Birthday & Bruschetta

This past week was my birthday, so I celebrated by indulging in many of my favorite things: time with family, dinner and drinks with friends, cooking, a pedicure, a French movie, baking cookies, a BBC series, snuggling with my pup, prepping for vacation, a Wes Anderson movie, and more dessert and drinks with friends. The only thing missing was an activity involving water, but that outing was postponed since it finally rained here after many weeks of scorching hot weather. So maybe I can count walking in the rain with Bella, since we also did that (she didn't even mind... I think it felt good after so much heat!).

For the cooking portion, I made this recipe for dinner with a friend on Saturday. It was really yummy and super garlicky. Our hearts thanked us, while the friends we hung out with later ... well, they were probably thankful we had brushed our teeth.

The pork tenderloin was delicious, but I really loved the bruschetta. It's amazing to me how just a few simple ingredients can make such a flavor explosion. The best part (other than eating it) was running up the street with Bella to my sweet neighbor's herb garden and snipping some of her plentiful basil. We got back home right before the sky fell out again. Making bruschetta with fresh basil while a thunderstorm rolls over outside... it doesn't get much better than that.

Fun fact: Picking basil leaves off the stems is surprisingly therapeutic.

Exhibit A: Why no vampires will bother me for the next few days.