building sites

Great excitement in our house this week, at least for the smallest member. A backhoe moved into the empty lot across the street and was digging a huge hole and loading dump trucks with dirt. All very exciting for our boy. He's been inspired to build his own Lego creations - a very large container ship with dock and loading truck, then that was taken apart and a locomotive was created, then a garbage truck, then a wind turbine transporter ship and finally a cruise ship (complete with passenger doors, cargo doors and an icebreaker snow plow). In between we have train crashes on the wooden railway or the battery CAT train set.

the backhoe

building the lego container ship

The weather finally warmed up enough for us to brave the outdoors wearing summery type clothes - shorts and capris, albeit with sweatshirts over top and I finally have more plants in the garden - some containers of flowers as well as summer squash and herbs. It still needs to be a bit warmer for the tomatoes, beans and basil. The boy was helping me load soil into the containers, digging holes for the plants with his excavator and then watering everything with the help of his elephant watering can. But then he had to experiment making brown water (regular water with dirt added) and running his battery train set outside. But it was lovely to be outside.

And in honour of summer type weather, I changed up our Sunday supper. Served potato salad instead of oven roasted potatoes. And I made mayonaise myself to go in the potato salad. Yum.

Mayonaise (from Luisa at Wednesday Chef)
1 egg yolk
salt
1 garlic clove, minced
anchovy paste equivalent to 1 anchovy
1/4 lemon
1/3 cup sunflower oil
2 tbsp olive oil

Put the egg yolk into a wide mouth jar and whiz with an immersion blender for about 30 seconds. Add the salt, garlic, anchovy paste and juice of 1/4 lemon and whiz briefly. While whizzing slowly add the oil in a steady stream until the mixture is creamy and emulsified. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Potato Salad (adapted from the Tomato Fresh Cafe cookbook)
6 red potatoes, scrubbed and diced in large dice
salt
1/4 red onion, diced finely
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 large spoonful sour cream
2 large spoonfuls mayonaise
1 tbsp dill weed
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes in salted water until al dente. Drain and cool.

Meanwhile add the minced onion, mustard, sour cream, mayonaise and dill to a large bowl and mix together. Add the cooled potatoes and toss until coated. Taste and season with salt and pepper as required.