Summer Recipes

It’s officially summer. Hurray!
And a perfect time to share some of my favorite summer recipes.

Black Bean and Couscous Salad
A fellow Eire-ite turned me on to this salad years ago and I can’t get enough of it once summer hits.  It’s healthy, refreshing, and a real crowd pleaser.

Chipotle Turkey Burgers
One day I happened to overhear Oprah (on television, not in real life!) bragging about these turkey burgers. They really are the very best. The chipotle heats them up and the chutney rounds them out with sweetness. My husband would eat these 3 days a week if I let him!

Strawberry Lemonade Bars
Anyone who knows me knows I don’t believe in cooked fruit. This recipe uses strawberry jam and I can live with that! I’m thinking about whipping up a batch for my daughter’s next lemonade stand. Show her how to enhance the customer experience and build loyalty!

Champagne Sangria
There are so many great summer coolers out there, it’s hard to pick just one. But champagne sangria is simple and bubbly and festive. Cheers!

Your Brand's True Colors

I have an 8 year old daughter who is currently into those paper “fortune teller” gizmos.  Remember, the ones you make yourself out of a piece of paper and operate with your index fingers and thumbs? Your “client” chooses a color, then another color, then a number, and presto, your fortune is revealed. This article about brands and colors made me think of her fortune teller game.  Maybe her fortunes can really tell a person something about themselves if she includes some of this wisdom.  What do your colors say about you?

YOUR BRAND'S TRUE COLORS

Refreshing

We’ve made a new lunch discovery here at Eire. (Always a reason to celebrate!) Our go-to corner deli for sandwiches, soups and salads has been serving Watermelon Gazpacho for the soup of the day, and it is delicious! A refreshing twist on the more common tomato gazpacho, it’s cool and sweet with a perfect little kick. I don’t have Brett’s recipe, but here’s one that is similar. (Brett’s has lots of jicama and some sort of a hot pepper diced in, too!) Get chopping and enjoy!

Ingredients

8 cups finely diced seedless watermelon, (about 6 pounds with the rind) (see Tip)

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced

1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

2 tablespoons minced shallot

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Mix watermelon, cucumber, bell pepper, basil, parsley, vinegar, shallot, oil and salt in a large bowl. Puree 3 cups of the mixture in a blender or food processor to the desired smoothness; transfer to another large bowl.  Stir in the remaining diced mixture. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Make Ahead Tip: Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day.

Melon Tip: Melon selection & storage – Look for symmetrical unblemished melons, without flat sides, that have a creamy yellow spot on the bottom indicating ripeness. At 92% water, this fruit should feel heavy when you heft it. Precut melon flesh should be dense, firm and appear moist. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week or keep in a cool, dark spot. Cover the cut surface of melon with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Nutrition – Per serving: 116 calories; 5 g fat ( 1 g sat , 4 g mono ); 0 mg cholesterol; 18 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 2 g protein; 2 g fiber; 296 mg sodium; 345 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin C (110% daily value), Vitamin A (45% dv).

Summer

I'm a Chicago girl through and through, and with that comes a real appreciation for summer.  Even this year, with our relatively mild winter, we've earned our summer, as always.  The Chicago lakefront. Light until almost 9pm. Dining al fresco, backyard BBQs, beaches, pools, and being barefoot. Reading outdoors. Riding a bike. Thinking about summer also got me thinking about summer music.  Here's Billboards list of summer's top 30 songs.  Whether it surprises or disappoints, it will get you thinking about your favorite summer music.

Um, seriously?

Here at Eire we don’t produce flashy, sexy TV spots.  (We actually don’t produce any TV spots!)  But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to critique the spots I see.  As a direct marketer, I always wonder how effective the ads I have seen are - general advertising can’t give you the quantitative results us DMers crave.  And I marvel at the ads I see that don’t actually feature the product they are selling.  One example is Walter E. Smithe, a Chicagoland furniture retailer.  This family owned business, run by three brothers who I believe come up with the commercial ideas themselves, are always producing spots that tie to current events in the Chicago area.  They are always entertaining, tend to feature someone or something recognizable, and RARELY feature the furniture.  Here are a couple of examples:





The lip sync spot brings to mind a recent Geiko spot.  I love the “popular  middle school girls” who follow this guy around to…  help him loose weight?  Again, I’m entertained but not sure how it ties to car insurance?  Sure the save message is there but:



I’m not saying that these ads aren’t effective.  In fact, they’ve clearly made an impression on me. I just wonder how we can get our clients to have a little fun like this! In the meantime, we’ll just keep doing what we do best, and let the flashy, sexy agencies sell their products without really selling them.

It’s in the Numbers.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not much of a numbers person. I think they’re kind of scary. But when I stumbled across these, I thought, hmmm, kind of interesting. (And scary, too!)

That’s the amount of landfill waste (in tons) that could be avoided if half the kids in America traded Halloween costumes instead of buying new ones. There’s even a day dedicated to costume-swapping – National Costume Swap Day (this year it was October 8th). And as expected in this wonderful world of online technology, there’s a website to visit if you want to join the efforts: Greenhalloween.org

This is how many more calories American workers burned in one day on the job in 1960 than they do today. (And imagine, that was before Grande Iced Caramel Lattes!) Granted, back then more than half of all jobs required physical labor compared to today when less than 1/5th do. But hey, why not get up and take a lap around the office every hour? And head out for a stroll at lunch. You’ll burn a few calories, and (gasp!), have the chance to say hello to co-workers… in person!

(This is my favorite – finally, an excuse!) 9% is the average amount a person’s pelvis expands between the ages of 20 and 80, even without weight gain. So if you can’t fit into those jeans from high school, give yourself a break. You’re normal, and you’ve earned it! It’s ‘hip’ to age gracefully.