Sunday Post-Lake Views Butterflies & Grilling

  Hello Friends,

    I think I will be popping in on Sundays for a post.

   Wow, we can't get over how very very busy it is on the lake today. Usually Friday late and most of the day on Saturdays are bonkers, but today (Sunday) it is beyond bonkers out there.

  The weather is perfect, not too hot but full sunshine. Thinking some are enjoying the day before school begins. Next week will be craziness with the shootout race boats which raises money for charities, and the following Labor Day weekend-which I expect to be total craziness. It does make me nervous with the loud noises and too close to our boat and dock.

  Today, for our main meal at 2 pm I decided to fire up our charcoal weber grill. I made up foil packets again lined inside with parchment paper and filled up with veggies. Mini potatoes cut in half, sweet peppers, onions, fresh mushrooms, zucchini, bok choy chunks, and small tomato halves.

  I decided to grill up chunks of chicken breast for faster hot grilling. I spiced it heavily with Mrs. Dash (no salt) lemon pepper For dipping we mixed a ground mustard with Bunster's mildly hot honey which was eucalyptus honey infused with hot peppers. That went perfectly with the grilled chicken.  I don't remember if I shared this company with you before. I buy it online but if you live in or near a large city you may find their hot sauce products. They are available in other countries as well. All natural products only are bottled up. Made in Australia-we love their hot sauces.

  Those plants in front are calendula, I only had a few seeds that made it from a big down pour we had a few months ago-I have been harvesting the flowers, drying them now, and will use them in my handmade soap-I love calendula soap-so nice for the skin.

I made up three different veggie packets and then served them all together in a bowl

A couple days ago I made up a big jar of my Grandma's 3 Bean Salad-I used Splenda in place of the sugar, and I used avocado and a little olive oil.

  I am noticing that during the hottest part of the day is when I see the butterflies on my perennials that I planted for them. Early mornings though I see the hummingbirds enjoying the flowers-makes me happy.

  I haven't been able to get a good photo of a butterfly with it's wings open til today.

  A couple days ago though, there were several different types of butterflies including a couple monarchs-I was Sooo excited to see them. Wasn't able to get good photos, but my perennial garden is in full bloom now except for the pineapple mint-which is huge but still no little red flowers as of yet. You can see the petunias are still doing well as is the lemongrass plant. I need to cut and dry more of those lemongrass leaves

This butterfly plant was really tiny when I planted it this spring To the right is the last of  Larry's Grandpa's shallots that he brought back from Israel, they don't seem to like this Missouri soil, so far they like their new home here.

Behind the zinnia, is orange mint that has gone crazy-I will dig some of this up this early fall and plant it for ground cover in other areas. The chocolate mint has gone crazy too. I think different mints will make great ground covers-so wanting to get rid of the grass here.

  

     The large bushy plant in back is the pineapple mint. It always amazes me how large it will grow from such a tiny plant. It is an annual. I have been waiting for the red flowers to appear.

Lake views this past week

  The reflections on the water were amazing one morning early and you can see the boat is on the new lift, now to get this dock finished.

This morning-early

We both loved the espresso dark chocolate keto churned ice cream I had made, so last week I churned up another batch.  Will be serving it up tonight

Happy new week 

Second on the 2nd-a Bit Early-Butterflies on Lavender & Cheesecake Made

  I saw that Valerie posted early, so I decided to as well-Sunday is super bowl day and I will be rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs. Very fun as I haven't watched a super bowl game now in several years.

   Also on February 2nd is Groundhog day where we will see if the groundhog brings us more winter or not.

  Second on the 2nd is hosted by our Bleubeard and Elizabeth and we share a previously posted blog post-you are most welcome to join us.

  I found lovely photos in May 2012 of beautiful butterflies on my lavender plants. I am hoping to attract butterflies here at our lake house too.
  Click here to see the full post those daisy like flowers are wild chamomile-I dried the flower tops for teas, and I also dry the lavender flowers with stems as well.



back in 2014 I mentioned Ground Hog Day and the super bowl here  In that post I was the only one in the house watching the game as Hubs does not watch sports-so he is the football widower in our house haha and it is still the same just me rooting for my team. 
     I am thinking of having another shrimp boil though on Sunday.

  I made a keto cheesecake this morning-I am happy with the results. for the sugar I used Lakanto baking sugar, for the crust I made nut crust with cashews-hubs favorite nuts, and for the topping I used a can of no sugar pie filling.

   We are going to spoiled with warm temperatures on Sunday and Monday-around 64 degrees f  Then it drops back down to the 30s and 20s f again.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

A Dutch Oven Baking Day Outdoors Today & Butterflies

Since we are out of the extreme heat and humidity for a few days I planned today as a baking day outdoors in my 12 quart dutch oven.
  I had enough fresh lemons left over to make another lemon meringue pie-it was such a hit that I wanted to see if it would come out good again.  and it did maybe not as picture perfect as the last one but it tastes soooo good.
  This time instead of pecans for the crust I used walnuts we liked it either way.

  I also wanted to bake up a gluten free zucchini bread in my dutch oven over & under coals as well.

   Gluten free breads either yeasted or non like a quick bread are so difficult to get baked through-I don't understand the chemistry of all that-but is a real "pain" in my side lol
   I used the toothpick test and three times it came out clean, but I decided to bake it for the entire time-70 minutes, I needed to add more coals both top and bottom half way through. So glad I kept this in the entire time.

First photo going in the dutch oven

Second photo-the wind had picked up so I added another layer of red bricks for a wind break

The last 30 minutes especially I was keeping an eye on the bread checking every 10 minutes or so-making sure it did not get too brown on top-I ended up folding over on top of the pan a piece of parchment paper. I do that in the oven in the house as well-especially for gluten free cakes, breads.

    The next thing was the waiting-20 minutes rest in the pan, and then turn it out on a rack and let rest til cold before slicing-important for gluten free baked goods. 
    I just cut it in half and it does taste good, love the molasses in it and very moist and great flavor. I think I will freeze half of this loaf and eat the other half-will stay fresher that way.
    I used a recipe from King Arthur flour and instead of adding nuts and chocolate chips I added dried blueberries and raisins. They had our choice of molasses or honey I chose the molasses and for the brown sugar I used coconut sugar.

While sitting outdoors near the dutch oven set up-which is very close to my veggie garden-I enjoyed watching several butterflies-flying here and there. I caught a couple photos between the fence links
   What is fun now that I posted these photos; you can see the house and my sitting area in the blue globe. 
   The last photo is looking up at one of the oak trees to the sky. We have mostly oaks and hickory here in our woods.

So a really nice day today-also on the Weber grill I roasted a whole chicken--for some reason my coals went out on me-so it didn't get done til quite late for us-dinner for tomorrow night.  (all photos will enlarge more just click on them)

Happy Weekend everyone!