No Knead Artisan Bread with Dutch Oven

Sharing some Artisan bread here with you today, my first boule (round loaf) baked in a dutch oven. It was chewy in the middle and very crisp on the outside. We were very happy with the outcome!

Oh and it's my birthday today, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year!

A lovely birthday

prime rib dinner

We celebrated daughter L's April birthday downtown, by seeing the play 'Come From Away', then out to a nice dinner. L's boyfriend and his family actually arranged the outing way back at Christmastime. Come From Away is a sold out show and received standing ovations. It is lively and heartwarming.

Canada 150

Happy First of July and Canada Day, celebrating 150 years!  I did this unfurled flag piece on red cardstock (6" x 6") in acrylic outlined with a fine point black marker.
 
I saw this neat planting in a shopping centre parking lot:

And husband M celebrates a birthday today on Canada Day! Daughter L got him this pretty cake:

L made these salted chocolate chip tahini cookies for us and they are beyond delicious. Here is the recipe.

Yummy Cake

Daughter L made this beautiful diabetic friendly cake to celebrate both my birthday and Father's Day this year. My birthday is always pretty close to Father's Day. Here is the recipe, she might have made a few changes here and there. She said the icing was made with cool whip and cream cheese along with a few spoons of coconut milk, yum.

A Birthday

Husband M celebrated his birthday on Canada Day last weekend. The kids got him his favourite cake which happens to be just a plain white supermarket cake. He is diabetic but still loves the occasional small piece of cake.

Gifts and Cake

I celebrated my birthday in June, and a good friend took me to lunch a few weeks earlier to celebrate. She brought me this nice card and some very useful gift cards which were easily used.

Daughter L got me this yummy strawberry cake for the actual day of my birthday.

Flower Gifts

Daughter L had received these beautiful flowers for her birthday last month.  One friend brought the yellow sunflowers and another friend brought the purple flowers (daisies?) and it so happened that they looked so well when arranged together!

And here are the daisies about a week later after the sunflowers died.

A Birthday

Husband M celebrated his birthday this past Canada Day. We all went to visit his mom that day, he thought she might enjoy the visit. Daughter L's boyfriend also came along. She didn't feel up to going out to a nice dinner, her arthritis was acting up,so we went out to dinner and came back to cut the cake with her. I might add that I woke up that morning and realized we didn't have a birthday cake to cut. So I baked a cake mix and made my own icing. I don't think I've made icing before but it turned out ok. It was a simple buttercream icing.  I got a lot of good-natured teasing from some of my sisters when I sent them a photo of my efforts.  I am definitely not a perfectionist, especially when it comes to frosting a cake, lol.  Daughter L didn't have time to help that day.

A Birthday

Son K celebrated his 19th birthday recently. We went to daughter L's school to start moving her home. It coincided with K's birthday so she baked him this delicious pineapple upside down cake and everyone sang for him.

The Birthday

I celebrated my birthday this past week. A friend suggested we get a group of lady friends together and have a girls' night out at a restaurant. My husband M would be out of town on business. There were a few glitches however.

Four days before the party, the friend who suggested the gathering had to cancel because she forgot that it was her son's graduation that night!

On the day of the party, a half hour before I was due to leave, there was a powerful thunderstorm. It had been a hot, humid day. The trees outside were bent over half way in the fierce wind, I swear. A window in our house started to leak. So I grabbed some beach towels and it solved the problem in the short term.

Then the phone rang around 6 pm just as I was about to leave for the restaurant (we had a 6.30 pm reservation). The girl said my 5 pm reservation had been cancelled as I hadn't shown up! I had a moment of panic and said I did need a table for 5 people as we were all arriving in the next 15 minutes! The girl put me on hold and went to check. She found a table in the bar lounge where we could be seated and I said it would be fine. It turned out to be a comfortable area and we enjoyed our food and conversation.  One of my friends had gotten a bit soaked in the thunderstorm but it had stopped by the time we left the restaurant.  The skies had a pinkish hue and were beautiful at sunset and the temperature had dropped by a comfortable 20 degrees.

This is what probably happened: the restaurant had called earlier in the day to confirm our reservation. I had quickly said it would now be 5 people instead of 6. Somehow that translated to a 5 pm reservation instead of the original 6.30 pm time. I just hope I'm not getting that old that I'm now messing up simple restaurant reservations!  The answer must just be to slow down.

Our leaky window still is under investigation.