at home (sort of)

Last night I finished making perogies with my new perogi "zipper" bought during my quick trip to Winnipeg. The dough is easy:

4 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 c warm water

Form into a dough ball and let stand, covered, for an hour.

Roll out into strips about 1/8" thick.

Make a filling - mine was mashed potato, browned onion, a couple of sausages ground up and some grated cheddar cheese.

Place a tsp of filling on the dough at ~ 2" intervals and fold over the dough to form the perogi, press the dough together pressing out air pockets. Using the perogi "zipper" cut and seal the perogi.

I used my pasta machine up to setting 4 to form the dough strips - I went up to setting 5 for the first ones but the dough was a bit too thin. Actually the perogi started to remind me of condoms so I had a fit of giggles for a while. It took me back to the days when I worked in a lab and the company acquired the license to sell a well-known brand of condoms and we used to sit around and think up testing devises for them. In the end we didn't end up doing the testing and had to be content with the regular pills and suppositories that were our lot. But I digress. I now have a few big bags of perogi in the freezer waiting to be dinner some night. Her's a picture of some of the perogi and the perogi "zipper".

A lazy morning this morning and I actually got to sleep in a bit - a rarity with a 3 1/2 year old boy but he was content to play quietly and watch "his" TV this morning and let mummy sleep. We got up and spent some time in the garden - T riding his tricycle and playing in the sand box and me thinning out green onions. It was thrilling to see the tiny green onions, smelling all oniony - I cut off the root ends and they'll be like a chive topping for green beans with feta and vinagrette for supper tonight. It was lovely in the garden, sunny, quiet with big, furry bees humming in the lavender flowers and a couple of butterflies flitting around. T tried to catch them.

I picked a few cherries that hung on our side of the fence, from our neighbours tree. Yum! T helped with the watering and I set up the sprinkler for him to run in. (Well I was prompted by T taking off all his clothes and announcing he wanted his pool set up).

I picked a few of our blooming roses, they smell divine!

Here are some more pictures of the garden - tomatoes and zuccini. T and I watered and then all the unstaked tomatoes promptly fell over so I ran around trying to find sometime to stake them with. And good news, the basil I thought was finished is reviving slowly.






Then T and I rushed off to attend a birthday party. There were 2 birthday parties at the Gator Pit so it was very loud with kids running everywhere. Eventually T settled down and played trains on the train set - although that was fraught with pushing, not sharing and tantrums. The kids had lunch - T didn't eat any hot dog but did eat grapes, cucumber, watermelon, apple and chips. Then came the birthday cake which T had been asking about all day - it turned out to be an ice cream cake so he tucked right in. Then he joined the other kids in climbing and sliding around the play structures until I dragged him out and we came home. I'm exhausted. He's playing with his balloon and new truck.