SUMMER DECK

The deck is set for summer. Makes me smile.
Yesterday we celebrated hubby's 5th of July birthday as he will be working on his birthday. We spent a couple of hours on the patio of The El Torito Cantina, dining on good food and drink. The day was glorious a huge hot sun, deep blue sky and a mild breeze full of summer pleasures.
After we arrived home we called family and had them join us on our deck for frozen Tequila Sunrises(recipe on a previous blog). I put out a few snacks for others but we were still severely stuffed from our mexican fare.
We played games at the patio table and listened to music and had a very nice relaxing afternoon. Later I served up home made strawberry shortcake with fluffy whipped cream. Hubby's faux birthday cake.


The shortcake was almost a disaster. I tried a new buttermilk biscuit shortcake recipe. When I was making it I thought to myself the ingredients were off kilter.  It called for two cups of flour and a third cup of sugar which I thought was fine but then it called for a whole cup of buttermilk and I thought to myself that is a lot of liquid more like a cake recipe rather than a biscuit recipe. Then after all the ingredients were added I was to remove the dough to a board and slightly kneed. What dough? It was batter. So I added more flour at that point to make a biscuit dough and patted it out and hoped for the best. They turned out ok,  but they would not have if I had followed the recipe. So I chucked the recipe in the recycle.  I should know better than to try a new a recipe when having guests but heavens it was just a biscuit recipe. Go figure? The strawberries were luscious sweet juicy Oregon strawberries. I make my whipped cream with a little twist which is very good. To the cream in the mixer I add pure vanilla of course but also a little powered sugar instead of granulated sugar. The powered sugar makes the cream more full bodied and very rich thick and creamy. So we enjoyed this desert in spite of the shortcakes.


Today is a day of lazing about. It is Sunday and we have coastal clouds once again. It is like we are living at the beach but without the ocean. Hopefully the sun will smile on us today at some point.
Late afternoon we are grilling a spice rubbed sirloin steak and marinated shrimp will be grilled in the grill basket with lemon wedges, red peppers and onions. I will make a green salad with our red leaf lettuce and make one of my Mom's dressing, have not decided what I am in the mood for, maybe the thousand island. If it warms and turns lovely we will dine once again at our patio table on our little festive deck.


Tomorrow the 4th we are going down the street to enjoy rotisserie chicken on the grill. I am taking my creamy cheesy scalloped potatoes to go with the chicken. I think I may add some deli style jalenpeno's and mince them to scatter over the potatoes for a little zip and added color. There will also be salad, baked beans and a relish plate. So a good 4th fare.
We are going to play croquet and lawn darts to entertain ourselves. Lawn darts are no more as they are deemed dangerous. We have had a set for almost thirty years and only adults play and we are always watchful when someone is throwing. It is fun to play and we get quite competitive.
No fire works this year for us it will be an early evening. However I am sure we will have our sleep sound machine on with the volume turned up as others will be doing their thing in the neighborhood.
When I was a little girl growing up in the country my Dad would start building a rocket in June. This was our entertainment, Dad's rocket and sparklers. So he would build a launch pad and the whole works. His goal was to have it shoot straight up and go out of sight. Well that never happened as I recall. It would sometimes take off and fly for a bit before plummeting to the ground. It was always the big event on the 4th.
My Mom would be in the kitchen non stop making food to be carted to a gathering place in a shaded part of the pasture. There Dad would set out log rounds and set planks on them for our seating. The swing set would be moved to the area so my cousins and I could swing and hang by our knees or whatever we needed to do to keep ourselves entertained. There were galvanized tubs of soda's and lots of beers for the adults. Long tables made of sawhorses and plywood covered with colorful tablecloths held the plates of food offered not only from my Mom but my Aunts as well. Some would plunge or wade into our pond if it was hot and we needed to cool down. There was always softball in the pasture dodging the fresh cow pies of course!  So in the shade of trees with the barn at our backs we would enjoy our country 4th of July.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing have a safe, fun 4th of July.
Till later.