We kicked off the holiday weekend with a potluck attended by many of the Sustainable Back Yard tour hosts. The Winstein’s, who live and raise goats in Webster Groves, hosted the gathering. We enjoyed lots of fabulous garden-fresh dishes, all of which happened to be vegetarian, even though it wasn’t specifically a vegetarian gathering.
After dinner, we toured their garden and goat milking shed. Each goat can give more than a gallon of milk a day (!), and they make cheese with much of it.
We enjoyed a lazy day on Saturday: late breakfast with some friends at our place, afternoon chilling, then heading to the pool for an early evening swim. We returned home for a simple, tasty dinner featuring vegetarian Field Roast sausage (which I’ve been wanting to try since reading about it over at Daily Garnish) before walking to a nearby park to see fireworks.
Fireworks under the Arch are great (and we may get down to see them tonight), but nothing beats a fabulous neighborhood fireworks show in my book. Of course, the easily walkable/bikeable part is a huge plus!
Sunday brought two firsts for me: pasta and pickles. I’ve written before about our fabulous homemade pasta noodles, but Matthew has always done the bulk of the work there — I provided assistance and encouragement. Yesterday, I busted out the rolling pin and worked out my arm muscles, with good results 🙂
Likewise, we make pickles most summers, but it’s something that Matthew grew up doing, so he is the head pickle chef. Yesterday, I whipped up our first batch of refrigerator dills, which, it turns out, are ridiculously easy. I’ll have to photo document the process next time and share our easy, delicious refrigerator dill pickle recipe.
With a bit of the weekend left, we’re planning to make spanakopita (subbing our Swiss chard for the spinach) and possibly check out fireworks tonight. Happy 4th!
Her Green Life 