Marvelous Monday: Week 26

When I started attaching the week number to Marvelous Monday, 26 seemed very far away. I can't believe this week marks halfway through 2012!

Celebrate with a cloud photo from last night, shall we?

You know the drill! Five marvelous things about today, the weekend and/or the upcoming week. Go!

1) It's almost the end of June, but I tried a new recipe last night to successfully keep up my streak for the 101 in 1,001 project! This one was from Iowa Girl Eats, a great blog with wonderful recipes. I tried caprese lasagna with spicy turkey sausage and loved it. I also think it was my first time making a white sauce - whisking the flour and the butter and all that - and that was more fun and less scary than I thought.

The spicy sausage was, as the recipe notes, a good contrast to the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.  And guess what?  Wish was so sweet - he kept coming into the kitchen to see if I needed help cooking the sausage!  He is so kind.

Just say the word and I'll be there. Scratch that. Don't even say the word.

2) When I was in Arizona back in March, I had a prickly pear margarita at a restaurant one night, served in a mason jar. I think beverages in mason jars are all the rage in the foodie world right now (forgive me if it's an outgoing trend already, okay?) because of they are fun and retro and nostalgic. It does add a little bit of a festive feeling to a summer lemonade or mint fizzy. How do I know that, you ask?  Well, I definitely bought one little mason jar the other day in what I'm sure was the canning section of the local grocery store. And I am quite enjoying it, even though one member of my household (not Wish) quite enjoys teasing me about it.

3) I have a Twins game and a possible water park trip on the horizon this week!

4) My mopey window box, which I've over-chronicled lately, has two flowers blooming on it now.

5) And three cheers for a training plan that calls for speedwork on a Monday that dawns 58 degrees and breezy instead of later in the week, when the predicted low could be more than 10 degrees higher!

What's marvelous about the start of your week, Reader? Are you loving the summer heat, like I know my friend Nat is?  Any new recipes or books you're loving?  Share, share!