Taste of Summer - Salted Almond and Hot Peach Salad

I wanted something.....


Something with fruit in it....

Something with nuts in it.....


Something with greens in it.....


and I found this yummy recipe in "take a vine-ripened tomato..."


but this is what I actually made

Salted Almond and Hot Peach Salad


2 Tbsp light olive oil
1/4- 1/2 cup whole almonds
ground rock salt
1 tin sliced peaches
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 pack salad greens
1-2 Tbsp wine vinegar

Heat oil in frypan, toss almonds in pan until toasted, remove with slotted spoon, leaving remaining oil in pan. Drain on paper towels and season liberally with salt.

Drain peaches well, sprinkle with coriander.

Add extra oil to pan if required, add garlic and cook untill golden, add peaches and toss gently until heated, add vinegar and gently combine.

Toss peaches and almonds through salad greens and serve while still hot.

The original recipe called for blanched almonds, fresh peaches, and buttercrunch lettuce, but there was NO way I was going to walk all the way to the supermarket to get 3 ingredients!


But on the other hand it might have given me some justification to have something sweet for dessert ;)


Loodle

Creepy Crawlies And Things That Go Bump In The Night

I used to have a live and let live attitude to critters great and small. I didn't bother them and, hopefully, they wouldn't bug me.

That was untill the day that the spider dropped

I was living in the darkest, dingiest smallest flat I have ever lived in. "nestled in the bush" wolud have been the nicest thing your could have said about it.

Being surround by the bush (and what counted as the yard being covered in wandering jew) there were endless multiple legged beasties roaming around in and out of the house.

The worst were the big black shiny spiders. They didn't just look nasty, they looked evil.

Now I know that they were not poisonous, but they looked like the things nightmares are made of.

One day I was reading in bed and this H U G E black shiny spider fell from the cieling onto my book and scuttled into the bed. I screamed, lept, collided with the wall (in my panic I failed to determine a safe place to land) screamed again and then abandoned the bed. After I had recovered my wits I pulled every cover off looking for the offending spider. I never found it. After that day I never trusted spiders again.

However I do think that creepy crawlies are beautiful.

Nothing beats the dew on a spiderweb first thing in the morning for beauty.

The alien life-form that is the weta

the crisp greens of a summer cicada

The sun reflecting off a lacewings wing

Loodle

diet

I love being on a diet.

No truly I do, I'm not just trying to get your attention with sarcasm. Diets are great!

I love the oppurtunity to get creative within the boundries of good health to enjoy what I eat, to try new foods and adapt old ones.

I'm not talking about fad diets, here today, forgotten tomorrow. I'm talking about good old fashioned what I SHOULD be eating, but because of, oh whatever it was that derailed me, I let my standards slip. A few hot chips here, a coke there, a pizza because I was too busy to cook properly, and before you know it I have a taste for fat and sugar again.

But give me a couple weeks eating properly and you get what happening to me now.

Hot chips, I love them (when I'm not behaving myself) today I had one of Liams. It tasted foul. I could taste the oil, no amount of tomato sauce could get rid of that fatty taste in my mouth. I went to the supermarket and had an all out binge session buying.....

vegetables

yes you saw right, vegetables

mushrooms, broccoli, onions, parsley, pumpkin, carrots, spinach and tomato, some char-grilled capsicum all lightly cooked in a white wine and faux cream (ultralight phildelphia cream cheese) sauce, served over pasta and seasoned with a generous grind of pepper.

mmmmmm

Photos? Don't be silly, I was too hungry to wait around taking snaps while my dinner was getting cold.

Loodle