I so dearly love a cottage in winter!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Sweltering Summer

As you all know by now your Mistress adores winter.  I delight in the cool nights and breezy days of fall.  I immerse myself in the promise of summer joy while digging in my beds all spring long.

However, summer has been a huge let-down for the second year in a row.  So. Hot. So. Miserable.

I have in fact spent most of the season in a pool or at the lake.  My flower beds are a disaster.

On a good note...Sir E is a master at the front crawl, backstroke, and breaststroke.  I have never seen anyone immediately swim a perfect butterfly until I watched this child's first attempt.  He is doing standing dives off the board and kneeling dives off the high-dive.  The child has found his calling.

Sir M is also a sea monkey and with another year of lessons, I can only assume he will be an expert as well.

I know you are wondering about Madam Lu.  Well, she can scoop and kick, blow bubbles, and dunk her face in the water...but only if and when she feels like it.  Her class is 30 minutes long and she has done her "tricks" within the first 5 minutes.  After that she pretty much wants to be left to her own industry.

So, in honor of the heat, I have a new recipe that I made up tonight.  Summer Chicken Wraps...they are GOOD!

So, chop up tomatoes and add finely chopped onion.  I don't care which kind of onion you use...I just use what I have.

The marinade is simply whatever fruity vinaigrette (I have Strawberry Chardonnay this week) you have on hand and a couple jots of tabasco.  Flavor it to taste.  I made this for the heirs and therefore did not make it super hot.  The tabasco mostly cuts some of the sweet from the vinaigrette.

Add fresh or frozen corn.  You could also add cucumber if you have any laying around.  Pour some of your mixed vinaigrette over this mix and let sit.  I vacuumed one wing of the cottage, took the dogs out, let the dogs in, checked email, took dogs out and brought back in again.  The veggies were perfect.

Blue Cheese crumbles.

So, on your tortilla layer...leaf or romain lettuce (because they actually have some nutritional value as opposed to head lettuce which is just water...) shredded (cold) chicken breast, tomato mixture, and top with blue cheese.

It was delightful and the children gobbled them down!  Very light and crispy-cool on a miserable hot day!

Now, on to some flowers.  Please do not ask the names of any of these lilies.  I have no idea.  These are so bright and I had no idea I had them.  They sort of just appeared this year?

These are nearly white with butter-cream middles.

Some seriously bright yellow.

These are a mix of yellow and pale peachy-orange.  They almost look pink-ish

My glorious hydrangeas are laying down and giving up in the heat.

Of course the knock-out roses love the heat and are splendid.

A clump of Cannas starting to bloom.

Sir M finally lost his first tooth!!!
A trip to South Haven Michigan.  Let me say, we have had absolutely ZERO rain all summer.  Don't you think the skies look a bit grey?  Madam Lu's suit just happened to match the lighthouse!!!
What is THAT????  Yes, oh yes.  A thundering, lightening, downpour of a storm.  We went with a dear friend and her adorable, mannerly, entirely pleasant girls (not pictured because I don't have a consent form).  You can not imagine how trashed her van was...sand, sand, wet sand.
So, after a lovely lunch en-van this is what the sky looked like.  Can you imagine?  Over all a perfect day!
 Well, this really concludes the gist of our summer.  I have been completely negligent in my blogging but with only 3 weeks until the sirs go back to school, you should be seeing more of me soon!