...7.5...Over the Weekend...

...there was so much goodness packed into this weekend...

...we did a tiny bit of Independence Day decorating...i.e., we put out the flags...

...and my favorite Porch Pillow of them all...the American Flag one...

...it will actually stay there all month...haha...

...I did the weekly shopping...not much of interest...I did get some coconut to make a coconut cake...and just a vegan yellow cake mix for that...and tofu and BBQ sauce for grilling...and we chanced some corn on the cob...we'll see how good that is...

...Saturday on the food prep front...I needed some apricot jam to make Julia's apricot glaze...and absolutely could not find it in the stores...so I'm just making some...

...super easy...apricots and sugar...

...only made about 5 apricots worth...or a cup and a half...it will be enough for my Vegan Version needs...

...but...I do think it's odd that it's not an American thing...all those years ago when I was in France...I ate apricot jam practically every morning...and then when I was first married...it's the one I always got from Bama...and that brings up a memory of the jelly glasses that I liked...

...like these...photo credit Worthpoint...funny (kinda sad) that jam doesn't come in glasses you can reuse anymore...

...I also tried to find red currant jam...(for another Julia-glaze)...to no avail...nor any currants of any type...frozen or canned...weird...

...and I used up a bag of bread and made croutons...

...love Love LOVE homemade croutons...

...and then Sunday...these flowers were given in honour of Our Airman...they're so pretty...I took a photo for him...

...I made the coconut cake...splitting it into one fluffy cake pan cake for the Man...and I baked the other half in little ramekins for me...more crust that way...you know...

...just iced them with vanilla icing...

...and sprinkled on the coconut...

...then I iced the Man's cake...

...cut it in half and stacked it...

...and finished it with coconut too...

...it's a very pretty half-cake...

...and...see...that's why I make mine in the little ramekins...this little bit of carmelized crust is the very best part...funny that the Man thinks the soft fluffy center is the best part...I guess I could just eat all of the 'outside' of the cake and leave the center for him...haha...

...then...in the afternoon one of our parishoners brought by all this goodness...

...the fresh tomatoes went straight to the windowsill...

...and there was a bag of already prepared flageolets...Nanny would have called these 'Shelly Beans'...

...and they went straight into the pot...

...and finally I was invited back to pick all of the blueberries I wanted...

...and the bushes were even more 'loaded' than the last time...

...taking me only about 15 minutes to fill my bucket...I'll freeze some of these...

...we fired up the grill for an Independence Day BBQ...

...and made vegan baked beans...

...and had a lovely meal...just the two of us...so pretty quiet...and no fireworks of our own...but we enjoyed seeing some of the neighbor's...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!