I’m still here!

Goodness, has it really been nearly a week since I posted? I wrote that last post last Wednesday, but it wouldn’t let me upload it so I got it posted on Thursday and I haven’t had a chance to get here again since then because we’ve had our wonderful friends Sue and Doug visiting us :-)

My sweet friend Sue is actually an online friend who I met many years ago (oh, about 8 or 9 years ago now I think – wow, has it really been that long?!) and many of you will know her too from her blog ‘Life is the Lemonade You Make’. We’ve had the opportunity to meet about 4 times now, twice while we lived in Maryland and they were on their way to visit family in NC, and twice now in TX when Doug has come to San Marcos to work.

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week I made the trip to the Outlets at San Marcos to meet Sue for a fun day of shopping. According to my pedometer that day we walked over 11,000 steps, over 5 miles and burned over 300 calories!

I didn’t spend like crazy, but got a couple of cute tops – here’s me trying one on in the store (my first purchase of the day). I also bought some earrings, sunglasses and another top (which I have no picture of yet!). 

Kim wanted me to blog about what I’d bought, so these pics are for you Kim ;-)

We spent our 4th with our neighbors but sadly didn’t see (or hear) any fireworks last night because of the drought we are in.

Here’s a few photos of the day. . . .

  We spent most of the morning in the kitchen! I made the trifle from Gina’s site, also some cupcakes, chocolate dipped strawberries, and potato salad.

Jason finally put our flag pole up so I could hang the flag he bought me at Christmas!!

 

(if you’re wondering what’s on my head, it’s a head band with fluffy red white and blue feathers!)

Sue will have a ton more great photos I’m sure, which she’ll post to her blog once she’s home.

We all went to the Oasis on Sunday night for dinner! I’ll share those pictures later this week.

4th July Ideas!

+++ I tried to publish this post yesterday morning before rushing out to meet Sue in San Marcos, but for some reason Blogger wouldn’t let me! It loaded fine this morning so here ya go!

We’re gearing up for our 4th July celebrations here. We’ll be celebrating with our fabulous ‘neighs’ next door as we have done every year since we moved here (4 yrs ago)! It is always a fun day and this year even more so . . .  my bestest bloggy friend Sue (and her wonderful hubby Doug) is coming to visit for the weekend from CANADA! They are actually in Austin right now (Doug is working all week) and I’m off to meet up with Sue today at the San Marcus Outlets – I can’t wait, and another whole post will be devoted to that outing I’m sure ;-)

But first, back to the prep for our party! I’ve been searching the web for some ideas and I’ve come up with quite a few. If you want some fun ideas read on . . . . (all pictures link back to the website I found them on)

I SO want to make this delicious looking trifle from Gina at Skinny Taste!

Check out the cute cupcakes from Mycakeschool.com I have that garland so I plan on making some little cakes and adding the stick and stars in them just like she shows!

Don’t these Daiquiris look amazing :-) and I love the white chocolate on the strawberries.

 

and I just have to make this martini – I’ve got the Blue Curacao from when I made the blue margarita, and  I already bought the Pop Rocks!

Both drinks can be found at the lovely Pink Martinis & Pearls!

Clicking on the pictures will take you to the specific posts about how to make all these wonderful fun things.

Ok, it’s time to head on out to the outlets. . . . Suzie, here I come!!!

Friday Fun!

I didn’t get a chance to do a post yesterday. I wanted to join in with Heather for Bookclub Friday and post a cocktail of the week – it didn’t happen.  I’m headed out in half an hour for a little shopping with my ‘Bestie’ :-) So I thought I’d try to do a quick post before I go.

( this was us at the Rodeo last night! more about that in the next post!)

Last weekend we didn’t try a cocktail (we’re both trying to watch our calories!) so I picked up a new bottle of wine to try. . . an organic Chardonnay.

Don’t you just love reading the labels of wine to see what kind of tastes you’re ‘supposed’ to experience when you drink it?!

This one was ‘filled’ with flavors of green apple, pear, citrus and hints of French and American oak! Could I taste all that? Of course not, but it was a nice glass of wine ;-)

This was us last weekend hanging out in Cheryl’s back yard (that’s not me sitting down, I’m taking the picture!) It’s still so hot during the day, but the evenings are warm and nice to sit out in, so long as you have your bug spray handy!

Not sure if we’re mixing up a cocktail tonight, but we did try one earlier this week (very low in calories) so I’ll share that one next time.

The boutiques are calling my name. . . . have a great Saturday!

Photo Fun Catch Up (again)

I’m quite a few days behind on the 30 Day Photo Fun, so I’m playing catch up with some ‘old’ photos. . .

Day 16 – Mason Jar/Jelly Jar.

Holding Pioneer Woman’s yummy Salsa recipe!

Day 17 - Bokeh

Confession, I had to google this word, I have no idea what Bokeh means… I do now, but I will have to try to get a picture for it later!

Day 18 - Eyes

 

They don’t come any cuter than this!

Day 19 - Summertime

A day at the beach back home in England!

Day 20 – Water

Inks Lake, Austin – when Kiki and Jason went camping!

Day 21 – Micro (up close)

   Plum!

Day 22 – Landscape

Does ‘backyard landscape’ count?

Day 23 – Black & White

One of my favorite pictures of Kiki :-)

Day 24 – Love (yay, I’m ahead of the game)

I used to set up little photo shoots at home when Kiki was younger, this was Valentine’s Day 2003

OK, that’s all for now. Have a great day, I’ll be back tomorrow with COCKTAIL of the WEEK  :-)

Fun in the Kitchen, and Garden Update!

Hi there, sorry I didn’t get on here yesterday and post pictures, it was one of those days that just seemed to fly by. One minute it was 10am and we were heading out to return books to the library, then get some groceries in, and the next minute I look at the clock and it was after 4pm!  But I’m here now with a lovely long post all about the garden and what we’ve been up to in the kitchen!

First off – is it or isn’t it?  RIPE that is! We picked this big watermelon the other day not knowing if it would be ripe or not. There’s really no way of telling, although Jason was surfing the net to see if he could find some information on it.  We decided the only way to tell was to pick one and cut in to it (we have about 5 other large ones out there so if it’s not ripe we’ll leave them for another week or so). . . .

Alas, it wasn’t quite ready :-( I did taste it and it was ok, but not very juicy or sweet yet.

 

Things were looking ok in the garden last week, despite the triple digits we’ve had every day for about 10 days now! We kept finding zucchini that we hadn’t seen before – when you don’t pick them at a ‘normal size’ they get HUGE like the two in the picture below. I also picked some small ‘fairytale’ eggplant. I wasn’t sure what I would do with them, but I roasted them last night with the squash and they were ok – not to Jason’s liking at all!

As you can see (above) we got more potatoes out of the ground, these were the last ones, so I made potato salad to take to Cheryl’s for her ‘Father’s Day’ BBQ on Saturday.

This was a big hit, I did a mustard and mayo dressing and even put in hard boiled eggs from Patty’s Chickens (Cheryl’s sister).  We’ll definitely be planting lots more taters in the fall ;-)

    We picked more corn too – I love this picture, the corn looks perfect and it tasted delicious, but most of them had been eaten at the top by worms (which actually look more like a green caterpillar).  We got about 6 big ears of corn that day and then Jason decided he’d pull the rest of the corn out, the ears left were quite small and a lot that we pulled hadn’t developed the kernels very well either.  Still, I’d call our corn growing a success this year too and we’ll be planting more for sure when the weather cools down.

Here’s Jason pulling out the first stalk!

So on Saturday (while I was making the potato salad, you can see the pan boiling there on the stove), Jason decided he wanted to cook something with his zucchini – zucchini corn fritters to be exact!  He looked for a recipe but in the end decided to just make his own. He used a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix and added shredded zucchini then fried them in the cast iron skillet (which he loves to use when he can).  The first few came out kinda like fritters because there was more oil in the pan. They were pretty tasty. The others he did afterwards were more like pancakes . . .

  So, we drizzled maple syrup on them, and they were even more tasty!

I tried making chocolate zucchini muffins but they weren’t good. Not very sweet at all (I won’t be using that recipe again!). I think I’d rather stick with zucchini bread. The recipe I have comes out great every time. I’m planning on making more today.

As for other garden news, things are starting to look a bit ‘sad’ out there, may be a combination of the heat and, well we seem to have ‘borers’ in the squash. You can click on the link HERE to see what they’re like. We’ve pulled a few squash plants out and thrown them away.

The grapes though have finally started turning color. Problem is they are filled with pips and hardly any flesh. I think actually my grapes are for making wine, not eating. Jason bought me a concord grape this year which is more to eat once it’s ripe. Hopefully we’ll get something off that next year. These ones now seem to be just feeding the birds! Still, nice to look at. I’d like a nice gazebo out the back filled with these, wouldn’t that look pretty!

     

The summer squash may be just about finished but we’re now starting to get spaghetti squash and butternut squash :-) I made my favorite butternut squash soup yesterday. . . I’ll be having it again for lunch today – LOVE it!

This is a bowl I made last year! I use the same Paula Deen recipe every time. It’s just squash, carrots and onions boiled in chicken broth then blended. Of course she adds butter and cream at the end which I never do. It really doesn’t need it, and I save 100’s calories! I’m guessing a cup of my soup is no more than 50 calories.

And finally, apples :-)  We had a ton of them last year and I made apple sauce which Kristen loved. They won’t be ready for a good few months, but they’re coming along nicely.

So, that’s it for today. Hope it wasn’t too long a post for you! I’ve got to get back to chores. . . . there’s nothing like a friend telling you she’s coming to visit to make you get up off your butt and clean house ;-)  Ha ha, MORE about that next time!!

Oh, and I’m a few days behind (again) on the 30 Day Photo Fun, so that will be coming next too!

Happy Father’s Day

I wasn’t going to post today, but I’m sitting here updating my ‘healthy blog’ so I thought I would make a quick post to say hi and wish you all a wonderful Father’s Day. I sure wish my sweet Daddy was here with us today.  I know we all miss him so much.

I don’t have that many photos of my dad on my computer because I wasn’t using a digital camera ‘way back then’! The only few I have I had to scan in.

I do however have lots of photos of this Daddy . . .

I’ve shown this picture before… my sweet hubby on his first Father’s Day with Kiki, just 7 months old :-) (2001)

 

Another Father’s Day (2003), we took a picnic out to the heli-field where Jason used to like to fly his helicopters.

We’re having a quiet Father’s Day today, doing what we love to do best, just hanging out at home. Kiki has been playing ‘World of Warcrafts’ with Daddy all day long, with a few games of chess in between. I’ve been enjoying a relaxing time on the sofa playing with the Ipad, reading blogs, playing ‘Words’ with friends and ‘Hanging with Friends’ (a hangman game on Ipad). I made brunch for us all this morning, and then a late lunch of enchiladas and my homemade refried beans. I can’t believe it’s already after 7pm now. The sun is still shining and it’s HOT as usual outside. We’ll probably pop out back after 8pm when it gets a little cooler.

I have lots from the garden to show you . . . I’ll be back tomorrow to share the photos.

Friday Fun, Cocktails & Books

Yay, it’s Friday :-)  Even when we’re off school and every day feels like the weekend, I still love Fridays! It means hubby will be home with us for two lovely days AND I get to hang out with my girlfriend too because she’s not working for two whole days ;-) And we usually try a new cocktail (or make up one of our favorites!

Last weekend I tried another of Val’s cocktails. The one she featured on her blog was a Lemon Drop Martini.

CHEERS!

Hmmm, I thought I would love it cos I love lemons, and anything ‘tart’, but both Cheryl and I agreed it wasn’t really to our liking. SO, I mixed up another ‘Ice Blue, which I really DO like (you can get the recipe here at Val’s Blog)

This week, I’m not sure if we’ll be trying a cocktail or just having wine. The trouble with cocktails is they can be very high in calories (and carbs) whereas a glass of wine is only about 100 cals.  Although I’m still tempted to mix up just one to try and then have a couple of glasses of wine the rest of the night – what would you do?  ;-)

Last night at book club our host greeted us with leis and served us a Mai Tai as we arrived! The book we had read was The Aloha Quilt so of course she was going with an Hawaiian theme.  The Mai Tai was DELICIOUS, so I’m wondering if I should make that tonight. Val says she has a great one to share this week, but it’s not up on her blog yet! I’ll have to check what the ingredients are for a Mai Tai and get what we need. Slowly but surely I’m stocking my ‘cocktail cabinet’ so I might not need much for it.

Speaking of books, I thought I would join in with the lovely Heather this week, over at Blonde . . . Undercover Blonde, for her

As I mentioned we just finished reading The Aloha Quilt for book club, but I’m not going to talk about that one, (honestly it wasn’t that good a read! imo) I’m going to talk about this one that I’m currently reading on my own (meaning it’s not a book club pick)

Who Is My Shelter by Neta Jackson – this is the 4th book in the ‘House of Hope’ Series. I first read Neta Jackson’s novels in her Yada Yada Prayer Group Series (loved those too) and some of the characters spill over in to this new series.

Here’s the description: Gabby Fairbanks is now settled in her new apartment at the House of Hope. But she is being pulled in several directions at once and has some hard decisions to make. Philip, her estranged husband, is in a lot of trouble with a rogue cop from whom he borrowed money and also with his partner at the commercial development firm after he takes company money to cover his gambling losses. Lee Boyer, the Legal Aid lawyer who has become a friend to Gabby, now wants to be more. Gabby must decide whether to give Philip another chance, as their sons, Paul and PJ, hope, and she turns to the folks at Manna House, where she works, and the Yada Yada Prayer Group to help her discern God’s plan for her.

I don’t know why I love these books so much, but I do! They’re an easy read, and you seem to get to know the characters really quickly. Some books take a few chapters to really get in to, but I find with this series (and the Yada Yada ones) I’m sucked in after just a few pages. I’m only half way through this one but am enjoying it as much as the other 3. I’ll be sad to come to the end of it as it seems to be the last in the series. But I was happy to read on Neta’s website that she’s working on a new series called ‘SouledOut Sister’s, again, using some of the characters from her previous books, and bringing in some new ‘annoying’ ones (as she puts it) too :-)

Ok, before this post gets waaaaaaay tooooooo loooooooong, I’ll jump off here and go clean house ready for the weekend!