Blog Surfing

Our Best Bites has a yummy looking Caramel Cake.

Joy the Baker has several cold treats that are easy to make on a hot day!!

Taste of Home has Scrambled Eggs that are too Yummy to Share  and they are healthy and quick! You will find a great Strawberry Shortcake recipe here. Speaking of strawberries, how does a Broccoli Strawberry Salad sound? This Balsamic Chicken Pasta Salad sounds interesting also.

Great Cooks Blogroll is featuring a recipe for Healthy Banana Strawberry and Chocolate Chip Bread.

If the lack of sunshine this summer has left you with lots of green tomatoes, you might want to try this recipe for Pickled Green Tomatoes. Thanks to White on Rice Couple.

Wives with Knives has a Spring Pea and Radish Salad that looks good and easy too. 

Tablespoon has Patriotic Cookie Pizza that would make a great 4th of July dessert.

Angel in the Kitchen has a recipe for Grilled Jerk Pork  that looks amazing!

Annie's Eats has a recipe for Smores Cheesecake Bars.

The Kitchen tells us How to Roast Raw Peanuts.

Closet Cooking has a recipe for Sesame Ginger Coleslaw that would make a great picnic side.

Fake Ginger has a recipe for Root Beer Float Ice Cream. It looks easy and good!

Food Blogga has a recipe for Cherry and Blackberry Clafoutis. If you haven't made a clafoutis you should give it a try.

Food Network featured six Frozen Desserts that would cool anyone down on a hot summer day.

RecipeZaar has recipes with Dad's in mind for Father's Day. You can check them out here.

Allrecipes has Summer Grilling ideas and recipes.

You will find the Top Ten Father's Day Recipes here on About.com.

Does Homemade Goat Cheese sound interesting to you? Tasty Kitchen tells you how to make it using a yogurt maker.

Sunday Baker has breakfast for the kids. You can find her recipe here for Egg in a Basket.

If you are looking for a Chocolate Doughnut Hole recipe, you should check this recipe out. As a bonus, you will enjoy a peek of Smitten Kitchen's darling baby son.

Tried and True cooking with Heidi has an easy recipe for Mexican Rice Salad that looks good and easy! Her recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice sounds good too!

Cherry Balsamic Vinegar

I recently saw a post on The Kitchen that caught my eye. It was for "Improvisational Cherry Vinegar." It has been several years since I made a flavored vinegar, and I have never flavored a balsamic vinegar, so I was up for the challenge. 

I improvised a bit because I chose to use Trader Joe's White Balsamic Vinegar, rather than the darker version. 

 I had some in my pantry and I really want to see the beautiful red color from the cherries come through. I hope it does, but I realize that sitting for the next couple of weeks will probably produce a darker color that I am picturing in my head!

It was very easy to put together, but I made it harder. I pitted and smashed the cherries, which was completely unnecessary. I should have just smashed them up. The original post says to put in the stems, pits and smashed cherries. I decided to leave the stems out, but I piled in the pits and cherries, about a cup and a half. 

I put everything in a glass container with a lid, so that I can keep the fruit flies away. The post said to cover the cherries plus 2 inches with the vinegar, which used most of the 17 ounce bottle. I have about an inch left in my bottle. 

I have it tucked away on a shelf and I plan to check it out every week or so to see how the flavor is developing. I will let you know when it is ready to use. I'm looking forward to making a nice cherry vinaigrette to pour over a delicious summer salad.

I'm expecting to enjoy this later!

A Day at the Coast - Part Three

After enjoying our time in Neskowin checking out some of our favorite places, we decided to take the Neskowin Scenic Drive (old Highway 101 from Neskowin to Otis). We had not taken this drive for several years and we decided it was time to check it out again.

It was as green and beautiful as we remembered. Most of the following pictures tell their own story!

 Drift Creek Covered Bridge

We enjoyed the scenic drive very much and ended up back on Highway 18, in the parking lot of the Otis Cafe. We hadn't gone about five miles on Highway 18 when we decided to explore a little more.

My adventuresome hubby decided to turn off onto Bear Creek Road that very quickly turned into a National Forest Road, NF-17, in the Siuslaw National Forest. It is a one lane logging road that didn't register in our navigation system. Poor Lola (our nickname for our navigation system) almost had a nervous breakdown, trying to get us back into familiar territory.

We were the only ones up there!

Nothing but peace and quiet!

On the one lane road headed back to civilization

We look forward to heading back that direction when the weather conditions are better to explore Drift Creek Falls.

We would have missed all this beauty if we hadn't taken the time to climb that mountain!

On Highway 18, headed toward home.

We took a drive through downtown McMinnville.

After a great day exploring the Oregon Coast, we were happy to arrive safely home at The Farm in St. Paul, Oregon.

Cherry Cheesecake Pudding Pops

Cherries are one of my favorite summer fruits. I just wish the cherry season lasted a little longer! We had a couple pounds of fresh cherries and I needed to do something with them while they were still fresh. I remembered a recipe I came across last summer at Our Best Bites for frozen treats that used fresh cherries. I found the recipe and ended up revising it so that I could use what I already had on hand.  

 First I sprayed the cherries with all natural fruit and veggie wash and rinsed them well.

I used my cherry pitter to remove the pits, it works like a charm!

I mixed the pudding, cherries and graham crackers together and used a tablespoon to fill the molds.

I placed them in the freezer for about 3-4 hours. Now they are ready to enjoy on a hot day out by the pool.

Enjoy!

A Day at the Oregon Coast - Part Two

After we enjoyed our lunch and the view at Kyllo's, we headed south on Highway 101.

A view of the Ocean near the Inn at Spanish Head

Both of our families crabbed and fished here while we were growing up, but we don't remember ever seeing each other.

The beautiful Siletz Bay

Looking over the cliff at Depoe Bay

Quite a view from Depoe Bay, a great place to go deep sea fishing

Boiler Bay

One of our favorite beach spots, Gleneden Beach

Lots of interesting driftwood at Gleneden Beach

After spending a little time at Gleneden Beach, we headed north to Neskowin before we headed home. We spent many summer vacations at Neskowin when our kids were growing up.

Proposal Rock Inn is where we spent many summers with our family beginning in 1980. We became friends with Marion, the motel manager, after we stayed there our first time. We were really surprised to see Marion sitting in the office. She is 93 years old, but she still works at the front desk!

You can see the ocean in the background, but the kids really enjoyed playing in the creek that flowed in front of the motel. They also enjoyed riding in the raft.

We were surprised to see how little beach is left, due to erosion. I wouldn't enjoy being in one of those houses built on the rocks during a wild winter storm!

I will post Part Three (final) on Thursday

A Day at the Oregon Coast - Part One

Last week, we were visiting family in Oregon. We took a day for ourselves and headed to the Oregon coast to visit some of our favorite places. 

We have always loved the beach! We live minutes away from Seal Beach here in southern California and love to hang out there as often as possible. We also love the Oregon coast! We love it a lot! Especially the Lincoln City area. We spent our honeymoon at the D'Sands Motel, 38 years ago this year. The D'Sands had just opened and the desk people didn't even know how much to charge us for the room. We always thought that it worked in our favor, because they charged us $18.00 a night and believe me, we were as poor as church mice, and we couldn't afford any more than that! Through the years, the Oregon Coast has been a favorite destination for us.

We headed out on Highway 18, towards the beach and we were really surprised when we saw what looked like a large plane on a building.

  

We hadn't been there for several years so we had to pull off and see what was happening at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville.

 

They are constructing a third building with a 747 placed on the roof, that looks like it is ready to take off!

 

This building is home to the Spruce Goose, built by Howard Hughes in the 1940's.

 

They have also planted the Spruce Goose Vineyards in front of the Museums.

We always enjoy driving through the Van Duzer Corridor on Highway 18. The forest is green and lush and is rich with "old growth" Douglas firs that grow along the Salmon River.

 It was a very wet day!

A favorite spot when it isn't raining.

Beauty everywhere you look!

A view of the ocean from the car. Yes, I know a little rain won't hurt me!

 One of our favorite places to eat, Kyllo's!

I had my favorite, Dungeness Crab Legs! It was sauteed in butter. Actually, as you can see, it was "drowning" in butter! The salad was greens with a balsamic blue cheese dressing and roasted hazelnuts. Yum! I didn't eat the garlic toast, but I heard it was good. I wish I would have asked for more salad in place of the mashed potatoes. I wasn't in a "mashed potato" mood.

Dear Hubby had the Dungeness Crab Melt and some of their  clam chowder. He shared a bite of his chowder with me. Yum!

We both took a forkful of this peanut butter pie and took the rest "to go", and then forgot it!

This is the view we enjoyed while we ate our lunch. It was a lot of fun!!

Tomorrow - Part Two

Blog Surfing

15 Dips and Spreads for Summer Gatherings can be found at The Kitchen. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Sandwiches  can be found at the Paula Dean/Food Network.

Best Fluffy French Toast  can be found at Kittencal's Kitchen.

Gazpacho and a Collection of  25-Minute Meals

 can be found at Cookstr.

Mediterranean Shrimp Salad can be found at Wives with Knives.

Mango Couscous with Salmon  Grilled Veggie Sandwiches with Cilantro Pesto, and Italian Garden Frittata can be found at Taste of Home.

Easy Taco Pizza can be found at Tablespoon.

Healthy Picnic Recipes  can be found at Epicurious.

Food Network has a recipe for Foil Packet Fish with Corn Relish that is low in calories and ready in 30 minutes.

Speaking of fish, I happened upon this recipe at Serious Eats that might appeal to someone in this big world. I'm putting it here so that you can check it out yourself. It isn't a flavor I'm looking for when I want some ice cream!

Eagle Brand has Light and Cool desserts for summer that can be found here.

Pillsbury's Cooking for Two, has some great grilling ideas. You can check those recipes out here.

I thought this Rainbow Angel Birthday Cake is really cute. It would make a great cake for kids. Found at Tablespoon.

Even though this next link isn't exactly good news, I feel it is worth passing on. You can find the top 40 desserts that can kill you here and you can find the 41 deadliest fast-food meals here. This info is found at The Daily Beast.