Instead of going to Mass today, we went last night before the fireworks since our church is in the area of all the festivities. Tom and Brian brought a change of clothing so they wouldn’t have to wear their dress clothes to the fireworks.
Before the fireworks started, we sat down by the shoreline while Brian ate his funnel cake and drank his smoothie.
Brian Eating Funnel Cake
Tom Keeping Brian's Napkin Handy
Then Brian wanted some fried ‘gator (alligator). Let me tell you, HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO EATS IT IN THIS FAMILY. I tried it once and didn’t quite acquire the taste for gator meat.
Gator on a Stick, Y'all
While Brian was eating his ‘gator, a cute Airedale came up to him and was quite interested in Brian’s food.
Can I Have Some?
The cloud in this picture looks like, to me, a nose. :lol:
There were many boats along the shore that docked to see the fireworks. The water you see is the St. Mary’s River/Atlantic Ocean. We live on the seacoast. I have always lived on the Atlantic seacoast.
We had a great time!
And, today we went down to Carrie’s. Her and her hubby had a cookout. They grilled pork and beef rib, and chicken. Carrie made an apple pie, potato salad, macaroni salad. We had corn on the cob, baked beans, watermelon, strawberries, cheese and crackers, and cream cheese with pepper jelly and crackers. Everything was delicious. They went all out for us. I had a fantastic time. I enjoyed myself because I didn’t have to do any cooking and hang around the kitchen. Carrie and her hubby did it all.
This morning, before we went down to Carrie’s, Tom did all the laundry here. When I awoke I could hear the washing a drying going. What a big help that was for me. I really appreciated that also.
I am so grateful for everything my family did for me this weekend.
To give this pie a unique flavor I added some orange extract. Of course, it is just as delicious without the orange extract. Buttermilk pie is like a custard/pudding.
Buttermilk Pie
Buttermilk Pie
Preheat oven: 450°F
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1½ cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon orange extract (optional)
Add all the ingredients to a medium mixing bowl and together until well mixed.
Pour into the unbaked pie shell and bake for 10 minutes at 450°F then drop the oven temperature to 325°F and continue to cook for 30-40 minutes longer or until lightly browned and the middle is set.
Cool for about 20-30 minutes (room temperature) on rack before cutting.
I have been busy being bored. :lol: Oh, yes. I am still doing household chores. However, I am doing them half-heartedly. It’s the same thing day innnnnnnnnnnnn and oooooooooooooooout. Half of the summer is gone for us already. Brian starts back to school August 5th.
Sunflower
To alleviate some boredom, I have been doing an on line search for some of my relatives whom I haven’t seen in years and years. To my surprise, I discovered that one of my cousins and my uncle, from my dad’s side, passed away. My cousin passed away three years ago and my uncle three months ago.
It look and sounds like we are going to have a thunder and lightning storm. Therefore, I am going to have to close down the computer and visit after this storm passes.
Years ago I gave Carrie my mother’s wedding picture. Last night while I was down Carrie’s I took a picture of the picture.
My Mother-October 10, 1953
She looks so happy and beautiful. When I look at this picture I see someone who had such hopes for the future. I only hope that she found some happiness for herself in her adult life. Her childhood was full of physical and mental abuse by her mother. She had a miserable childhood.
She passed away on May 10, 1984 from pancreatic cancer at the age of fifty-five. I am a few months shy of fifty-five. I guess that weighs heavy on my mind lately.
First the good news. Carrie’s ultra sound came back normal. She has to go back in six weeks to do another one. But, they did say that the baby was OK. She also found out that she is going to have a girl. I am so very happy. Thank you to those that prayed and for your concerns. I appreciate that very much.
It hasn’t been a very good day for the entertainment world. First the passing of Farrah Fawcett and not to long after Micheal Jackson.
Tomorrow Tom and Brian are going to the water park. I am staying home to potter around.
I hope all fathers had a wonderful Father’s Day. Tom got a new drill and some tools and a giant TV remote control. One can’t miss the buttons and numbers on that device.
We just had a severe thunder and lightning storm along with hail. We are still under the severe weather warning for a couple of hours more. Tom got the inner closet in our house ready just in case these storms generate tornadoes, we will be ready.
I sure hope we don’t have any more storms. It has been hot here and those temps. are perfect for an electrical storm.
What can one do with a bunch of vine ripened tomatoes from the garden, some extra virgin olive oil, a clove of garlic, basil, mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a narrow loaf of Italian/French bread?
Umm!
Bruschetta?
Actually Tom put it in my head when he showed me a picture in the King Arthur magazine of something similar to bruschetta.
OK! OK!
I get the hint.
Bruschetta
These delectable morsels hit the spot over a couple of ice colds.
Bruschetta
I was happy to see that my sunflowers are coming along.
Sunflowers
And, very happy to see that soon I will have a big beautiful flower to admire.
Sunflower (Bud?)
We are doing better since yesterday’s news. Thank you.
Lord God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen
My daughter Carrie is four months pregnant. I mentioned her pregnancy in one of my previous post. She had a Alpha-Feto Protein Assessment done last week. This morning she got a phone call from her doctor’s office informing her that the AFP test showed the levels were low.
AFP levels can be abnormally low which may indicate:
The pregnancy is inaccurately dated.
Trisomy-21 (Down syndrome).
Carrie will be thirty-five this Wednesday. As most of us know, a person of that age has a 1 in 400 chance of having a Down syndrome child.
Carrie is going to have another ultra sound this Thursday to determine if her child has Down Syndrome, etc. Maybe the gestation period is wrong and she isn’t as far along as her last ultra sound showed.
My cousin, Judy gave gave birth to a Down syndrome child when she was 18 years old. His name was Barry. That was 54 years ago. Judy passed away last year and not too long after her passing, her son, Barry left this world. I think he died from a broken heart. I can’t stress enough how wonderful Barry was. We knew as children that Barry was different but not so different. He was one of us. I don’t know if I am explaining it well enough. I do know that any child is a blessing. I do know that if Carrie’s child, my grandchild, has Down Syndrome that it won’t change the love we will all have for him/her.
Of course I pray that these tests are wrong and if they show that she is carrying a Down syndrome child I humbly ask that you pray for Carrie and our family asking the Lord to give us the fortitude that we may need. I pray that whatever we have to do, we will do with a happy heart.
I do not want to appear selfish. I just don’t want the child to have to endure all the complication that one has with Down syndrome. I don’t want him/her to suffer. I can’t stand to see a child suffer and that includes my daughter Carrie.
Dear Lord, during this trial,
I offer up to you my confusion
Give me clarity
I offer up to you my despair
Give me hope
I offer up to you my weakness
Give me strength
I offer up to you my pettiness
Give me generosity of spirit.
I offer up to you all my
Negative thoughts from Satan
So that when he asks ‘Where is Your God now?”
I may respond “Right here with me, giving me His grace
As a Heavenly beam of light penetrating your darkness!”
I was awoken early this morning by the crashing and flashing of thunder and lightning. It rained and stormed on and off all morning. Tomorrow the heat index here is going to be 110°.
I didn’t make the berry sorbet like I planned to do yesterday. I just wasn’t in the mood. Maybe tomorrow. I did bake oatmeal and butterscotch cookies today. That was after I cleaned the living room and kitchen and did three loads of laundry.
As you can tell by this post I don’t have anything interesting to write about. Therefore, I will do a poll.
We picked our first two vined ripened tomatoes on Sunday. They weren’t as big as they should have been but they were delicious. We were fortunate to have any tomatoes after all the rain we had. We still have quite a few ripening on the vines. They should be ready in a couple of day.
Homegrown Tomatoes
Tom and I were excited to see the fruits of our labor. It is hard to believe that two grown people could get so excited about tomatoes. I had forgotten how good a homegrown tomato tastes. The last time we had them was 22 years ago from my father’s garden. He grew the best beefsteak tomatoes every years. It is going to be hard to go back to buying tomatoes from a store.
Sigh!
But if God willing, we will always have next year to grow more. That will be something to look forward to. We are hoping to add more raised beds this years.
I picked four cups of blueberries this afternoon from our bush. Tomorrow I am planning to make a berry sorbet tomorrow using red raspberries and blueberries.
Brian surprised me yesterday with these weeds flowers that he picked yesterday from our front yard.
Flowers From Brian
What more could a person ask for than to have a child bring them flowers that they picked themselves. One of lifes beautiful moments.
I’d give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life’s decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.
~Lewis Carroll, “Solitude”
Lunch Time
We all had a wonderful few days together. At First the boys keep cool with the sprinkler and all I saw was dollar signs instead of water spiraling out of the those tiny holes from the sprinkler. So instead, I had Carrie bring Nicky’s pool down.
Splash!
Even in the pajamas, they are both happy to pose for a photo.
Armed with a box of “Pepperidge Farm” puff pastry, a can of cherry filling, some sliced almonds and some almond flavoring, I made a rustic looking cherry tart. I guess that is what it could be called.
Ready for the oven.
Puff Pastry Cherry Tart
I must still have pizza on the brain because I managed to make this dessert look like a pizza.
Cherry and Almond Tart
I added a teaspoon of almond extract to the cherry filling, I brushed egg white around the crust, sprinkled some sugar around the crust and then I added the almonds.
Next time I make this I will only use one sheet for the center and cut the other sheet into strips and use the strips to form a crust. Using two sheets on top of one another didn’t allow for the center to cook as well as it should have.
Just the same, the flavor of the almond extract and the cherries was delicious.
I made the pizza dough in the bread machine that Carrie bought for me. Instead of keeping in the machine for the hour and thirty minutes that it takes on the dough setting, I took it out of the machine after and hour and continued to let it rise in a bowl
Artichoke Heart Pizza
We each rolled out our own dough and added which ingredients we each wanted on our pizza. This is my pizza before it was baked. I love artichokes and onions on my pizza. I know it doesn’t look good, but it was delicious. I used a pizza stone to cook the pizza and a peel to put the pizza onto the stone. I put corn meal on the peel first. It make it easy to slid the pizza off of the peel and onto the hot stone.
The Beginning of a Calzone
Since I had more sauce leftover and some ricotta cheese, Tom suggested that I make calzoni today. After Mass I made another batch of pizza dough in my bread machine and got busy making calzone. Actually from start to finish, it took four hours to make.
Calzoni Before Baking
I made enough dough to make six calzoni. These are the first three.
Calzone
This one is Brian’s. I don’t put much ingredients into his as he has a tendency to be…Oh, how shall I say this? FUSSY!!!
Calzone
I precooked Tom’s and mine so that they could be heated up to eat later.
Dough With Honey Butter Spread & Cinnamon
But, after making five in a row. I gave up and made a roll-up with the last ball of dough. I spread honey butter on top and generously sprinkled it with cinnamon.
That is it for the sauce I made the other day. We got quite a few meals from that pot of sauce.
