Friday bliss: goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms

At Victoria Gastropub

Bonus shot of Chris waiting for his duck fat fries:

(he was clapping, understandably so)

What we've been eating

I haven't blogged much about food lately, mostly because we've been eating a lot of your basic summer fare - salads of whatever looks ripe, steaks on the grill, various sandwiches and a lot of homemade pizza. But here are a few relatively interesting things I've experimented with in the past week (pardon the schizophrenic lighting):

Steak sandwiches. Thinly sliced rib eye, caramelized onions and a blue cheese butter on Italian bread:


Seared tofu "steaks" with cold peanut butter noodles:


Localvore grilled cheese. Firefly Farms Mountain Top Blue with local tomatoes and farmer's market herb bread. Oh, and prosciutto. Okay, that wasn't local, but what sandwich isn't enhanced by a little imported pork?

What do you folks have going on in the kitchen or out on the grill?

Chris: I've named the Peanut's stuffed panda Paddy. I decided that's he's Irish.
Me: Irish? Why is the panda Irish?
Chris: Well what did you think he was? Chinese? Don't stereotype.
Me: So what nationality is his stuffed fox?
Chris: Austrian.
Me: But you already named him Mel. Wouldn't Australian be more appropriate?
Chris: No. I will not have a racist fox living under my roof.

I'm not avoiding you

Lately I find myself stepping away from the computer (and even my camera. Gasp!) more and more and just trying to savor summer a bit. Including yesterday, when the Peanut and I visited a local airport and aviation museum. He is currently OBSESSED with "airpanes", so it seemed like good timing.

Behold the cuteness found in the kids dress up bin (and I'm assuming that these things are sanitized and steam cleaned after each use, right? Riiiight. Pink eye party town!):

The Peanut truly enjoyed himself, although I later learned that I can avoid museum admission and just park near the tarmac to keep the kid entertained.

Would have been nice to capture some of these moments with my big boy camera, but there really is something to be said for traveling light.

4th, follow up

Because I've been lax about uploading photos. Nothing fancy here like long exposure shots of awesome fireworks displays, just good old fashioned grilling and hanging out with the folks.

Oh, and the BEST. APRON. EVER. You're welcome, Internet.



And perhaps the best ribeyes ever (more on that tomorrow).



And some of the best grandparents ever.


(Whisks are the most patriotic of kitchen utensils, don't you know).

My Grandma and Dad



Rockabye toddler



Goofs



Happy belated birthday, America!

Sandcastles in the sand

(In case you aren't familiar with the work of Robin Sparkles, click here)

This past weekend featured a different cast of characters - Pop Pop and my cousin Kelly and her family. Chris finally got to live his year-long dream of playing the slots at Ocean Downs. No pictures of that unfortunately, but I can tell you that we were the youngest people, aside from those wearing camouflage.


Sand crab.


She is a pistol.


And sometimes a good sport.


The Peanut pointing out a plane to Laney and a helpful iced coffee banner for Mommy.





The newest member of the mamarazzi!

Have a fantastic 4th

We did! In fact we had a pretty fantastic weekend, so much so that I'm absolutely exhausted.