Are you a cookbook person? I am. Actually, more specifically, I am a book person. I love books. I love bookstores. I love books on shelves. I love book covers. And cookbooks, especially those with beautiful photography, are really one of my biggest weaknesses. But I have to tell you that my cookbooks have been extremely under used, and I’m quite embarrassed by it. Because as much as I love books, finding one specific thing out of many, many books is too hard. It’s just so much easier to grab my laptop, fire up google or even better, food blog search, and find a recipe that is exactly what I’ve been looking for. So the books, sit there, on the shelf, untouched. It is too sad.

The past few weeks, I’ve been battling the gravity of my couch. It’s amazing how quickly things can go from a million miles an hour to a full, dead stop. Most days, I don’t even see the lower level of my house until after dinner. But a little illness and a little mom/teen daughter drama, and suddenly, my couch became attached to my butt.

The good news is that the last of the antibiotics are now gone, and mother and daughter drama passes. But, the gravity of the couch and getting back to my normal activity level, that has taken a bit more effort.

I’m becoming a big fan of shiso since Amy planted it in my garden this summer. It’s minty, grassy flavor is just the thing on a hot spell like the one we are having this week (seriously, 103F in Seattle? I did not move here for weeks like this!) So, I was happy to help out with Design Sponge’s In The Kitchen with this recipe for Ginger Shiso Syrup.

It’s hot today, and all I want to do is play around with and eat things from my garden.