Easily Excitable

During the summertime, I near-about forget how to work a computer.

What an incredible thing to forget. Every time I sit down to my laptop, it’s a new adventure, full of misremembered passwords and misspellings that’d leave you astounded the government allows me to teach.

Summertime: it’s hard to beat.

The thrill of lesson planning is a long-forgotten thought. I’m almost out of timing my life around a bell schedule. 

The past school-free weeks have been all over the place. Trey and I’ve done a lot of traveling and a lot of celebrating. I’ll catch y’all up to speed on all of our happenings in another blog post, promise, but just know- 

 We’ve done all the things:

• Attended a bachelorette trip with all the gals to celebrate Hayle, one of my best friends
• Traveled to Destin for the Kotara Memorial Day vacation
• Helped with VBS
• Celebrated Hayle’s wedding weekend
• Hung out with the Meadows crew in Fernandina 

In the middle of all that, I’ve been attending to some things around the farm. I’ve gardened, swapped over my closet (high time), cleaned, and looked after/ played with Boone. 

We’ve made time for the pool, too: so far, the summer’s been both work and play, though, to be sure, it’s leaned more toward the play side of things. 

There were a couple of mornings during VBS week when the morning felt like crisp- not unlike fall. 

I could write a love letter to football season, solely because of that weather.

However, when we got back from Fernandina this past Wednesday, that kind of weather was nowhere in sight. 

We’re back to that good ol’ Georgia June weather. 

This realization really hit when I cooked Thursday. Look, you know we live in a singlewide that, while perfect for us, does leave a little bit to be desired in the insulation area. 

Therefore, I knew cooking would heat things up a bit in the house. I don’t think I realized just how hot it would turn things. 

Thursday night, I cooked squash on the stovetop and baked potatoes, chicken legs, and bacon wrapped pork in the oven. 

That was a mistake. Admittedly, it was a delicious mistake, but it was a mistake nonetheless. When I wrapped up cooking, it was 85 degrees in the trailer. 

Help us, Lord. 

Then, to make matters worse, the power blinked, and the air conditioner blipped off. 

The power came back on in short order, but the AC took an extended moment of silence. Jesus, I commit to Thee my spirit.

It was hotter inside the house than it was outside- had to be.

I’m not complaining, I promise: I’m counting my blessings- I’m just sweating while I do so. 

All that being said, I think my goal for the rest of the summer is to avoid turning on any part of the oven.

I have a few recipes in the chamber that’ll help with that end. 

Now, let me start by saying that I am not a food blogger: I’m not skilled enough in the kitchen for starters, and more importantly, if I give away our family recipes, my mother may find a way to take down my whole blog. Maybe she hacked the first one? 

Questions that need answering. 

This recipe I’m about to give you IS one of her recipes, BUT (and I say this for her sake) it is in the Ruth Church Cookbook, so she gave it out before I did. 

This is the recipe for Momma’s Black Bean Salsa. This is one of my favorite beach foods, and I’ve already made it once since school ended. 

This will make several appearances in our rotation, as I have many of the ingredients growing in the garden. 

Momma’s Black Bean Salsa

• 1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 c. chopped, seeded cucumber
• ½ c. chopped green onions
• ⅓ chopped cilantro
• ¼ c. lime juice
• ¼ c. oil
• 1 large tomato (you can use more- I do)
• 1 fresh serrano pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 tsp. Salt
• ½ tsp. Cumin 
• ⅛ tsp ground cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients. Store in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator until ready for serving. Serve with tortilla chips. 

You should eat it with tortilla chips, but… 

You could also eat it with a spoon, straight out of the Ziploc bag. Not saying I do that, but I bet it’d be pretty good if you did. 

If I weren’t so afraid of the oven right now, I would also suggest you serve this with burritos or enchiladas. We typically eat this with chicken salad sandwiches, only because that’s beach fare. I’d give you that recipe of Momma’s (it’s my all-time-favorite), but that would REALLY cause her wrath to come down. 

Maybe one day!

May your summer be filled plentiful pool days, zero AC issues, and lots of good dips!