I love summer. The sunshine, the flowers and trees, the warmth, the color, etc. I also love summer for its food. Fresh veggies, fresh herbs, berries, lemonade, etc.

One thing this summer is quite different though. It is the first summer that I haven’t lived at home. (apart from one summer that I was in Europe for a month and a half in high school) It has really been different. I’m enjoying being in New Orleans and being able to settle in and get the house put together so that when school starts I’m already settled and ready for the school year. I like that I have the time to see things in New Orleans that I don’t have time for when I’m in school. I’m glad that I still get to see Drew (since he would have been in New Orleans for school/work no matter if I was here or at home) and that we can work on wedding planning together.

But there are a lot of things I miss about home, especially now that it is summertime. I miss my sisters and my family of course, but I also miss our land a lot. I miss the relaxing breeze through the trees with no one else around, I miss our flower gardens and herb gardens and big vegetable garden and having all those fresh foods to cook with. I miss being inside with so many windows around that you feel like you are outside, I miss the chickens walking around the yard and the pool and the hammock.  I just miss the feeling of summer in a small country town. It is so much more laid-back and just completely different than it is to be in the city.

Luckily, I’ll be home to visit in a month or so (and hopefully will catch the county fair as well!). Visiting isn’t the same as being there all the time, but its all I can do since my responsibilities require me to be in New Orleans for at least the next few years of my life. (and I do love New Orleans too)

Anyway, it is nice to see our apartment slowly starting to feel more like home. It still feels pretty unsettled since we do still have boxes of stuff to unpack (with no place to put them–the reason they are still in boxes) and piles of things lying around with no furniture for them to go in or on. We’ve been scouring flea markets and used furniture stores looking for the perfect pieces, so hopefully soon our house will start to fill out with furniture. (I do have a few house updates that we’ve done recently to share with you soon!)

In the meantime, one of my favorite things to do that reminds me of both home and summer is to cook. So cooking I’ve been doing. This week I made a homemade fruit tart (my absolute favorite dessert! Especially for Spring and Summer!).

It was yummy! Although it was really big and since Drew doesn’t really like cream cheese and there is cream cheese in the filling, he wouldn’t eat any. Therefore I was left with an entire tart to myself. Not that I probably couldn’t eat it myself, but it isn’t as fun when you aren’t rushing to try to steal the last piece from your sisters. 😉 (I think Blake taught us all well on that one)

I’ve also been enjoying using my windowbox flower/herb garden. Which has grown a ton and continuously been flowering for over a month now.

Yesterday I used some of my fresh herbs in a chicken/lemon/herb/fettuccine alfredo. It was delicious!

So I haven’t had my parent’s fresh garden vegetables to make summer dishes with, but I am doing my best with my little herb collection. It was particularly nice cooking dinner yesterday. It was raining outside and it was so nice to be in the kitchen smelling delicious smells and being able to look outside at the trees and the summer rain and also see my little herb and flower garden fluttering in the rainy breeze. It was a little taste of summer at home. It was one of those moments that made our house seem so much more like home and made me so thankful for everything God has given me in life. It is definitely way different than all the dinners I used to cook in Drew’s old apartment’s cramped little cave-like kitchen. (I remember those dinners fondly too, but a view or some sunlight would have been nice too)

Oh, I also have gotten several requests that I should share recipes on my blog. I’ve been meaning to for a while and I’m working on it, I promise. I’ll let you know soon when I get that up and running. 🙂