Berries are in Season!

I love berries and there is nothing better(unless its chocolate) than a mix of fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries on angel food cake with fresh whipped cream!

School's Out!

This was a week of graduations! My nephew Brock graduated from Grade 8 and my daughter Brittany had a small graduation ceremony from grade 6. Next year she goes to a Grade 7/8 only school! Here's a couple of pics!

More Garden Pics

Looks like everything is coming up daisies!




A hardy David Austin Rose.




Daylilies are in bloom.




Our Threadleaf Japanese Maple is thriving!



Lavender lining the driveway.



I love this blue spruce and boxwood!






Our clematis is loaded with lovely deep purple blooms!

Brittany's Favourite Fruit

Brittany loves melon of any kind but especially likes watermelon!

Week In Review

Hmmm, what have I done this week?

Monday - went to work
Tuesday - went to work, took the girls to soccer
Wednesday - went to work,watched So You Think You Can Dance
Thursday - went to work, went to the last Kinette meeting till the fall and won Club Kinette of the year!
Friday - didn't go to work, took the girls shopping in Buffalo. They spent their own money and got lot of great summer clothes. Brianne's new favourite store? Kohls!!
Saturday - worked at home cleaning, the girls went and saw Nancy Drew which they really liked, Steve bought some shorts and shirts with a gift certificate he was given at work, had a latte from Starbucks, went to Mohawk to see the horse races with John and Dana, didn't win any money!
Sunday - plan to do a bit of gardening, lots of laundry, play POGO, look at scrapbook magazines, clean up my scrap room, take some garden pics and watch Music and Lyrics! Actually this sounds ambitious, we'll see how much I get done!

Baking Bacon Buns

Well, I did it! I made the Bacon Buns from scratch and they turned out! This was my first try at making bread of any kind from scratch and I think I could get addicted to this making bread from scratch thing! Of course for these buns I needed bacon fat, so this morning Steve had bacon on his egg 'mcmuffin' and for supper tonight we had bacon cheeseburgers. In making the buns Mom mentioned to me to knead until the dough felt silky. Well, according to the recipe directions, the bread hook on my mixer did most of the kneading but I did finish up with some hand kneading and did get a feel for the silky texture. Brianne,my baker, then helped me shape the dough into buns. And they smelled and tasted yummy but despite the bacon fat they don't really taste like bacon.
Update: I tried a bun on its own and it actually does have a definite "baconny" taste. I'd make these again for sure.

The slide show above shows some of the steps in making them!

Brittany's Piano Recital

Here's a few pics from Brittany's piano recital today. She played My Dream without an error! She's not sure she wants to continue with piano lessons but maybe she'll feel differently towards the fall. The lessons every Saturday morning did start to drag on this year.

The 40 and over Club!

My sister Sherry joins me in the over 40 club later this week and so her husband Willie threw her a surprise birthday party on Saturday. And she was surprised! Her friend Lisa who was in on the planning got her out of the house by suggesting a golf game with their sons. So while she was golfing Willie got everything ready and the guests arrived. Fortunately it was a great day weather wise so while the adults talked and had a few drinks in the sun, the kids swam in the pool, played badminton, shot hoops and rode bikes. Sherry's childhood best friend Marie's son Eric(follow that?), had great fun walking in the back ravine and picking wild flowers for all the ladies and some men too! Lisa brought yummy jello shooters! I only had a couple though! Mom brought her trademark potato salad and Sherry's favourite cake from Spicers(a bake shop in Aylmer). Actually, Sherry prefers the icing over the cake! Willie bbq'd up some burgers and hot dogs that went great with the potato salad. Then once it got dark and after a few technical difficulties, Willie showed, on big screen he rigged up outside,a brief slide show of pics of Sherry through the years . The slide show was really fun with lots of great pictures and was set to the tune of Sherry Baby and Celebration. It was a fun day!

I've posted more pics from the day in the slide show below.

Mellow Yellow

Swaps are such fun! I recently participated in a 'yellow' swap through the Scrapping Bug message board. Each participant had to send in a yellow item of their choice.


Look at the great stuff I received. I will have to come up with a yellow layout and post it to show how I've used everything.

Father's Day

Oh I have so much to blog about today but will do so over a series of blogs.

First of all Happy Father's Day to my husband Steve! He is an awesome father(and Husband)!


For breakfast the girls and I made him his favourite, homemade egg and bacon 'McMuffins'!


And we gave him a rotisserie for his new bbq. Can't wait to post some pics of a yummy roast being bbq'd on it!

A Summer Pleasure

Outdoor Dining

Pork Fat

I think it is Emeril who praises the virtues of pork fat in all of his cooking. And really, who doesn't like eggs fried in bacon grease?!

I recently found another blog, A Year in Bread, and todays entry is Bacon Buns using, you guessed it, bacon fat! And for some reason that appeals to me. They just have to taste good, don't they?

I have never made bread except in a bread machine. I know my Mom has made bread the traditional way and I think she commented that the process of kneading, letting the bread rise then punching it down is therapeutic. (Must be the punching part that is the most therapeutic.)

So here's a goal for this weekend, I am going to make the Bacon Buns! Yes, you heard it here first, I'm really going to! And I'll post the results. Stay tuned.

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by my Mom.

The rules are;

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3.People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight
things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 5
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random facts about me

1/ I've always wanted to be 5 feet 6 inches not 5 feet nothing!

2/ My comfort food is tomato rice soup with soda crackers and butter. And guess what, my girls like it too.

3/ My Mom's comfort food when I was growing up and which I never serve to my family(no offense Mom lol) was( and I think it still is) sausages cooked with stewed tomatoes.

4/ As a teenager I was a member of 4-H Homemaking clubs and loved them! I learned all kinds of home making skills from cooking to sewing and embroidery. I still make the potato cheese chowder recipe I got in 4-H.




5/ I still keep in touch( although not as much as I would like) with a friend( Hi Lori!) I met when I was 8 years old!

6/ I have an honours B.SC in Geology and my first job was for the "Rock" (Prudential of America).


7/ I love to try out new recipes(although I don't try them as often as I would like) and have a great collection of cookbooks.




8/ Both my daughter have blue eyes and I have brown.............

I am now tagging

Kathryn

Karen L

Nancy

Brenda

Holly

Tammie

Karen E

Brianne

To Market I go

Yesterday, after I dropped Brianne off at work at 7 am, I decided to go to our local market. Surprisingly(or maybe not), I was not the only person there although it was not yet packed.

The produce all looked wonderfully fresh and colourful. I got some fresh local asparagus that we had for dinner tonight. There were Ontario strawberries that always taste much better than the imported ones. I got a great deal on raspberries, 3 of the small containers for $5(I usually pay almost that for one in the grocery store!). There were lots of beautiful flowers and plants and I couldn't resist the cut peonies. And of course, one of my favourite bakeries has our favourite apple strudel! I can't wait to go again next Saturday!

Brianne At Work

Brianne is not going to be happy with me but here is a picture I took of her working yesterday. She got her first job at a Tim Hortons a couple of months ago. She is definitely liking the paycheque and the tips(yes she get tips)! And she tells me they are soon getting redesigned uniforms too!

Blooms in Our Garden

While my Mom is the true gardener in our family, we have a bit of luck with some perennial flowers.

David Austin Rose - I think this one is called Mary Rose



Lupins - One of Steve's favourites







Sweet William - another of Steve's favourites




Million Bells - not a perennial but I like the pic




Foxglove - one of my favourites!




Clematis





Iris - I think these are the siberian variety.

Blogs I've Found

Well, I should be cleaning, doing laundry and many of all the other things that need to be done around the house but instead I'm here, on the computer reading e-mail, gossip and blogs!

I've found some fun, creative blogs that you may want to check out.

Cream Puffs in Venice
Cherrys English Kitchen
Bella Pink Cafe

Let me know if you like them!

Two Scrapbook Divas Go To Buffalo!

This past weekend Kathryn and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention and took a lot of great classes, cropped Friday and Saturday nights, had some awesome martinis and shopped with our dollar at the best rate its been in years (There's even talk that it will be at par later this year!) We even went to our favourite gay bar for dinner to find that they no longer serve food!

Welcome to the Convention.



The shirt says it all!




At The Crop with Kathryn, Brenda and Pat!




Brenda won a Quick Kutz font!



One of my finished projects!




Awesome Martinis at The Chocolate Bar!

I had a chocolate martini and Kathryn had a creme brulee martini.


And let me say that my chocolate martini was almost better than .....you know......

Fun T-Shirt







Yummy Salads at The Chocolate Bar.




Too Many Martinis?



Buffalo Architecture

Like many downtown areas, Buffalo's is suffering but there is great architecture!










Why are the Buffalo Police riding horses?