Summer-like September...

The beginning of September has felt more like summer here than all of well...summer. We've had warm temps, gloriously bright sunshine, and we ran the AC all weekend long due to the uncomfortably muggy air...which is far more than we did all of summer combined. My mum & dad came for a visit on Saturday and I made my good old perennial favorite recipe of Chicken Oriental Salad...per mum's request. It's so easy and fresh! I make my own sesame dressing using 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 + 2 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 + 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce, and a few pinches of salt, pepper, and ginger along with a good healthy dose of sesame seeds! For the first time ever I decided to buy a head of both green and red cabbage rather than grabbing a bag of the pre-cut shredded cabbage mix. It was cheaper, tastier, and so much more satisfying to chop up thin, ribbony fresh strands of cabbage. Why haven't I done this before? And it looked so pretty too. I added some freshly grated carrots and I'm pretty sure it was 100 percent better than the bagged stuff. {Sidenote...Those white salad tong things (above) are the best thing ever if you can find them. My sister-in-law recently gave them to us and they work oh so well for tossing a salad and ensuring it is fully coated with dressing or vinaigrette. As one who makes a lot of salads, they are the best thing I've ever used! They're called Extra Hands and I'm pretty sure she said she found them at Good Things (for you Twin Cities folk).}

After lunch, we took the folks on a little hike to the nearby creek. There was beautiful lavendar-colored Bee Balm everywhere, contrasting against a plethora of lovely yellow Common Tansy.

And on the way back, a couple friendly chickens came to greet us...hoping we'd give them some food no doubt.

On Sunday, we crossed over the bridge and into Wisconsin to go golfing at a new (to us) course. The bridge was shrouded in a hazy fog coming up from Lake Superior below...I think they call this "sea smoke." It made for an interesting sight, though, as we drove from on top of the sunny hill where we live, seeing the dense fog from above, and then descending into it. This isn't really an uncommon occurrence here but the view always delights me!

While golfing, I came upon some really neat Fall mushrooms...like this trio of big, buttercreamy-colored ones.

This one was practically the size of my hand!

And here's Hub, patiently waiting for me. I really should've been focused on my golf game...as I need all the help I can get! But this was the first time I brought my camera with in my golf bag so I had to take just a few photos. But after this 2nd hole, I stowed my camera away for the rest of the game. What self-control, oui?! ;) After our hot and sticky game, we came home and made our summer standby of delicious taco salads...but this time featuring Hub's homemade tomato salsa. Mum & Dad were kind enough to bring us a bunch of their tomatoes and we just picked a couple of our own too! Don't you just love this time of year when fresh, local produce abounds?