Wednesday, July 9, 2014

From the Garden: Fresh Lettuce Dressing

We have planted a garden every year since we moved into our house five years ago. It didn't look like much at the time, but Paul put a lot of effort into getting it to look how it does now. Which still isn't very big compared to either of our parents', but it suits our family just fine for right now! Over the years, we've tried quite a few different things, and I think we've finally figured out what grows the best for us here. Our garden is right next to a row of evergreen trees, and somehow, when the needles fall off, they change the pH level of the dirt. (Or something like that?) But basically, we have a hard time growing anything like radishes and onions. Potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce seem to do the best. This year we have two hills of cucumbers, one hill of zucchini, (too many) tomatoes (I'll be canning up a storm later this summer), four rows of potatoes, peas, green beans, and lettuce. We also have an ever-expanding raspberry bush on the other side of the yard. Every year it gets bigger! Which is great!

Here are a few pics of our garden, currently!










I risked getting eaten alive and acquiring West Nile Virus to get these pictures. Darn mosquitoes are horrible this year! Ack!

All this jabber about our garden is leading up to a recipe I'm going to share. I saw on Donya Luana's blog that she was doing a series of 20 recipes from her garden, and thought it was a really neat idea! I'm not going to promise 20 recipes, but I'm hoping to share a few here and there as we harvest our fruits and veggies!

We've already had a couple cuttings of lettuce. That is one of the great things about leaf lettuce, that you get several cuttings before it starts to get bitter when it grows back.
As soon as he brought the first of it inside, Paul whipped up a jar of our favorite dressing to use on the tender leaves. This simple dressing has been our go-to for the past couple years for our fresh garden lettuce. It's similar to one Paul's mom made when he was growing up. We love it!

Fresh Lettuce Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vinegar
Milk, to taste
Salt, to taste

Mix together, adding milk to get desired consistency. It works great to put everything into a jar and shake it up! Serve on fresh garden lettuce.

Monday, July 7, 2014

July 4th Weekend

We had a fun-filled holiday weekend! The weather was beautiful so it was great to be outside!

We started the weekend out on Friday, celebrating the Fourth of July with some activities in our town! I don't have any pictures to share, I took some with my phone but haven't had a chance to get them onto my computer yet! Levi did the coin dig at the school playground, sponsored by the bank, and had fun digging in the sand for some money! He found a good amount to put into his piggy bank. After that, we walked uptown to have lunch and let Levi play in the bounce house that was set up. Then we went and found our spot to watch the parade. Levi had a blast picking up candy! Paige fell asleep in grandma's arms so she slept through the whole thing!

After the parade, we headed down to my sister's for my niece, Aubrey's, first birthday party! She looked too cute in her glitter tutu and headband! (That she actually keeps on, ahem Paige.) I didn't get a pic of her alone, but here is one of my sister and I with our girls.

The best I could get of my two nuts! Someday they will both look at the camera and smile for me...right??
 Aubrey got a rocking horse from her uncle!

Cake time! She loved it!

Levi did a sparkler for the first time. He was a little leery, but thought it was cool!

Levi also got to go on a ride on Uncle Josh's motorcycle!

Saturday afternoon, we went to the beach for awhile. It was pretty packed right when we got there.




Katie and Aubrey even came, too!

Paul dug a big hole during the 10 minute swim break and buried himself. He got a few funny looks! 

It was a fun weekend! Looking forward to more trips to the beach this summer, and time spent with family!