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! :)

Garden Fun, Peach Oven Pancake and Quiet Nights

Not too long ago, Alex and I had the habit of grazing all day on snacks and having a big dinner. We cut that out recently though in favour of having brunch and dinner without snacking. We haven't been able to figure out what we enjoy snacking on that isn't processed so we're pretty much giving that up altogether. This means I am getting lots of experience with my Breakfast Comforts cookbook! This morning I made a Peach and Almond Oven Pancake. It was SO DELICIOUS!!! The pancake itself is cooked in the oven and the peaches are cooked in a pan with brown sugar and butter. The pancake reminds me a bit of Yorkshire pudding, it's quite eggy and it was a new experience for us. I think the next one I'll make will be with pecans and strawberries. It looks small but it's quite big, 4 hardy slices, so we have some for tomorrow's brunch too.

I had some fun in my garden today. As you can see, "tomato land" was turning into a jungle. With two pots of garden peas, there were 12 containers in there. I took them out to prune, cage and separate, so they should do a bit better now.

Now they are in two separate areas. I put the Romas and peas next to the pumpkin patch, the regular tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are still in tomato land. I also put my lemon tree in tomato land, it's doing quite well with 4 big lemons that will hopefully turn yellow this season!

Speaking of the pumpkin patch...this is my experiment so I won't be upset if nothing happens. Having said that, I'm happy to report that the plants in the foreground are already flowering! Those are the ones I transplanted. The seeds I planted directly into the hills aren't doing so well. Only one of them grew (the little plant in the background). Funny huh? Everywhere I read and every video I watched said that pumpkins do not like being transplanted, yet they are thriving!

My "garbage bin" potatoes are thriving too. I added more earth to keep them growing well and plentiful. I'll add as much as I can as they grow, but the bins are nearly full at this point!

Despite the hot/cold weather this month, everything else is doing well. My second pot of lettuce is nearly ready to be picked and I planted 4 more pots. We realize that the Buttercrunch lettuce is our favourite crop, so I want to make sure we'll always have a good supply from now on. Every week I'll plant a new pot. I'm finding it very difficult making myself buy grocery store lettuce at this point!

My flowers are taking forever to grow though, they definitely need more sunny days like today. Our house guest Pavlov (running from Charlie) is having a ball. It's like he's on vacation up north! Why does Jack always look so sad in my photos? The other dogs are running around having fun and he's always focused on me and what I'm doing...aww, he's my little mama's boy lol...I can't even express how much these dogs mean to us!

Alex threw the ball into the little kiddie doggie pool and Jack sunk his face under to get it. I counted and he kept his face under there a good ten seconds! He's a water dog by ancestry, part pointer, part hound! :) At least that's what we think from looking at photos. He hates to get wet though, go figure.

These are my green beans, yellow beans and cukes...doing well also. I took advantage of the sunny morning to do my gardening and plant more herbs and lettuce. Now Alex and I are hibernating indoors because today is Quebec's national holiday and it's getting loud out there with tourists and bad french cover bands. There will be fireworks tonight so I'm preparing dog rescue remedy and some passionflower for Marlene. No offence to any francophones out there, but in all honesty, English people are the minority here and that's how we are typically treated. Montreal is more cultural but once you leave the cities, you're not too welcome if you speak English because it's associated with being Canadian - most Quebecers resent anything Canadian. Anyway...suffice to say we ARE NOT into the french thing so we prefer to just hang out indoors and watch movies this weekend.

But weeknights are still nice and quiet around here! Last night we treated ourselves to a cheese plate with some port and wine on the veranda. It was dark by the time we got around to dinner, and Alex had lit all the candles. It was so nice!

Here's a photo with the flash on. We found some really stinky Brie that is so delicious! And that heart-shaped cheese is a cheddar from England, so yummy! Alex and I try to be as frugal as possible since our dream is to purchase land and a home in a few years. But we also value the importance of enjoying each day. We don't go out much, we don't spend lots of money on clothes or vacations or "toys", so we treat ourselves to good food. It's important to keep your eye on the future, but to also enjoy each day as well, because we just never know what tomorrow will bring do we? :)

I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far, enjoying the garden and not working too hard!

Summer Solstice! My Porch Is Now Complete! :))

Necessity is the mother of invention isn't it? :) Alex found a way to fix the love seat so it fits on the porch! He had to take one of the arm rests off. Problem was, it was holding up the bottom so he built a wood box to sit under the side against the wall so that I'd be safe up there. The back wasn't the same size as the front...and of course, our porch floor is NOT level, so it took some work. But he did it! It's sturdy and oh so comfy!

And I can fit up there with TWO dogs!!! Alex has to wait his turn. :) Actually I can move the pillows around and use it as a day bed facing the yard with Jack at my feet while the big dogs are in the yard. We were so glad he found a solution without having to alter the love seat. We want to be able to use it with both arm rests in the future.

Of course, we had to celebrate the completion of the cozy porch with a cocktail! :) We had our own favourite Old Fashioned's on the new love seat with all the dogs around us. We'd love to let the cats out, but we know they'd scratch the screen to bits. The secret ingredient in these Old Fashioned's is "Rain's Simple Syrup". You might notice no link to that....it's a secret and I'll take it to the grave!!! ;)

As a thank you, I made Alex one of his favourite brunches, Ham and Swiss Cheese Quiche. What a treat for both of us! :) 

Happy Summer Solstice!!!  For me, this day is called Midsummer...midway between Spring planting and Fall harvest. It's also a day I'm celebrating the bounty of the first harvest of the season. I'm so grateful for my garden and the lovely food it's already given to me! :) Today's holiday is a fire festival celebrating the Sun, so if the rain stops, a camp fire will be on the agenda...if not, I'll be lighting candles and we'll be sitting out on the porch to enjoy the evening and Nature all around us. :)

Minor Injury

Thumbs Up! :) It's amazing how useful this little digit is...last week, I suffered a dog-related sprain to the tip of my thumb joint - imagine a bend that just shouldn't bend that way! Shudder! The Arnica gel is invaluable. Even though I'll be out of commission for 2-6 weeks, I'm learning how to make do without my left thumb - which surprisingly I USE A LOT!!! As my blogger friend Sam I Am says, onward and upwards! She's having some aches and pains too but her attitude is always so positive.

Last night I made my Chicken Saltimbocca with boiled potatoes. Everything is taking me a little longer with my gimpy thumb, but I'm giving myself a break. It's too easy to get frustrated! We discovered an amazing taste last night. The Saltimbocca calls for a white wine reduction to drizzle on top. We didn't reduce it completely but poured it over the taters...taste sensation! And this is the last of my first crop of Buttercrunch lettuce! My second pot is nearly ready to pick and the next sunny day I need to plant some more.

I got this in the mail yesterday. I have an ice cream maker that basically collects dust at the moment. Alex ordered it for me last week, comfort sweet food on the way! :) We love to buy used books online, we spend maybe up to $15 a month each surprising each other with a book. It's an inexpensive way to treat each other and most of the time, the books are like new.

On Sunday we found my cozy love seat for the porch! :) After assembling it we realized it was 2 inches too wide for the space, always an issue in this rental. I measured the width of the porch, but everything is built so crooked here that the end where I wanted to put this love seat is not the same measurement as anywhere else on the porch, grrr. Anyway, Alex is going to come up with a solution today to make it fit. We may have to take off one of the arms, but he has a good idea. I can't wait to lounge on it! :)

Our days are filled with enjoying our pets and our canine guest; taking care of the yard, cooking, eating, napping in the hammock and watching movies! With the occasional work time for Alex :) It's rainy but muggy. The black flies are nearly gone for the season (yay!) but the mosquitoes are out now. They're a bit easier to handle! I'll have a garden update by the weekend! :)

Dogs and Peepers

Plenty of room for everyone! The pack is doing so well. :) Here is a bird's eye view of the 3 big dogs snoozing from my (not so comfy) lounge chair on my little porch. I'm in the process of shopping for a better seating situation. I'm out here so much that I need a wee bit more comfort. I had a wonderful porch swing that we hung up, but after 9 summers of use, it broke last year. 

Mr. Jack likes to stay indoors on the couch under a blanket. He'll scratch at the door once in a while to check on things, but overall he's an indoor dog!

This little fella is a spring peeper. He (with his many buddies) is responsible for the lovely "peep peep peep" sound we hear every spring. It's such a wonderful sound, and I often fall asleep to it! He is a "chorus frog" and when you hear his chirp it signals (without fail!) the beginning of spring, but we hear them all the way until the crickets take over in July.

The garden is progressing, I'm seeing more and more growth and it makes me happy! The weather, frankly sucks. It's not very hot though I'm grateful for sunshine. This weekend calls for rain and highs in the mid-teens, oh well - on the bright side, it'll keep the weekenders away. I still have high hopes for July and August showing me summer weather!!

We're Crazy, But In A Good Way! :)

Well, before I get to the craziness, I wanted to show you guys some garden pride! We ate our first radishes and really liked them! They were a little peppery at the finish for our digestions so we probably won't plant them again, but we're so glad we tried them! :) We've been eating fresh lettuce and spinach salads almost daily now, I have to plant some more to keep up.

I also picked lilacs to make a lilac simple syrup so I can make the lilac lemonade. The time frame to get these nice and fresh isn't long! I'll let you know how it turned out, the syrup is in the fridge (hopefully) thickening.

I got the finishing touches done on my porch. Sheers on one side for privacy, those will stay there until winter. Also, I put up removable white curtains to shield me from the sun so I don't bake! I didn't want to cover everything up so I still had a view of the yard and the dogs.

The happy couple! :) Alex and I went for a walk while the car was at the mechanic. The alternator is replaced and the car is running like butter! :)  Our mechanic is wonderful and we trust him completely. He said he heard a little...."fart" (translating from his French!) in our muffler, so we'll have to get that looked at next oil change. He said it was nothing urgent and we trust him. There are trails everywhere around here and it was a nice walk by the river. We decided on some alone time before the craziness began!

You may note that there are FOUR dogs here...I'd LOVE to say we adopted another one, but we're just babysitting for a friend. He just moved back from overseas and asked if we could babysit his little border collie/mix Pavlov until he found an apartment. Looks like Pavlov will be with us for about a month or so. He's such a timid and affectionate sweetie pie, fits right in!

This is Alex giving out treats. Four dogs and three cats. I'm loving this! Pavlov fits perfectly into the pack and everyone is getting along swimmingly, no fights! :) We're fortunate to be able to stay home 24/7. Since Alex works from home, we can spend most of our time with the pets and they all have a pretty good life here. :)

After a long day, four sleepy pups on OUR bed. There's just enough room for us to squeeze in at the top of the bed, lol. For us, this is slightly crazy. We already have our plates full with 6 pets. Our friend actually has 2 dogs, but he found another babysitter for his other one. But we both would have loved to babysit both his dogs. We're not the types who make the pets stay down, they can be up on the beds, couches...wherever they want because they are our family...our vacuum is getting a good workout!

When our friend came over, we had dinner on the veranda. I made homemade coleslaw, burgers and chicken burgers and homemade hamburger buns, Joyce's recipe from Octoberfarm. They turned out amazing, thanks again Joyce! We toasted the buns and grilled the burgers...a little cheddar, Blue cheese, fresh picked lettuce and some tomatoes and it was a perfect summer dinner!

We really thought we'd be up all night babysitting and separating dogs from dogs and dogs from cats, but to our surprise, we've had no issues. So we were able to make some cocktails and spend some time in bed watching movies. Alex had ginger ale with limoncello and I had mango soda with some spiced rum. I caught myself thinking that another dog would be a great addition to our fur family lol...but Pavlov is taken!  We'll wait until we own our property before adopting more pets though!

Black Fly Bite Count: At least 25 now, with two on my right temple, sigh...so itchy...now the mosquitoes are out...eegad they are bad this year! I tried a baking soda paste and it actually took the itch away for a bit. Aloe is helping too. Coconut oil helps with healing but it doesn't take the itch away... I'm tempted to put on the hydrocortisone cream...it might be my last resort. I don't like using it too much but desperate times call for desperate measures!!!  :)

Upstairs Veranda

I've blogged about my porch a lot because it's my sanctuary and it's a source of pride for me! :) We are lucky in this rental, the master bedroom has a balcony off one side. It's not very big, but a few years back, Alex started to make it HIS sanctuary. He screened it in and put up his hammocks...made it into a kind of nautical decor too. This is one end of it. We actually got that hammock at a thrift shop for less than a dollar, it's priceless! We both can fit on it and in the summer, it's just wonderfully romantic with the candles lit and the frogs chirping! :)

This is the other side, we have a small bar outside too so we can have a drink if we want to. I don't know that we'll be this lucky with the place we buy in a few years, but the notion of us each having a screened in area of our own (and to share!) is something we want! To differentiate, we call mine the porch and his the veranda.

I think that it's nice that we each have our own space to enjoy the outdoors, bug-free. We love spending time together, but alone-time is very healthy too and we both appreciate it. It works. Today it's so hot out and Alex is up on his hammock reading a book and I'm here on my porch with the dogs catching up on blogs and recipes!

The only drawback to his veranda is that it's in the front of the house and it's a bit less private than my porch. So yesterday we put up some sheer curtains and it gives the area so much more privacy! He'd also built a fold-able table so we could have meals together up there. The spaces here aren't very big, but we're making the best of them! Last night for dinner we ate on the veranda. :) We made Brie and ham sandwiches on ciabatta bread with fries and herbal iced tea. During the week, it's quiet after 6pm in this village so we like to take advantage. It was so relaxing having dinner, listening to the birds and watching the sun set. No technology needed! :)

Our "candle" area really is a cat shelf!!! Oscar and Leo LOVE being on the veranda. As I took this photo, they were eyeing our sandwiches. Our cats are house cats, we are just too paranoid about the dangers outside for them, so they spend most of their summers out here enjoying the "outdoors inside"!

It's a hot summer day here in the Laurentian mountains and I'm happy as a clam! We will try to do a little fishing this evening if we're not too tired. We're going to have another Cobb salad tonight with fresh lettuce. I'm also going to pick some spinach. I think that the radish is ready, so we'll try that too. I'm LOVING my garden and the beautiful summer weather! I am sending out all sorts of positive happy energy to everyone reading this!!!

PS: Black fly bite count:  16 and ITCHY!!!!

PPS: The car's alternator is shot...sigh...when it financially rains, it pours...now only if it would reverse and money would rain down ON ME for a change!!! What can you do? That's what emergency funds are for!!! But do you ever feel like you just can't catch up?