In the kitchen and around the garden

 Well this is a real flotsam and jetsam post. All the garden pictures are a couple weeks old at least. First, dessert. 

This Cheesecake recipe from my lactose free dairy folks, has the sour cream making a top layer rather than mixed into the whole cake. It was tangy, and okay but Andrew and I prefer the other version that is more uniform and also a lot more firm to cut into. This was made the week we went on the Canal boat ride in June. I've been able to go to Fresh Thyme market once a month or so for all the lactose free real dairy items, or some combination of them as it is impossible to get all the things in one trip. Something is invariably sold out.

I regret that I was not the nutty lady at the grocery store and bought out all the lactose free butter. It was even on sale! It's sold out again. If I had known I wouldn't have blown my real butter wad on this new cake recipe I made as a birthday cake for me, Andrew and Dad, the three summer birthdays.

I tried my hand at my first two layer cake, and it was really simple to make. The extra effort to make parchment paper rounds in the cake pan is worth the time. 

 

 

And since I discovered a secret cache of black raspberries from last year, I cooked down a bag with honey and cornstarch for a fruit filling.

 

The magic of blogging makes this look delicious and it was, but I screwed up the icing again and Mom had to remind me of several techniques I wasn't using. The icing is (sadly) from a can. It was almost impossible to spread on the pound cake surface, and was too sweet to match the cake! I should have taken the hint from the picture inside that just showed whole fruit in between the layers and on top of the cake. 

The good news is, this is an excellent, excellent pound cake and they can stay in the freezer for up to a month if wrapped up. So I may make it in the future. 

But I'm not going to lie, I was dissatisfied with the effort overall to cover for three birthdays. So, I dusted off a classic I can count on.

 

I just noticed that both of the featured cookbooks use the word "simple" in the title. So, that tells you my priorities. I also love this relatively new format of book where there is no plastic jacket, and it's just a nice chunky, wipe-able cover.  Some of my home decorating books I've brought home are going this way, and I like the trend. 

I've only made one bundt cake out of this sucker with my vintage bundt pan but I remember how easy it was so I tried the yellow cake one as my Dad likes yellow cake with chocolate icing.

Nice. In my haste I don't have a picture of the actual bundt cake as I was also making a video for the library. The cake popped out easy enough though and I again, used canned icing. Strawberries were .99 cents a quart at Kroger and gorgeous. 

The pretty blue plate is Ohio Harkerware. I love them and usually just use them for fancy desserts. 

I had to use butter flavored crisco and I thought I could really taste it but Dad seemed to like it. As I write this, Andrew hasn't had a chance to try his slice as he's been working. 

We are a Sunday breakfast family. Andrew fixes pancakes or waffles, but we hadn't had french toast in a while. This past Sunday he used his new hand made bowl, that will feature in another blog soon.

All eggs in all dishes are courtesy of the hens who really want to run free and eat grapes but are forced to endure the strawberry and tomato tops, watermelon rinds and buckets of weeds room serviced to their pen. 

We've been roasting vegetables a lot to go with our cook out dinners of brats or burgers. It's usually potatoes and a green veg like brussel sprouts or asparagus. This colors looked so nice in the olive oil, I took a quick snap. 

In our own backyard, we had a few cherries, less than what we had last year that we used in the Easter pie.  

And two  cucumbers 

 

become seven

 

It takes me until August to realize that it's not just weeds that multiply. Before we left on vacation in late July I really noticed the first tomatoes

and the promise of watermelons.

The kale a friend gave me last summer survived the winter, seeded, and is reborn.

Andrew's grapes go from this

to this. 

We have some grapes turning purple already, but that will have to wait for another blog post. 

Weeds never stop multiplying and here is my second weed of the herb garden since Memorial Day. 

I love my vintage galvanized tubs and smaller pails. A shovel and a weeding stick help me make short work of this. 

And could this be the toad from the oregano? So much bigger. I can only hope I have two as they indicate a healthy garden...and I have more on the toad front for another blog.

My first sunflower from my green thumb friend appears. 

Moxie supervises my watering.

Tutu waits for me to return from a quick run  to get something outside. 

Let's look at the back deck and see what's going on there.

The moon flower begins its climb.

The morning glory is a cascade of hearts.

 Other porches have exciting plant developments.

And rainbows in July keep on coming by. 

Here are the last of my few lavandins cut for the season.

And you can see I'm wearing all my UPF 50 gear. 

In other news, I started a new journal after less than 4 months after starting the last one, a new all time record. I don't know what possessed me to buy this one, as I think the cover is kinda ugly the pages are a nice deep cream and thick. I'm using pencil with this one and it's about two inches thick so it should take me a while to get through despite writing nearly every day. It's a bit of a long haul journal. 

And the pets are all still living their best life...well Tutu is at any rate.

Next up, my birthday trip, update on the lavender, and maybe next, a real wild post!

(that's a hint that there will be more wild animals)