Celebration Saturday Night ~

Table for two. I had the wine and Steve had the pink lemonade with rum.

Orange chicken.

California Sushi.

It's not easy to use these.

Bring your drinks on over for a little dip in the hot tub.

Yep....that's the bonfire.

Surf 'n Turf with of course grilled green onions.

Because on Friday we picked up my new car...........

Come on......get in.

2004 C240 4Matic Mercedes Benz

Do you want to go for a ride?

It's just been sitting in the garage all weekend.

Just waiting for me to take it out for a ride.

It looks like rain. Ok.....back into the garage.

Foodie Friday ~ Summer time on the grill

Foodie Friday is presented by Gollum at

"Designs by Gollum". Visit her site for more

fabulous recipes:)

Fresh Peaches sliced. Pam spray the pan.

Add brown sugar, cinnamon and butter.

Have you ever heard of a "Candy Onion"? A friend from work brought me this from a Farmers Market. Slice it, add some butter pads and put into a pam sprayed pan and add seasonings.

Here ya go......grilled onions, fresh peaches and sirloin burgers with cheddar cheese and jalapenos from my garden.

Just look at the peaches...........yum:)

Grilled "Candy" onions look great thanks to my husband Steve the cook.

Close up of the peaches:)

Close up of the "Candy" onions.

And the burgers, how good do they look:)

Sweet red peppers from the garden.

Stuff them with Philadelphia cream cheese with chives.

Put them into one of my (Baker Square) pie pan

Pam it, of course. And put tooth pick to hold down the top.

These were amazingly good!

This was my summertime meal.

Thank you Steve, you are a wonderful grill cook:)

Foodie Friday ~ Simple Sweet Scones

Foodie Friday is presented by Gollum at

"Designs by Gollum". Visit her site for more

fabulous recipes:)

Put flour, baking powder and salt into large bowl. Stir to mix well.

Add butter and cut in with pastry blender or fingers until the mixture looks like fine granules.

Add sugar, toss to mix. Add milk and stir with fork until soft dough forms.

Add Lavender.

Form dough into a ball.

Put onto lightly floured surface and give 10-12 kneads.

To make round scones,

roll out dough and

cut with 2: round cutter. Sprinkle with white sparkling sugar.

Bake 12 minutes or until medium brown on top. Put on wire rack, cover with cloth, cool completely.

I wrapped them individually.

Put them into a cloth lined basket.

Then added napkins, Lemon Curd (butter knife), Raspberry tea and tea pots.

Placed all into a larger basket and I headed off to work for an

8:00 am breakfast meeting. My co-workers loved it.

Here is the recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons or stick cold unsalted butter

1/4 cups sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons McCormick's Lavender

Sprinkle with Wilton White Sparkling Sugar

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

You would not believe the wonderful taste the Lavender gives these scones. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Hit a Deer......totalled my car

Friday, July 10th left my house for work. 10 minutes down the road I hit a deer. I was going Northbound. The deer flew up in the air and hit a truck going Southbound. The air bags both exploded and I didn't know what happened. Very dazed I was able to find my cell. I called 911......guess what, no one came. After the 911 call I called my husband at work. He had to travel through 7 towns to get to me. He arrived first and he made another 911 call. I couldn't get out of my car....the door was jammed. Within minutes the fire truck and ambulance arrived.

I was very lucky. My blood pressure was high and I was bruised up and my left arm was swollen, but nothing was broken. What a scary thing when the air bags exploded! I thought my car was on fire and it smelled really bad. I am very sad to have to say goodbye to my car:(
So you think that would be enough......no.......some kids out shooting fireworks last night and the church next to us went up in flames. It started on an evergreen bush and just kept going.
I just want everything to go back to normal around here.

Food Friday ~ Old Fashioned Lemonade

Foodie Friday is presented by Gollum at

"Designs by Gollum". Visit her site for more

fabulous recipes:)

"Lemonade" by author Fred Thompson. I bought this book in 2002 while visiting my sister in North Carolina on one of our many shopping trips. It has some really great recipes. Like the book says, "Homemade lemonade is comfort food".

I also bought his "Iced Tea" book.

SUGAR SYRUP

Grated zest of 2 lemons

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups water

LEMONADE

2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 12 lemons). 5 or 6 of the rinds reserved and roughly chopped

3 cups cold water

Lemon slices for garnish (optional)

and of course fresh mint out of the garden

1. To make the sugar syrup, combine the zest, sugar, and water in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes.
2. To make the lemonade, pour the sugar syrup into a 2-quart container. Let cool, then add the lemon juice, chopped lemon rinds, and cold water. Stir well to combine.
3. Chill until very cold. Serve over ice, garnished with lemon slices if desire.

Makes a little shy of 2 quarts

Tip: The lemon zest-infused sugar syrup is an elegant way to sweeten and add lemon flavor to iced tea. Set out a small pitcher the next time you serve iced tea.

Sit back and enjoy..............

Just picked

Well here it is......Freshly picked Roma Tomato just out of my garden. The first of many......I hope:)

Foodie Friday ~ Italian Chicken Soup

Foodie Friday is presented by Gollum at "Designs by Gollum". Visit her site for more fabulous recipes.

Get it all ready.
Put it all in the crock pot.
Just a squeeze of lemon and enjoy.

I took 6 days off work. Today is wash all the windows day. I knew I wouldn't feel much like cooking so I put this all in the crock pot before I started washing windows. The house smelled fabulous all day. It made me want to hurry and finish so we could eat dinner. I have something planned for each day. When I go back to work on Wednesday my house will be so clean. I am looking forward to the 4th of July fireworks. Can't wait. We have ours on the Manteno beach. It is so much fun:)

Italian Chicken Soup
4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast, frozen
4 cloves garlic, sliced
8 stalks green onions, sliced
2 whole heads celery, sliced
1/4 cups Acini di pepe (Italian pasta)
8 cups chicken broth
1 lemon, slice for squeezing
Put all in crock pot, except pasta and lemon. Heat on high for 8 hours. One hour before done take a fork and separate chicken. Add Acini di pepe. Cover and cook for remaining time. Place in serving bowls and squeeze with lemon.
~Enjoy~
Have a safe and happy 4th of July