July 5th

What a wonderful day! Went to church, farmer's market and bought a little box of rainier cherries to hold us through until we get a chance to go picking, hit the little used book store and made some nice finds (we will make this a usual stop after the market on Sundays from now on!) and came home to bake bread and finish straining the kefir for a cheese spread to take to the block party. What lovely neighbors we have! I am so pleased to have finally met them all, and we look forward to lots more neighborly activities in the future. Then, kids to bed, and mommy to apricot jam making! Daddy picked almost 3 kilos off our little tree in the backyard, which I halved, pitted, soaked, and am now stirring and skimming as they cook down. It smells quite delicious, I added a little cinnamon and chopped candied ginger, along with an obscene amount of sugar. Oh well. Also, I am listening to a bunch of old time radio mysteries from the 1940's and am completely enjoying my nostalgic evening in the kitchen. Will post pics later.

Happy Independance Day to ALL!

Today we had some lovely work friends over to our new home for a cookout, and if I do say so myself, some very tasty eats! Heather & Andy brought yummy potato salad with bacon, how could you go wrong there? And Sara and Alan brought cucumber salad w/honey vinaigrette and chopped peppers, also yum! I can believe I forgot to take picture of the food b/c I tried a new cake recipe from a Parisian bistro book and it cam out fantastically well. At least I got a picture of the aftermath... ;-)

The cake was a chocolate genoise (sponge) with chocolate mousse and ganache poured over it all. sigh. I was happy b/c it was made with 10 (ten!) free range eggs, 1 3/4 cups heavy cream and a lot of cocoa and bittersweet chocolate, as well as very little flour and sugar! Practically healthfood if you ask me... (J said "vitamin cake", though he wouldn't want to give the impression that it tasted healthy if you know what I mean.)

I also grilled some ribs that had been slowly braising in the oven since early this morning with a bit of (hangs head in shame) store bought bbq sauce, but it was from trader joes and was all natural so at least it wasn't packed with lead or msg or anything... harhar.

The kids were happy with the grassfed beef (we purchased half a cow a few weeks ago and it is very tasty in all it's dry aged goodness, in our garage freezer...). I made burgers with grated onion and heavy cream a la James Beard, or so I am told... I read somewhere that he recommended this for retaining moisture in leaner beef. In anycase, it is our new favorite burger technique!

Well, after devoting this holiday to food for my family and friends I am off to watch the fireworks, of which we have a spectcular view from our deck! Maybe a nice glass of wine and a tiny sliver of cake?