Goodies In The Mail and Cherry Bounce!

Isn't this hummingbird beautiful? This is just part of a gift box I received from my sweet Blogger friend Joyce at Octoberfarm. When Joyce told me she was sending me a surprise, I was thrilled!

The hummingbird is part of a mirror chain, homemade by Joyce! My photo does not do this justice at all! Alex and I tried to find a spot to put it but we had nothing high enough where the curious dogs couldn't reach, so I folded the chain in half. It's almost taller than I am! This is just the temporary home until we can get up a little higher! The sun shines on the mirrors and makes pretty reflections all over the yard!

I also received a lovely cozy looking matchbox with an owl candle holder! Joyce said I worked hard on my porch and I deserved a gift. I never expected this!

My owl friend is now on my porch and in use! :)

And a bag of chocolates from Salem Massachusetts was a wonderful touch!! Thank you so much Joyce!!! This really made my day. :)

Another package in the mail was my cheese making supplies. Yup, I'm going to become a master cheese maker! (ahem...we'll see!) I bought a kit for Cheddar, and the fixins for Mozzarella - which I'll try making first. I'm really getting into the cheese making culture (no pun intended)...I'm already planning to make Brie, Camembert, Gouda and Blue Cheese...only thing is I need a better set up because these cheeses age for around a year or more and need to be in a humid and temperate environment. There are solutions if you don't have a "cheese cave" (I WILL have one next to my wine cave in my dream home!!)...I have to read up on that some more!

Cherries are very cheap this week...and this week only sigh. This happens every year. Sometime in late June or early July, the Washington sweet cherries arrive and are $1.99 a pound, then suddenly a week later, they are up to $3.99 a pound and so on! Alex and I bought a TON of them. He likes to experiment with cocktail cherries, so he's aging some in different spirits and we'll see how they taste next year. We also made Cherry Bounce which is a homemade cherry liqueur infused with whisky or brandy. We used whisky and in four months, we'll be tasting it! More cherry experiments to follow! :)

Jack is happily rolling around in the grass with his toy/prey "Mr. Curly"...I think we named the toy that when we were watching lots of Three Stooges lol...anyway, he demonstrates perfectly the joy we're all feeling today! The lovely gifts, the cherries and the sunny HOT weather that has finally arrived in the mountains!!!

Celebrations, Appetizers and Doggie Birthday! :)

I've mentioned before that Alex and I don't go out too much and when we celebrate holidays and events, it always revolves around delicious meals that we share together. For Canada Day, I decided to have a day of appetizers! For lunch, I made Mini Croque Monsieurs, mini pizzas (red and white!) and Mini Quiches. The quiches were ham and Cheddar; and tomato and Feta. The Croque Monsieurs are DIVINE. For the pizzas, I made my usual thin crust Basic Pan Pizza Dough, and after pre-cooking it for a minute or so, used a cookie cutter to form the circles. The topping is just pizza sauce, fresh Mozzarella, a little Parm and some basil.

It was pouring rain on Canada Day, so we stayed indoors. I don't know what we were thinking...but we decided to give all four dogs a bath. This is the aftermath! They even pulled down the shower curtain lol...sore backs prevailed. But now they all smell like oranges until they dirty themselves all up again!

We definitely deserved a cocktail after that! Alex made some cherry Old Fashioned's with Canadian Whisky. I bought a bag of fresh sweet cherries with the intention of doing some kind of drink, and he came up with this one. It was so good! I got the idea originally from this recipe: Bourbon Cherry Old Fashioned's. But we wanted to try Canadian whisky (Canada Day of course!) and Alex added different bitters and sweeteners...very tasty!

With our cocktails, we had more appetizers before dinner. I made Fried Stuffed Olives, the recipe called for "deep fried"...I fried them in a pan with butter, so they didn't get that full-on deep fry look, but they were delicious!

I stuffed each olive with Blue cheese. Wow is all I can say!

"Meat and potatoes" for dinner in the form of chicken bites (the ones I used in my Tomato and Bread Salad); and Roasted Baby Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Creme Fraiche. Alex made his secret rum barbecue sauce for dipping.

How could I resist a red and white dessert? :) The strawberries are fresh, sweet and local, so I made strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Doing a day of appetizers is a lot of work, but I really had a lot of fun in the kitchen. 

Yesterday morning I made a broccoli quiche for brunch. (It's the same recipe as my Asparagus and Cheddar Quiche, but with broccoli instead). 

This is another "keeper" recipe, it was delicious! Check out my pie lifter. I got it as an "add on" item when I made a purchase through Amazon last month. Add on simply means it's a real deal but you have to spend the minimum $35 for an order to get it so cheap. The idea of this pie lifter is that you bake it under the crust so that the first slice comes out perfectly. I haven't tried that yet, but it still works pretty well, though the handle could be longer.

We've started a new tradition for the pets. :) Yesterday it was 2 years since we adopted Charlie. Each year on their adoption dates, we're going to celebrate the pet's birthdays. :) We don't really know all of their ages, but it's fun! I made Charlie a Spoiled Dog Cake and decorated it with Pupperonis and liver treats, doesn't that sound delicious? :)

I had the other three dogs on leash while Alex gave the birthday girl her cake.

She DEVOURED it! We had to stop her about a quarter in because she was loving it too much! We shared the rest of the cake with the other dogs. Next birthdays are all three cats together in August.

Keeping with the canine theme so to speak, we had what we call "European Hot Dogs" for dinner. :) This is Alex's dish. He cooks Italian sausages, layers them on toasted buns with melted Swiss cheese, then tops them with caramelized onions and mushrooms, sliced olives and a homemade honey mustard sauce. Delicious!

I made my Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream too! It was SO chocolaty...my only comment would be to make sure to really strain the ice cream very well before putting it in the ice cream maker. There were "crumbs" of chocolate, which was okay, but if you want a very creamy ice cream, double strain to get the little chocolate bits out. I'm sure Alex and I have gained weight during the last few rainy days what with me keeping busy in the kitchen lol...but this morning, we're FINALLY getting some sunshine! I hope my garden starts to grow again, it's been stalling for the last few weeks because of the rainy weather.

Our cute little house guest Pavlov will be with us at least another week! :) His owner is having apartment trouble in Montreal, to that I say, no surprise. Montreal can have nice areas, but most apartments are crap and landlords don't care. When he saw the place it looked great. When the previous tenant moved out, there was water damage on the floor, holes in walls and mold. Poor guy, he has to get work done before he can enjoy his new home. I'm glad my city days and apartment days are over!

Goat Cheese and Breaded Shrimp Salad; Making Chocolate Ice Cream

We've pretty much given up the idea of sitting on our couch lately! We accept that they are pet couches now! Here are Jack and Charlie waiting for Alex to wake up. I woke up way too early again today, a gal can't live on 6 hours sleep - at least this gal can't! I'm so tired, I might need a nap before bedtime. ;)

Chocolate to the rescue!!! :) I try to use my time wisely in the mornings because it's just way too easy to find an inch on the pet couches and watch my British comedies...which is fun, but it makes me lazy first thing in the morning. I decided to start the Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream!!! I'll post the recipe if it works out!

I could dive right into these bowls and you can bet the spoons are licked clean lol...The left bowl is the soon-to-be ice cream. The right bowl is the fudge sauce. These go into the fridge all day and tonight I'll be making the ice cream. This is the third ice cream I'm making, I still have to post about the Country Peach Ice Cream too. 

Tomorrow is Canada Day. It's also Canada's 150th birthday! :) I made these little flags to decorate our dessert for tomorrow. I have a nice day of appetizers planned, a red and white dessert and a red cocktail!! :)  I love Canada, I'm so grateful to be living in this beautiful country! :)

Last night's dinner was AMAZING, if I do say so myself! :) I had a bunch of thises and thats in the fridge, so I put together a Goat Cheese and Breaded Shrimp Salad with Toasted Baguette. It was very easy to make and quick too! The baguette is to spread the warm goat cheese on; and those shrimp were so tender and delicious! I wanted to use my own lettuce, but we have a house guest coming and I want to save it for those Cobb salads I'm planning for that dinner. I added some of the garden peas to the little salad too and ME, the PEA-HATER, loved them! They tasted more like green beans to me, I'm pretty thrilled!

Wishing all of you Canadians out there a very Happy Canada Day!  And SUNSHINE.

Sipping and Nibbling

This is not what we're sipping and nibbling on! But the pets are. :) We had a wee little scare. Our "solid as a rock" cat Leo refused to eat yesterday. The dogs get into everything, they eat grass, dirt, sticks...Jack even fancies Kleenex - so when they lose their appetite, I never worry too much unless it lasts longer than a day. But the cats are indoors and there is very little they can snack on in the house, since it's very catified and dogified! Leo must have gotten into my vase of wildflowers, which I thought was up high enough...but we found some petals this morning with little cat teeth marks in them. All I could think of was that I poisoned our cat because I didn't keep these flowers far enough away - anxiety kept me sick all day yesterday. I spoke with our new vet (she's wonderful and even speaks to me in English!) and she gave us a lot of advice. She said wait 24 hours, then see if he'll eat his favourite food, and he did! Of course, if you give one pet some tuna, you must give all of them tuna!!

"My ball!!" Here's Leo back to normal...with Jack looking on while chewing his ear. My fear is based on ignorance and worry. I can figure out what to do when the dogs need home care, but I'm clueless about cats. Thankfully all turned out well! The wildflowers will either stay on the porch or up on the highest inaccessible shelf in the house!!!

So on to the nibblies....

Aaah, the joy of pizza. This has become one of our favourites: apricot jam, prosciutto and Blue cheese. We had leftover pita bread to use up so we made some little pizzas for dinner.

Another Rain and Alex favourite: Mozzarella, Old Cheddar and olives. 

For dessert/after dinner sipping, we made strawberry milkshakes - using the homemade ice cream!! Alex splashed a bit of brandy in each shake and the flavours were unbelievable! We had these on the porch, trying hard to ignore the whining dogs on the other side of the door!

Since I'm playing the waiting game with the rainy weather these days, I've been in the kitchen a lot more. This morning for brunch I made Huevos Rancheros with Refried Beans. Ooh yum!

This is my version without the yolks. You may note the itty bitty little amount of cilantro on each dish? My cilantro is NOT growing much this season. I'm sure it's the lack of hot days. At least we're getting a little bit though! Mexican food isn't Mexican food without cilantro (in my opinion!)!

Our sweet little house guest Pavlov will be leaving us in a few days, sigh. This makes me sad. He is the sweetest little dog and he's been clinging to me, even to the point where Jack walks between him and me lol...Our friend is coming some time over our long Canada Day weekend for a few days to visit and then Pavlov will be gone, we're really going to miss him! Sniff! :)

Strawberry Ice Cream! Cats & Dogs, More Quiche, Can You Identify My Flower???

I started to put my Ice Cream recipe book to good use yesterday! I made my first Strawberry Ice Cream. Strawberries are local and freshly picked for the next few weeks, so I'm loading up because they are so sweet! The imported/frozen variety I'm stuck with all winter does not compare so I may invest a lot of money to freeze these sweet ones for the winter.

The recipe calls for 2 cups of strawberries all mashed and chopped up. Cream, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla are the only other ingredients.

I bought myself a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker about ten years ago on a whim. I used it a few times to make sorbet but this is my first real attempt at ice cream and the results were so amazing! I'm sure there are ways to make ice cream without the Ice Cream Maker, but I think Google would know more about that than I would!

The ice cream was super delicious! It was ready in time for dessert last night. The only thing is that the berries were so frozen that it actually made our teeth sore to chew them! Next time I'll use the juice and discard the solid part of the berry for something else. I'll add some fresh strawberries at the end.

I was so pleased by the results that I already started the Country Peach Ice Cream recipe! This one is a little different. You make a custard first, then let it sit in the fridge 24 hours and put it all together. But I'll blog about that one next time! The peaches come from the States so unfortunately for export, they pick them before they're really ripe so they'll last longer during shipping. This makes the fruit not very sweet to begin with; and with no way to really ripen them properly, so I don't know that this one will turn out with a nice peachy flavour. I wish I could get more local peaches. The Ontario ones come in July if I remember right, so I'll just be patient!

Now all I need is another expensive gadget:

These waffle cone makers are neat, that's for sure! But I'm not quite willing to spend $60 right now for a "toy" that can only do one thing!!! Maybe "Santa" will bring this to me because HE LOVES waffle cones so much! 

Cats and Dogs...The three big dogs are always out in the yard, but the cats and Jack stay inside most of the time. I don't know what is up with Jack, he just doesn't like to be outside, even in nice weather! The little ones stay inside.

Oscar and Leo on my painting table

Dana and Jack sharing the quickly disappearing sun beam

Mmm...mmm.mmm...Asparagus and Old Cheddar Quiche...need I say more?

I got spoiled with another bouquet of wildflowers yesterday! :) We've identified all but one flower. So I need help from my Blogger friends please.

Look at these beauties! This is a good example as to why I adore Nature. I have never seen such a lovely design before. Alex found these growing under one of the cedar trees. One patch of them. I did so many searches for various "colour" flowers with "x" petals and dots, spots....just cannot identify them. You can always click on the pictures for a bigger view. Any ideas?

Peas! Tomato and Bread Salad with Chicken Bites

I was so focused on pruning and caging my tomato jungle the other day that I completely missed the fact that I have peas! I pulled the two containers of garden peas out of tomato land to cage them better and only noticed after that there were pods (top right of the plant)...I don't even know if they are ready to be picked yet, I have to look into that. I planted these indoors at the end of April, so I guess the timing is right! Another first time crop for me! :) Alex loves these, I'm not too big on them, but he'll eat them right out of the pod, I wonder how many I'll get?

Alex always picks me wildflowers. He knows it makes me giggly happy, I find it very romantic. Here is a sampling of the flowers we have growing all over the property. The flowers I planted at the beginning of the month are just now starting to push out of the earth so it's nice that someone took the time previously to plant all of these beautifully colourful flowers. It's still raining and thundering out tonight, which is okay because it's the weekend and as my friends know, I love it when it rains on the weekend because it keeps the loud people away! :) 

The fireworks drove our husky Marlene into panic last night...I do worry about her heart rate, it's nerve-racking to see her so physically shaken. I'm ordering the Thundershirt for her tonight, the reviews are good, some of my Blogger friends have had good results...and if I buy through Amazon, I can return it if it's not effective. Win win. I can't bear to see her suffer and thunderstorm season has just begun...I know what panic feels like personally and the thought of anyone or any pet that I love dearly going through that just breaks my heart. To our surprise, Oscar the rescue cat showed us last night that he is also terrified of fireworks! He ran under the bed and wouldn't come out until after midnight...at least thunder doesn't bother him so it's only once a year that he has to go through this...how do we comfort these poor little creatures?

Anyway, we can only do our best right? :)

Last night I made my version of a Tomato and Bread Salad with Chicken Bites. It is very similar to the recipe in my Salad cookbook, but I changed and added stuff. It was really delicious and despite the fried chicken bites and bacon, it was a light meal!

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm so I'm hoping to spend most of the day on my cozy porch either reading or painting a watercolour...which I haven't done in ages! Hope everyone has a good week ahead! :)