Mostly Midwest

Mary spent last weekend in Chicago at a bachelorette/bachelor party for her college friend Veronica. This is Mary with Veronica and their friend Costner (also in the bridal party) at a Cubs game. The wedding is in Dallas next month. 

Meanwhile, John and Troy spent last weekend in St. Louis. They visited the newly remodeled brewery where Troy used to work.

And here at home, I made this summer berry custard and it was delicious if I do say so myself.

Home Sweet Home

On Saturday I drove home from California. It's an understatement to say it's nice to be back. During the time I was away, Brad and Allie worked on getting Allie more comfortable on the back patio. I'm glad to see her looking so serene and comfortable.

When I was in California I ordered myself a few toys. The first is a baguette baker. I have been making baguettes but I wanted to get them crispier, so I got this baker, which has a cover. And it works: I made crispy baguettes!

Another toy I got was a label maker. Dorky, I know, but I wanted to be able to have neat labels instead of masking tape labels. Plus, Brad can never find anything in the pantry so I labeled the shelves too. I call that a win-win!

But wait, there's more! I got myself this snazzy raft. I used it on the weekend but it was really hot so my pool time will have to be early or late in the day.

My mom gave me a bunch of quilting fabric and I started making a new supply of masks. I'm waiting on better elastic so mask making is on hiatus for the time being.

I've been cooking a lot. Today I made this savory babka. It's stuffed with ricotta, cilantro, lime zest, onion, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Tonight we cut it open and see how it tastes!

Finally, over in Fort Collins, on Tuesday John had his first day of work at his summer internship. He's working remotely for the most part, but he had to go in on his first day to do some new employee paperwork.

The Fourth of July in St. Louis - Year Two Already!

One of the big benefits of living where we do is that we're a five-minute walk from the Webster Groves Fourth of July Parade, which is one of the biggest draws in the St. Louis area for this holiday. So guess where we were at 10:00 a.m. on Friday? You guessed it - at the parade!

When the Webster Groves Statesmen Marching Band marched by, all that was missing was ….. a Harrison in the band! So we had to think back to some other marching bands (and some other kids)! Peter, John, and Mary are probably not surprised that I got a bit wistful.

I thought an entire float devoted to Battle of the Bulge veterans was a pretty impressive thing, considering it was 70 years ago. All the military floats in the parade got constant clapping. The parade opened with the United States flag, for which everyone stood up. People around here know their manners!

Am I dating myself? We were amazed that kids brought - and this is not an exaggeration - treat bags to the parade. There were SO many freebies, and it wasn't just candy.

After traveling up our main street, the parade turned onto a residential street. Last fall we tried to buy a house on this street. After seeing how festive it is on July 4, we were both a bit wistful that we don't live on here. (But then once we got home we changed our minds!)

And this was about the end of the parade, for us. Because ….. while watching the parade we were out in front of a pretty house, admiring its flowers, when the owner started chatting us up and the next thing we knew we were getting a tour of her house! We had a wonderful visit with her and when we came out of her house - the parade was over - but we made a friend, so it was well worth it!

The weather for Friday and Saturday was unbelievably gorgeous. It was hard to break a sweat with temps in the 80s and low humidity. Christmas in July?!

On the residential street that the parade goes through, there were some pretty awesome neighborhood parties.

After the parade we grilled burgers and had a yummy potato salad, which I tried for the first time. Thank you Ina Garten - you always come through!

That night Allie was a bit concerned about the fireworks. She has one stress bone underneath her chest (it's barely visible), and an identical bone within paw's reach. She is a prepared (and very nervous) pup!

Saturday (and Sunday) morning we went for a walk to breakfast. Allie loves to be out!

On Saturday, Brad tried to outsmart the squirrels by adding an arm to the pole that houses our bird feeders. He hung the feeders far from any pole from which the squirrels can reach.

Meanwhile, I continued to excavate bricks from this patio under our big walnut tree. The patio is overgrown with weeds and once I started taking the bricks off I discovered a cement slab beneath. Brad thinks it might have been the foundation of a one-car garage at one time. (Our house was built in 1900.) I think he might be right.

While I exposed the cement, Allie was happy to lay on it.

The bricks have been there so long that most of them are covered in a pretty thick layer of dirt and moss. When I scrape that off, I end up with a lot of excess dirt.

We interrupt this blog post for a report from the napping dog.

This is how much dirt I get from just a couple of rows of bricks. I'm using the reclaimed dirt to fill some of the many holes and ruts in the backyard, which I'm guessing will save Brad from a future sprained ankle as mowing our pitted yard has been treacherous for him!

Brad's got three bird feeders hanging from his new arm. It took the squirrels a day to figure how to get to the feeder on the far right by shimmying down the fishing line. I think the other two are safe for reasons I won't go into here. Time to put on our thinking caps again for how to further squirrel-proof the one on the right. We're probably going to start by adding a dome on the top of the feeder.

Other weekend events not documented with photos: we spent a lot of the afternoon on Saturday at iTap (the bar where Troy works weekends) watching World Cup with John (while Troy tended bar). Today Brad and I went to a potluck at my yoga studio, where we brought this corn salad. (More thanks to the Barefoot Contessa.) We had a FaceTime call with Mary this morning. (She continues to do great in India.) And we've texted with Peter, who's enjoying his own three-day weekend in DC. (And counting the minutes until his mom's visit starts on Thursday!) Other than that, we've done miscellaneous yard work and a fair amount of doing nothing. A pretty good recipe for a relaxing weekend!

Going Bananas for Thanksgiving

Okay, I have to tell you about this new appliance we got. (But before I do, rest assured that my blog still has its full amateur status - my gushing about Yonanas is just me gushing and nothing more.) This machine turns frozen bananas (along with any other frozen fruit) into an amazing dessert. It is advertised as tasting like ice-cream, and much to my amazement, it really does taste like ice-cream. And yet it's 100% fruit!

I read about Yonanas on a food blog I like. It sounded intriguing, but unnecessary. You see, I learned that you can get the same effect from processing a frozen banana in a food processor. I did this a couple of times and the result was a super tasty dessert. But I didn't like the toll it was taking on our food processor. (Frozen bananas are really hard to puree.) So once we were hooked, we decided it was worth it to add an appliance to our already crowded kitchen.

I made a banana-peach concoction last night and it was so yummy. Now once we become addicted to eating after all of the calories from Thanksgiving, we know how to get a quick, easy, and super healthy sugar fix!

Pea Pesto

Early last spring Brad and I were out to dinner and we had a dish we had never heard of before - pea pesto. It was heavenly and we enjoyed it so much we were inspired us to grow our own peas so we could make our own pea pesto. We planted peas but we didn't get a huge harvest. We froze every pea we harvested and above is what they amounted to. (Not a whole heckofa lot.) But as of the end of October we still hadn't made our pesto. (Don't ask me why.) This past Sunday, with the storm impending, we decided we didn't want to risk our precious peas getting soggy in the freezer if we were to lose power. So we made our pea pesto for our "dinner before the storm." And ..... it was worth the wait!

This is how the pesto looked after I made it. Our pesto consisted of some basil, walnuts, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. And of course all those beautiful peas!

Mixed with some pasta, it made a wonderful side dish (or in a larger portion it would be great as a main dish too).

Brad cooked some amazing swordfish on the grill, we added some steamed broccoli, and combined with the pesto it made for a delectable dinner! Next year's garden will definitely include some peas. Even if we only get one batch of pesto, it's well worth it!

Waiting and Hopefully Ready

If we lose power as a result of the hurricane (and when you have a well and a septic system, along with losing power comes losing water and sewer) so be it. This is our third one of these storms in 14 months, and this time we are our most ready ever. Drinking water? Check! (In the basement we've got buckets in which we're saving the water from the dehumidifier for flushing the toilets, bathing, etc.)

I talked to Peter this afternoon and he and his roommate are getting ready for the storm's arrival in D.C., which will be a few hours earlier than up here. So today they're out shopping for a few more provisions. Yesterday we got out our flashlights and filled them with fresh batteries. Lucky we didn't have to shop for batteries - as of yesterday morning the pickings for batteries were already extremely thin.

Should we lose power, we lose the use of our refrigerator and freezer soon thereafter. The good news is we've been eating out of our freezer this past week and we've pretty much cleared out things that can spoil. But we still have our big cooler upstairs and if we need to fill it with ice to chill those few remaining items, we're all set. We've been collecting bags of ice from the ice-maker, and I made these huge chunks of ice in old containers. (Thanks to the St. Maur Food Fair for teaching me this trick!)

This is what will go on ice if we lose power. Today I again raided the freezer and made food for the week. This is turkey vegetable lentil soup. If we lose power, we'll heat it on a pan on the gas grill. (Yesterday's errands included filling up the extra propane container.) If it's raining too hard to cook on the grill, we have packets of tuna salad and PBJ sandwiches to fall back on.

We also had some ground beef in the freezer. Now it's part of ready-made spaghetti, which will taste wonderful if we're hungry for some hot food.

Some frozen bananas and eggs made for a loaf of bread which will taste yummy if we're cold and in the dark. Other things we did in preparation for the storm: caught up on laundry, filled the cars with gas, bought a car charger for our Apple devices, took down all the deck and yard furniture, cleaned the gutters, and bought some extra groceries. With local schools already closed on Monday and Tuesday, it looks like we'll be hunkered down here for at least a couple of days. We may be cold and it may be dark, but we'll be about as ready as we can be.

Productive Sunday

Yesterday John and I worked together in the kitchen. With the cold weather fast approaching, I'm harvesting herbs this week. The first thing I did yesterday was pick all of the basil (above) and make pesto, which I froze into cubes.

Then I picked all of the sage (above) and froze the leaves in baggies. (Most of which I'll give away; we can't eat all that sage!) I also harvested and bagged tarragon, and I dried oregano in the oven.

Meanwhile, John was planning our dinner. He thought of a brilliant idea for what to do with our leftover brats: make a brat pizza! First he made a mustard sauce for the pizza, which it turns out was also great for dipping.

Then he made a crust. He's been working on his pizza-making technique since he got home last month, and he's getting really good at making the crust. (And Brad and I have been more than happy to be his guinea pigs.)

After he put it all together, we were treated to this delicious brat pizza for dinner. It was a good way to end the weekend!

Such a Treat!

Tonight for dinner, John made homemade naan and homemade chicken curry. We were delighted with such a treat. Believe it or not, it tasted even better than it looks.

Proud of My Pie

Early this morning while I was harvesting lettuce, pea pods, squash, and beans before the sweltering heat arrived, I noticed that the rhubarb needed harvesting too. The truth is, I've been avoiding it. I still haven't gotten comfortable with figuring out what to cook with the rhubarb. There are lots of strawberry-rhubarb recipes, but I really don't want to be dependent on having to have strawberries on hand. I want to be able to have a bunch of rhubarb in my hand and know what to make with it. Then I remembered that last summer, after I told her we had planted rhubarb, my Aunt Dot sent me her recipe for Rhubarb Custard Pie. I'm having some friends over for dinner tonight, and guess what's for dessert? Yep, you guessed it. I thought Aunt Dot's pie was so pretty that it deserved to be photographed in all of its stages of development. I'm showing them to you now, before anyone's tried it, because I figured I'd better brag about it sooner rather than later ....... while Aunt Dot is a great cook and I totally trust her recipe, I won't believe mine tastes good until I've tried it.