Is it August already? How did this happen? Summer is my favorite season and every year it passes by so fast. I can’t believe summer is more than half over.
We’ve been super busy this summer. Hopefully we’ll have a few days to just enjoy and relax soon. Here are some of the highlights of what we’ve been up to.
Graduation Parties
June was full of graduation parties. Lots of family, friends, and of course food!
One party took place in a beautiful backyard. I didn’t take pictures of the buffet of Filipino food on display because there were constantly people getting food and I didn’t want to get in the way. But the food was delicious. Mr. K was most excited that there was a taco stand in addition to the Filipino spread. Usually his family parties just have the Filipino food, so he was loading up on tacos.
I really loved these fried shells stuffed with potatoes.
At another Filipino family graduation party, I was able to take some pictures of the great spread after there was a lull. Here’s some of the food. Chicken teriyaki and a Filipino beef stew.
Pancit
Two kinds of lumpia
Mr. K thought it was very amusing that the vegetable plate was untouched.
Desserts:
There was plenty of food. Enough for everyone to eat a ton and still make to-go plates to take home. One thing though that got completely demolished early on? The lechon!
Bonfire
In early July, we went to a bon voyage party for fellow food blogger Marie of Meandering Eats. As many of you may know, she left San Diego to pursue her medical degree dreams. She was so instrumental in starting up the San Diego Chapter of the annual Blogger Bake Sale for charity and in bringing together a San Diego blogger community through monthly blogger events, a Facebook page, etc, so we’re really going to miss her.
Before she left, Darlene of My Burning Kitchen invited some bloggers and organized a bonfire send-off. It’s been years since Mr. K and I have done a bonfire, so this was a lot of fun. Darlene and Marie came up with the idea of having a pseudo Marie piñata that would be burned at the end of the night.
There was a grilled cheese cooking contest. It was fun seeing all the different techniques people were trying.
I was impressed with this method:
Once it grew dark, it was time to roast some S’mores.
And of course, there was the burning of the piñata. I thought I had captured a video of it, but it seems to have gotten deleted. Here are a few photos:
The hair lit up first. I thought it was funny that the clothes burned, but remained strategically placed.
Gardening
The beginning of this month, I’ve had some gardening success. One of the criteria for our current house hunting search is a small backyard because I want a garden and a puppy. Mr. K always mentions the garden part in almost a mocking tone when he tells the real estate agent why we need a yard. For good reason. We both know that I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening. It’s not that I ignore my plants or anything. I try really hard, but they always end up dying.
The first indications of this occurred when I was in elementary school. My dad has always had dozens of house plants. Once, he took about a week long business trip and he put me in charge of taking care of his plants. I took the responsibility quite seriously. I listened to his instructions and try to follow them exactly. Within days of him leaving, the plants started a downward spiral to my great distress. I remember even calling him about it. Once he came home, he luckily was able to revive them all again.
Since college, I’ve tried my hand at plants a few times. Usually herbs. They always start out great, but end up suddenly dying. Over the years, I’ve managed to kill every plant my friends guarantee anyone can keep alive. I even killed a cactus once!
Anyhow, I stubbornly decided to start up a garden again to show Mr. K I’m serious about the backyard garden. I found out you can keep fig trees in planters so we recently bought a small one. I fretted over it every day, got freaked out every time a leaf turned yellow, and even vacuumed off spider webs. After no signs of growth for about a month, a few days ago I woke up to a fig that is finally ripening! I’m so excited.
I also decided to try my hand at herbs again. Normally I buy the small plants from Home Depot, but I had been given some seedlings, so I decided to plant them. For a month there was nothing, then suddenly there were some signs of life. Now it’s been about two weeks, and there a ton of tiny little plants sprouting. Here’s the beginnings of my basil plant.
I also decided to try strawberries. I originally wanted blueberries, but read it’s quite hard to keep alive. So on a whim, I bought a few strawberry plants. Because it’s so late in the season, they only sprouted a few berries and they were so tiny. Hopefully next year there will be more.
So that’s it for now. We’ve been doing a ton of eating, as usual, and taking a few other road food trips that I’ll be blogging about eventually. Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!
ooo is that TURON in pics 6 and 7 ? if not what was the filling ?
6 & 7 is lumpia. I believe the turon is in the dessert photos
I’m glad you and D made it to the bonfire despite the last minutes changes on FB.
Good luck on finding a place with all the criteria. Our back is tiny — actually it’s a patio but enough that I have vertical planters for my herbs and lemon tree. I should really try a fig tree too. I think my only complaint about that and now being a dog owner is that I’ve had to readjust my standards of cleanliness. The only thing that gets me through it is thinking I haven’t died yet because of the dirt. 🙂
Thanks for organizing and inviting us!
Oooh, lemon tree is on my list.
My parents are excellent gardeners (not me though). My dad’s had a blueberry “bush” (it kind of looks more like a small plant with a few twigs for branches) for a few years now and they are really hard to grow here. I think he gets like, a handful of blueberries a year. He keeps trying though, moving it and taking care of it. It’s still alive and trying! Good luck with your further garden efforts – the tiny strawberries are cute!
Yeah I read about blueberry dwarf trees and they need very acidic soil and stuff, so very hard to grow. Which sucks because I love blueberries. I’m trying to figure out how to make the strawberries bigger.
Love this recap! You are definitely having a great summer. The pinata was so cuteee. I totally understand the black thumb thing; I mainly kill flowers T.T
Aw, yeah I’m not good with flowers either. Heh.
Nice spread of food at the party. The custard looks particularly yummy. Is that bread pudding or something else?
Maybe the vegetable plate needs its Ranch dipping.
It’s a cassava cake. It tastes like a coconut custard cake that has a sticky chewy consistency. It sort of reminds me of mochi.
The Filipino desserts look good. They had suman, pecan tarts, turon (banana lumpia), and cassava cake! MMM! 🙂
I like your mini garden! I was lazy this year with ours. I was so mad because our neighbor’s #$%@ cat used one of my vegetable beds as a “litter box”, so now I want Bert to replace all of that soil and start fresh and also to put a cover with chicken wire so that cat won’t get into it. Grrrr.
Oh that sucks =( I’m worried a bird is going to steal my fig, but I don’t want to pick it too soon either. I love trying all the Filipino desserts. Unfortunately, Mr. K never remembers the name of anything. I only get the names if Mr. K’s mom is around.
WOW, the Graduation party food looks awesome. Is it possible you can post or let us know the restaurant or who made the food? Long time reader, 1st time comment.
Thanks for commenting. Unfortunately, all the food was catered, and I’m not sure from where. Also this wasn’t in SD–not sure where you are at. Most of the dishes are common Filipino party foods so they should be easy to find.