Cherries

Fresh cherries are big hit in the summer. They are ridiculously expensive which the price can go up as high as $5.99/lb or $4.99/lb. But we got so lucky to get $1.99/lb when we stopped by at Harriss Teeter the other day.

We bought it almost nearly 2.5 lb. The dark red color make them look so delicious.

They are so juicy, sweet, fleshy and flavourful and 10 times better than grapes. ( Huh 10x? Did I exaggerate too much?!!). Store them in the bowl and some for snack

 It looks like a miniature plum.

 You can serve it with vanilla ice cream. Yum Yum

This is the place that we went the other day..

Have a great day ahead!!

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Radiant Red for Summer

Red nail polish shade is bold, classic and it is one of the hottest trends during spring-summer. The bright shades of red always get the attention and it's really suits on fair skin. The red shades are available in a range of colors from dark red to soft red. I chose red orangey nail polish.

Seriously, Robert loves this red shade so much. 

Va va voom color on my toes.

Look sexy on my flip-flop

 
 Do you feel glam enough with this hue of red?

  Have a good weekend!

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Parfait

I made a glass of parfait for breakfast the other day. Parfait (paar fay) is a french word meaning "perfect". In France, it refers to a frozen dessert made of syrup, egg and cream. In the US parfaits usually composed of a dairy yogurt layered with berries, granola or cereal or nuts. I layered berries on the bottom and topped with dairy yogurt and wheat cereal.

 

Berries always capturing my attention everytime I go to the store, farmer's market, offers in the papers and of course delightful berries recipes.

Looking forward the other berries - raspberries and blackberries in the summer months.

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Night Blooming

They grow in summer. They bloom gorgeously at night and close in the morning. They are available in different number of colors include two-toned color, yellow, pink and red. They are called "Four O'Clocks" flower. This is one of my favourite summer plant

Daytime

At night

Robert said  it is like flowers in Avatar movie. I really love the color.

Have a good weekend!!

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Fruit and Cheese Platter

Fruit and cheese are really perfect combination. It is classy and the easiest thing to serve for breakfast, snack time or for party.There are different types of cheeses such as cheddar, blue cheese, brie, St Gouda and Goat cheese and they are best paired with fruits such as apple, figs, grapes, kiwi, cantaloupe or any fruits you like.

My platter comprised of cheddar, Colby Monterey jack cheese, and the fruits; strawberries, blueberries, pears. I really love those combination with delightful colours and great flavour.

Serve them along with jumbo raisins and variety of nuts

Don't forget to let the cold cheese stay outside at room temperature before serving and you also could add a couple of artisan bread, baguette or plain crackers on your tray.

Have fun trying!.

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Weekend@thebeach

Spending a whole day at the Emerald Isle beach of Atlantic Ocean on Saturday was the highlight of our weekend. We took 10 things must-have stuff with us. (You can refer this post).We left home around 10 am so that we could park at free parking lot nearby the beach. Fortunately there has one parking space for us. 

Walking along the beach by carrying all those beach gears to find the beach spot was great exercise to us especially our arms. Definitely we looked for the place with no crowd. Once we found it, we located our stuff and dug the hole about 2 ft depth with plastic shovel for a beach umbrella.

 Robert helped me digging the sand

Here it is

We put our stuff on the beach mat. It was really windy and the picture came out little blurry.

Robert went for surfing with his favourite long board

While I just chilled out on beach chair watching people having fun in the water.

The weather was perfect but we had off and on raining in the middle of the day. At least the rain cool off the heat of the beach. We had roast beef sandwiches, cantaloupe and potato chips for lunch when he returned from surfing. We ate while waiting high tide coming in.

Catching waves in high tide mode is really awesome and fun. We went together into the water. I surfed with body board and he just swam beside me. No picture of us in the water. Too much fun!!

But I snapped a picture of him riding the waves after I came back from surfing. The sound of the waves really magnificent.

And few photos around the beach,  

Dipping your feet in the cold water definitely feels so good.

Viewing from the right side of my beach spot

A blonde little girl was having fun on the beach.

A beach patrol was driving along the beach for safety.

We packed our stuff around 5.00 pm and ready to go back home. Finally a picture from us saying goodbye to the beach.

How about your weekend?
Have a good week ahead!

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Pickles

I'm really getting hooked on the sweet, sour and crunchy thing. Never got rid of it. The thing that I meant is pickles. Oh my!.. It made me drooling when I think about it. I love fruit pickles especially mango but here I find cucumber pickles are the famous one. Americans eat them with salads, burgers and sandwiches. You'll find variety of cucumber pickles style at the store; relish, sour, sweet, no sugar added. My most favourite is old fashioned sweet (bread&butter) by Mt Olive brand. It made in here at Mount Olive, NC since 1926. I've never been to the place. Definitely I wish to visit someday. It is the best cucumber pickle I've ever tasted.

We bought a big jar of Mt Olive cucumber pickles the other day. Funnily, both of us craving of the pickles. We eat it straight from the jar or eat it with burgers. And tonight, I made creamy red potato salad with pickles in it.

Great taste and love it, love it!

Potato salad recipe

• 6 red potatoes (Cut chunk, boil until tender)
• 4 hard boiled eggs
• Mayonaisse
• Paprika
• Mustard
• Ground Black pepper
• Cucumber pickles (optional : relish)

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Happy 4th of July

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another..."

Fourth of July was just past a couple hours ago. It is Independence Day and also federal holiday in the US. Generally that day associated with fireworks, parades, barbeques, concerts and other things. We had not chance to see the fireworks at the beach this year. But we did something on the night of 4th of July.

We bought star marshmallows the other day and made marshmallow kabobs. Reds, whites and blue color are resembling the flag of the US. Such a cute treat!

 We burned those marshmallows. Here it is...yum yum!

We grilled the corn on the cob and some hotdogs

I made Southern style pound cake with blueberries and strawberry decoration. Did it look like an American flag?

Last but not least, our fireworks videos. It was an hour video and it was cut, selected and edited. Personally they are still evergreen. We bought the fireworks from South Carolina a couple years ago and fired them on 4th of July. We really really had fun that time!

First slot

2nd slot

3rd slot

End of 4th of July 2011!

 

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Special on July 1st

July 1st is a major remark on my calendar. It is Robert's birthday. I planned to have something fancy for his birthday, but he just wanted to keep it simple this year. No dining out. Just a cake and some present. I was thinking to make a black forest or coconut cake or pineapple upside down but he desired something different. So I baked a cake that had never been in my thought before. Here it is..

Strawberry cake torte with rich strawberry cream topping.  

Pink colour huh. Great! My first trying on letters decoration. It turned out good!

Besides that, one thing on the 1st of July last year happened on the 1st of July this year. It was about fledgling young bird I found in the yard yesterday. What a coincidence? Or is that young Robin bird planning to learn flies on the 1st of July? You can refer my last year post about this bird (click this). Same date happened to this year. 

Two birds flying while making chirps sound over my head when I came closer to that young bird. For sure that was its parents. Their chirping sound really annoying but obviously that was part of their communications. The young bird moved around on the yard while spreading its wing and remained one place after awhile. I took a chance taking some pictures and touched it.

It looked at me silently and didn't move away from me. It was so cute. What a special day!

Maybe it wanted to wish a happy birthday to Robert. I left after few minutes with it. Hopefully it would fly soon.

Those birds were gone when I came to the yard today. I guess that young American Robin already flew with its parents.

Have a great weekend!

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