recipe: late summer salad

First, can we all have a nice hearty chuckle at my pitiful attempt at blogger food photography? One of these days I'm going to take a good food photo. It's going to happen.

Anyway... one of my favorite eat-out foods this summer was the strawberry poppyseed salad at Panera. I ordered mine without chicken or dressing and then added shredded coconut when I got it home. SO good! This afternoon I was craving the salad something awful, but to my utter horror I got this reply when I placed my order: "we're sorry, that salad has been discontinued for the season." Noooooooooooo!!! I reluctantly ordered an iced tea and sulked for a good ten minutes before I realized I could easily whip this up at home.

I used baby spinach, fresh strawberries and blueberries, a rinsed can of mandarin oranges and heaps of shredded coconut. The salad usually came with candied pecans too, but I made this for my whole family and my brother is allergic to nuts, so I left them out this time. Personally I love having that extra crunch so I'll probably be adding some when I go back for leftovers :)



I usually like kind of plain food, so everyone in my family thought it was just Kate being Kate when I said I was serving this without dressing. But I begged them to try it as-is and they all agreed it didn't need anything else. The juices from the fruits add just enough liquid and the coconut gives each bite just the right amount of flavor. If you try it, I'd recommend just giving it a whirl without dressing first -- you can always add it later. I think something like sesame ginger might be interesting though!

It's kind of a pet peeve with me (at least in my own family) that nobody ever wants to try things the way they come. They always have to be adding heaps of salt or cheese or dressing or butter when some foods have absolutely amazing natural flavors that just get buried under all that extra goop. I don't eat everything totally plain (I'll be the first to admit I can be heavy-handed when it comes to garlic!) but I think it's nice to try foods as-is before adding anything extra. You might be surprised at how good something tastes without any assistance from the condiment aisle! ;)

the elusive chloe

This cat hardly ever lets me take her photo. As soon as she hears me fumbling with my camera she immediately runs away or stops doing whatever cute thing she was doing that made me want to take her photo to begin with. So when she seemingly agreed to a little photo shoot on my bed the other day I was beside myself with joy. Cute pictures of Chloe! Where she is standing still! And actually looking at the camera in some of them!!!! I just had to share :D





My tiny little ham had to get in on the photo action, of course. Chloe is there side-eyeing Arrietty as usual. They get along well but Chloe is constantly suspicious of everything and everyone.

daisy button restyle

Lately I've been toying with the idea of updating a lot of my clothes with quick easy little DIY projects. It's so much cheaper than buying new things but it still gives your wardrobe a breath of fresh air! And some minor tweaks can make a plain old garment look really special. There are some things (like big daisy buttons on a coat!) that would make me click "add to cart" in a heartbeat, when it's such an easy thing to just do at home myself!

So for my first project I bought some plastic daisy cabochons to attach to the buttons on my winter coat. It originally came with big round pink and gold shiny buttons which I didn't like, but I knew eventually I'd find the right ones to replace them. (Here's what the coat originally looked like.) These are actually cabochons, not buttons. They have completely flat backs, and no holes to attach them to fabric.



First I found some plain flat buttons to replace the big round ones that the coat came with. I sewed them into place using embroidery thread, and then used masking tape to tape off around each button, just to make sure I didn't get any glue on the fabric!

E6000 glue is my favorite for projects like this. It's incredibly strong and works on practically every surface. You just apply some to each object, let it cure for about 5-10 minutes, and then press the two objects together. I used clothes pins to hold the buttons and cabochons in place and then let the glue dry for 24 hours. One thing to double check is that the new buttons will fit through the existing buttonholes. Mine are a little snug so I'll probably have to open up the holes a bit.



The cabochons came in packs of 4 with varying sizes so I decided to use some of my leftovers on an old cardigan! I love how it turned out! This is such a simple, ridiculously easy project but it makes such a huge difference!

hair we go

I've been pinning my bangs back for a few days and I think I'm going to stick with this for a while. I've gotten very used to hair covering up half of my face, so all the forehead I'm seeing in the mirror is a little odd but it just feels so good. I don't have to worry about wind blowing them out of place, heat making them stick to my skin, accidentally making them too short or letting them grow out too long. I love the way bangs look on me, but I need a break. Instead of putting up with them, I'm putting them up ;)

On an unrelated note, has anyone seen the news about The Little Mermaid re-release? It's apparently being released this week with a gimmick that has you bringing your ipad into the theater and participating in audience games and sing-a-longs. I was so excited when it was originally announced that it was going to be released in 3D (and very heartbroken when that was cancelled) but now I'm not sure if I want to go. I know I'm old fashioned, but I really love that movie theaters are one place you can still go to escape from constant connectivity. Will you go?

dress - c/o oasap | shoes - c/o bait footwear | sweater and belt - forever 21