Favorite Cucumber Salad (sorry for the fuzzy pic)

Okay, so once again, I've been playing photographer with poor results. JiT will resume his duties soon ; )

Finally! Summer feels like it's arrived here in Chicago and I actually have the time (and clean bill of health) to enjoy it.

With work at a manageable pace, my cold finally subsiding and a weekend with zero committments, JiT and I enjoyed 2 completely spontaneous days of relaxation. We've decided we must still be in honeymoon mode because whenever we have a completely free weekend like this, we find ourselves spending it doing activities just the two of us. Though we love our friends and family, its been sort of nice to have a few days to just enjoy being married. This weekend's adventures were no exception:

On Friday, we took a quick trip to the grocery store and ended up making a fun-but-healthy dinner of steak and summer squash kabobs with roasted red pepper dipping sauce, which we enjoyed while sipping sangria and lounging in front of old movies. I didn't snap a picture, but you can find the recipe here (p.s. Beef Its Whats for Dinner is an Edelman client. They have great recipes though, so I encourage you to visit).

Saturday, we slept in and randomly decided to head to the suburbs for a round of golf. We managed to get an 11:30am tee time at one of our favorite courses (which made JiT soooo happy), and spent a sweaty but fun afternoon hitting golf balls. We were too tired to do much of anything that night, so we made steamed crab legs (my favorite) and cabbage patties and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic (surprisingly cute) before dropping off to sleep.

On Sunday, JiT made his famous skillet for breakfast while I read the paper (someday he'll share his secret recipe), then we hopped on our bikes and headed downtown to our gym...which has a small pool and sundeck on the roof. After a few hours of swimming we decided to bike over to the theater and catch a movie: The Hangover, which was hilarious. Seriously, I could see it again tomorrow. Instant classic funny.

By the time we got home last night we were too tired to think about dinner (and we still had movie candy hangovers anyway), so we ended up munching on random veggies and snacks on the couch. All in all, it made for an exhausting yet surprizingly relaxing weekend. Does that even make sense?

Anyway, on nights like last night, I love having fresh veggies around for random snacking and one of my favorite quickie salads is Cucumber & Fresh Mozzarella Salad. Super simple and incredibly refreshing. I wouldn't normally think to pair cucumbers with fresh mozzarella but the crunchiness of cucumber tastes amazing with creamy mossarella. Great as an appetizer or a quick snack.

Cucumber & Fresh Mozzarella Salad
One serving

1/2 large cucumber
1/2 large (egg-sized) ball of fresh mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste

Cut cucumber into thin slices then quarter into bite-sized pieces. repeat with mossarella cheese and arrange on a small plate. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, olive oil and salt to taste. Eat immedately.