~ Chuck Palahniuk

With the weather heating up this week, I am considering spending a day at the beach.  Believe it or not, I haven't made time to relax on the beach yet this summer. I am quite proficient at making extensive and well organized to-do lists filled with work, household chores and errands, but enjoying life never seems to make the list.  Instead, it is delegated to a no man's land of "as soon as I get organized I'm going to..."  Meanwhile, I still have not gone through that perpetual box of miscellaneous papers that sits next to my desk, out of sight but never quite out of mind.

When I was a young girl, I didn't let anything get in the way of a day of summer fun. I never told my mother, "Sorry Mom, I can't go play with my friends, my closet is a mess!"  I think she would have fainted if I had.  I spent summer afternoons making mud pies, swimming in the local pool and laying under the tree in my backyard, daydreaming.  

These days, accumulated junk from the past is looming too large for me to enjoy my present.  I've decided to let it go and embrace the spontaneous enthusiasm of my childhood.  Want to join me?

This week do two things.  Start by selecting one chore that's on your to-do list. Choose only one and make it small enough to actually accomplish.  Delete twenty old e-mails from your inbox, organize that junk drawer, or pull out three pieces of clothing that you haven't worn in ages and donate them to charity.  

Then spend a day doing something fun that you haven't done since you were a kid. Go to the park and play a game of softball with your friends.  Lie under a shady tree and read a book, or simply watch the ants marching between blades of grass. Run through the sprinklers in your front yard, spend the day at a public pool or go to the beach.

I have fond memories of days spent on the beach with my cousins.  Our moms would bring bologna and cheese sandwiches, potato chips packed in little sandwich bags, and soft drinks.  After swimming for an hour or so, we would come back to the blanket for our sandwiches and potato chips made even crunchier by sand covered fingers.  Our beach lunch often included large, black pitted olives and one of my favorite activities was to put an olive on the end of each finger and then eat them off, one by one.  I loved to come home at the end of the day, tired but happy, with the smell of Coppertone and the taste of saltwater still clinging to my skin.

What are your fond memories of summers past?  Dust off your inner child and have some simple summer fun this week.  Put it at the top of your to-do list.

Mortadella is the authentic Italian forerunner of the bologna from our childhood sandwiches.  Check out the link at right for a humanely-raised, handcrafted version from Fra' Mani.

1 cup extra large ripe pitted black olives (I get mine at Trader Joe's)

Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon paprika or pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

A pinch of cayenne (optional)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl.  Mix well, cover and marinate in refrigerator overnight.  

Makes about 1 cup.