Season of Plenty

Summer is slipping right through my fingers and it seems that the harder I cling to it, the faster it goes. Our days have been busy with fun things, yes, but also with the daily things that go along with managing a household of 9, including 6 children, like laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry...did I mention laundry? For our last week here, my husband, who has worked most days since we have arrived (including weekends......he reads my blog so perhaps he will get the hint), has promised me that he will take this last week off so we can have a vacation week, and be tourists in our home away from home. While that remains to be seen, I do plan to make a list and try to fill my cup with as much Cape Cod as it will hold to tide me over until our next visit. I do miss it terribly when we are away.

Fortunately, our garden has weathered the literal storms and is finally producing lovely things, like our first green beans of the season, harvested last night and served simply, tossed with some olive oil, lemon zest and sea salt. There were only enough for each adult to have about 5 beans...whetting our appetite for many more to come (hopefully). In addition to that, we enjoyed fresh, homemade pizza, resurrecting our Friday tradition, with Swiss chard from the garden as well as sausage, kalamata olives and ricotta cheese.


Our bellies full, we headed out to our favorite beach, Sandy Neck, to skip stones, dance in the waves lapping on the shore (which were surprisingly large due to a recent storm) and search for beautiful, yet illusive heart-shaped rocks.



All in all it was a delightful evening here on the Cape. Here's hoping for at least a week more...

Pizza with Swiss Chard, Sausage and Olives

This pizza, thrown together from what we had in the garden and fridge, was so wonderfully satisfying. The chard crisped nicely and the sausage gave it some heft, while the sliced kalamata olives provided the right bit of briny and tangy goodness.

1 recipe pizza dough--or store bought dough (enough for one crust)

1/2 C your favorite tomato sauce pizza topping**

6-8 oz mozzarella cheese

several leaves of Swiss chard, stemmed and chopped

1/4 pound of Italian sausage, removed from casing if necessary, cooked and crumbled

10 pitted kalamata olives

8 or so T of ricotta cheese

Preheat oven to 500 degrees for one hour with pizza stone on the lowest oven rack.

Stretch dough according to directions and place on a floured square of parchment paper. Spread on pizza sauce and sprinkle on mozzarella cheese. Pile on Swiss chard, sprinkle with sausage and olives then dollop on the ricotta cheese. Slide dough on the parchment paper onto stone and bake for about 15 minutes, or until crust is golden and bubbled and cheese has melted. Remove from oven and discard parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil, cut into wedges and serve.

**For pizza sauce, I simmer one small can of diced tomatoes with two grated cloves of garlic and a small handful of minced basil for about 15 minutes. Easy!