Rainiers

Cherries taste better when you pick them yourself using your shirt as a basket.

It's true.

Sugar Snap

It's getting a bit late in the season for snap peas but if you can find them I highly suggest you try this recipe from Lottie and Doof. It was the first thing I made when I arrived home this summer.

Yum.

Hump Day Recipes

The end of the school year was all about surprises. I had to keep so many secrets that sometimes it was easier to just stop talking.

One of the bigger secrets started out as a going away gift for Molly. We knew that she'd miss our weekly Hump Day dinners. Creating a cookbook of our recipes for her to take with her seemed like the perfect solution.

front cover, back cover

Everyone contributed recipes for side dishes, main dishes, and desserts.

Of course, midway through this secret mission, Molly's plans changed! At that point the going away gift turned into a "we're so happy you're not going away" gift!

Compiling the cookbook was a lot of work. I couldn't have done it without the help of the group and Sarah in particular. That being said, the outcome was well worth the effort.

(photos by Molly)

[I used blurb.com and would recommend the site to others. The software you use is pretty good, although it does have a few formatting bugs that made me want to rip my hair out. Subsequently there are a few formatting errors in the book.]

Happy Fourth of July

Last night Mike was kind enough to host a little barbecue to celebrate Independence Day. We did our best with the grill on his mini balcony which later served as the fireworks site. We all laughed when we realized the Americans were the minorities in the room. So thanks to the Canadians and Lebanese for helping us celebrate.

Like always, delicious food was on the table, decorations were up, and fun was had.

Of course we needed face paint.

And the sparklers finished off the evening quite nicely.

Hope you enjoyed the holiday!

Yes, that is a bald eagle waving a flag across my face.

xo, jill

Frannie's Pancake Surprise

Molly and I threw a little surprise pre-birthday party for Frances. The original inspiration for a pancake breakfast came from here. That plan had to be amended when we realized the guest of honor was departing the country earlier than we expected.

After some reshuffling it turned out to be a pancake dinner. Usually, breakfast for dinner is a huge bum out for me (not the biggest breakfast foods fan), but Frances was worth the exception.

We served mini stacks of pancakes, lots of berries, strawberry vanilla tea, and a strawberry lemon smoothie. Nice and light.

Party hats were a must.

Happy Birthday, Frances!

What's for dinner?

I hosted Hump Day dinner last week.

Here's what we ate:

Beverage: Strawberry Lemonade Slushy

Salad: Apple & Seed Salad

Main: Pasta with Asparagus & Avocado Walnut Pesto (was supposed to be homemade ravioli but that didn't pass two test runs)

Dessert: Peach Melba

I hoped to cook a more impressive meal for my last Hump Day of the season, but oh well!