We’re at the height of summer food enjoyment this weekend.   For two of these I can thank Susie – she pointed them out over on her blog.

The first one I made this week- Stained Glass Jell-o.

It was marvelous and easy.  Try it here.

Then last night I tried another of Susie’s suggestions : Slow Roasted Tomatoes.  Or, as Maddie and I prefer to call them, Slomatoes.

Holy.  Good. Lord.

They were so incredible I died.  The End.

I put them over some penne with fresh pesto and it was heavenly.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul went out and bought some tomatoes in bulk for this.  I didn’t get any pictures because I needed to eat them.  Maybe next time!

Next up, deviled eggs.

I like to mix my hard – boiled yolks with fresh mayonnaise (yes, I make my own mayo), a little bit of dijon mustard, some poultry seasoning, a splash of sugar, a splash of salt, and a generous bit of dried dill.  Emily likes it when I sprinkle the finished eggs with a little paprika.  Then you can serve these with some lovely pan – fried chicken.

I mostly followed the recipe in the Pioneer Woman Cookbook, but instead of frying them in oil, I fried them in melted butter-flavored crisco in a cast iron skillet before the whole oven finishing. Divine!!!!! Completely fat – free and fiber – full and healthy!!!!

Not.

Oh well.

And since we”re on the subject of totally healthy, you can finish off your meal with my easy Ambrosia Salad.

I can’t guarantee you’ll win any gourmet cooking contests with this, but the kids love it.

Just mix up some canned or fresh crushed pineapple, some mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, sweetened flake coconut, mini marshmallows, cubed apples, and vanilla Greek yogurt.  The quantities all depend on your preferences.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go figure out why my butt’s gotten so big.

Happy weekend!

We literally took 1500 pictures this weekend.  It took me quite a long time to go through them all, and then it was tough to pare down to what was getting posted here.  There still ended up being too many for one post, so I’m breaking it into two.  I’ve also been felled by some sort of stomach bug so it’s been slow going today.

We had plenty of family around and with the pool finally complete there was no excuse to not have fun.  There were watermelon margaritas (incredible!), grilled foods of all kinds, raw clams and Tres Leches cake.  The best part is that the kids have been outside all day and they fall asleep easily at night.  All that sun and fun tends to wear you out!

This is also the first summer since we’ve lived in this house (about 5 years now) that we’ve actually been able to make good use of the deck.  It’s always been so hot we don’t want to be anywhere near the outside world.  This year, however, it doesn’t seem too bad out there (this would be thanks to the pool) , and we happily have been dining al fresco every evening and sitting around the fire pit late into the night.

The girls and I celebrated the summer solstice by trekking out to a nearby mountaintop to pick peaches in the insanely hot sun. How else do you celebrate the first official day of summer than with summer’s quintessential fruit?  I tell you that was the fastest 30 lbs of fruit we’ve ever picked.  We just wanted to get back into some A/C!!!

Even after much snacking, we were left with this:

So we made these:

Grilled peaches with fresh basil to top some grilled chicken.

Pocket – sized peach pies.

And peach cobbler.  There are still pleeeenty of peaches left.

After dinner al fresco we made a fire to roast marshmallows and play word games.

I hope the longest day of the year found you all enjoying the sun with your loved ones.

The other night at book club my friend Diana made these.  They were devoured in 2.4 seconds.  Okay, I exaggerate.  But not by much!  She explained how easy they were to make and I had to try it myself.  All you need are dried, pitted dates and bacon.  Wrap the dates with the bacon, stick them in the oven at 350 and bake for 30 – 40 minutes depending on desired amount of bacon crispness.

It’s the perfect balance of salty and sweet.  Plus, it’s bacon.  Paul agreed we could probably wrap his shoe in bacon and it would be delicious.

Emily left today for a camping trip with the Girl Scouts.  She’s going to have a blast, and I am thinking about teaching Neve how to crochet while she’s gone.  I’ll have to find Oona a fun project as well.  Maybe she can learn how to do laundry.

Maddie, Emily and I went on a short little jaunt up north this week.  I’ve been itching to get back “home” for awhile and thought the older girls would have fun seeing a bit of where our family used to live.  It was a lovely break from the usual and it went way too fast.

We stayed at a hotel in Saratoga Springs right downtown.  It was perfect.  The best part of the whole trip?  Getting to see my dear friend Shireen.

We went to high school together, and we live waaaay too far away from each other now.  Otherwise I can guarantee you we’d be inseparable.

We had really wanted to go on the Minne Ha Ha but they are apparently still only running it on the weekends.  That was a pretty big let down, but we still enjoyed the lake and the fort.

I miss getting to see this on a regular basis.  I also miss how wonderfully not – humid it was there the whole time, even right before a big rain.

Can you smell the balsam?  I am not kidding.  Standing there the air was thick with its scent.  This is along the west side of Lake George, just north of Bolton Landing.

Elephant rock!!!!  Also on the west side of Lake George, outside the town of Hague.

On the way to Ticonderoga.  We were going to tour that fort as well but it was late in the afternoon by the time we got there so we opted not to.

However we DID opt to pack quite a bit of goodies to bring home with us.  If you’re ever in Saratoga you must check out Mrs. London’s.  It is a European pastry shop with to die for food.

I won’t even tell you how much I spent there.  Let’s just say it wasn’t cheap.  But so very worth it!  The attention to detail in these lovelies must be seen to be believed.

It was tough leaving my animals and my little girls.  Neve told me on the phone every night that she wanted to be with me.  I just didn’t think she would enjoy the 12 hours in the car or the historic tours or the sightseeing.  I brought her back an Invader Zim tee shirt and that seems to have made it all better, just as the pastries bought me at least 6 months worth of gratefulness from my husband!

I’ve also been playing with Picnik – it’s a photo-shop style website for improving and playing with your pictures.  Bear with me as I get used to it and its features!