wild weather

 It’s 11am Friday… we are sitting outside enjoying the wind rustling the leaves of the trees that shelter the deck. It’s hot and stinking humid - it feels like I’m wearing a wet flannel shirt but! I’m not complaining… We put the sunshade up but will take it down again this afternoon - ANOTHER severe thunderstorm is in the forecast for later… with the possibility of golf ball sized hail and a tornado. Jeesh!

Earlier, I dashed out to the hairdresser to get some of my hair lobbed off - Pamela was busy with another waiting so I took a chance on Debbie who hasn’t cut my hair before - she did good!

I’ll admit to being a lazy slug these last few days… aside from making focaccia yesterday and a clafouti with the excess cherries the day before (less than $2/lb!). Today or tomorrow I’ll make a cherry cake. The house needs a good vacuum and dust but I’m procrastinating on that - we’ll hold off until company is coming ;-)

It was a glut of zucchini the other day but after the pasta dish we are left with only a few small ones. Time to make another bean/zucchini salad!

I mentioned bacon and tomato sandwiches on my last post - well, we had our first 2 nights ago - I made one with focaccia, bacon, horseradish garlic mayo, lettuce, and of course, a thick slice of tomato straight from the garden and to gild the lily: thinly sliced rare roast beef. OMG! It was fantastic and a sure 5/5. If I got this in a restaurant I’d be blown away. Hence, another tray of focaccia made yesterday and popped into the freezer for the next round of unctuous garlicky sandwiches 🤪

The highlight of the week was lunch with Mom, Kirsten, and Shenna, at Red Lobster. Mom wanted to get her fill of seafood while she can still eat real food plus I was way overdue on the lunch I promised Mom for her birthday. We all gorged ourselves on shrimp and lobster - I had the endless shrimp which I did no justice to! It was all so delicious but gosh, so rich and filling.

After lunch we mooched around Value Village looking for deals. I didn’t find anything (gasp!) but Kirsten found a brown leather purse - she checked online and it was worth over $100! Shenna picked up a few clothes, including a black velvet dress that looked nice on the hanger but wowzers! It was awesome when she tried it on.

… 11:40 and the sky is starting to sock in and the wind is picking up 😱

by 1pm we started getting some showers so we took the sunshade down… we were hardly home from getting the dogs nails done when, wham - we were hammered by wind and rain - it rained so hard that water came through the door! The cover for the sofa was thrown off and pillows went everywhere… Trees were thrashing around and the wind was roaring so we deeked into the closet (long story about not going to the basement). A few more trees down - one big one and 2 small ones. It was wild!

And of course I had a cake in the oven and black-eyed peas on the stove - I did turn off the burner and the oven before deeking into the closet… 

Awesome!

“bacon and tomato sandwich on focaccia”

“hot and muggy summer morning”

“first in line for a haircut”

july in a flash

 The days since I last wrote have flown by! July has passed in the blink of an eye. We spent 2 weekends ago at the trailer, then home for 2 days, cooking like crazy for supper for 11 people, back to Kirsten’s for a family gathering with Uncle Graham, home for 2 days, cooking like crazy for 12 people, at Kirsten’s for another night with most of the family again, and now home, exhausted and ready for a few days of leisure!

What have I been cooking? Well, for the first weekend at Kirsten’s I made black-eyed pea burgers and some salads (bean maybe?), for the second visit Kirsten made chicken and I brought roasted zucchini, a Thai noodle salad (that took me ages to get right) and the cinnamon cake, then for Saturday I brought roast beef for sandwiches, focaccia, roasted potatoes, and a broccoli salad. Since cherries are super cheap these days I made a double batch of chocolate chip cherry blondies - they were delicious so I made an extra tray for the freezer. Lots of leftovers, except for the desserts! Our family has a sweet tooth!

We came home yesterday and did a little update to the pergola to make getting the shade easier to get up. Today we brought the shade back down as there is a severe thunderstorm warning AGAIN!

After taking so long to actually produce, the zucchini has gone crazy! And the tomatoes have started. I foresee a bit of googling on ways to use zucchini! Tomorrow I’ll make a zucchini salad with some beans; today I roasted 2 big ones and tossed with pasta & grated cheese for a weak take on Stanley Tucci’s dish. And the tomatoes! Tomorrow we’ll have the first of tomato & bacon sandwiches :-)

The Thai basil is also going crazy (when I can keep it watered enough - those things are thirsty!)... I trimmed one of the big ones this afternoon.

Awesome!

“seeing Uncle Graham”

“family”

“a bright sunny day”

“the amazing yellow of a summer squash”

“heaps of Thai basil”

another downed tree

 Summer persists with days with sun, cloud, and one day, threatening rain. Tuesday and Wednesday were beautiful with temps in the high 20s with a humidex in the low 30s. Perfect for chilling outside and for having supper on the deck.

Today, not so much! We’ve taken the shade down as there is a tornado watch again… 

(later in the day: I hid out in the closet for a bit this afternoon as we were hit with an incredible storm. One huge poplar tree was blown down and another is down but tangled up in another tree… a tornado did touch down in Barrhaven)

Monday I spent the morning (aside from a quick trip to the grocery store), in the kitchen making barbeque black-eyed pea burgers - 18 of them! They are tucked away in the freezer ready to grab and heat for an easy plant-based meal, even for a crowd. Covid did a bad thing to our diet - as the months wore on, more and more meat and cheese and eggs made up our meals - it’s time now to get back into healthier eating.

We are not going to become die-hard vegans again but will try to make more meatless meals with only the occasional bit of beast.

Lately for lunch I’ve been harvesting some lettuce leaves, topping them with homemade hummus and avocado, then rolling them up into ruffled cylinders - yum!

Tuesday night was our last night of agility… I have to decide if I’ll sign up for another round of classes. Lupa is doing reasonably well and it seems to be fun for her but there’s lots of standing around waiting. Our last run was A-frame, tunnel, jump, jump, tire, tunnel, dog walk! Almost a whole course! There were a few glitches but she was great :-)

The agility is a bit like ballroom dancing - there’s lots of technique/body language cues that I can’t seem to get right - it’s amazing that I don’t fall on my face as I’m running around the ring. I can’t always remember to shout out the right cue…

A bit more time travel: Sunday we traipsed into the city with the dogs for their annual dental cleaning. The technicians said they both did great, but who really knows how they were! Their teeth are shiny and white again. We took advantage of being next door to a shwarma place ;-) Two giant tables were crowded with Middle Eastern families eating giant platters of food. Saturday Mom and Dad came for a late afternoon visit :-) It was a lovely afternoon and not too hot for a change so we could sit outside - I should have gotten a photo as Mom went all out with blue and white attire to match the deck - all the blue made her eyes look incredible! Friday night we went to Trudie & Leo’s for supper.

Awesome!

“Mom’s bright blue eyes”

“stacks of vegan burgers in the freezer”

“roasted mushrooms in the actifry”

“a whole course with only a few hiccups”