Father's Day

It was a pretty busy day here at our house.  We started the day by going strawberry picking.  We ended up picking just over 10 lbs of strawberries! 

What do you do with that many strawberries? 

Make jam of course! 

17 cups of jam later...(much to Nick's relief we did save lots for dessert).  To make our jam I use a pectin called Pomona's Universal Pectin.  There is nothing "yucky" in it and it makes great jam.

After that, we went to our garden and picked radishes and onions and did a tonne of weeding.  No pictures of that, it was pretty boring.  By the time we finished that it was time to make a special supper for Rob for Father's Day.

Oven fried chicken, radish salad, green salad and pesto rice.  Mmmm. 

We have an abundance of radishes in our garden.  Really more than 4 people can eat plain so I sliced them super thin, added sliced green onions and made a vinegrette to toss them in.

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup of blueberry basil vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp of sugar
pinch of salt

I love that we live in an area that we can eat so much that is grown locally.  The greens for the salad and the flavoured vinegars are from Mulberry Hill Farm, which is the CSA that we get fresh veggies and eggs from every week.  The pesto was made by us last summer with basil that we grew in our own garden and then we used garlic from Mulberry Hill Farm.

After supper it was down to the beach for us.  We love going there and walking the board walk and pier or just people watching.

Happy Father's Day Rob!

And not to leave out my Father.  Happy Father's Day Dad!

Birthday Cakes!

Late spring and early summer are the busiest birthday times for us.  All four of us have our birthdays in this time and then we throw in a few extended family members and friends into the mix.  It makes for a lot of cake eating so we try to make everyone different.  Here are the ones that I have made so far this year.

Nick's Birthday

For Nick's birthday he wanted a Star Wars cake.  So I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and put little Star Wars Lego action figures on top.  He and his friends were quite amazed that the Star Wars plane was "flying" over the cake.  (In reality is was sitting on some straws that were cut 1/2 inch higher than the cake.)

Rob's Birthday

It was too hot to bake so he got the ice cream pie.  I posted how I made it last week.

Jake's Birthday

Jake wanted a plain vanilla cake with caramel icing.  It looked a little boring so I made some buttercream icing and added a few shakes of tumeric to change the colour to a beautiful yellow colour and wrote Happy Birthday on it.  I love how nice the yellow turned out and you can not taste the little amount of tumeric that was used.

Caramel Icing

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cubed

1/4 cup milk

2 to 2-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

For icing, in a heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium. Do not stir. Cook for 3-6 minutes or until bubbles form in center of mixture and syrup turns amber. Remove from the heat; transfer to a small bowl. Cool to room temperature. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated my Dad's birthday at our house with the whole family this year.  I made him a Black Forest Cherry cake.  (This is the recipe that I used - Black Forest Cherry Cake)  I have to say it was one of the best tasting cakes I have made.  I will definately make this one again!

this moment

From Soulemama {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 

 

this moment

From Soulemama {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.