Corn Salad

Last Sunday when dad was busy baking up a storm.  We needed something to go with our dinner.  Dad had requested  "burgers and dogs".   It was going to be a warm day and I needed salads that I could make quick. I would not be granted lots of time or space in the kitchen .....the kitchen on Sunday belongs to dad.

  I chose Sugar snap Pea, Corn, and Bacon Salad and Green Bean & Smoked Mozzarella Salad.  I got these recipes from the do-ahead-Diva.  Everyone liked both of them so I will share them with you.

Sugar Snap Pea, Corn, and Bacon Salad.
Salad
1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick ) butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 pounds sugar snap peas
4 cups fresh or defrosted frozen corn kernels
Sweet Mustard Vinaigrette
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

12 strips bacon, cooked until crisp, drained on paper towels, and crumbled
1/4 cup snipped fresh chives

To make the salad, in a large skillet over med heat, melt the butter.  Cook the onion, stirring until it begins to caramelize, 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the peas and cook for another 2 minutes, tossing the peas in the butter-onion mixture.  Transfer the mixture to large salad bowl and let the peas cool.

Add the corn to the bowl and stir to blend.

To make the vinaigrette, in a medium size bowl, whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients until thickened.  Pour over the salad and toss to blend well.
At this point you can cover for 4 hours or overnight
Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving and toss with the bacon chives.

Green Bean and Smoked Mozzarella Salad

Rosemary Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 1/2 cups olive oil

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salad

2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly gound black pepper

6 scallions chopped

1 1/2 cups smoked mozzarella cheese cut into matchsticks

1 cup pine nuts, toasted ( I omitted these)

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Whisk together the vinaigrette

This step you can do up to 5 days ahead.  Bring to room temperature before using.

To begin the salad, cook the green beans in boiling water until crisp-tender, about 7 to 10 minutes.  Drain and cool.

In a large salad bowl, combine the beans, salt, pepper, scallions, and cheese, tossing together until blended.

When ready to serve, pour dressing over the beans and toss to coat.  Add half the pine nuts and toss again.  Serve garnished with the remaining pine nuts and the parsley.

I don't have a picture of this salad but it was really good!!!!!

Enjoy

Summer Mantel

I found Layla  online who likes to change her mantel to fit the seasons just like me. 
Here is what her mantel looks like for the summer.

This reminds me of  Susan's beach look in  her home.  Cassie what do you think of the flag?

You can see how she did it at her blog http://www.theletteredcottage.net/.

I love it.

Herb garden

When Sarah came home from her mission she bought fresh basil that you can plant.  She said that the smell of basil reminded her of Italy because some of the kitchens she visited would smell of basil.  That gave me an idea...("light bulb" to quote "despicable me")  I decided to do an herb garden project. 

I bought some small pots at Lowes and black spray paint.

(Joey sprayed the space ship he built with the paint. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of "Apollo 2".)

I decided to put them by the kitchen sink so they can get the great afternoon sun and I will remember to water them.

I am growing basil, rosemary and sage.  I would like to change the sage for thyme and would like to grow chives in the little empty pot there.

This is a close up of the rosemary and basil.

They are still alive and thriving and I have gathered leaves from these plants on more the one occasion.  The herbs added great flavor to our food.  I am really liking my little herb garden.

Stairs

This would be a fun remodel

This picture was at www.calfinder.com/blog/general-remodel/5-wacky-home-improvements/

I think it looks like fun.

Blueberries

Dad got up early on Sunday morning and started baking like crazy.  He started with some of the most delicious blueberry muffins than made us oven pancakes with blueberries.  YUM!

He got the recipe from www.allrecipes.com

TO DIE FOR BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 cup blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder.  Place Vegetable oil into a 1cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup.  Mix this with flour mixture.  Fold in blueberries.  Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To make crumb topping  mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon.   Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven or until done.

Eat----Enjoy

Here is one of the oven pancakes

I'll post the rest of what he made later.

Bears

Another weekend, another hike and another bear sighting.

Here is the trail right before we saw the first bear. 

This time we heard lots of rustling in the trees and than there was a bear.  He was small so we thought that he was the cub....but than a little bear wandered on to the trail.  The little cub wasn't at all concerned with us.

This time the bears were between us and the end of the trail.  As the medium bear kept checking us out we thought ..OK we'll just wait here patiently.  They finally moved on so Joey and I continued on very slowly until we were past the spot.

I guess we are "Bear Whispers".  If you want to see a bear come and hike with us.

Red, White and Blue

Here is my take on seasonal decor.  I really like the way the red, white and blue of the flag I painted looks in the living room.  I filled the vases with the shells the kids collected from piano lessons.  Happy Summer!

More summer red, white and blue pictures

We love these summer colors.

Red, White, and Blue

Smoke alarm

We woke up to the smoke alarm going off Sunday morning.  Dad had a pineapple upside down cake in the oven.  The unfortunate thing is that we didn't have the right size cake pan to accommodate seven nice pineapple rings on the top.  He opted to use a spring form pan.  We now know that the brown sugar will leak out the bottom of the spring form pan and burn on the bottom of the stove.  The smoke detector was going off and the dilemma was that the cake still had 25 minutes to go.  We just opened all the doors and windows and kept it bake'n.  It was worth it.

This recipe comes from the two Brass sisters.  They write heritage recipes and even though we lost most of the brown sugar the cake was delicious.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

7 slices/rings of canned pineapple from 20oz can, and 5 Tablespoons reserved juice

1 cup cake flour (  not self rising )

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, separated

1 cup white granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.   Rack should be in middle position.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a 9 inch cake pan, swirl butter to coat the bottom and sides of pan.  (Do it over the sink in case of drips ) Most will settle to the bottom.

Sprinkle brown sugar over the bottom of the pan.

Using paper towel pat pineapple slices dry on both sides and arrange in a decorative pattern on the bottom of the pan.

In a large bowl stir egg yolks just to break them up and add sugar, vanilla and 5 Tablespoons of reserved pineapple juice.  Mix well and stir in flour mixture until combined.  Set aside.  Place egg whites in bowl of electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment and beat until just stiff but not dry.

Fold egg whites into the batter already in the large bowl until fully combined.

Pour batter into cake pan.

Bake 45-55 minutes until tester inserted into middle comes out clean.

Coll pan on rack 2-3 minutes then invert onto another cooling rack.  It will still be quite warm and very moist.  Scrape any remaining bits of sugar or fruit from pan onto top of cake.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 8    Yummy!!

A great Strawberry dessert

Dad and Sarah made us this yummy strawberry country cake

They used Ina Gartens recipe.  Don't you think that strawberry shortcake just says summer?

Here is her recipe:

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks at room temp.)

2 cups sugar

4 extra-large eggs at room temp

3/4 cup sour cream at room temp

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon soda

for the filling for each cake

1 cup heavy whipping cream (1/2 pint), chilled

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

Cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric  mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  On medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream, zests, and vanilla, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Mix well. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda.  On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine just until smooth.

Pour the batter evenly into the pans, smooth the tops with a spatula, and bake in the center of the oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until a tooth pick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then remove to wire racks and let cool to room temperature.

To make filling for one cake, whip the cream by hand or in a mixer until firm; add the sugar and vanilla.  Slice one of the cakes in half with a long, sharp knife.  Place the bottom slice of the cake on a serving platter, spread with half of the whipped cream, and scatter with sliced strawberries.  Cover with the top slice of cake and spread with the remaining cream.  Decorate with strawberries.

Enjoy

Welcome home Sarah!!!

We welcomed home Sarah in May.

She served in the Rome, Italy mission.  She had a wonderful mission. 

We missed her so much and are so glad she is home!

Inspiration

There are so many inspiring decorating ideas in this remodel.  I'm told the most important thing you can do to a room is add lighting. 

You can see the before and after at http://www.cotedetexas.blogspot.com/.

They ripped out the carpets to expose the hard wood floors and painted them in quilt patterns.

I love the map hanging on a garage door rail which hides the flat screen tv.

Who would of thought to put the covers of books and the wall and the inside of the books in the faux fireplace?

I love the wide wood white shutters and the adding of the track lighting and the walls papered in Texas land deed documents from the 1890's.

Records highs and lows

Last week we set a record here in the northwest for the hottest day of July and today we may set a record of the coldest day in July, brrrrrr.

On to warmer thoughts....more Florida pictures....

This downpour only lasted about 15 minutes.  It was weird to see everything at Disney world come to a complete stop.  Later that day it was sunny and warm.

Bill and Matthew (were "discovered") volunteered to be filmed in a movie scene.

.... being "goofy"

We saw some great shows

It was magical!!!

Summer is here!!!!

It is so wonderfully warm today in the pacific northwest.  Here are some pictures of how our summer began with a trip to Florida to see Matthew and Susan.










The beaches were beautiful!!

We soaked up lots of sun but no one got burned.

We got to go to Disney World.

Susan was right we do want to move there.  Especially when we went to Key West.

We also saw alligators.

Blessed on the Fourth of July

We had another great time in Idaho for the 4th of July.

We met our new Grand baby Calvin.

We swam and played everyday we were there.

David's softball team took 2nd in the city league.

Happy Fourth of July!!