Happy Independence Day!

We're in our living room watching "A Capitol Fourth" with Sutton Foster, Christopher Jackson (of Hamilton), and others, and will later flip back and forth with the Macy's fireworks on NBC--our traditional July 4th activities!

We're not much for celebrating (being too cynical for most jingoistic patriotism--especially this election year!--and too averse to hot weather to for beaches and barbecue), but this year saw us do more than usual.  On Saturday, we attended a wonderful lakeside picnic at the summer home of one of Bud's kung fu buddies.  There was a lot of tasty food--pasta salad, baked ziti, roasted corn, my Tex-Mex chocolate sheet cake, lasagna, various catered Indian curries and dishes, a fresh fruit salad (complete with cored and halved cherries!), this great couscous salad with pine nuts and dried fruits (I hope to get this recipe later), etc etc etc--and we all had our fill.

I talked with various other guests--two women owned horses and compared notes with Sis, one couple had a new 10-week-old baby, others went to a private school that Mama and I have our eyes on, one dad had left our kung fu school a couple of years ago and had stories to tell.  A nice group.

Best of all, the kids got to hang out with some of the older kids (from 14-18 years old.)  They went swimming in the lake together, playing on the standing paddle boards and the water trampoline.  The kids were like fish!  And, while there were life jackets to be had, they didn't need them.  Mama and I sat on the dock in the shade watching them, the ducks (Mr. and Mrs. Mallard), the Canada geese, the Red-Shouldered hawk screeching overhead most of the day, the various birds flitting back and forth, and the sun glinting off of the green water while the trees swayed in the light breeze.  It was a beautiful day.  Later, the kids made music together inside, each showing off various piano pieces and singing karaoke together.  Then they hung out upstairs, exploring the nooks and crannies of the old house.

After the party, we stopped for ice cream at our favorite local place.  The lines were long, but it was worth the wait.  Black raspberry.  Coffee.  Cherry Vanilla.  Toasted Almond.  A chocolate milkshake. Mmmmmmm!

Then we went to play putt-putt!  It was a lovely little course surrounded by shrubs and a stream.  It wasn't kitschy, just some good old fun.  We were pretty wiped after that, grabbing some burgers on the way home that night.

On Sunday, Mama and the kids went to NYC for dim sum with the grandparents, while I went to lunch to celebrate the birthday of Mama Teacher.  Then, we spent the evening together watching "The Great British Bake-off."

Today, we celebrated Mama's birthday belatedly by going to see Finding Dory at the fancy theater with the reserved and big reclining seats.  It was a cute film--especially those otters and the two whales.

Which brings us full circle to the 4th of July tv shows right now, while real fireworks are going off in yards around town.

Happy Independence Day!

And may we continue to be the land of the free . . . . with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.


-=-=-=-=-
And so we finished more of our list in one weekend:

1. Putt-putt golf
2. Celebrate 4th of July--we've been invited to a picnic.
3. Celebrate Mama's birthday--we're doing it this coming weekend!

And let's add to the movie list 

    4.  See Finding Dory

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From “ Field of Greens” cookbook:

Couscous Salad with Apricots, Pine Nuts and Ginger

1 cup instant couscous

1/2 cup water

1 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tablespoon vinegar (I usually use some kind of fruity vinegar, but basically anything works)

8 dried apricots thinly sliced

2 tablespoons dried raisin, cherries, currents, cranberries (whatever you have around)

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

Salt

1/2 cup finely diced red onion

2 Tablespoon pine nuts

Pour couscous into small mixing bowl.  Mix water, orange juice, olive oil and vinegar in saucepan and bring to boil.  Stir in dried fruit, ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; immediately pour over couscous and then cover bowl and let sit for 20 minutes.

Bring small pt of water to boil and drop in red onion for 15 seconds.  Drain.

When couscous is ready, fluff it with fork and then add pine nuts and onion.

Another Great Fourth

As I sit here watching the FIFA Women's World Cup final, with the US up 4-1 against Japan right now, I'd say it was a pretty good 4th of July weekend.  We ate good food.  We had some good times.  We enjoyed our three-day weekend.

And with several of the SCOTUS rulings and change of heart about the Confederate flag, we're feeling a little better about the US (though Charleston and the burning of several black churches means we have a long way still to go.)  At least right now, until the mudslinging of the elections ramps up.

On Friday, which Mama had off, after a morning all together (the kids played video games with Mama while I finished my doodled prayer flags and hung them in the tree), I took the kids to a friend's house for the Friday Night Dance Party, which is a weekly gathering of families, many from our first church.  The kids played badminton, or as they called it "chaosminton" because they had more than one shuttlecock, and swam in the pool.  That is when they weren't eating.  There was a table full of tasty treats:  "kiddy crack," which is a butter-cinnamon-sugar mix spread on graham crackers; s'mores, some with regular chocolate and some with peanut butter cups, which were incredible; and lots of grapes, cherries, bell peppers, chips, pretzels, and dips.  I like hanging out with old friends and new; I like that the kids are making new friends.  We're hoping to go most Fridays.  We got home and spent the evening watching the new season of "How to Train Your Dragon" on Netflix.

Saturday was our big eating day:

• We tried our fermented raspberry shrub and it was lovely!  SO tangy and refreshing, but we did add some more sugar because it was too tart even for Mama.  But Bud said it was awesome, better even than what we've had at City Tavern.
• We had hot dogs for lunch.  We only have those about once a year.  With potato chips!
• Midday, Sis and I made a heavenly moist chocolate cake from the NYTimes.  A pretty easy cake with a tangy and not too sweet sour cream-melted chocolate chip frosting.
  
• We had muffalettas for dinner. Mmmmm!  

When we weren't cooking or eating, we watched Independence Day.  For a 20-something year-old movie, it held up pretty well in pacing and special effects.  While we watched, I finished crocheting the cowl I might wear for my "Outlander" cosplay at ComicCon.  I'd made a different one but wasn't totally pleased, so I started another which I like much better.

That evening we switched between the Macy's fireworks in NYC and the Capitol Fourth.  Neither was very good, or even good.  We liked maybe two songs--Kelly Clarkson's "Heartbeat Song" and the 1812 Overture and some of the other patriotic songs.    About halfway through the live broadcast, we went outside to watch all the crazy (illegal) fireworks being shot high overhead all around us.  We lit our own sparklers and waved them around.  Our neighbor Miss K and her kids, our yard boy and our babysitter, came over to get some chocolate cake and danced around with sparklers with us.  Miss K said that we made it feel like the 4th of July for her.  After they left, we watched the rest of the fireworks, which we'd recorded while we were outside.

Today was lazier, though we still ate well:  we had homemade strawberry soda ice cream, take-out Mexican food for lunch, and hamburgers for dinner.  YUM!  Otherwise, the kids learned some computer coding using MIT's Scratch program.  I made another crocheted mandala and starched it (well, stiffened it with glue and water.)  Now, Sis is reading her current favorite book series, 39 Clues, while I type this post.  We're all watching soccer.  The score in the 73rd minute is 5-2, still US.

UPDATE:  USWNT won!!!  And we were all very happy here, especially for Abby Wambach.

Summer Fun: Fireworks!

Yep, it's that time again.  And we went to see the town fireworks.  We got a great spot, on a wall, overlooking the harbor where we sat eating chocolate chip cookies--the only challenge was the mosquitoes.  I even got some nice-for-a-cellphone shots, which I include here more for the memories than for the art.  Just imagine a nice summer breeze, folks in lawn chairs cheering, cookies, colors on the water, and boots gliding past.