Lo Fatto!!!!

I DID IT!!! I can't believe this. I've been working at making decent pizza for years. Well, tonight I decided to put the pizza on my Scottish girdle(aka griddle). I heated it in the oven for a little while, since I got the idea when the oven was almost ready. I put it on the very bottom of an oven set at 525 degrees. I baked this for 6 minutes. It has crushed tomatoes, turkey pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, shredded zucchini, and black Greek olives. Oh, my goodness. I felt like I just went across to Italy!

Visiting Bloem belles..and Al

The Bloems stopped by for a 3 hour visit on their way from Montana to St. Louis. It was a LOVELY visit. The sun was hot and delicious, the pool was cool and refreshing. It was a blast to have lots of girls laughing, splashing and flipping mats! Al got into the action by helping to blow up the inner tube and throwing the pool toys. It's nice to be on major east/west, north/south highways. Yes, you counted right, seven girls from 18 down to 6! Belle ragazze!!!

Today's storm update

Seems we've had one every day. We did have a gorgeous day, more in another blog. But this front went through about 5pm this afternoon. Right after I took this photo, the winds began blowing, they say, around 80mph! It was crazy for about a half hour, every thing that could move blew. Small branches flew past the windows. If I could get this to upload video, I took a one minute video of the wind and rain. WILD!!! Now, only 45 minutes later, the sun looks like it's going to shine! I LOVE the excitement of Midwest summers!!! *smile* Funny thing is, I put all the inflatable pool stuff underneath the umbrella lying down on the pool deck. It's all still there!

More Rain?!!!

It's nearly 1 pm and this is what it looks like outside. More pools of water in the soybean field, more rain POURING out of the sky. I just heard on the radio that parts of our county got 2 inches so far this morning with more rain expected later today. So much for relaxing on my new floating chair on the pool.....

Progress continues..

The nearly 10,000 pounds of rock, gravel and wall stones were delivered yesterday right after that thunderstorm. Poor guy, it was pouring rain and he was out there with his remote control swinging the pallets off the truck bed on to the driveway. If I can get a video to upload, I'd show you how he did it! Last night Den hauled two stones at a time each weighing 69 pounds in the wheelbarrow. There were 43 of those and 24 caps. Now we have the 2800 pounds each of gravel and limestone to haul back today. We're hoping Andrew is going to show up to help! Will is working until 10pm every night!

Rock cakes

Mmmmm, they look sort of like rock cakes. The texture is sort of like rock cakes, but they are the crispy,chewy oatmeal cookies that are my maternal grandmother's recipe. (Since she's Swedish, I should just call her Mormor, mother's mother.) But rock cakes, oh, yum!, are what we ate in Scotland. I probably ate them at several places, but I remember eating them particularly at two places, Tricia's and Janie's. I've NEVER made them myself, and I should get someone's recipe so I can. Why did I never do that?

It's pouring rain, yes, again. A good day to be baking. (Yikes, the lightning just made my computer bleep!) The rest of the week is supposed to be HOT. So I made chocolate chips for Andrew to take home with him when he comes over, and I made the oatmeal for me. I decided I am going to let myself eat one cookie a day. If I say "none" then I can't stand the craving, but if I say one at 3:30 or so, then I can deal with it and not overindulge! They are yummy, though!

Clouds