Was It July 4th Already?!?

Was it July 4th already?!?

I cannot believe this past weekend really July 4th!

Where does time go? I feel like we were still wishing it would stop snowing…

David and I spent all three days of our July 4th weekend at home. It was much-needed, as we have been busy and on the road a lot the weekends leading up to it.

Before heading home from work on Thursday afternoon, I stopped at The Fresh Market for some fresh ground chuck and some of their Applewood Smoked Bacon. As you can see by the meat counter, I almost cleaned them out chuck.

I headed home. The weather was stormy and there was fog down below in the valley.

It was great to awaken on Friday morning at whatever time we felt like it and not have to rush out of the house. When we finally decided to get up, the first thing we did was hang out our flag in honor of the day.

I have been wanting to make a homemade cherry pie for some time now. Miraculously, I managed to keep cherries in the refrigerator for quite a few days without them spoiling. I either didn’t have the time during the week. I also thought I needed a cherry pitter. I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed to make the pie anyway.

Friday morning, I made my homemade cherry pie!! I pitted the cherries using something you may have at home in a kitchen drawer (Find out what it was).

I even made pie crust from scratch!

For supper we kept with the July 4th tradition of cheeseburgers and hot dogs. I even made some home fries and made my very own ketchup! Yep, I made my own ketchup and we loved it!

We enjoyed fireworks from our deck after having a slice of that homemade cherry pie with ice cream on top.  Can you believe we had to put on long sleeves, long pants and slippers on to watch the fireworks?!? It was a bit chilly outside in the low 60’s. Can’t say that I ever remember a July 4th that chilly.

We spent Saturday on the river. I was a good day.

David caught a nice small mouth bass.

This little guy even posed for the camera during one of our stops.

Sunday was spent doing a few chores in the morning. These chores included putting David’s grill back on the deck. We originally took it off the deck because it was burning through the supposed fire-proof mat we bought for it. David has just about worn himself out going up and down the steps and I was tired of him tracking inside. We decided who cares if we have to replace a 2×4 let’s put the grill on the deck!

Most of the afternoon was spent relaxing, but we managed to rustle up a mean supper. Cedar plank smoked salmon, homemade macaroni and cheese, with Brussels sprouts and spinach. It was so good and we ate so much, we didn’t even have room for the pie! (Recipes to come…)

It was hard waking up to the blaring alarm clock on Monday morning, though I’m pretty sure His Royal Highness was ready to get rid of us!

We hope you had a safe and Happy July 4th too!