Hi, Everyone!
Since we got back from California, I’ve been helping make a lot of food for my friends to eat. It’s always fun to make food when I know we’re going to have a party!
The basil Grandma is growing on the back deck got big enough to harvest, so we made pesto. I helped wash and dry the basil leaves, then I measured to make sure we had enough to make the recipe. We had just exactly the right amount! I was very careful to measure in the right amount of pine nuts and olive oil, then Grandma let me turn on the food processor. It is very loud, but it makes good pesto! All those basil leaves were processed down to one little container of pesto.
Then I helped Grandpa make a loaf of bread. We took the bread and the pesto to a party where I made some new friends. They live in Pennsylvania now, but they used to live around here. I was proud that I helped make the food for the party!
After we made pesto, Grandma reminded me that the Wild Ginger sauce jar was empty. We always keep Wild Ginger sauce around, so we have it for special dinners when we serve salmon. Wild Ginger sauce has to cook and cook and cook, so Grandma has to make it before she needs it. I helped Grandma stir the sauce and watched to see when it was ready. The fresh ginger in the sauce makes the kitchen smell very spicy while it is cooking! Grandpa thinks we made enough to last the rest of the summer and maybe through New Years Eve! We made it before Grandma and Grandpa’s church dinner group came to Sodus. I was a good helper that day, too!
Where Grandma and Grandpa live, fresh strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the summer. The strawberry crop only lasts about three weeks, and the first ones were ready when we got back from California. Joe-san took me and Moose-san to the strawberry patch to pick strawberries before they were all gone. Fresh strawberries taste really good, because they aren’t picked until they are completely ripe. Moose-san and Joe-san and I picked LOTS of strawberries! Then I stayed overnight and helped Nancy-san make a fresh strawberry pie for her church dinner group. Doesn’t it look yummy? Then Nancy-san and I cooked strawberries into jam, so we can have strawberry flavors all year long. Look at how many jars we made!
When Joe-san drove me back to Grandma’s house, we brought along some of the strawberries we picked for her to use. Grandma used some of them to make a summer pudding. Summer pudding is an English dish made by lining a bowl with egg bread slices, then spooning fresh berries into the dish and weighting them down. Grandma keeps a special brick to press down the fruit in her summer pudding. The weight makes all the juices run into the bread and turn everything a pretty shade of pink. When the pudding was squished enough, we took it as a gift to friends from Grandma’s church. Food presents are fun to make!
In the middle of all the cooking and parties with friends, Grandma got a letter from the photo gallery at church. My picture is going to be on display from August to January! It’s a picture of me and a sand castle that Grandma took when we were visiting Papa Dick-san and Grandma Sue-san in Michigan.
This weekend is Fourth of July, and Sodus Point will be having a fireworks display. We can watch them from our dock! The fireworks are far enough away that we’ll see them before we hear them!
Love,
Lion-san