Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie on the 4th of July

 

As you can see I wasn't exactly happy to be working on a Sunday, but Best Buy hasn't exactly given me another option.

 

 I hate when he has to work on my only day off. Wait my first two days off since New Years.

Yeah, it's summer and we like to enjoy our "weekends," but life isn't always fair. Because I woke up pretty late I ate Brooke's famous strawberry-rhubarb pie for breakfast.

Brooke always makes at least one straw-barb pie every year.

On Saturday night she finished up the pie she'd started a few days back.

 

She's perfected the art of crust making after many failed attempts. It's all about finding the right recipe. She's also got a nifty cutter from Nordic Ware that makes the lattice work much easier.

I'd rate this as the best one she's made to date.

My breakfast was not dessert. I had oatmeal with blueberries.

Somehow basil has been growing like weeds and has taken over two planters and the herb garden.

The one planter is logical enough. When we transplanted the basil from the garden back into its pot, it died. Then we let it sit outside during the spring and it rose from the dead. The other one I have no clue... 

The hot weather has caused the bok choy to bolt. This I've learned is a bad thing. It grew 5 inches in one night causing it to flower too quickly.

I took care of that.

I had quite the feast for lunch. I normally eat a small meal for lunch, but we had too much good food to eat. Scott made stuffed cabbage the night before so I had leftovers, as well as a salad made from lettuce from our garden, pie, strawberries and raspberries.

I decided to head to downtown for the day for some wedding dress shopping and to get our produce for the week. After I had crossed this street a man said to me, "Smile! Don't worry it will only get better." I  didn't realize I must have looked sad. I have the kind of face where if I'm not smiling and I'm looking down I look sad.

I ask Brooke, "What's wrong?" quite often. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks she looks down.

I had no luck in finding any white dresses I liked. I didn't think it was going to be this hard.

I then made my way over to the farmers market.

Unfortunately I was too late. I'm mad at myself for spending so much time at Target. 

On my way back a woman was standing on Broadway Ave with a megaphone saying "Come to the Farmers Market. Fresh produce. Hey you make a u-turn to the Farmers Market." A passing car honks. "I know I love the Farmers Market too!" 

It was nearing the end so there wasn't much left. I bought what I thought we would use and headed home. Baby zucchini, sugar snap peas, and radishes.

I then decided to tackle restringing the trimmer. We got this last year from Scott's dad without the manual. I had never done this before so don't pick on me for not knowing what I was doing.

The neighbor kids spotted me in the garage. Anytime they come over things take twice as long because every word that comes out of their mouths is "Why?"

Peanut decided he would take over and check for instructions on the internet. 

One hour later I figured it out. 

It was getting close to quittin' time for Scott so I starting prepping for dinner.

 

We played outside while the brussel sprouts cooked in the oven. 

When I got home I was not in a good mood. It was the third of July and the only customers there seemed to be unaware of the holiday. One of the neighbor boys gave me a hug to cheer me up.

Gluten-free spaghetti and meatballs with roasted brussel sprouts. 

I'd suggest you avoid glutten-free spaghetti unless you have dietary restrictions. It's not what I call good. The meatballs and brussel sprouts were tasty.

 

  We did some quick yard work before it got dark.

Scott started watching his new favorite show, Ugly Americans. We both realized we were bored and decided to go for a bike ride.

 We got ourselves equipped with our headlights and headed for uptown. 

I thought I'd take a photo before we got to Uptown. This view is from the Sumner-Glenwood neighborhood, which is on the west side of 94, near downtown. It used to be a 60s housing project, but they knocked much of it down in the late 90s. Now it looks like a cross between a suburb and an urban tangletown.

 

 We first started at the Uptown Cafeteria. I had heard about this place and walked by several times. We sat on the roof which had an awesome view of downtown and was great for people watching. The downside was you could only get the drink specials if you were downstairs and the only way to get to roof was in the elevator that a bouncer would only allow 6 people at a time.

In my opinion it was meh at best and the waitstaff was not good. 

We were feeling hungry and thought the Red Dragon would be the perfect place. The whole bike ride over all I could think about was cheese wontons. When we got there we found they raised the price $3 on our favorite drinks and the kitchen was closed for the night.

Even with the exorbitant prices and lack of food, it was nice to spend some time at one of our old haunts. 

The only place we could think of open after midnight was Pizza Luce downtown. Nothing like baked potato pizza and chicken wings. 

The restaurant was full of clubbers. We thought you could only order slices, but thankfully we were able to order a couple of beers and the aforementioned pizza.

Pizza Luce is the place to be after bars close.

Read on for our 4th of July fun.

Car schmar. We managed to pack all our picnic essentials onto my bike and in Scott's bag for a 4th of July picnic.

I bought this grill for a photo shoot at Twin Cities METRO. I have many great memories (and a few not so good) from my magazine editor days. This nifty collapsible grill is a nice reminder of how cool that job was.

 

We grilled some fresh veggies and organic chicken, basting all the above with a mango chutney sauce.

 

It was funny to eat a gourmet meal at the park.  

We then headed towards downtown to watch the fireworks. We were planning on meeting up with Cevonne and Jose in St. Paul, but the bike ride there and back didn't sound to thrilling for me.

We decided not to go all the way to downtown. We saw people waiting down by the river in north and thought we would check it out as well. Although we were still far away we did get a view of both the fireworks and downtown.

The end.