Cooking up Independence

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of the July!!!  

Our fireworks display, aided by the pop cans we are too lazy to go redeem ourselves so we give them all to the town firework display fund, were postponed due to a horrific thunderstorm Wednesday evening.  The skies had cleared by the time it got dark, but no one knew how long that storm was going to last.  So we'll get the fireworks tonight.

I managed to get the yard mowed at top speed on Wednesday over lunch, as black clouds rolled into town. The yard looks it.  I guess it ALWAYS looks like I mowed at top speed.  and several days too late...  I'll ask for a hay baler for my birthday.

I made some lactose free yogurt for Meri.  OOHHH  it came out so creamy and good!  Mixed with a little rhubarb sauce or fruit, it's perfect!  I'm making more regular stuff now with some 1% milk that was about to expire.  I've figured out how to make lactose free milk, so the next batch after today will be done that way for Meri.

I've spent a lot of time at the pool.  Not IN the pool, but either working from under the shade or trying to read a book.  It's almost to a sad part and I'm not sure I want to read that part in public...

Remember Judy Blume, who wrote the Junie B. Jones books?  She wrote some books for the grown ups too!  It's about a plane crash in the 50s.  The last sentence I read at the pool yesterday was "the plane was headed to the ground sideways."  or something like that.  yeah...   I'll read the next chapter later at home.  with no one around.  

Tomorrow is Mom's birthday.

Yesterday morning, being the 4th and no where to go, I spent part of the morning organizing my sewing over the past year.  Not too many things state fair quality, but the seams are finished and I want to show it anyway.  I've got 10 tickets, let's use them!

Robb and I had a DUO call with Maddy and Matthew.  They're having a quiet 4th in Wisconsin and Maddy was making a fruit pizza in the shape of a flag.  She decided to create her OWN flag tho.

Isn't it just too adorable to eat?

Then we hustled and got the lunch going for Meri, Ryan, Jen, Leon, MIL and ourselves.  We served hamburgers, potato salad, lettuce salad and rhubarb dessert with ice cream.  Meri had to work later than she thought, so while we waited Ryan googled some Independence Day Trivia questions and quizzed us.  I'm probably not as smart as a fifth grader either...  I didn't do so good.

During lunch, Robb got a call from our nephew, who we'd invited up to lunch.  So a 4th of July big supper was planned also.  I didn't want to stretch the potato salad so we opted for lasagnas instead.

Meri already had other plans so after a rousing game of Mousetrap with her,Leon and myself, she had to leave.

 

While I got the china ready for the next fancy meal of the day, Robb picked up a few items we'd need for supper and then we got to work cooking again.  

I attempted to make some sourdough bread in the bread machine and then went to go lay down and veg for a little bit watching a comedy SPY off Hulu.  Got 10 minutes into it and Leon came to ask if I'd take him swimming.  I'll never tell him no for that.  Especially on a holiday!  He'd just been on a hike with his dad and Jen and mud was smeared all over his legs and arms.  I have NO idea where he'd been hiking, so he took a quick bath before we left for the pool.  

About that time, I realized that using the leftover whey for the sourdough needed to be rethought...  It was a soupy mess.  So before we went swimming, we ran to the only open store with french bread for sale.  THEN the pool.  

Got home in time to get the table set and the next rhubarb crisp in the oven before Josh and his girlfriend arrived.  She brought her dog along and our dogs pitched a fit.  KENNEL UP!

It was so fun getting caught up with their lives.  They both had spent the last semester "abroad" of sorts for college.  She in the Virgin islands and he in Hawaii.  

After supper, we played some Fibbage and just talked.  A nice ending to a nice day.  

What did you do on the 4th?