Looks like Summer is Here to Stay!

Another lovely day lily in the back yard.

It appears that summer is finally here to stay! I am so very excited! It started out with very warm weather last weekend in the mid-eighties. Then, we had a cool Monday but it has been fairly sunny ever since! I do so hope that this weather continues!

Summer is my favorite time of year and I don't want to miss out on it! It has been difficult though because as a family we have been struck by an illness that first affected my husband Paul, then my son Adam and then me! I am currently getting over being sick and I hope to be healthy and able to do so much more in the next couple of weeks! I want to really enjoy all of the summer that we have left! I was looking forward to berry picking with my friend Carol this week as well as getting together with my mom, but I hope by next week I'll be better and ready to do so much more!!

Suburban Garden Report:

More raspberries are forming on one of our raspberry bushes!

Things are really happening in our suburban garden. Our plants are growing fast in our kitchen garden and it is so nice to be able to use the herbs in recipes and make salads from the lovely lettuce! Soon I want to get started on making more yummy things with our rhubarb too! Our tomatoes are blooming like crazy so I am looking forward to tomatoes forming on the vines.

Our tomatoes look like they are a jungle of their own! I really need to tie them up/stake them!

The lovely basil plant that I planted a while ago.

My sage plant is growing so fast!

My rosemary- I have already used it in a couple of chicken dishes.

Here is an easy barbecued chicken dish that uses many of the fresh herbs in our kitchen garden. I made this dish tonight based on another dish that I had made before.

The chicken ready to set in the barbecue!

White Wine and Fresh Herb Barbecued Chicken:

1 whole chicken
2 tablespoons softened butter
3-4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
2-3 tablespoons fresh basil- chopped
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary- chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme- chopped
-salt
-freshly ground pepper
1 cup of white wine
4-5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, chopped

Directions:

1. Heat grill (I use a gas grill) for about 15 minutes on high heat.

2. While the grill is heating line the bottom of a roasting pan with foil. Place the chicken on the foil.

3. Rub the softened butter into the chicken skin. Pour the olive oil and the Worcestershire sauce over the chicken.

4. Sprinkle the chopped herbs, salt, pepper and chopped onion over the chicken.

5. Pour the white wine into the bottom of the roasting pan.

6. Cover the top of the chicken with foil.

7. Turn off one of the grill burners and turn the other burner to medium heat.

8. Cook around 1 hour and 25 minutes or until chicken is done and juices run clear.

Sometimes my grill tends to flare up- so I need to turn the heat down a bit. Adjust your grill accordingly. The chicken will char a bit but the flavor is fantastic! The skin really tastes great and the chicken remains moist inside. Enjoy!

Some of the fresh herbs I used from my garden for my barbecued chicken!

Our friend Mrs. Ladybug on a raspberry leaf.

Adam in the back yard. He loves to get into the garden and eat lettuce and herbs.

Another one of my daylilies. They are becoming my favorite flower of the season!

Our front yard is really brimming with color this time of year with all of the lovely annuals and perennials all working together. I am so happy with my color choices for our front planter this year. However, next year when I plant wave petunias I won't bother planting something else in the middle. The red flowers poking out of the middle are getting buried in petunias!

Our front planter is brimming with wave petunias!

I am so happy with the way our side yard is looking. A lot of the flowers are really starting to bloom. Very soon the Black Eyed Susan Daisies will bloom and I will be sure to photograph those for my next post. In the meantime here are some lovely shots from right now:

I love this sweet little dahlia in our side yard!

One of the lovely perennials starting to bloom in the side yard.

A spectacular begonia in the side yard.

I love how a begonia, a fuchsia and a blue-flowered perennial are all growing together in this spot!

Adam showing me a little apple he picked off of our tree. He is very serious about it! He ate a couple of the small apples. He didn't seem to mind that they are a little bitter!

Country Garden Report:

Due to hosting a baby shower, a bridal shower and being sick- we still haven't made it out to the country garden to take photos and report on what is going on out there. However, can report to you that my mom was able to save a whole gallon of wild cherries which are the the sour kind that are great in pies and other desserts! That is certainly great news. It is a lot of work to pit that many small cherries!

Also, my folks have been enjoying a lot of snap peas and lettuce from their large garden.

This is what my mom said about their garden progress this week:

"Our garden is growing well, and we have lots of tiny tomatoes forming, and lots of blossoms promising more. We will need to tie up the tomatoes when you come on Friday. If I can manage to do some before you come, I will. The weeds got a great boost with the rains, and although Dad and I have done a lot of weeding, the size of the garden makes it difficult for us to keep up. At least the garden plants are ahead of the weeds in most instances. The corner by the rhubarb is the worst at this time."- Serena Johnston July 26, 2011.

Once I am feeling better and not contagious I hope to go and visit and help out at the country garden! I miss it very much and I know Adam misses visiting with his grandma and grandpa!

Before I move on- here are a couple of links to interesting gardening happenings. The first one is about a wonderful, organic, sustainable garden in England and the second is for a local gardening group:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/audioslideshow/2011/jul/21/primrose-organics-audio-slideshow

And here is the link to the OSU gardening group & newsletter:


http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/enews

A Bridal Shower:

A bouquet of flowers for the bridal shower on an outdoor table.

Last Saturday I threw a bridal shower for a friend from college. She is getting married in the first part of August. We had a spectacular, sunny day for the party and we were able to have our brunch outside on the deck. It was lovely! I served two types of breakfast casserole, fruit salad and scones. Guests brought some delicious salads, sourdough pancakes and snacks to share! Fun was had by all and I had a lot of fun putting this party together! Below you will find recipes for the breakfast casseroles and the cupcakes I made for the shower. Enjoy!

The chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream that I made for the bridal shower.


Me with some of the guests: Rebecca, Carol and my mom Serena.

Breakfast Casserole:

The sausage and cheese breakfast casserole I made for the bridal shower.

Breakfast Casserole:

This recipe comes from Cook's Country magazine. The vegetarian version was one that I made up myself.

Serves: 8-10

1 (14 inch) loaf Italian bread, ends trimmed.

1 pound bulk pork sausage

1 small onion, chopped fine

3 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

12 large eggs, lightly beaten

4 cups whole milk

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon hot sauce

1. Toast Bread: Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower middle positions and heat oven to 400 degrees. Slice bread in half lengthwise, then slice each half crosswise into ½ inch thick pieces. Spread bread in single layers on 2 rimmed baking sheets and bake until golden, 15-20 minutes, flipping bread and switching and rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool 15 minutes.

2. Brown Sausage: Cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add onion and cook until golden, about 5 minutes.

3. Assemble Casserole: Grease 13-9 inch baking dish. Shingle half of bread in prepared pan so that edges overlap slightly. Top with half of sausage mixture and 1 cup cheese. Repeat with remaining bread, remaining sausage mixture, and remaining cheese.

4. Soak and Weight: Whisk eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and hot sauce in large bowl. Pour evenly over casserole. Wrap casserole in plastic and weight with canned goods (6 or so cans of soup, etc.) Refrigerate for at last 12 hour and up to 24.

5. Bake Casserole: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Let casserole stand at room temperature while oven is heating. Remove weights, unwrap casserole, and bake until the edges and center have puffed and top is golden brown, about 1 hour. Let cool 10 minutes. Serve.

Vegetarian Spinach and Red Potato Casserole Variation:

1 pound red potatoes, microwaved until cooked thoroughly (about 5-10 minutes), peeled and chopped into small squares.

2 boxes of frozen, chopped spinach- thawed and squeezed dry

½ onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons paprika

Olive oil

Salt, pepper

3 cups shredded jack cheese

Prepare breakfast casserole replacing the 1 pound sausage with the potatoes and spinach, and the cheddar cheese with jack cheese.

Sautee the onion and garlic in a pan with the butter and olive oil. Add the potatoes and brown them along with the onion and garlic. Add the salt and pepper as desired.

Combine the spinach and potato mixtures along with the paprika.

Layer the casserole in the same way, just substituting the spinach/potato mixture for the sausage.

Soak, weight, refrigerate and bake as directed above.

Chocolate Bridal Shower Cupcakes:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Butter cream Icing:

Makes: 20-21 cupcakes, two 8 inch layers or one 10 inch bundt cake

Dry ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar (I used organic sugar)
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Liquid ingredients:

2 large free range organic eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

-parchment paper


1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour cake pans. (or line muffin tins for cupcakes with paper liners) Then, fit a round piece of parchment paper into the bottom of the cake pans if making the two 8 inch layers.

2. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl of an electric mixer or mix them in a large bowl with a whisk.

3. Mix all of the liquid ingredients together except the boiling water in a separate bowl.

4. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes or use a small hand mixer or your whisk to beat until thoroughly combined and smooth.

5. Stir in the boiling water. Pour batter into 20-24 lined cupcake tins, two 8 inch prepared pans or one 10 inch prepared bundt pan and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or for 50 to 55 minutes for the bundt cake or slightly less for the two 8 inch pans. Be sure to insert a toothpick into the center of the cake and if it comes out clean the cake is done. Let the cake or cake layers cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.

6. Make vanilla buttercream and fill and frost cake or cupcakes.

Me with my friend Katie- the guest of honor.

Quick Vanilla Butter cream Frosting:

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or whole milk

1. In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

2. Add vanilla and cream (or milk) and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream (or milk) if needed for spreading consistency.

3. Make sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape up the frosting from the bottom and assure that it is thoroughly mixed in.

Note: For the decoration on top of the cupcakes I made candy-melt roses. I bought a rose mold and some red candy melt chips at the craft store. Then, I melted the candy melts and poured them into the molds and refrigerate them until set. Then, you can pop them out of the mold and decorate the cupcakes. I love how elegant they look but they were easy to make!

A Day at the Beach:

One of Adam's absolute favorite things to do is go to the beach! He loves playing in the surf and in the sand. Since last Sunday it was such a beautiful day we decided to head out to Seaside, Oregon for the day and enjoy the beach together! Adam was so thrilled when we arrived and ran straight for the ocean! Paul and I took turns walking him in and out of the waves holding hands. He loves it when the waves crash up! It is so much fun to see the delight on his face! Later on after lunch we came back to the beach and played in the sand. Adam had fun digging holes and playing around. Then, it was time for one last dip in the ocean before we headed home. What a wonderful day!

Me with Adam on a glorious summer day in Seaside, Oregon!

Paul with Adam near the ocean in Seaside, Oregon.

Paul and Adam working on a sand creation on the beach.

Adam showing me a shell he found on the beach.

I hope you enjoy this lovely week of summer!