Another Birthday Dinner in Our Garden

Vanessa's birthday (our daughter) was this week. We celebrated by dining "en plein air" again.
The weather co-operated fully, not too hot now. We're back into the 90's which feels much better.

We started off with an Italian raspberry cocktail - (combine 1/8 cup Campari, 3 tbsp simple raspberry syrup and 1 tbsp each lemon and orange juices. Top with 1/3 cup club soda and stir. Pour over ice. The syrup: in saucepan, stir together 3/4 cup each sugar and water, add 1 1/2 cups raspberries, bring to gentle simmer for 5 minutes, cool and strain.)

Meat course; Red-Hot Pork Loin.

It's not really spicy hot, but my family says it's delicious. And deceptively easy to make. I've been using Stubbs Spicy BBQ sauce; 3 jars does the trick, and just 2 lbs of bacon. I also use pork tenderloins and cut them into about 1 inch slices, not cubes. Seems to work well.

This is the recipe for our favorite corn and bean salad. I 6x it for last night, so we have some leftovers.

I tried a new salad this time because it sounded refreshing. It was a big hit.
Pineapple and cilantro pair well. (We didn't have much leftovers of this.)

And of course, dessert. We all loved this. Totally worth the effort. Rhubarb and blueberries, yum.

Since it was Vanessa's birthday and since she loves chocolate I had to include some.
This is my version of Turtle Torte. If you love chocolate, this is a good one.

And currently one of my favorite views in the garden.
We had to move the banana off the back porch, it was overgrowing its space.
I think it looks great on the deck.

My advice; put your summer to work for you - get out and enjoy it!

The Living is Easy?

It's been a busy couple of days. Last night my daughter Vanessa, her boyfriend Chris, and our son Casey came over for dinner. Kim and I decided to eat "en plein air." (Can you tell my French lessons continue?)

So we dragged the dining room table outside in the shade. Since the dinner was for Vanessa's birthday I made bruschetta (her favorite appetizer), Calabrese pork and fennel ragu with pasta, fruit salad, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert.





This morning after breakfast at Goldys we decided to ride our bikes to the Idaho Botanical Garden. The garden is about 4 miles from our house so it was a decent bike trip for us.

There is always something new to see at the Garden. This is the first time we've seen Amber Conger's metal sculptures. We were very impressed.






























There is some sculpture in the Garden I'm not fond of but I loved Amber's artwork.


Also at the Botanical Garden, wouldn't you have fun with this hollowed log? It's big but I'd find room somewhere for this.

























Cool plants...































































And what great use of a fountain - fill it with succulents.






















And what do you think? Would you put purple pillars in your garden?


I think I would.


















Back to our garden......

We have Monarda 'Pink Lace' blooming.







Florida Sieboldii is also looking great.
















Another clematis, Comtesse de Bouchard, is blooming in the Moongarden,





























along with our Heritage rose.











The Nicolas daylilies are blooming with lychnis coronaria. This photo shows just one Rose Campion, but you know, if you have one of these plants, you have ONE TON of these plants.





Kim harvested the first carrots from the cold frame, and they taste good! We're excited since this is the first time we've actually tried growing veggies in there. We've also harvested lots of lettuce and chard from the cold frame.



Also, our new kitten, Jessie, has been busy meeting the "girls." Here he is, nose to nose (nose to beak?) with Tootsie. (Jessie is hard to see, but he's in the lower right corner, just peaking out.)

So far, so good.



And finally, Tootsie looks like she's posing for the cover of Horticulture magazine.
(Don't think she'll make it, but she's giving it a good try.)





Summer has been great for us so far. How has yours been?

Happy......Birthday, Anniversary, and Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Kim's birthday. Our anniversary (18 years) was the 7th, and with Valentine's Day on the 14th we like to enjoy one really nice special dinner every year during this week.

This year we dined at Chandler's Restaurant where our son Casey works. He also joined us for dinner.

Here's the birthday boy enjoying his surf and turf (steak and lobster).



It's always an occasion to eat at Chandler's with Casey. Since he has worked there for years and is well liked we always get the best treatment.

Our server, Shawn, was wonderful.

The food was great; House-Cured Gravlox (House cured King Salmon with sliced cucumber and daikon sprouts. Garnished with toast points, mustard, and a citrus vinaigrette) and Oysters Rockefeller (Fresh oysters baked on the half shell with sautéed spinach, shallots, red bell peppers and Pernod topped with a light citrus hollandaise) for appetizers.
















My Hawaiian Ahi Tuna (Yellowfin tuna pan-seared rare, served sliced on wasabi mashed potatoes with a sake, soy, and ginger sauce with roasted garlic, shiitake mushrooms, and watercress salad) was too tasty to describe.


Casey suggested we also have the Sautéed Mushrooms and Mac 'n' Cheese side dishes. I would have been happy to have either one as my entree. So good.


I chose to drink the Patz & Hall, Sonoma Coast CA ’07 Pinot Noir. Just lovely.

And of course for dessert we went with the Chocolate Souffle (Double Belgium chocolate finished with chantilly cream and rich chocolate sauce).


















What a great evening; enjoying great food and wine with two wonderful men.





I feel very lucky.

Steak and Chickens

Yesterday was my daughter Vanessa's birthday. She and her boyfriend Chris came over to eat dinner with us. The meal was delicious even if I say so myself. We started off with caprese salad made with fresh basil from our garden.



Then we took Katie's advice and made Grilled Tri-Tip With Cuban Mojo Sauce.



Everyone agreed it tasted just as good as dining in a restaurant. (I had to take them at their word as I don't eat red meat.) We served it with a simple pasta on the side. For dessert I brought home a variety of sweet bars from the co-op. Vanessa declared them worth every penny and at $2.50 each that says a lot.

To top off the evening we had some unexpected visitors. They were too late for dinner as we'd all had our fill. But they invited themselves anyway.




Here they come; Tootsie leading the way as usual followed by Ginger and Jelly Bean.

Kim and I were as surprised as anyone by these party crashers. During their occasional free ranging in the backyard the chickens usually ignore us. Once in a while they will jump on my legs as I'm lounging around reading. But for the most part they enjoy doing their own things; scratching around, eating grass, taking little tidbits off of the occasional plant, etc.



I don't know what it is with these chickens; just curious? Is it possible they're lonely? Were they upset at not being invited to dinner?



Whatever it was, Vanessa was happy. She'd been wanting to pet them while they were free-ranging earlier in the back yard. Ginger eventually fell asleep in her arms.
































Chris commented on how soft they were.

Tootsie seemed to fall for him.





































They certainly added to the evenings entertainment.

We eventually put them to bed in their finished coop. (I'll post pics of it later.)

Goofy chickens.

Happy Birthday to Me

I was out shopping yesterday and since my Mom-in-law had sent me some money for my birthday I decided to buy myself this:



My first orchid. Yes, I'm taking the plunge and joining all you orchid lovers out there. Since it was only $15 at Fred Meyer I couldn't pass it up.

Here's my former entry into the world of orchids:



Did you guess? Yes, it's fake. But it always looked pretty decent. At least I thought so.

I found a website that offers plenty of info concerning orchids - Beautiful Orchids. Probably even just as useful will be my friend Carol who grows orchids. I can ask her all my stupid questions. I already realize I need a new pot with drainage (the one it's in doesn't have any) and some growing medium. (The roots are just wrapped up in plastic.) So, going back to the store soon.

Update: I bought the orchid bark planting mix and it is now sitting in a new pot with the proper mix (soaked first). Strange feeling to pot up a plant in bark.


My daughter Vanessa informed me that she's buying me a massage for my birthday. She's coming along for one of her own. We'll be getting them the day after we do the Robie Creek race. Great timing. Can't wait for that. Specifically she bought me a Hot Rock Massage - "Hot Rock Massage provides a deeply relaxing experience for the body, mind, and spirit. This massage concentrates on the lymph nodes and the fluid drainage. It penetrates your body and relaxes the muscles."
Well, that should be interesting.

22 years old

Today my son Casey turns 22 years old.
He started out so cute;




And to me he still is. Here he is with his latest "puppy", Bruno.



Sometime in the next week we'll be saying a quick goodbye to him. Casey has been called to fight fires in New Mexico. After he gets the official phone call he'll have an hour to report for duty.
Yeah, I'm nervous. But he's excited and has been looking forward to this job. So, I'll wish him well and look forward to hearing his stories when he gets back.

And Casey's first dog, Scarface, has his fifteen minutes of fame on Cute With Chris.

That's Right, It's my Birthday

Thanks for wishing me happy birthday, Kim. (He composed his first ever post yesterday - see previous post)

How old you ask? Let's just say I'm still in my early 50's and leave it at that, shall we?


I celebrated with hubbie Kim and daughter Vanessa. We shared some excellent wine, salmon fillet and pasta (cooked by hubbie), and chocolate cake (baked by me).
































With birthday money received in the mail I decided to order these;


I've always favored garnets. My wedding ring is a rhodolite garnet faceted by Kim;



Ahhh. Abandoned hobbies. Kim faceted stones years ago. I have at least two necklaces and some earrings he made. Here are some of his stones;





Among the materials are topaz, quartz, sunstone and cubic zirconia. They're gorgeous stones, but very time consuming and how many necklaces do I need? (Well, OK, maybe a few more.) He gave some away to family as gifts.

And for reference, here is an example of the shape of stones he starts with;






Speaking of abandoned hobbies. I used to make these from natural gem stones and seed beads:





Also too time consuming. But fun while it lasted.

What hobbies are you involved in? What hobbies have you abandoned?
Thinking of picking up any new ones?