Friday, July 27th - it was a great day to be off!

It's a brilliant red sunrise over the river this morning and even though folk lore tells us that it should be bad weather (red sky in the morning, sailor take warning) the weather people seem to think it will be a fine day. It's 17' right now with some clouds  and a sunny high of 23 expected later. We'll see who's right.

I had a wonderful day yesterday, finally getting to some of the little jobs that have been needing to be done for quite some time. I moved a few things from the pantry out to our new temporary storage in the bunky, so it's not quite so cramped and crowded in there now. My floors got their first mopping in quite a while and the bathroom doesn't have quite so much of a 'lived in' look to it. I managed to sleep in a bit before getting started on the salads, and then finally sitting down and doing the blog. Once everything was nicely under control, I went up the road to pick some strawberries. They aren't too plentiful now and those that are there, are quite small. But I managed to find enough to fill two boxes. There are still berries there but it's time consuming to find them. When I went to pay for them, there was a young girl at the house collecting the money. She says the raspberries are being picked right now and will likely only have another five days or so,  which means if I want to make any jam this year, I'd better get to it over the weekend.

My ice cream base had been chilling in the fridge overnight and I poured it into the new machine and turned it on. In 25 minutes I had delectable ice cream. It was still a bit soft so I put it into an ice cream container and put it back into the freezer to harden a bit more. It turned out perfectly.  Now I'm anxious to try out some of the other recipes in the book that came with it.

The almost finished ice cream, churning away

 The salads were tasty. The potato salad was different but I liked it. I love broccoli salad but I have to admit that I've never actually made it myself. The recipe called for almonds and raisins but I substituted toasted pecans and dried cranberries and it was quite good.  Fortunately there are left overs so the VanGaals can try them out tonight.

My frozen slushy drink also turned out really well. I found several recipes and made a couple of substitutions. Mine has orange and pineapple juice and a bit of rum for the alcohol. Mixed with a bit of lemon/lime soda, it makes for one tasty beverage on a hot summers day!

Tony and family arrived a little later than anticipated and the chicken was a little overdone but it was still good. But then anything off the BBQ is great in my opinion!  We had a lovely evening and their two kids really enjoyed trying out the loom. They did quite a large chunk with white wool, which is adjacent to the dark red that Tristen did. I told them when I take it off, I'll mail it to them. I'll do the same thing with theirs as Tristen's and make a pot holder/trivet out of it so it has a function. 

Working on the loom

 They left a little after 11:00 so I've slept in slightly this morning so I'm heading off to the shower now. Have a great weekend. I know we will. We're going to see the play "The Kitchen Witches" on Saturday night and them maybe a picnic on Sunday, but we'll see where the day takes us!