Caprese salad is so simple but s good, and now that I'm trying to grow basil on my kitchen windowsill, I always have lush fresh basil leaves to layer between the tomato and the mozzarella.
And I absolutely LOVE making pizza at home. You get to customize it infinitely to make the exact pizza you want that night. However, I often stay on the simple side, because I think it's easier to make a really good cheese pizza than a sloppy pizza overloaded with toppings (though if you hand me a piece of pizza loaded with meat and veggies, I'm definitely not going to complain).
Caprese Salad
3 medium tomatoes (get the freshest tastiest ones you can find. Local is probably your best bet)
2 egg sized fresh mozzarella
a fair bunch of basil leaves (I never really measure, I just pick until it looks like enough)
Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella. Layer tomatoes, mozzarella and basil (or, if you're feeling lazy like I was tonight, just pile it on the plate and gently 'toss').
Consume.
Pizza
I use store-bought pizza-dough, cause I'm lazy, but if you're feeling ambitious, go ahead and make your own)
I also use both fresh tomato and tomato sauce because I can never make a pizza tomatoey enough with fresh tomatoes without subsequently making a super-soggy pizza. So I just compromise.
1 medium tomato (sliced)
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1-2 egg sized fresh mozzarella (sliced)
1/4 cup crumbled feta
Basil (chopped)
Parmesan
Preheat oven to 450 (or as hot as you can make it).
Stretch out the pizza dough. There are many techniques, but what I do is first press it relatively flat on the counter. Once you have a manageable disc of dough, pick it up and stretch it out over the back of your hands and knuckles.
Once the dough is a good size, lay it out on your baking sheet. Spread the tomato sauce as thinly and evenly as possible over the entire pizza (leaving some space for crust). The evenly distribute the tomato, mozzarella and feta. Place the pizza in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, rotating once in the middle.
Once it is cool enough to eat, cut into slices and enjoy.
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So I keep giving music recommendations, which I could do 'till the cows come home, but I feel like you might get tired of me telling you what to listen to, so I'll switch it up by telling you what you should read instead.
It's summer currently, and that means you might have some more free time that you can spend reading (I love going to the library, getting a book, and lying in the field across the road and reading. It makes me feel so literary).
So I'll give you two recommendations, from different points on the 'literature' spectrum. First comes my most hard-core English Lit-type rec. It's called Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. It has lovingly described passages of English elite lounging on lazy summer days, mixed in with a plot fraught with romance and friendship (or possibly just more romance and infatuation), and an oppressive religion and culture overshadowing everything.
And on the other end of the "high-class literature scale" (though it is still one of the best books I've read in a really long time) is called The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. A boy and a girl meet in their cancer youth support group and fall in love. Sorrow is skillfully balanced with humor and beauty in this book, and you'll be just as likely to laugh as cry. Featuring a scene with a blind guy trying to egg his ex-girlfriend's car (unsuccessfully) and impressively poetic descriptions of beautiful places (Green really manages to capture the feeling of Amsterdam with his description of it), I cannot recommend this book enough. It was one of the few books that I simply didn't put down once I started it.
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