heirloom options. Real vine-ripe tomatoes are unbeatable and have high yields all summer long.

Peppers and eggplant are two of my favorite veggies and I love to use them in a whole variety of ways. My peppers weren't entirely successful last year - they never really grew much larger than 4 inches in height. I'm hoping for a more sizable pepper crop for 2011 and I can't wait to prepare some delicious Italian dishes with these two.

To round out the whole garden I've added some long neck squash. Squash seem to be one of the easiest and heartiest plants to grow. Last year I only had one plant but I had more squash than I knew what to do with! Loaf upon loaf of zucchini bread was prepared and popped in the freezer - and we're still working our way through it! Needless to say, I'm anticipating plenty of squash this year. I allowed last year's harvest to grow a few too many days (I had zucchini that were over a foot long!) so I'm planning on keeping a closer eye and plucking these guys as soon as they reach a decent size. And I'm sure they'll provide plenty of opportunities for baking so stay tuned for zucchini bread posts galore!

Do you have a vegetable or herb garden this season? What are you looking forward to harvesting?

Say Her Name

Francisco Goldman's novel Say Her Name seems to be all the rage right now. I randomly came across a recommendation somewhere or other, and then proceeded to find brilliant reviews for the novel everywhere I looked on the internet. It wasn't too long after I delved in that I figured out what all the fuss was about.

The narrative is reminiscent (to me at least) of that of Carolyn Parkhurst's The Dogs of Babel. A man loses his wife and, while dealing with the tumultuous pain of his loss, he revisits (and maybe even romanticizes) the relationship they shared. The late wife in both cases is a bit more tortured than we first realize, but is always a compellingly vivacious character.

Goldman pulls us right into the throes of his sorrow as he reveals the tragic fact that his young wife, Aura, died in a drowning accident of some sort in her native country, Mexico. She was a graduate student at Columbia living with her husband in Brooklyn, and a vacation with friends took them down to Mexico. He recounts Aura's lifestory in fairly chronological form up until her death. Throughout, he intersperses memories of his four years with Aura as well as the aftermath of her demise even though we remain fuzzy on the exact details of his wife's last hours until the book's last pages. This little structural detail really serves to keep you constantly feeling for Francisco; it is almost as though recounting Aura's death is a truly insurmountable task, one that can only be completed once the other facts of their lives have been fully exhausted.

Intelligently written, Say Her Name is a beautiful manifestation of Francisco's love for Aura as well as a tale of loss. Though the loss of his wife is the central thread of Goldman's story, his all-encompassing awe for and devotion to Aura is what will most stain reader's minds. Maybe it's just because I'm a bit of a romantic and a huge sucker for stories told by the love-struck male who paints the object of his affection in the rosiest of love's shades. Or maybe it's because Goldman's novel stands as one of the greatest acts of love that an individual could ever commit for someone else. Aura is immortalized in Say Her Name; her earliest dark adolescent thoughts, recorded in treasured diaries, the torturous secrets and insecurities shared with her husband, the gorgeous fragments of writing which she fervently dreamed of one day seeing bound in a published book are all threaded into this eulogy of a novel. We are introduced to Aura through Francisco's narrative eyes, but a whole lot of authentic Aura finds its way into the story too.

Say Her Name has more depth than almost any other novel of love and loss I've yet come across. I'd attribute this both to Goldman's intellectual roots but also to the fact that this story is so very steeped in his very real experience. Francisco documented his love for Aura the way he knew best. Though a novel alone cannot lessen the sorrow of losing one's wife, writing such a strikingly real portrait of Aura allows her presence to permeate every corner of Goldman's life. Though this in itself isn't a major change from the way Francisco experinenced the initial shock of losing Aura, her spiritual presence begins to enhance and even brighten Francisco's world, rather than fill him with an overwhelming degree of sorrow.

After Aura's death, Francisco speaks with Ana Eva, a waitress at a restaurant the couple used to frequent. He shares with her a line from "Exequy on his Wife" a poem by Henry King, Bishop of Chichester that reads "ev'ry Howre a step towards thee." For Francisco, this excerpt encompasses the whole state of emotions through which he is dealing. He goes on to explain that "this is why we need beauty, to illuminate even what has most broken us... [not] to help us transcend or transform it into something else, but first and foremost to help us see it." This rationalization of beauty helps explain the importance of this particular piece of poetry to Francisco, but also is essential in gaining an understanding of why he wrote Say Her Name.

The novel is at times raw and painful, at others romanticized and lovely. But it is always undeniably real and authentic. Say Her Name is a harrowingly true story that touches at the heartstrings, for its profundity of love and depth of sadness are unquestionably, gut-wrenchingly sincere.

Unbelievably Easy Mixed Berry Pie

Mike and I love pie. If you've read my blog in the past few months, you're probably already privy to this quite obvious piece of information. We travel into the city for pie from the famed Dangerously Delicious shop on a nearly weekly basis. I scour the dessert case at every restaurant we attend for fruit pies, chocolate and peanut butter mousse pies, and everything in between. The dessert for our upcoming wedding (2 weeks!!!) will be not cake but a selection of pies.

I've been meaning to make a pie of my own for some time, to both save money and to ensure that it is a somewhat-healthy sweet. Then I got lazy and thought about the effort required to roll out a crust and the aftermath of a pie in our house for two (the pie likely would not last more than 24 hrs which is not so good for my confidence or my waistline).

But I finally summoned the courage and energy to make a pie from scratch and it was so easy I could barely believe it. I've watched enough cooking shows to know that plenty of those dishes that seem so scary to the average baker or cook, like risotto and pie crusts, are really manageable as long as you know the basics. And I've seen enough of those shows to have picked up on pie crust basics. So I made a whole wheat pie crust using Giada Di Laurentiis' method and then the filling was all my own.

My crust didn't come out quite as nicely as those on TV, which may have something to do with my use of whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. Whatever the reason, it was still fairly easy to roll out despite a few cracks and I dig the resulting rustic look. With a little sprinkle of sugar over top, the crust was unbelievably delicious.

I definitely recommend trying this one out soon! Any type and combination of berries will do and if you opt for fresh ones, just try to get about 2 cups of fruit. And fresh berries won't take quite as long to cook so pop the pie in the oven for about 20 minutes, then check and see  how it's doing.

Mixed Berry Pie

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 3 Tbsp ice water
• 16 oz (2 cups) frozen mixed berries

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine whole wheat flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, and salt. Pulse until mixed.

2. Add the cold cubed butter. Pulse until the mixture begins to resemble coarse meal.

3. Slowly stream in the ice water while continually mixing the dough. The mixture will start to clump and come together.

4. Turn the dough onto a work surface and shape it into a ball, then flatten it to a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and let chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

5. With 15 minutes of chill time left, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put mixed berries in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of sugar and a small sprinkle of salt.

6. Remove dough and unwrap. Add flour to a large flat work surface for rolling out the dough. Roll to about a 1/4 inch thickness. 

7. Cover the bottom of 9 inch pie dish with dough and then pour mixed berry filling in. Fold the remaining dough over top of the filling. 

8. Using a sharp knife, make a few slits in the pie crust to allow air to escape during cooking. Sprinkle a little more sugar over the crust for an extra sweet bite.

9. Pop the pie in the oven for about 50 minutes (about 20 if using fresh berries). Allow to cool about 10 minutes before eating. Enjoy!

Week in Words and Photos

Spring, delicious spring!

It finally felt like spring (if not summer) for a few days in Baltimore and I took full advantage of the sun and the warmth to get some gardening in. I'll have a post dedicated to a more full garden tour, but here are just a few photos of my progress thus far. I cannot wait to gather so much of my own produce from my backyard this summer!

Blueberries on the bush

Flowering arugula

I made this wreath at the beginning of the season and had a totally different end product in mind. It took me a while to come around to the girly look of what I actually made, but it's finally growing on me - especially during these April showers when it brings just a touch of extra sunshine to the front door!

All in all it's been a busy week over here and a bittersweet one too. Thursday was my last day of work at the community center where I ran an after-school homework help program for kids. Although my time there was filled with plenty of days when I drove home mired in frustration, exasperation, sadness, and confusion, I also learned more than I thought possible and made some close connections with the children and their families. I'm horrible with goodbyes and will truly miss my boss and the work that I did there. I'm trying to stay positive and focus on the fact that I now have a little free time to focus on my wedding (less than two weeks away... ahh!) before getting into the groove of my new job working with inner-city Baltimore teens.

How was your week? Happy May!

My Photographic Education: Garry Winogrand & Wolfgang Tillmans

I've always had a great interest in the medium of the photograph but I'm still much of a novice when it comes to my knowledge about the major players in the field. I'm in the process of better educating myself in this realm and one of the ways I aimed to do so was by visiting the Baltimore Museum of Art with my good friend Sarah last weekend. The BMA currently has a photography exhibit entitled Seeing Now on exhibit featuring work from over 60 photographers and a total of over 200 photographs taken since the 1960's - and better yet, it is entirely free of charge! 

I have a special fondness for photography with a sociological and/or feminist context - I guess it's rooted in my undergraduate education. Needless to say, one of the artists whose work most stuck with me from this show was Garry Winogrand. The BMA included a series of shots he had taken that were from a larger collection featured in his photo book Women are Beautiful (published in 1975). The photos are all snapshot-style images of women engaged in a variety of public activities, but there's something about the photographer and the time that makes them extremely compelling and gripping. 

I encourage anyone in the Baltimore area to check out Seeing Now which will be up until May 15th and of course, anyone in or around Chicago should definitely stop by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography (another awesome stop I made on a Chicago road trip years ago). 

Though this post doesn't cover the full extent of my familiarity with notable photographers, does anyone have recommendations of artists I should check out? Who are some of your favorite photographic artists?

Along with Garry Winogrand, I'm a huge fan of Wolfgang Tillmans. Years ago when I went on a family vacation to Chicago, we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in the windy city. At the time they were having an exhibit featuring photographer Wolfgang Tillmans' work, and I fell in love with this particular photo entitled "Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christoph on beach ." It's stuck with me for years and is among my all-time favorite photographs. 

Herb & Honey Summer Salad Dressing

Come spring and summertime, all I want to eat are salads and fresh fruit. So many of my favorite produce items will soon be in their prime and I love to toss them together in a delicious single salad dish.

I usually do a real simple vinaigrette to top off my salads but I started playing around with ingredients one day and came across something surprisingly delicious. Pesto and yogurt make up the base of this creamy and flavorful dressing while honey and balsamic vinegar add a bit of sweetness. The vinegar and lemon juice round out the dressing with a hint of acidity. It might sound like a whole lot of disparate flavors but this dressing is actually well balanced, absolutely delicious, and totally healthy! When I first threw it all together, I was eating it on toast, crackers, and even straight off the spoon - anyway I could get a little taste more!

Herb & Honey Summer Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup pesto (store-bought or homemade)
• 4 Tbsp vanilla yogurt
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Mix all ingredient and enjoy!