Last year we watched the fireworks on Asbury Park beach. This year we plan to travel to Donaldson Park (a five minute drive from home) to watch the local fireworks show. My daughter and I have planned a picnic dinner – she and my son remember being hungry last year on the beach and watching others with their picnic feasts.
If you don’t live in the U.S.A., on what occasions do you get to see fireworks?
Thanks to everyone who inspired me to paint by responding to my Simple Summer Salad Hunt. Results of the hunt (and feel free to add more salad ideas to this post) will be posted next week. A funny anecdote on this painting: my husband was trying to figure out if we have bowl that looks like this blue starred bowl. I told him no, I just made it up. Poetic/artistic license.
What kinds of ingredients make a great salad?
I am looking for links to wonderful summer salads or spreads (vegan or pareve, please) – I plan to do a post next week with a list of these salads. Here are two examples to wet your appetite:
Thank you!
Ilana-Davita presents a lovely currant cake recipe. We don’t see many red currants in New Jersey – I suggest trying the cake with blueberries. I did find an article about red currants suggesting they do exist in New Jersey. I can ask the farmers at our local Highland Park Farmer’s Market. Ilana-Davita says she doesn’t see many blueberries in her part of France. According to this redcurrant Wikipedia article, the North American currants may not taste as good as those of Western Europe.
Mix the flour and salt with the eggs. Add the sugar and milk. Grease a baking pan and lay the currants at the bottom. Add the batter and sprinkle with the vanilla sugar. Bake for 45 minutes at 360°F.
This recipe is my mom’s but I have changed it slightly. She uses plain sugar and flour and mixes the vanilla sugar with the rest of the batter.
This cake reminds me of Mollie Katzen’s Cranapple-Walnut Cake – I used to make that one with whatever fruit I had available. As Mollie noted at the head of the page: “~very moist ♥♥♥.”
And because Ilana-Davita took such a red photo of currants, I am submitting this to Ruby Tuesday:
My suburban example is watermelon at the annual Congregation Etz Ahaim picnic in Johnson Park, New Jersey.
This woman in New York City was accompanied by two men also dressed in black, funny outfits. No idea what they were trying to sell. They did get a lot of people’s attention.
This is a detail of a still life painting by my mother, Elaine Wenger.
This week I converted my blog to what is known as Responsive Web Design – in other words, the blog should look good both on large windowed browsers and on small mobile phones. You can see what I mean by shrinking the corner of the browser page.
My flowers-instead-of-grass front lawn meadow is doing nicely. I believe the last time my husband mowed the front lawn was two years ago? Three?
In our backyard, the raspberries are beginning to appear. This makes our yard even more inviting for the birds.
About two weeks ago the catbirds showed up again in our backyard. They seem to love resting on my tomato plant holders.
Do catbirds like hydrangea? I like this white flowering shrub, even if they don’t notice.
Unlike other birds, such as the cardinals in the winter, the catbirds don’t seem to mind when I get up close with my camera.
I think this catbird is about to take off. They make such endearing sounds, like a meowing kitten.
For more Nature Notes:
My middle son graduated from eighth grade last night and then left for camp. Today he is flying to camp, which started yesterday, as he didn’t want to miss graduation. I’m a little sad – I miss him! I know it’s a cliché, but they *do* grow up too fast.
This frolic-in-the-waves photo was taken last month at Asbury Park Beach.
For more watery photos, visit Watery Wednesday:
This is the Pershing Square Bridge next to Grand Central Station on the East Side of New York City. I was in New York on Wednesday for the 140 Conference. Here’s a cool night photo of the same bridge that I found on Flickr.
This is the top of Grand Central Station in New York City. From here I took the Lexington Avenue subway uptown to the 92nd Street Y.