My New Favorite Salad, and a Word About Wine in Spain

I invented this a couple weeks ago, and thought I would share it with you. It's sort of a variation on the classic caprese salad.
Combine chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumber, sliced fresh basil, torn lettuce (I grew it myself, btw), and chunks of mozzarella di bufala (a little spendy, but totally worth it). Grind a little sea salt and pepper on top, and drizzle with a good, robust olive oil. Voilá! Lunch is served.

Next, I thought I would mention this because of the recent heat wave. In Spain, I noted a very curious method of serving red wine: chilled. Yup, chilled. "But that's wrong!" you say, "red wine shouldn't be cold!" It was served this way often, even in fancy restaurants that definitely know a thing or two about wine. As I type, I am sipping an Oregon Grand Rouge, chilled, and you know what? It's great this way! Very refreshing, even, which is not how I would normally describe any red wine. Try it, you won't be sorry, I promise.

The Crop So Far

My crop so far includes tons of turnips, yellow squash, zucchini, Syrian squash, and garlic. I was very surprised by how well the garlic turned out: full size heads with long stocks which I braided together. I also have some wax beans, a million heads of lettuce, and mint (not shown).

Mmm, Jam

I went berry-picking with the law students yesterday, and although there didn't seem to be an abundance of any one particular type of berry, I was able to pick enough of a combination of blackberries, marionberries, and raspberries in order to make jam. I've tried making jam a couple times before, with mixed results (once, too thick, the latest time, just not good) but this time, I actually followed directions, and it came out perfectly!