Jun 28, 2011

Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet

This was completely spur of the moment last night. I had simply syrup in the fridge, lemon juice and frozen strawberries on hand.

1c Simply Syrup
1.5c Lemon Juice
handful of frozen strawberries mashed up
Chill & run thru machine!

I leave the base in the freezer, so I can have sorbet anytime! This batch turned out amazing!

Any idea on how lemon & blueberry combo would turn out?

Jun 22, 2011

Happy Solstice!

Scapes by Pixiefarts
Scapes, a photo by Pixiefarts on Flickr.

I spent the first day of summer weeding.

It was a pretty typical day. I went to work. I came home.

I checked on my food growing behind the garage.

Dick left for band practice.
I took a nap. I was so tired. I feel like I didn't sleep at all Monday night. Woke up at 8pm, went back outside, grabbed the other egg from the quail cage.

The upside was the awesome thunderstorm that rolled in at 9:30-10pm. I sat outside with the dogs watching the clouds roll in. What a beautiful light show.
By the time Dick got home, it was raining really hard. I ran out in the rain and got drenched, but it felt really nice! I was cooled down instantly!

Tonight, we make Garlic Scape Pesto
This time I'm gonna use scapes and homegrown flat leaf parsley with walnuts.

Jun 19, 2011

Washtub Bass

washtub bass

Dick's new toy.


He found this at a local music store that was moving. The owner's husband made this a few years ago, but it had been a display lately. He paid $30. We crammed it into his Spectra5, the washtub bass was almost to big!It's huge! Dick is 5'11 and the washtub bass is taller than him.
We picked up some more weed wacker wire for the second string. He made a spacer on the bottle tail-piece to keep the strings from vibrating. The placing of the tuners made the second string to rub on the other tuner. He is using my banjo capo to keep that separated. He mentioned painting it later. Mmmm I think that is going to look awesome. He's been playing it all day. I think he missed playing upright, but jeeze those cost a lot of money. This is going to be interesting.

Jun 17, 2011

Dear Cosmos, Stop screwing with me

Butterfly by Pixiefarts
Butterfly, a photo by Pixiefarts on Flickr.

My plans to go up to the property came to a crashing halt after I received my pay check yesterday. We all knew our insurance was going up, but jeez I'm screwed now. I'm on a budget, I take my lunch everyday, make my coffee in the morning. I do go out for Chinese food every once and a while. I can't help it, I'm a sucker for Happy Garden Chinese food.
I have to re-evaluate everything. Gas for my car is killing me.

Mr. Peak needs a job. He is working 1 day a week right now.

Tonight, we are having a fire on the driveway. Saturday, we are going for a car ride to a U-pick for strawberries. I foresee strawberry jam in my future.

Jun 9, 2011

Firsts

salvaged stepping stones by Pixiefarts
salvaged stepping stones, a photo by Pixiefarts on Flickr.

I harvested my first strawberry last night.

Yesterday afternoon, the temperature was 97 degree's. On my way to check on my girls (pickles, gherkin & dilly), I spotted three red strawberries. I planted these last year in the cinder block holes. I wasn't sure if they would produce anything, but I kept watering them. My four plants have exploded with berries. I stool on my homemade stepping stones in the hot breeze and took a small bite out of the darkest berry. It was hot from sitting in the sun all day. I ran over to Dicky to show him what I found. He was by the driveway watering the garlic plants. He took a bite and handed it back to me. I was beaming with excitement that I grew something that was so perfect.

PS: I picked the other two this morning and put them in my salad for lunch.

Jun 1, 2011

Fish heads, fish heads, rolly-polly fish heads!

Fish we caught by Pixiefarts
Fish we caught, a photo by Pixiefarts on Flickr.

Mr. D, my brother & I went fishing twice this week. Since we live in Michigan and near Lake St. Clair, there is quite a few boat launches in the area. We usually fish at the 9 mile pier. I didn't catch anything but dinks. They caught some keepers. However, that jumbo in the middle was caught by our pier fishing neighbor. Dick was joking about him putting the fish in our bucket and he did! What a nice guy! He said he doesn't eat fish. That fish was 15"

We all got really burnt! Let me just say, there is a picture of Mr. Dick with a red stripe down his chest. Very Charred!

Monday, I barbequed chicken legs, baby red skin potatoes & corn on the cob. We had a large salad and an ice cold Coors light.


I had a great 3 days off!