This Week

I have a few projects I intend to do this week:

1) Make cherry jam - We went to pick tons of cherries last Sunday(7/12) and I am plannig to make some cherry jam. I've never made cherry jam before nor have I eaten cherry jam. So this should be interesting.

2) Make cherry liqueur - Yes, I want to try it. I made some raspberry liqueur last year and it was very tasty. So with the amount of cherries we picked and the 2 bottles of vodka(I'm not an alcoholic, please don't send me to A.A meetings, I bought 1 bottle for our party and our friend brought another bottle) that I had on top of my fridge, I am going to make cherry liqueur. If you are interested in making some liqueur, please check out this site.

3) Make triple-berry jam - I didn't make any strawberry jam this year but raspberries are in season. I will try to pick some from my neighbor's yard(that is if the weather cooperates) and then buy some blueberries and strawberries to make this.

I'm sure some of you have noticed that I haven't talk much about my garden. Well, there is really not much to talk about. It's not doing very well. I do not know what is the matter, I want to blame it on the wacky weather we've been getting but I couldn't because my neighbor's garden thrive. I have tested the soil and I have fertilized but seems like things are just not growing. Potatoes, corns, cabbages seem like the only ones that are growing. Bok choy and napa cabbage are just starting to grow(after more than 2 months being transplanted!). Cukes and zukes...I'm mad at them. They just don't seem to want to grow at all. The zukes are the same size now as they were when they were first transplanted but they are blooming. Weird. Tomatoes, I'm very dissapointed, not much going on there either. I'm not really giving up yet but at this point, I doubt that I wouldn't get much this year. :(

Golden Friday

Just some pictures from camp to share with you

June, at our campsite

Samantha fishing for rocks. There were so many of them, I couldn't get them all.


June's favorite spot

Samantha, posing for mommy

(can you tell I just had a swim?)

Double Rainbow!

Some pictures and a recipe

We had a Fourth of July party last Saturday and everyone had a blast(except for June, I'll show you why at the end of this post). We had lots of great food, drinks and we even had a live band! I had mentioned in my previous post that my neighbor has a band, so we had asked them if they would like to play at the party and they gladly agreed to play. They did a great job! Below are some pictures of the party set-up and the band. Please enjoy a short video clip of the band playing(sorry I didn't video-tape the entire song)

Picture below is our new grill/fire pit that hubby made 2 days before the party. We all enjoyed the food cooked on the grill and we had a wonderful time sitting by the fire after the party. After everyone left, both hubby and I along with his daughter & her boyfriend and my beighbors sat by the fire and chat until 3:00AM!!! Good times, good times.

Here's the cake I made, I have seen this cake in magazines before and I have been wanting to make it but we never had any Fourth of July party so I had no "excuse" to make it until now.

We also did some of this! I'll have to learn how to take better pictures of fireworks.

Remembered I said that everyone enjoyed the party except for June? Well my poor baby is terrified of loud noises and doesn't do well with crowd(that's why we very seldom throw parties at our house). With the music from the band and some fireworks, it was just too terrifying for her. I went upstairs and found her in the bathtub and she stayed there the whole night until everyone's gone. Samantha on the other hand kept whinning to go outside to be with the guests and when I let her out, she was so happy and she went to greet everyone(and I really mean everyone). But when Samantha was upstairs, she stayed in the bathroom with June to keep her company(how sweet).

We made lots of food for the party: hot dogs, hamburgers, Cajun chicken, Hot & Sweet sausages, Carolina Pulled Pork, macaroni salad, coleslaw, potato salad, baked ziti, baked beans, chips & salsa, Sun-dried tomato & Olive Tapenade, apple pies and Wave The Flag cake. I think I gain 10 pounds just written all that out. LOL!

I love the Sun-dried tomato & Olive Tapenade. It's very tasty and it's so easy to make. I realized that I have not posted any recipe for quite some time now and here's one I would like to share with you. Enjoy!

Sun-dried Tomato & Olive Tapenade

Ingredients:
8 pieces of sun-dried tomatoes, reserve the oil
2 cups each of black olive and green olives (you can use just one kind or both or use Kalamata olives)
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
3 cloves garlic
½ cup capers, optional
1 ½ teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese, optional
salt & pepper to taste *be careful with the salt as the olives are salty already

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a food processor. Add 4-5 tablespoons of oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Process until everything is coarsely chopped. Olive tapenade should be course with some chunks, not smooth and creamy. Serve with celery sticks or crackers.

Golden Friday

This was scheduled to post on Friday 7/3 but for some reason blogger did not post it. I've been having trouble with blogger not posting scheduled post.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

We (well, actually mom and dad are) are busy getting ready for the big pawty on Saturday.

They have got lots of food(which we intend to steal from their guests) and drinks.

This is our neighbor/friend, Jack. He is also a rescued dog. His daddy got him a few months ago after his previous dog crossed the bridge. Jewels was 13 or 14 years old.

Jack's dad has a band and they will be playing at the pawty! We hope Jack can come over too.

Hope everyone(human and doggies) have a safe and wonderful Independence Day!

Lost?

During our camping trip, we went for a hike on one of the many hiking trails at the campground. At the beginning of the trail(near our campsite, marked X on the map) there was a sign showing 4.7 miles to Rollin Pond(which is another campsite). There was also a sign indicating that Black Pond is also on that trail. We love to fish, so we thought maybe we should take a hike and check out Black Pond before bringing the canoe there.

Sunday morning, after having our Bacon, Sausage and Egg Bagels, we took the dogs and hit the trails. The dogs started out on the leash and then Samantha get to be off the leash because she would not go anywhere without us. June won't run off but if she were to see something she may go after it, so she stayed on the leash, but she was just as happy because there was so much for them to check out and sniff at.

Not far after we got started we reached Black Pond. It looks like a nice little pond but looks like it might be hard to launch a canoe there(have to step in muck). Here are the girls checking out the muck.We then continued on the trail and we got to another pond, Copperas Pond. We have been to this pond before but not by hiking. We canoed there last year. Upon leaving Copperas Pond, we saw a sign for Whey Pond, so we followed the trail and got the Whey Pond. This is a much nicer pond and it has a nice little beach area. The dogs immediately ran in the pond and took a swim. Here's them enjoying the cool water in Whey Pond.

After about 5 minutes rest, we decided to leave Whey Pond. But instead of heading back where we came from, we continued on the trail. Remember from the dogs' post last Friday that we thought we got lost? Well, we didn't but it sure felt like it. We were on the trail the whole time but the trail just seems to have no end and it looks like one of those less-travelled trails. We knew we were very deep in the woods because we could not hear anything at all. Finally we decided that it's better we turned back because the dogs were getting tired and we didn't know when this trail will end. Hubby actually apologized to the dogs. It was kinda funny hearing him said:"Daddy's sorry, girls. We won't do this again. Daddy will cook you girls some hamburgers for dinner tonight."(Now that's an aaawwww moment)

So needless to say, the girls were very tired and they slept for most of the day.

Golden Friday

Hi friends, we are back! It was such a wonderful camping trip. We had so much fun! The weather was great. Mom was worried that it might rain because she checked the weather forecast but it turned out to be very nice.

We left our house on Saturday morning at 8:30am and headed up north. Just about 3 hours later we arrived at the campground. Mom said we were very good girls because we slept most of the way there.

We swam in the lake, chased ducks, went hiking(and dad thought we got lost, tell you more about it later), swam in the lake some more, mom and dad did some fishing, sat by the fire, barked at other doggies....

So where are those camping pictures, you ask? Mom has been busy catching up with work so she hasn't have time to help us with uploading photos. So for now, we'll show you 2 pictures of the campsite we stayed at(mom took it from FishCreekPond.com).

Happy Anniversary!

We are still away at camp so this is a previously scheduled post.

Today is mom and dad's 7th wedding anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

We are going to give them big kisses. :)

Love,

Samantha & June