For Your Birthday, I Give You Dirt - Part 3

One gift down and one to go. My box of play dirt is finished and I couldn't be more pleased with how it came out.

Last week, I had solved the problem with the stems and this week was all about building blooms. I used a great tutorial from Sew Ritzy-Titzy and some inexpensive fat quarters from Joann Fabrics. Instead of pulling the blooms tight and sewing a button in the center, I tied the petals around the stem and stitched them into place. I covered up all my ugly seams with a round piece of fleece trimmed to look like three leaves. A hole in the middle of the leaves made space for the stem to fit through.

I added a little embroidery to the flower box to jazz it up some. There's a little butterfly at the other end of the words. My little Buttercup caught a glimpse of one of the flowers and had a screaming fit because I wouldn't let her have one yet. I think that's a good sign.

I've been giving some thought to other ideas to make use of this project. Of course, LiEr has those great pickable strawberries and peas and there's tons of play vegetables I could make. My brainstorm last night (at 2 am) was to make some fabric seed envelopes filled with seeds that can be "planted". That may need to be a project after I finish the LED Booties.

Many thanks to the Fabulous LiEr for her idea and to Dawn for her blossom tutorial.

Nickel and Dimeing Summer

Out at the shop, we occasionally have days where we have to work hard for every penny that makes it to the cash drawer. We call them "Nickel and Dime Days" because that's how it all seems to come in. It has occurred to me that this is a Nickel and Dime Summer and Mother Nature is going to make us work for every single moment.

I'm on a quest to scrape as much summer out of August as I can and I'm starting with homemade ice cream. This is Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream and while the flavor was Husband's suggestion, I'm quite proud of how I executed it. This is very rich and creamy and a small dish of it was quite satisfying. There are no eggs in this one, but there is cheese and sour cream and the flavor is supremely cheesecake-like. Way better than any commercial cheesecake ice cream I've had to date.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

• 6 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 c sour cream
• 2 tbs Amaretto
• Blueberry Sauce (recipe follows)
• 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs, finely crushed

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and beat until fluffy then add sour cream, cream, and Amaretto beating until thick and smooth. Refrigerate at least 4 hours but ideally 8. The blueberry sauce needs to chill too, so make this now.

When all the parts have chilled, freeze according to the directions of your ice cream maker. After the ice cream has solidified, transfer to your storage container and pour blueberry sauce and graham cracker crumbs on top of ice cream. Gently swirl together to get a marbled effect, but don't stir so much that the mixture is homogenized. Put in the freezer to firm up.

Blueberry Sauce

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp corn starch
• 1/4 c water
• 1-1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup blueberries

Place all ingredients in a small pot, bring to a boil while stirring. Make sure all the sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat and chill at least 4 hours or better still 8 hours.

What? There's a garden out there?

So, I've missed the last few Mondays worth of gardening posts. While I'm still trying to make stuff happen, it's demoralizing to be drenched with months and months of rain, only to finally get a nice day and discover that the slugs have devoured that which has not washed away.

Ok, maybe not so much with the slugs since I put up the copper tape, but you get my meaning.

I know that there are others out there facing the same situation. You know exactly what I'm experiencing because it's happening in your gardens too. I'm inclined to sit around an mope about it, but there's still time left to make something useful out if the soggy mess that is the back yard. Now is the time for the mid-summer regrouping effort! Sure it's been rainy and we may not get our own vegetables this year, but there's still some interesting things going on out there and I aim to find them.

Take these moths, for example. It's been a booming year for interesting moths at my house. We had a bunch of luna moths earlier this summer and now I have these two very cool looking guys. I only got the one good shot of this very strange critter before the camera died. I really thought it was an old oak leaf at first. You can see in my somewhat blurry photo of its profile that it has a very deep bend to it's abdomen. You'd think that something as weird looking as this would be easy to identify, but I'm still searching for its name.

My other interesting moth was on the mudroom door. It was no bigger than a quarter, but check out the wild color pattern. I haven't been able to ID this one yet either. It turns out that there are 124 kajillion species of moths in Maine alone. I'm going to have to invest in a moth book so I can have names to go with all of the interesting wings that are hanging around these days.

For Your Birthday, I Give You Dirt - Part 2

The flowers for my Box o' Dirt project (see Part 1)have given me trouble, so I'm not as far along as I'd like today. It all started with the stems.

I thought I'd cut thin strips (about 1 1/2 inches wide) of green fleece, sew them together, turn them right side out, and stuff them and I'd have stems. Boy was that easier thought then done. It turns out that it's remarkably hard - impossible even - to turn a 3/4 inch tube of fleece inside out. And even if it could be done, when it's stuffed, it doesn't seem to have the stiffness I was looking for.

Enter the dowel flower.

After wasting quite a bit of dark green fleece, I ended up with this design. I cut strips of doubled over fleece 1-1/2 inches wide by 10 inches long. If unfolded, I'd have a 1-1/2 by 20 inch strip. I took this down to the sewing machine and stitched up the sides, right sides together. This was a lot easier to turn right side out and the flower stems weren't as bulky as I thought they'd be. I wanted to give some rigidity to the stems and pipe cleaner wasn't doing the trick. Fortunately, I had a couple pieces of 5/16 dowel lying around. I slipped the dowel into each stem and cut it to size, leaving enough fabric at the top to stitch across so that the dowel will stay inside.

I used some poly-fill and lightly stuffed the stems so that they were squishy for little hands and to help fill in the shape of the stem around the dowel. Then I stitched across the top to hold the dowel in place.

There are a lot of very cool fabric flower tutorials out on the web but I want to make sure that the final flower design will hold up to the torment of a one-year-old. I love this organza flower tutorial, but I think they'll be a little delicate for my needs. I'm also partial to this felt dandelion and this felt daffodil. Perhaps I'll have to make some Mom flowers to plant. In the end, I think my flowers will be a modified version of these from Pink Paper Peppermints or perhaps these from Sew Ritzy-titzy.

I have this fabulous gold stretch velvet that just looks like it belongs at the center of a flower. I cut 3 inch circles and did a quick gather stitch around the edge.

I pulled the stitches up to form a little pocket and put a bit of poly-fill in the center to give it some fullness.

I trimmed the extra fabric off the top of the flower stem and placed it in the center of my gold fabric, pulling the stitches tightly so that the pocket closed in around the stem.

Holding the threads tightly, I hand-stitched the gold to the stem. I went around a couple of times to make sure the center was firmly attached to the stem so that when pulled on or chewed, it would stay attached.

So this is where I am. I have six stems with yellow tops currently growing out of my box of play dirt. Next week, I should have a fully blooming present ready to go. Then, all that's left is the firefly shoes and the gift portion of my little Buttercup's birthday celebration will be complete.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Yummy looking, right? I went to the Farmer's Market in Portland last Saturday and made these with the tasty stuff we brought home. They may be a little labor intensive for a weeknight meal, but they were great for a Saturday night appetizer.

Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms

• 4oz goat cheese
• 5 Kalamata olives, pitted
  
• 2 sundried tomatoes in olive oil
• pinch of fresh rosemary
  
• 8 blossoms
• handful of flour
• 1/4 or so of baking powder
  
• salt, pepper
• oil for frying

In a food processor, combine goat cheese, olives, sundried tomatoes and the pinch of rosemary until smooth. Put cheese mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large tip or into a ziploc bag with one corner cut away.

Gently pull the blossoms open, being careful not to pull them completely apart and cut the stamens out of the centers - they are kind of bitter tasting. Pipe some of the cheese mixture into each blossom. When you're done, gently press the blossoms together to make sure the flower petals completely cover the cheese.

Fill a small pan with oil to about 3 or 4 inches deep and heat to 350. When oil is to temperature, whisk flour and baking powder with just enough water to make a thin batter. Dip each blossom in the batter and place in the hot oil. Work in batches of 3 or 4 so that the blossoms don't crowd in the oil and stick together. Fry blossoms until the are golden and crispy on all sides then remove to a paper towel to drain.

Serve immediately.

Feeds 4 people or 2 hungry people as an appetizer.

Recipe Index

Once I get beyond a few recipes, I think it's easier to have some system to be able to find the one I want easily. With a few dozen recipes, alphabetical is easiest. With a hundred recipes or more, alphabetical under a common theme, like breads or breakfast, is best. I'll adjust the organization as I add recipes.

• Bagels
  
• Basil Gorgonzola Crackers
• Beef Stew
• Blueberry Ice Cream
• Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
  
• Blueberry Muffins
• Blueberry Salsa
  
• Chicken Fajita Soup
• Chicken Stew
• Chicken Thigh Pie
• Chive and Mushroom Rissoto
  
• Christmas Leftover Wafers
  
• Coconut Shrimp Bisque
  
• Cranberry Caraway Scones
• Cream of Mouse-ear Chickweed Soup
  
• Creamy Rotini with Zucchini and Bacon
• Creamy Scrape Soup with Thyme and chive
  
• Creme Brulee
  
• Donburi
  
• English Muffin Toasting Bread
• Falafel Sandwich
• Fire Sauce
  
• Fish Pie
  
• French Toast
• Garlic Scrape Creamy Pesto
  
• Godfather Spaghetti
• Grand Marnier & Black Cherry Ice Cream
  
• Grilled Lamb Kababs
• Huevos Rancheros
  
• Kung Pao Chicken
• Late-Night Sandwich
  
• Lemonaide
• Lobster Bisque
  
• Lumberjack Hash
• Marinated Steak and Shallots
• Matchstick Fries
  
• Meatballs
  
• Mixed Berry Smoothy
• Mocha Cheesecake Ice Cream with Graham Cracker & Chocolate Swirl
  
• Orange & Fig Ice Cream
• Pear and Mache Salad
  
• Pineapple Chicken Salad
• Pirogi
• Potato Leek Soup
  
• Pumpkin Soup with Cider Cream
  
• Raisin Bran Muffins
• Roasted Apple Sauce
  
• Salmon with onions, mashed parsnip and orange sauce
• Salmon and procutto with spinach herbed lentils and yogurt sauce
• Sausage & Pirogi Skillet
  
• Shephard Pie
• Shrimp and Israeli Couscous Salad with Feta and Mustard Dill Sauce
• Sourdough for the Lazy
  
• Stuffed Squash Blossoms
• Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
  
• Thyme Pickles
• Tuscan Wild Boar Stew
  
• Veggie Quesidillas
• Venison Kebabs
• Wild Weed Salad
  
• Winter Veggie Homefries
  
• Zucchini Pie

So on this rainy Saturday, as I try and figure out what I'm going to do with my sleep-deprived self today, I came across this photo. It is the floor of the Standard Grill in NYC is tiled in pennies.

I. LOVE. This.

I must find a way to incorporate this into my home.

This Week In Projects:

In The Garden - It's time to plant more lettuce, radishes and scallions. I also have one last bed to fill with soil. Other then that, it's all waiting on the plants.

In The Kitchen: I've been jonesing for homemade ice cream lately. Husband wants Blueberry Cheesecake. I don't know what I want. Typical.

In The Craft Lair: It's all about finishing off birthday presents for my little Buttercup. This week is birthday invites, flowers and then onto the firefly slippers. I've been considering her birthday party and while there will be one or two kids, it's mostly adults. Perhaps her first birthday party should appeal to this older crowd since it's really more to celebrate our survival of year one. She'll never remember it, but we'll never forget.

Ah! That sound you may here is the dulcet screeches of Buttercup rising from her nap, like a sweet little banshee with the gain on her amp turned up to 11. Time to be productive. Happy Saturday!

For Your Birthday, I Give You Dirt - Part 1

Well, I've had to set my shirt project down for a bit. I don't really like the strap look on me so, while I'm rethinking how it should go together, its time to get cracking on the birthday presents for my little Buttercup.

It's her first birthday and to help encourage gardening tendencies, her first gift is a variation on the amazingly talented LiEr's Play Dirt (and LiEr - if you're reading and in the market for a new best friend, call me! :D ).

I'm not going to rehash her excellent tutorial, but I do want to mention some of the changes I made.

In her notes, she mentions using pool noodles instead of foam to make the furrows. Wal-mart seems to think that summer in Maine ends at the beginning of July, so I got two pool noodles on sale. I took rectangles of brown polar fleece (nice and fuzzy) and sewed them into tubes just big enough for two pieces of pool noodle stacked one on top of the other. I tucked the ends in and hand-sewed them shut. I would like to report that the pool noodle method works great! By-the-by, two noodles can be cut into six pieces 19" long which makes three rows of "dirt".

I like LiEr's idea for simply fitting the foam pieces into a cardboard box or plastic planter. Sadly, Buttercup is going through a chewing stage and a throwing stage, so I opted to make a fabric box for my noodles. The purple fabric is for the outside and the white is for the inside. I wanted a stiffer material in the middle and as I had no interfacing handy, I opted for a bit of heavy canvas.

I cut the canvas piece first and it just fits the dimensions of my three covered noodles together. I cut the other two fabrics with an extra inch or so based on the size of the canvas.

I didn't want the pieces to shift around on me, so I sewed the three of them together around what will become the bottom of the planter box. It was easy enough to see through the white muslin to the canvas below it. Had I been thinking, I should probably have used a purple thread to disguise the fact that I can't sew a straight line to save my life. If you are a better seamstress than I (not an accomplishment by any means), you could probably do some interesting decorative stitches in colored thread for the outside of the box.

It's important to snip the corners of the box on a diagonal. I have tried three times to describe this using only my words. I am convinced that none of those tries made even the least bit of sense. So here's what: Look up at photo 2 again. See where I've circled? This is the spot you want to cut on a diagonal. Do that at all four corners. Phew. I feel so much better.

I turned the seam allowance down so that there is a white rim around the top of the box. I pinned the right sides of the corners together and stitched them. At this point I turned the piece right side out and put my "dirt" into the box to see how it fit.

It was a little loose for my liking, so I stitched the corners a second time making the piece 1/4 inch smaller at each seam. This made the noodles fit tighter into the box which is what I'm going for.

LiEr points out that it's the snugness between the rows that hold the flowers and vegetables in place. I haven't made the flowers yet, so I tested the spacing with some random flowerlike objects. So far, so good. The next step is to finish up the box and start work on some stuff to plant.

Tune in next Friday for part 2 of "For Your Birthday, I Give You Dirt".

Summer soup

I harvested my scapes yesterday and had the difficult task of deciding how best to use them - not because scapes are tricky to cook with but because there are so many tasty ways to prepare them. I didn't plant as much garlic as I should have and only have a handful of the curling tendrils. Oh! The humanity.

Scapes are the flower stem and bud of garlic and have a mild and fresh garlic flavor. This year I decided to make a creamy soup with them. I think it was the correct choice.

Creamy Scape Soup with Thyme and Chive

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cups sliced garlic scapes (about 3/4 pound)
• fresh thyme leaves
• salt & pepper to taste
• 3 fist-sized potatos, peeled and diced
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1 cup half-and-half or whole milk
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
• nutmeg
• chives

In a soup pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add scapes, thyme, salt and pepper, and sauté for 5 minutes.

Stir in potato and broth, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until scapes and potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Purée soup with an immersion blender or pour into a regular blender. Unless you are absolutely certain that your scapes are young and tender (or you like inedible stringy bits in your soup), it is worth the time, hassle and mess to run the soup through a fine mesh strainer.

Stir in the half-and-half, lemon juice and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with nutmeg and chive and serve hot.

Slugs and Copper

I promised a review of the copper tape method of slug repelling. As you can see here, the slugs are staying on their side of the tape.

Yes, my friends, I am pleased to report that the copper seems to work. I got three rolls from Lee Valley Tool and finally had sunny days to apply it to the raised beds. I watched this group of slugs climb up the box and as soon as they reached the tape layer they turned back. They didn't even touch it as far as I can tell.

Sadly, the tape comes a little too late to save most of my spring plantings, but the attacks on the beans have stopped and my enthusiasm for the rest of the season has returned.

Shirt from scraps

I got a bagful of scraps from my sister a week or so ago and my first project is a shirt based on this design by Alexis at My Mama Made It. I'm currently at the point of sewing the collar to the shirt, but I think I need to unpin it and stitch the binding on first.

I like the colors that I'm using but the material itself is a knit fabric, so it doesn't hang the same as the cotton fabric that Alexis recommends. We'll have to see how it looks when it's done. Might make a better dress than a shirt.

I do need to finish it up since the second round of birthday presents is due soon. My little Buttercup turns 1 in August and I want to make sure her gifts are done in plenty of time. It'll be a little hard since I got some really pretty batik fabric for my birthday and I'm just dying to put together the modified bento box quilt from Film in the Fridge.

Jamie Oliver's Fish Pie

On rainy days, there's nothing better than a scoop (or two) of fish pie to end the day. This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver and while I made some minor changes to his version - and don't eat mine with ketchup - this is still basically his dish.

I never manage to get a picture of fish pie because it's always eaten before I remember to get the camera. I've borrowed this photo from Katie-Ella's blog so you can see just how yummy this casserole looks. Believe me when I say that it tastes even better than it looks.

Jamie Oliver's Fantastic Fish Pie

This is pretty much his recipe. I add more eggs though because I like each scoop to have an egg piece.

• 5 or 6 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch squares
• salt and pepper
• 4 eggs
• 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• olive oil
• 1/2 pint heavy cream
• 2 good handfuls of grated sharp cheddar
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 heaped teaspoon golden mustard
• 1lb haddock or cod, skin removed
• nutmeg

Pre-heat oven to 450

Put potatoes into boiling, salted water and bring back to boil for 2 minutes. Carefully add eggs to pan and cook for further 8 minutes until hard-boiled, by which time potatoes should also be cooked. At the same time, steam spinach in a colander above the pan for about a minute. When spinach is done, gently squeeze liquid out. Drain potatoes, remove eggs, cool, peel and quarter. Place to one side.

Fry onion and carrot in oil for 5 minutes, then add cream and bring to just a boil. Remove from heat and add cheese, lemon juice, and mustard. In a casserole dish, layer fish, spinach, and eggs in dish the pour in creamy vegetable sauce.

Mash cooked potatoes, with oil, milk, salt and pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg, and pile on top of fish. Place in oven until potatoes are golden, around 25/30 minutes.

Homemade seed tape

The slugs have certainly taken their toll on the garden and yesterday's inspection revealed that many things are simply going to have to be replanted.

There are some things that just won't have enough time to grow between now and frost. Fortunately, lettuce isn't one of those things. The trouble with lettuce is that the seeds are just so miserably small. I can never tell how many seeds ended up in the ground in any one spot and then when they do come up, I discover that they're all planted in the same two inches of dirt.

If only the seeds I want came in seed tape strips... oh wait! They do! Well, sort of. I had to make them myself but it was so easy that anyone could do it. With a little supervision, this could be a great project for bored kids on a rainy day.

I made up a paste of water and flour and cut strips of brown craft paper. I placed a small drop (very small. You don't want to drown anyone) of the paste onto a strip and then used tweezers to place only one seed on the strip. When all the strips were done, I left them to dry. So far, the seeds have stayed put and I'll get them in the ground today. The seeds are planted about 2 inches apart which I'll thin down when I see what spouts and what doesn't.

If this works, it'll be a great way to spend all those rainy days while the slugs ravage the garden.

Round 1 of summer birthday gifts

Yesterday was our big group birthday party for all of the family members with summer birthdays. We're all clumped right together in the same week, so it makes sense to have one birthday party on the 4th.

I managed to finish the gifts for my sister and niece. It was a little dicey there for a bit and I'm hoping that I remember the pressure and get cracking on the presents for my little Buttercup. Her first birthday will be here before I know it.

I made this shadowbox for my sister and am pleased with how it turned out. I was trying to make a showcase for some buttons that belonged to a great great uncle who fought in the Civil War. This project taught me some important things about making interesting shadow boxes.

1. Unlike most things, for a shadowbox to be cool, more is more. My initial design had just the buttons and a bit of text describing them. Very sterile. For a lot of design, less is more but a shadowbox is supposed to be an artful arrangement of items and the ones that I think are the coolest are the ones that are just packed full of interesting stuff. It's great if that stuff all relates somehow but what is most important is that it's a joy to look at. As long as the elements look good together, it becomes less important that all the pieces have meaning. The key in this box has nothing to do with anything else in this box except that it looked like it fit well there. Maybe this was the key to my great great uncle's footlocker. It could be true. You don't know.

2. Shadowboxes need depth. Originally, the only thing in the box that wasn't flat was the buttons. It's a waste of a shadowbox to present two dimensional material in a two dimensional fashion. My mother-in-law, Kronk, generously donated the key to this project to help give some added depth to the box.

3. Shadowboxes need color. The shadowbox has a white background. The buttons are gold. The pictures I picked out for the first layout were black and white. The text is black and white. I didn't want bright colors in my historical piece however. I ended up using some great scrapbooking paper that has a kind of antiqued look. I think it made a great background for the other pieces without drawing too much attention away from the more interesting pieces.

4. Shadowboxes need faces. After several unsuccessful attempts to make something cool, I brought the pieces over to Kronk's house for her input. She said "It needs faces" and she was so right. In design, they say that the strongest visual you can have is a face. Our eyes naturally gravitate toward faces which is why you see so many faces in advertising. My original design had the lithograph of the ship and then a color picture of a model of the ship. The color picture added color elements but it was really one boat too many. I found this great photo of Civil War sailors and cropped it to fit my needs. It would have been cooler if I had a picture of the guy, but sadly, I couldn't find one. I think of the sailor photo and the key as my "cheatie elements" to make the shadowbox more interesting than it would have otherwise been.

5. Shadowboxes need the rule of three. Way back in art school, I learned that things are more visually interesting if they are asymmetrical. Odd numbers are more interesting to look at than even numbers. My design looked really awkward when it was just two buttons and two pictures. Adding the key not only gave the piece some much needed weight, but it balanced out the two metal buttons with a third metal element.


I made this doll for my niece, Athena. She's 11 and a huge Revolutionary War buff, so it's somehow fitting that our party was on I-day.

There's kind of a cool story behind this piece too. Athena wrote this story for an assignment about a girl named Charlotte White who lived next door to Paul Revere and who borrowed her brother's clothes to help ride out and spread the word that the British were coming. It was really fun and involved all sorts of crazy pre-revolution adventures.

I make these dolls for my Etsy shop, Buttercup's Baebies, but this one is exclusive just for Athena. She really liked it and that made all the work sewing the hair to be worth it.

The body is made from a high thread count muslin and the face is embroidered on. The hair is made from cotton yarn and the cotton dress is actually two pieces which may be a little hard to see in the photo. I even made a pair of bloomers to go under the dress. I mean, what proper lady goes out without her bloomers?

Both gifts were well recieved and I must admit, I think I was more excited about giving this stuff away than I was about getting presents. Two thumbs up for homemade gifts!

A boon of scrap fabric

Still finishing up my birthday present projects which I'll give away tomorrow and talk about next Friday so what else is on my project table? Well, on Tuesday, my parents showed up with a bunch of stuff from my sister. Among the tons of kid things was a garbage bag full of fabric scraps.

Most of them are polyester knits and as you can see, they are mostly black but I'm working on some project ideas. The first will be a variation on this top. I'm hoping that I have enough of the grey/blue and brown fabrics (lower right on the table) to make it work. I've also got a vision in my head of a skirt, on the longish side, made with strips of the black fabric sew together the wrong way. Ok. That sentence doesn't make a lot of sense, but when you see it, it will all become clear.

There's also a chunk of a lovely green fabric that is only wanting the perfect shirt pattern and a sweater that has been chopped off under the armpits that might make an interesting shrug. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the bunch of sweater sleeves and hems, but they have to be good for something.

Now if only I had a dress form...

Shrimp and Israeli Couscous Salad with Feta and Dill Vinaigrette

The big group birthday is Saturday and I'm in charge of cake and salad. I love the classic Fourth of July potato salad but this salad with shrimp and Israeli couscous is a bold alternative to the mayo covered classics.

Shrimp and Israeli Couscous Salad with Feta and Dill Vinaigrette

• 3/4 pound Israeli couscous, cooked al dente
• 1 large cucumber, seeded, quartered lengthwise, and sliced
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, plus extra for garnish
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons golden mustard
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3/4 pound feta, crumbled
• 16 or so shrimp, cooked and peeled
  

Combine couscous, cucumber, green onions, and peppers in a large bowl. Place dill, vinegar, and mustard in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil and blend until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour the vinaigrette over the couscous mixture and stir well to combine. Gently fold in the feta cheese and shrimp.