Weekend Wrap Up

I'd imagine most of you are a bit like me when it comes to cleaning out the refrigerator.  Sometimes those clean up the kitchen meals have some rather odd combinations.  Well, that might just be an understatement in my case.  Last week, though, I got lucky.  All the pieces and parts fit together very nicely, thank you.  We were celebrating our seventh anniversary of our first date and talked about going out to dinner at the lovely restaurant where we first met.  Then, fiscal responsibility took over and we decided to stay home.  I'd lost my weekly menu and had no great ideas but did have a bunch of stuff in the fridge and out on the counter.  So, what did I have that needed to be used up?  Watermelon chunks from one of my staff, half a jar of mango slices, a peach, an avocado, the last handful of raspberries from our bushes, a handful of nicoise olives, Casa d'Angelo salad dressing, half a red bell pepper and three English muffins.  I'm sure you've already guessed fruit salad.  You were right!  I had a head of romaine lettuce that I could use to make more Casa d'Angelo salad.  And, the English muffins would make fine mini-pizzas.  It wound up being an absolutely wonderful meal.  The best part though was the split of Prosecco we had tucked in the back of the fridge.  That went over the raspberries in the beautiful glasses my sister-in-law, Pam and my brother, John gave me many years ago.  Pam is the BEST present chooser ever.  I have about 10% of her creativity when it comes to gifts.  So, here's to Pam - thank you again and I love you!  Here are a few photos of our fantastic meal:

On to the yard.  The daylilies are in magnificent bloom.  If you're a long-time reader, you know that I dug about 500 starts from my old yard to bring to this one.  And, I carefully separated the fire colors - orange and red - from the pastels - pink and purple - so I'd have the fire colors in the new back yard and the pastels in the front.  The guys did a lousy job of loading the trucks.  They got one from here and one from there and who cared.  Now, that's what my daylily beds look like.  Guess what?  I'ved grown to love the color chaos.  Kinda matches the rest of my life!  In addition to the daylilies, we now have some cannas - first year they've bloomed.  And, we have hopefully as many persimmons or more than last year.  Last but not least is the lace cap hydrangea.  I'd love to be able to grow the Penny Mac since it's named after Penny McHenry who was a wonderful friend of my mother's and started the Hydrangea Society.  But, since I don't live down south, I've got to stick with the northern varieties!

We made patriotic drinks for the 4th.  They were ummm, ewww.  Way too much Blue Curacao.  A few sips and down the drain they went.

Last, but not least, here's a glimpse of the family party.  The La Brea Tar Pit Chicken Wings were a huge hit at the family party.  I think everyone there requested the recipe.  And, quite frankly, I was ready for an encore by about Tuesday...

Here's part of the crew digging in:

The two kids - Brooke who's my niece's stepdaughter and Alyssa who is my sister-in-law's cousins daughter, provided much entertainment.  (Even though I couldn't get Alyssa to smile while she was in the pool, she did PLENTY of smiling later!)

Gabby did not appreciate John's new pool shooter.

But, John and my niece Samantha certainly had a bit of fun with the shooters.

And, who wouldn't laugh at the pair of Royal Highnies that brother Matthew sent brother John.  Not quite as good as the time I sewed the elder brother John's towels together at the bottom but still humorous.  I can't get the daggone thing to load up and down so here you go: