School's Out!

    For most of the years that my kids were young, I would leave school on the last day with an entire two and a half months of freedom before me. Summer vacation is now more like two months long, and for the last four or five years, I've somehow found myself teaching summer school, which usually puts a bit of a damper on my celebratory attitude. If I'd be more fiscally responsible during the school year, I wouldn't be complaining about this fact. Although I'm not complaining much this summer since I will still have a lot of free time. I'm subbing eight days of summer school for a friend in July; plus, I'm splitting a contract to teach a night class at the college, which means two nights a week for four weeks. That's certainly not "nothing," but it's much less than I'm used to, so I'm excited. It will be nice not to be rushed about pretty much anything, including knitting projects. I felt a little rushed with finishing my little project for my friend this week. I didn't get the Mary Janes finished for my friend's grandbaby, but I did knit her a cute little hat from Susan B Anderson's "rosebud hat" pattern in Itty Bitty Hats. I'll just have to knit the Mary Janes later.

I didn't really have enough time to knit the rosebuds, so I knit a little flower from 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet,  I don't know how to crochet much, but this book makes me want to learn. It has some really fun patterns. I was inspired to buyit from Knot Garden, who creates gorgeous flowers creations. I'm sad that she hasn't posted since December because her stuff is wonderful.

One of my summer goals is to be more faithful about my food posts on Fridays, but since I've been so infrequent with the food posts lately, I thought I'd post a recent success while it's fresh on my mind. We had some friends over on Sunday night and had an indoor picnic since it was too cold and windy outside. (Yes, cold and windy in Central California...in late May!)  We had pulled pork sandwiches, thanks to Trader Joe's, but I'm proud to say the potato salad was homemade. I'm still on the "Southwest" kick and found a great new recipe on a blog that I unfortunately forgot to bookmark!

Southwestern Potato Salad

• 4 lbs heirloom, thin skinned potatoes, cut and boiled until tender but not mushy
• 2 red onions, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, roasted until soft
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 Poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2-3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
• 2 cupe  mayo
• 2 tbs Grey Poupon mustard
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin 

Mix the mayo, mustard, agave, cumin, and lime juice. Squeeze in the soft insides of the roasted garlic and mix well. Set aside. In a large bowl, toss the potatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro, and chopped garlic until well mixed. Pour the mayo mixture over all and blend gently. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I had good reviews on this recipe although it was really on the spicy side.