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!

Where did Summer Go?

Adam laughing from being tickled on the grass in our back yard. Despite the gray skies and lower temperatures we got outside to play!

In the last week our weather has not been very "summer-like." We have had a lot of rain and colder temperatures. This past Sunday it was barely 60 degrees and I had to wear a sweater and a rain jacket! I refused to put my boots on and decided to still wear my flip flops though! I want to at least acknowledge that it is supposed to be summer. It was nice to finally have more time to get outside today since it didn't rain and the weather was at least dry. It has been awfully dreary but we have hope that someday soon there will be enough sun for our tomatoes to grow!!

Some daylilies that are blooming in our back yard. I love their vibrant color!

Suburban Garden Report:

My plants in the garden have been growing very well. However, I know that they need more sun to really accelerate their growth. I think this is especially true for tomatoes and peppers as well as herbs such as basil. You can see in the pictures below that all of the plants are very lush and green but I would like some tomatoes to start forming!

Finally my gigantic tomato plants are starting to flower!



My one bell pepper plant is slowly getting bigger. It really needs more sun!

An apple on our dwarf apple tree. These apples are looking great and growing fast!


My lavender plant has put out several flowers and is looking pretty.

Well, at least the lettuce is thriving in the cooler weather! We've been enjoying lots of salads!

It was fun to teach Adam how to pick lettuce. Now every time we go out into the garden he picks a piece or two and eats it! It is a very healthy "salad to go!"

Adam eating some lettuce. He really enjoyed learning how to pick it!

At least the rain has been very kind to my growing side yard and the flowering plants are really growing and thriving there. Very soon the Black Eyed Susan daisies will be coming out! I can't wait! Here are some pictures of some of the lovely flowers in that area:

I really love the sunset color on this begonia in the side yard!

A bloom on a hardy fuchsia plant in my side yard that came back by surprise! It is so pretty!

Adam spotted a few ripe blueberries today which he promptly ate. I hope with a bit more sun there will be quite a few for him to nibble on. The bushes are looking very healthy and full of blueberries for their small size.

A blueberry that Adam found- there are a few that are ripe enough to eat now.

A sweet little surprise flower- this is a plant that is now starting to thrive from 2-3 years ago.

A while ago I read an article on container gardening. It suggested to group your pots in groups of 3-5 pots or more on your deck or patio area. Before I had my pots scattered too much and the flowers looked too sparse. The technique of grouping them really makes the flowers stand out and it gives a much "lush" effect. I am really liking the look now! I think it is great to read and learn new things every day!

A grouping of flower pots on our deck.

Finally, as Adam and I were wandering into the corner of our back yard I spotted these lovely foxglove plants! I just love the colors and they are so pretty! What a nice surprise!

A volunteer foxglove plant in our back corner.

Country Garden Report:

This week's country garden report is going to be a short one. Last week I was busy getting ready for a baby shower we threw on Saturday so I didn't have a chance to go to the country garden and visit. Also, we had been sick the past week when we visited the garden and so then my parents, brother and sister in law also got sick from the virus that we had! I do know that before she got sick my mom worked on picking and freezing as many wild cherries that she could off of a very large tree that my dad cut down. It was so full of such lovely, red cherries! They will surely be a treat to eat and to use in preserves, etc. Hopefully in a week or two I will have more news from my parent's garden.

Celebrating a Baby to Come:

A tiered tray of lemon cupcakes for the baby shower.

This past Saturday, July 16th we had a couples baby shower for some friends who are adopting a baby very soon. They are such a nice couple and we are so excited for them. I had a lot of fun decorating and coming up with a menu for the shower! It was a brunch theme and it was wonderful! Fun was had by all!

I made some breakfast casserole along with a green salad, tomato salad, fruit salad, scones and lemon cupcakes for dessert.

Following are the recipes for the shortbread cookies and the cream scones. Enjoy!

A platter of homemade cream scones- plain, chocolate chip and cranberry for the shower.

Cream Scones:

This is the scone recipe that we used for our farmer's market bakery booth "Farmer's Tea." They were a big hit at our booth for breakfast. Some of the flavors that we used to make were: hazelnut/chocolate chip, coconut, cranberry orange and blueberry among others.

Yields: 16 small scones

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
11 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whipping cream

1 cup mix in: dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, etc), chocolate chips, coconut, etc. (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter baking sheet or cover with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder together in a medium size bowl.

3. Cut in small chunks of butter with a fork or with a pastry blender. Blend until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

4. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the cream. Stir just until moist. Add the "mix-in" ingredient if you are going to use one.

5. Transfer dough to a floured surface and gently knead until smooth, about 8 turns.

6. Divide dough in half. Transfer these to the prepared baking sheet and pat each portion into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut each round into 8 wedges. Brush tops with remaining cream.

7. Bake scones until light brown 10-15 minutes.

These can be made ahead and freeze very well. Let them thaw on the counter overnight or a few hours before serving. Enjoy!

A teddy bear shortbread cookie that I made as favors for the baby shower.

Shortbread Cut Out Cookies:

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes. I love that the cookies turn out so professional looking and they are so delicious too! When I bake this the whole house smells like vanilla! Yum!


Yields: 17-18 large cookies or 24 small cookies

2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Stir in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 300 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes. Place on the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.

Bake for 20 minutes.

You may frost, glaze or dip the cookies in chocolate and/or sprinkles to make them festive!

Enjoy this week!

Celebrations and Sweet Summer!

Adam enjoying the first sweet strawberry from our back yard patch!

Suburban Garden Report:

We have been very busy these past two weeks with the July 4th holiday and getting ready for more events to come! I am a bit late with this posting but there is much to report! We finally have red strawberries to eat and a few raspberries too! We are enjoying more and more flowers in the garden as well. Today I just picked a few herbs and salad greens to have for dinner! It is so great having a kitchen garden! I love it! Take a look at the photos below of some of the herbs and flowers that are now growing so well in our yard!

A lovely head of lettuce in our back yard garden. It's time to enjoy some fresh salad!



A ripening raspberry on one of our bushes.




The Mexican tarragon in our herb garden with pretty yellow flowers.



A carnation from a plant that now has many blooms on it!



A beautiful blue flower from one of the perennials that my Aunt Janet gave me.


Our side yard- sans wood! Hooray! It is so much prettier without the wood pile there!

Adam and I get outside nearly every day. It is fun to see what he likes to pretend to do. Many times he likes to be "Bob the Builder." It is a fun game!

Adam by our neighbor's yard. He loves to pretend to put "concrete" between the rocks!

Our columnar apple is loaded with apples this year!

We have many apples on our dwarf apple tree as well as our 2 columnar apple trees. We are very lucky!

Adam loves to "climb" up in trees. Here he is in our front yard on the first branch of a tree.

Country Garden Report:

The delicate little flowers on one of the wildflowers my mom grew.

Over the past two weeks we have paid two visits to the country garden. A lot is happening there and it is so lovely this time of year to explore around the woods and surrounding areas. Here is what my Mom had to say about what they have been harvesting and enjoying so far:

"Today Dad went behind the house and cut down that pine tree. It will make good firewood, and it is now out of the way for the deck we plan to build back there. He also finished clearing around the area where the new fireplace will be.

In addition to that, we watered the garden and cut down a couple of the cherry trees that were in the clump of three. The birds can have the third one. Dad was cutting off branches and I was stripping them of cherries, and Dad would help in between. We have got a small bucket full now, and we will go back for some more after dinner.

We are having a whole chicken on the barbecue, and will have new potatoes and stir-fried pea pods with it. I sure wish I had thought to pick some peas for you while you were there. I will try to bring some next Friday, as they are getting really thick. I will try to keep them picked all week, as I remember one of the reasons I liked them is because they kept bearing for such a long time as long as I kept picking. I do want to let a few of them go to seed, though, so maybe I will pick a spot along the row that I don't pick, so the peas can mature. It's an idea, anyway; let's see if I manage to do it.

I thought maybe it would be a good idea to harvest the potatoes that had self-started over by the corn, so we dug up enough to fix for dinner tonight. They were mostly the Yukon Gold, with one russet. I parboiled them, and will finish them on the barbecue with the chicken. We have been having the pea pods fresh, so maybe tonight I'll stir fry them for some variety."

Serena Johnston- Saturday, July 9, 2011.

The following photos show our adventures in the woods as well as which crops are doing well in the garden and the orchard:

A tree with a "reflector" near the driveway where Adam loves to play!


A bloom on the wild honeysuckle plant near the driveway.

A blue-eyed grass. One of the flowers I enjoyed growing up.

More lovely wild flowers we found on our walk.

Some apples forming on one of the trees in the orchard.



A plum forming on the tree.

There are lots of peas to be had this year!

Adam helping to water the crops. We cleared away the newspaper that day which had prevented the crows from eating the corn seeds.

An amazing snail we found along the woodland trail!

Adam with Grandma in the woods near the pond.

An amazing wildflower we saw in the woods.

The lovely lettuce that my parents have been enjoying!

Some grapes forming on the grape vines!

The tomatoes are blooming! Here come the tomatoes!

The Gravenstein apple tree has a lot of apples on it this year!

An amazing discovery- a true wild columbine plant in bloom!

Adam walking in the meadow. He loves it out there!

A heal-all flower that I remember picking as a kid.

Cherries on one of the new cherry trees my parents planted this year!

Adam pretending that the tree is a motorcycle that he is riding!

A Social/Shy Person:

I find that I am always very happy when I am planning and cooking for a gathering for family or friends. I love creating dishes and sharing food that makes people happy and celebrates important milestones and occasions. I think that I would have been very content as someone who in days of old entertained people on a more regular basis. It is interesting to me that although I am a bit shy, I am also very social. I like to listen to people and chat. And although I really like social media, e-mail and online chat with faraway friends like my friend Lily in Mexico what I really need is "face to face" time with people on a regular basis. I feel much more connected and whole when I am able to see people often and find out about their lives and relate what is going on in mine.

I lived for a year in Mexico and one of the many things that I loved about living there was that people "dropped by" or visited much more often. I remember that we would go to visit Aunts and Uncles sometimes on a weekday in the evening which is very rare here. I thought it was so nice that we would chat, have a glass of juice or a snack and catch up on the news. It is difficult to do that here because it is not a custom and we tend to plan our get-togethers much in advance. Sometimes though I wish I could say "Just drop by to say hi!" I would love to just put on a kettle of tea or have iced tea in the summer with a friend on a weekday evening or afternoon! Imagine that! That is why I savor any time I am able to spend with family and friends because it comes around much less often than I would like. However, I cherish the times I have with everyone and love to chronicle it with photos and stories in this blog. Our 4th of July barbecue was one of those wonderful times with family that I'll always remember...

4th of July Celebration:

This year we decided to host the 4th of July barbecue at our house. It was a lot of fun to host this year! Adam really loves fireworks so he was all in for the fun! We had some family come for a potluck. We made some barbecue chicken, sausages and some grilled tofu with a peanut sauce. We had some delicious side dishes like deviled eggs by my mom, a red, white and blue fruit and yogurt trifle by my cousin Helen, a jello salad by my Aunt Debbie and an amazing avocado salsa by my cousin Lauren. It was so very delcicious! We also had some homemade buttermilk ice cream as well as chocolate ice cream made by my parents and my lemon raspberry souffle pie. Fabulous!

My cousin Helen-with her delicious fruit and yogurt trifle, Adam and Me


The table is all set for the barbecue!

Around 8pm or so we decided to start lighting off some fireworks so that we could at least try to get Adam to bed at a decent hour with all of the noise and commotion going on! He really loves fireworks and had fun picking out which ones to light off! He is very enthusiastic!!

I love what my mom said about Adam during the fireworks session we had out in our cul de sac:

"We really got a kick out of him (Adam), he was so delighted with the fireworks. I was amazed, too, that he knew everyone's names. He picked up on Lauren's "Run for your life!" phrase, and did it. At least I think it was hers, maybe not. Anyway, he used it and it was fun overall."- Serena Johnston- July 5 2011.

It was so cute how when questioned on everyone's names he knew all of them, all of the cousins, etc. He is a very social little guy! The following photos show how much fun we had on this special day:

I love how enthusiastic Adam is about fireworks!

Adam, Mom, Me, Lauren, Kim, Helen and Aunt Debbie with our 4th feast!

The marinated, grilled tofu with peanut sauce that Paul made!

Lauren, Aunt Debbie, Stuart, Dad and Adam all enjoying the food outside on our deck!

Some of the homemade chocolate custard ice cream that Kim and Stuart brought! Yum!

Here we all are watching the fireworks display in the cul de sac! What fun!

Aunt Debbie, Mom and Me with Adam covering his ears because of loud fireworks.

Me taking a photo and Paul taking video!

One of my favorite moments of the night- Adam with his Grandpa- so sweet!

Here are some recipes for a couple of items we served at our 4th of July barbecue. They are delicious and easy to make. I hope you enjoy them soon too!

A big pitcher of rhubarb strawberry lemonade- Yum!

Rhubarb Strawberry Lemonade:

This lemonade was so delicious it was gone in a flash. Next time I'll make a double or triple batch! I got the recipe from my Mom's cookbook "Joy of Rhubarb".
3 1/2 cups water
2 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 3-inch strips fresh lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups strawberries, sliced and divided
1 cup fresh lemon juice

1. Bring water, rhubarb, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla to a boil in a nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 8 minutes.

2. Stir in 1 cup strawberries. Bring to a boil; cover and boil 2 minutes.

3. Cool, then strain through a course sieve over a serving pitcher;discard pulp. Stir in remaining strawberries and lemon juice. Refrigerate and serve with ice.

Makes 6 servings.


Raspberry Lemon Souffle Pie:

A delectable raspberry lemon souffle pie is refreshing as a summer dessert.

Raspberry Lemon Souffle Pie:

This is a pie that we partially invented from a recipe I found online. We made a few changes to it and we served it at our farmer's market booth- "Farmer's Tea." It was a big hit and it still is!

-Pastry for one 9 inch pie

Pie Filling:

4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
Pie Topping:

1/2 cup lemon curd
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1 cup fresh raspberries

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pastry. Line pie plate with pastry.

2. Beat eggs. Add sugar, flour, butter, lemon extract, lemon rind and salt. Mix thoroughly. Blend in buttermilk.

3. Pour into pastry lined pie plate.

4. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool completely.

5. Spread the lemon curd over the cooled pie. Then, spread the raspberry jam over the top of the lemon curd.

6. Finally, arrange the fresh raspberries on top in concentric circles.

Enjoy!

A Day in the Country:

This past Sunday- July 10, 2011 I went on a wonderful outing with my friend Carol. We decided to meet in Dundee, Oregon for brunch at the restaurant "Farm to Fork." It is such a lovely place! They have a very nice set brunch menu and we decided to each order a different item and then split each one so we could have a bit of sweet and a bit of savory for brunch. So, I ordered the croque monsieur and Carol ordered the French toast with berries and cream. So delicious!

The croque monsieur that I had at Farm to Fork in Dundee, Oregon.

Then, we went to the Red Ridge Farms and Oregon Olive Mill. It is also an amazing place and could not be more beautiful! I felt like I was in Provence, France or at least what I imagine it to be like with the lavender fields! We had fun looking in the gift shop and sampling some of the olive oils that are partially made on site from olives grown close by. We also tried some flavored vinegars that were outstanding! Our favorite was the passion fruit vinegar! It was good enough to drink. It was so surprising! We'll have to come back to get some to serve with salads and other dishes- delicious!

A view of the lavender fields and other flowers near the Oregon Olive Mill.

Me with my friend Carol at Red Ridge Farms & Oregon Olive Mill

A wonderful view of the lavender fields and the arbor set up for weddings.


A view from the arbor where weddings can be held.

A close up of one of the kinds of lavender that you can pick in the lavender fields.

Red Ridge Farms and the Oregon Olive Mill are amazing places to visit in the summer as well as the fall. We are planning to come back here again for a visit perhaps in September or October to see the lovely fall colors and enjoy the scenery.

Enjoy your week!