I know..most of you are too busy setting off firecrackers and partying around the pool to properly surf. No matter, the nice thing about the Internet is it is (usually)  here when you want it.

We generally have a huge 4th of July Picnic but this year Marc had to work and Erin and Jon had plans elsewhere. We will be going up to a picnic at our church later but for now? Very low key.

I made lemon butter bars to take to the picnic, and will be making a red, white, and blue heirloom potato salad using the Southwestern Potato Salad recipe I posted. The butter bars use a cake mix, and you can substitute any flavor mix to have a variety of butter bars…and lets face it, folks, the world NEEDS more butter bars…desperately.

Anyway, here is the July 4th version of Saturday Surfing.

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Better late than never right?

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the BakingDelights Flickr group. Some awesome stuff there. Ben of What’s Cooking added images from his Food Buzz 24-24-24. Sarah from What Smells SO Good has some images of biscotti…and on and on!

Cookie Madness- Sour CreamFilled Chocolate Cookies with Dried Cherries. Yum

Linette from She Knows Parties has an entire party based on lemons. Lemons!

Rhubarb has always been a pie ingredient to me but Dorie Greenspan roasts it and then plops it atop ice cream. Yum. Personally I am thinking of what it would be like over cherry and white chocolate ice cream.

Zoe again. Plum Cupcakes with Sweet Corn Ice Cream. Uh huh.

Just look at the pictures of bread here and be very amazed.

Speaking of bread…Seven Grain Honey Bread from one of my favorite bakers.

I sorta wish Maybelle’s Mom would feed me if she is making this Roast Chicken and Dandelion Salad with Dried Cherries and Almonds

Image: Brambleberry Cottage

The sun is shining and a cool breeze is blowing through my window as I write this. As most of you know, I am blessed to be restoring a 100year old home and I am in the sunroom watching cartoons with Kyrie and sipping Guatamalan coffee. The sunroom is west, so it has windows north, west, and south. The house is situated on a small knoll and looking out at the pasture to the west and all of the old pecan trees on the property it is rather like being in a tree house. Although there is a lot going on, and a lot up in the air in my life I feel very blessed. I would feel more blessed if someone decided to fund the rest of the restoration. When Marc became disabled there was a sudden halt to much of what needed to be done, since we were doing it ourselves!

We are left with 4300 square feet of potential. This is bed and breakfast material. I hope that we can finish it out the way I want and someone who wants a bed and breakfast sees it. It is just perfect for it. Right now it feels as if it is too much for us under the circumstances. But I love it.

Perfect summer mornings like this remind me of being a kid…summer stretched endlessly…one adventure after another. I was one of the last generations to have the freedom of the woods, and small towns, and meadows near the areas I grew up. I could disappear in the cool, moist Pennsylvania morning and spend the day in the woods, lunching on ripe wild blackberries and hickory nuts, and old heirloom apple trees that had been long forgotten. I learned to love nature and I learned a lot about it. And the freedom I had gave me a lot of confidence that carried me through difficult times I faced later. Because of my love for nature I discovered a kindred spirit in Thoreau, who in turn let me to Whitman…and on and on.

Hours of solitude, days with nothing to do, these things enriched me and deepened my mind and allowed me to develop into who I was created to be without a lot of molding by society. I am sorry for kids today that don’t have those freedoms, that feel comfortable with their perceived academic success based on what they learned in a sterile book. My kids are blessed. Although we only have a bit over two acres there are woods to explore, a creek to swim in, and adventures to find. Here is what my 10 year old and 9 year old created in the back yard last week when they had a friend over. They had no help.They found adventure. Read more

Apparently scientists have discovered a molecule in the center of the galaxy that smells like rum and tastes similar to raspberries.  Which proves to me, one more time, that God is a foodie.

Read the article, it is fascinating.  Galaxy’s Center… And now, I am even more positive that there is a planet, somewhere, that is created entirely from chocolate.

Image: SXC

We are having a cool, rainy, and wonderful day here in Dallas.  We don’t get this type of weather very much and I always feel blessed when we do because (yes I know I am weird) it is my favorite. Very favorite.

I have been thinking about a lot of things this week. One of the things that has been swirling around in my head is how we spend out time.  More accurately how I spend my time.

I was telling Marc yesterday that while computers have made everything *easier* they have stepped up the pace of  living until it is unbelievably stressful.  An example?

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Here we are again, another Blogsurfing Saturday .  You are going to love what I have found.

How has your week been?  Mine was total insanity, as usual.  My thyroid scans were Tuesday and Wednesday, and they did find some abnormalities.  So I am being scheduled for a biopsy, and not sure when that is going to happen.   Then we had Marc in to the VA on Thursday.  Good thing the VA hospital is close by, between Marc and I we were there 3 times this week!

I got an email to do an interview with a bakery and you guys are going to love this interview!  I am not saying which one, or why you will love it ..You just need to trust me on this one.

Last night Erin, Jon, and the grandkids came over for a casual dinner, the peach tea and ginger ice cream, butter bars, and to watch Bride Wars.  It was lots of fun.  We did a sandwich bar with several kinds of deli meat and cheese, and baguettes.  These are the things that are important in life, the time spent with family and building relationship.  They don’t seem so important at the time but the memories created are eternal.

Today, Marc and the two youngest boys are mountain biking.  He will get the home this afternoon and head to work.  Feels like a long (not in a good way) weekend in the works.

Next week I will be posting the recipes for the peach tea ice cream and the butter bars.  The butter bars are from my cookbook and  they are absolutely so simple it isn’t funny.  Plus? Oh my gosh..delicious.

So…ready for some Blogsurfing?

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Do the weeks go by as fast for you as they do for me?

I cannot believe that is it the first of May.  We have had odd weather this year, and I have been too distracted to get a garden put in.  I am going to be so sad in a few months when everyone is eating their homegrown tomatoes!  It can’t be helped, I am just overwhelmed with everything there is to do.

I guess I have been looking closely at my life, how I spend my time, and what I am missing out on.  When Marc first got sick it I had to go into survival mode but here we are two years later and he is on his own feet, no crutches, mountain biking when he can, and has been steadily cutting back on his medications.  This means that he is also able to work a bit more.  Somehow I did not get the memo that I could step out of survival mode and back into life…

Are you ready for Saturday Surfing?  I am!

Some amazing stuff today-

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Remember last week on blogsurfing Saturday I said that I wish I had a logo for this weekly post?  Well Cori, who is a genius with photoshop has created the coolest logo for me.

Didn’t she do a great job?  Now, with that I feel complete and ready to surf.

It is a windy, overcast..maybe will rain today kind of day…I have thoughts of heading out to the front porch to blog.  We have one of those great southern style verandas..the width of the main part of the front of our house and about 10 feet deep.  I have wicker up there.  This is what it looks like when it is clean:

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It’s Saturday!  Wait until you see all of the really cool dishes this week.  Food bloggers have been busy, for sure!

By the way, if any of you is really awesome with photoshop, I want a image for blogsurfing saturday of someone sufing across a cake.  There is no pay for it but I would really love it and be forever grateful…and I would link to your website whenever I used the image, giving you credit.  :)  and it is my birthday this week.  and….

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Here it is.  Presto Pasta 108.  You won’t believe the visual feast you are about to experience.  We have gotten some of the most amazing dishes ever.  If you are hungry now? No worries, you will be by the bottom of the page.  Ready?

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