Catfish and Cake

I hope that everyone had a wonderful day celebrating the birthday of our nation! `We had a great time here by the creek; Handsome Hubby was here for most of the day, and he and the Bug did manly things. Like tramping about in the woods with BB guns, and fishing in the neighbor's lake. Oh, lookie... BH caught a fish!

Wow, BH caught a really BIG fish. Which he, of course, wanted to bring home as a pet; thankfully, I was able to keep that from happening. Promises of posting a picture of the big cat on the blog actually worked for me; he loves reading about himself here. Of course, I also made sure that he understood that one day, some sweet doe-eyed girl is going to laugh herself silly when she sees how he dressed himself at this stage in his life. But for now, he doesn't care, and I'm glad. (And Mr. Whiskers, the catfish, is happily swimming back in the lake from whence he came; he may look dead in the picture, but he wasn't.)

And then, there was the cooking. Oh, the cooking that never ended, from yesterday to today. I haven't cooked much at all since.. uhhh... maybe last year? It seems as if I've gone from one activity or crisis to the next without really taking a deep breath, and cooking has been the last thing on my mind. If you knew me before I became a mom, that might shock you, because I used to LOVE to cook. Actually, I still do, but finding the time to ponder what I want to cook, pull together the ingredients, cook, and then clean up is just next to impossible. But once we got back from camp, I realized that I have NOTHING planned for weeks. Oh, it'll fill in, but at this moment, I am not stressing over any upcoming event, and that's a weird and wonderful feeling. So, I've baked peanut butter blossom cookies, and from-scratch chocolate chip cookies, and brownies (the next door neighbors had a garage sale yesterday, and the kids wanted to sell lemonade and cookies. It was pure joy to be able to help out!). I did a dry rub on beef ribs and pre-cooked them in the oven so that HH could finish them off on the grill tonight, and they were YUMMY! I made baked beans (with vidalia onion, garlic, tomato sauce, bbq sauce, brown sugar, and bacon... oh my!) and my very favorite potato salad (new red potatos in the skin, cooked til tender but still firm, cut up warm with finely chopped vidalia and garlic, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and then allowed to mellow for several hours. Then tossed with mayo, chopped egg, sweet pickle, and allowed to sit a little longer. And then inhaled; there are leftovers and they are MINE). I got an ice cream maker a few days ago, so I made homemade vanilla ice cream (used a vanilla bean instead of extract... oh. my. goodness). And the sleeper? Was this blackberry cake from Amy at Living Locurto.

I topped it with sliced strawberries just to get the red, white and blue look; my husband has had two pieces already and looks like a rabid dog when anyone else approaches it. If you've not been to Amy's site, you are missing out; she features great recipes and some really cute printables and decorating ideas. And, she's the co-founder of MY favorite spot, I Heart Faces, so you KNOW she has to be alright!
We finished out the night with fireworks here at home with the neighbor girls in attendance. The kids had a blast(pun intended), no trees, roofs, or bodies were injured in the making of our memories, and we vigorously celebrated the birthday of our beloved America. I'm proud to be an American, and I do pray that God continues to bless this wonderful country for many years to come.