Keeping It Cool:

This summer, all I feel like eating is fruit and salad.

This is my current catnip:

Mesclun Salad with Citrus Dressing

6 cups mesclun (arugula, frisee, radicchio)

2 Tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 Tablespoon orange juice

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Combine mesclun and basil in a large bowl. Combine lemon juice, orange juice, oil, sugar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Stir well with a whisk (this dressing may be made a day ahead and kept in the frig). Pour dressing over salad and toss to combine. Serve at once. Yum!

(from Weight Watchers Entertains with the Chefs of the Culinary Institute of America)

Pandora's Box:

"For whatever reason -- curiosity or malice -- she opened the box and revealed the sin. Despite how quickly she closed the lid, the sin had already escaped."

In 2004, Frank Warren began a public art project where he distributed 3,000 self-addressed postcards with instructions to write down and illustrate a secret and send it back. He stuck the cards in library books, left them on city bus seats, and in any spot where he thought they might get picked up. The only requirement was that the secret be true and that the secret had never been told before. The postcards began to trickle in, and then pour, and the deluge continues to this day, sometimes as many as 200 fill Warren's mailbox. Every Sunday on PostSecret he posts about 20 fresh secrets from all over the world.

The posts are hopeful, lewd, humorous and heartbreaking. Warren believes that his blog serves a larger purpose — that the act of designing and sending these cards is cathartic. In an interview with CNN, he said that the act of sharing secrets helps people to make changes in their lives, to become free from their past. "We think we're keeping secrets, but the secrets are actually keeping us," he said. Although the blog is fascinating, there is something unsettling about the idea of people turning first to a stranger with their secrets — a stranger who can not look them in the eye, give them a hug or help keep them accountable over the long haul.

In Telling Secrets, one of America’s foremost writers and theologians Frederick Buechner writes, "I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are your secrets ... our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it is to be human." By sharing our secrets, we draw closer to another human being by letting them know us in a deeper way.

Although people tend to think that in order to make friends you need to impress people with your accomplishments and skills, the reverse is more often true. When we brag about ourselves we alienate others, but when we share our struggles we invite people in. When we begin to tell our secrets, we invite those around us to share their own. As the conversation deepens, two souls lean towards each other and each feels less alone (with a nod to Jenny Schroedel).

Life Is Hard:

Two weeks from today, my oldest daughter and her husband will be flying home from Iraq. They'll spend two weeks here for "R&R" (rest and relaxation). I haven't seen my daughter in nine months -- that's hard to comprehend. She's my first born and we used to be as close as a mother and daughter can be. But on July 2, 2001, I said goodbye to all of that. I said goodbye and she boarded a plane for New York. I sat in my car in the airport parking lot and cried and sobbed and "howled" for almost three full hours (a fact that my two younger daughters can attest to -- they were sitting in the backseat.) They knew most parents cry when their children leave home for college, but they didn't understand why I was so inconsolable. They didn't understand that this was different. It was different because of the decision she had made -- the decision to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. I knew that when she left, our family would never be the same. I knew that it was the end of the way we had lived our lives for 18 years. I knew that my husband and I were no longer responsible for her and that she was no longer dependent upon us. She was the Army's and it would be up to them how she lived her life and what part of it would be etched out for us.

Baking result:
Oops, sorry -- forgot to tell you how my Olive Oil Cake turned out: it didn't. I spent the weekend playing nurse to my sick two-year-old granddaughter. I'll try again next weekend!

I Want It:

Tell me I don't need it. Vintage or no, tell me to buy a new one. Tell me that owning this bike won't make me feel ten again. Tell me that the upkeep and maintenance would be more than I bargained for. Tell me that those hand grips won't feel the same. Tell me that sitting in that seat won't make me ride like the wind.

But oh I want it!

Summer Reading:

These days I don't have much time to read, but I made a deal with myself at the beginning of the summer to read at least three books -- one for each month. My pick for June was A Painted House by John Grisham (a must read). July's was Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (an amazing and inspiring story). And now in August, I'm reading Angle of Repose. I'm not quite finished but with what I've read so far, I recommend it highly. It was written in 1972 and earned the author, Wallace Stegner, a Pulitzer Prize. There are so many things with which I can identify -- a female artist's struggles with her career vs. motherhood, a wheelchair-bound father, an ancestral home unappreciated, the "Doppler Effect," the importance of character, and the constant discovery of what it takes to make a marriage work. If you've never read it, put it on your list. It is eloquent and descriptive.

"...they clung together like two particles rolling down a hill into their future until they reached their angle of repose."

Baking This Weekend:

My sister swears that this cake is simple and oh so delicious... and she has a "super palate." So think of me on Saturday night, I'll be baking! I'll have the oven cranked up and the A/C down low. Let you know how it turns out on Monday!

Olive Oil Cake (Torta di Mandorla)

adapted from Gina DePalma

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup natural almond flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3 large eggs

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract

grated zest of 1 medium lemon or 1/4 medium orange

1/2 cup orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt to thoroughly combine, set aside. Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk them lightly to break up the yolks. Add the sugar to the bowl and whisk it in thoroughly in both directions for about 30 seconds. Add the olive oil and whisk until the mixture is a bit lighter in color and has thickened slightly, about 45 seconds. Whisk in the extracts and zest, followed by the orange juice. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly combined; continue whisking until you have a smooth, emulsified batter, about 30 more seconds. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, rotating the cake pan halfway through the cooking time to ensure even browning. The cake is done when it has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, springs back lightly when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes in the pan, then gently remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely on a rack. While the cake cools, make the glaze.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons whole milk
A few drops of fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sliced, blanched almonds, toasted and cooled

Melt the butter over medium heat in a small, heavy saucepan. When the bubbles subside, lower the heat and watch the butter carefully, swirling it in the pan occasionally to distribute the heat. When the butter begins to turn a light tan color and smells slightly nutty, turn off the heat and let the butter sit. It will continue to darken as it sits. While the butter cools, sift the confectioner's sugar into a medium bowl. Whisk in the milk until completely smooth but thick, then slowly whisk in the butter. Taste the glaze and add a few drops of lemon juice to balance the sweetness. Stir in the toasted almonds. Spread the almond glaze onto the top and sides of the cake and let it sit until set and dry.