Holiday weekend and Local Food Challenge Week 2

First, I wish you all a happy Independence Day. I know I'm late, but I hope you all had fun festivities, barbecues, fireworks, etc. We've had a pretty relaxing weekend, mostly because poor Charlie is recovering from a double ear infection. She's on the mend now, but we thought it wise to lie low. So we stayed home and had leftovers for dinner and then headed to Reagan National Airport for a very good view of DC's fireworks from right across the river.

Here is Charlie modeling her 4th of July dress that I made for her. Isn't she darling?

Here is a random shot of not-yet-mobile Judah at play in the courtyard:

Look at those eyes!

Charlie and her absolutely favorite--fresh corn on the cob from our farmers' market:

Speaking of the farmers' market (nice segue, huh?), yesterday we did our regular run and bought a HUGE load for $35--eggs, green beans, bell pepper, zucchini, elephant garlic, cucumbers, cherries, tomatoes, corn, basil, and a BUNCH of peaches.

After our shopping trip, I talked to a friend of ours about getting together to cookout on Sunday (today), so I headed back to the farmers' market to be sure have local food to share. Everybody was closing up shop until next week, so I had to be quick. I ran to one booth and grabbed some fresh mozzarella for a tomato salad, then I ran to the next one for tomatoes, 10 ears of corn, and some cucumbers. At the last booth, which was almost completely packed up, I asked the lady if I could buy one of the bunches of basil left in a big pile on a table. She kindly replied, "Take all you want." I said, "What? Really?" "Yeah. Some thing just aren't worth taking back, so just go ahead and take it." I thought, I'm going to make pesto! So, that's what Charlie and I did for an hour and a half yesterday. We have pesto in the fridge and also in the freezer that should last for quite a while.

I also decided to try my hand at a French loaf--one for home and one for our hosts. I had a couple of glitches. For starters, I forgot to insert the kneading paddle until after all the ingredients were poured in. I'll never make that mistake again. Secondly, we were kind of in a rush to do everything that we wanted to do before we headed to the airport for firework-viewing. So, the dough probably didn't rise quite as much as it could have before we needed to bake it and then head out the door. All in all, though, I think we ended up with a couple of good-first-try loaves.

This morning Paul made us just lovely pesto omelets and on the side served a thick slice of homemade bread with Joy's homemade strawberry jam.

We actually have canceled our cookout for this afternoon, due to Charlie's infection still lingering, so we'll be eating lots of corn on the cob, and I'll probably make some tomato sauce or salsa with some of the other ingredients I'd bought to share.

Here is our meal plan for this week:

Sunday: Grilled chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, tomato-basil salad, peach pie

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Potato soup, homemade bread

Wednesday: Stuffed burgers, green beans

Thursday: Pasta with pesto (if my pasta machine arrives in time--shipped the other day!)

Friday: Homemade pizza for Paul's parents and Charlie--Paul and I have a date at a non-chain restaurant while the wonderful Gerry and Madonna watch the kiddos!

Saturday: Vegetable panini