Saturday, July 5, 2008

Sunday, July 6, 2008 ... 4th Fireworks and Food, in reverse order of how it really happened, and a bit more Duncan

4j_guys_gma_chair
Right before 10 p.m., after we'd eaten all sorts of great food and either thrown the Aerobie or watched it being thrown and/or sat around talking and enjoying the beautiful day and being together, we walked two blocks up to stand in an empty parking lot to see the tip tops of the fireworks being shot off 22 blocks west, down on the Willamette River. The guys walked Grandma slowly and carefully and brought along this desk chair. Leland pushed her back down the slight decline when the show was over. Ready, set, go! Making memories!

I took a few photos which are not at all representative of the actual show. However, I thought--what the hay!--I'll post them. At the bottom of most of the photos is the top of a one-story apartment building or a really good Mexican restaurant, Nuestra Cocina.
fj_fw1

fj_fw2

fj_fw3

fj_fw5

fj_firework_truck
Here's the only firework we had, compliments of Kimberly and Tom. She picked it up after its performance (see the next two photos) and held it for this photo.
fj_firework_truckb
Loud squeals, rapidly changing colors--both marked the path of the little paper truck firework. It's visible between these two bursts of green light.
fj_firework_trucka
Look closely and you can see the tiny paper truck, fire shooting out the grill
fj_asparagus_pan
Asparagus ready for the grill
fj_onions_lam_oil
Seeming to come, almost, from Lamont's thumb, olive oil drizzles onto an onion slice. If you look closely, you can just see the bottle to the left of his hand.
fj_onions_potatoes_grill
Fresh Walla Walla sweet onions and slices of potatoes, grillin'
fj_ribs_out_oven
This huge pan holds the slabs of ribs that had first been smoked about four hours before going into the pan and being covered with industrial plastic wrap. Lamont told me that they then went into a warm oven for at least an hour. As far as spices go, the only one I know about for sure is Peruvian hot peppers--I got a blast with one bite that lasted through several swallows of sweet iced tea!
fj_leland_ribs_cutting
Leland got the slabs of ribs out of the pan one at a time and sliced them into two-bone pieces. I believe he sliced the flank steaks, too.
fj_corn_grill
Yummy, sweet, yummy fresh grilled corn.
fj_asparagus_grill
Fresh asparagus on the grill. I know for sure it got sprinkled with salt and chili flake, plus drizzled and tossed with olive oil--not sure about anything else except that, as Mama told Aunt Baker on the phone this afternoon, it was really, really good.
fj_lam_food1
Lamont's paper platter; Kailey made the Fred Meyer run for all of the paper goods, plastic goods, etc.
fj_michelle_vincent_food
Michelle and Vincent enjoyed their 4th of July dinner. After a couple of bites, Vincent said to Lamont, "Hey man, it's a shame none of this is edible!" Vincent came back again and again for ribs. Mama observed, "Vincent really likes that meat." I did, too. The guys made us a fine, fine meal.
fj_gma_food
Here's Grandma! She graciously stopped chewing for the photo, ha, ha!
fj_cake_powd_sugar_cherries
Lindsay made this lovely cake from a recipe of her mom's. She iced it with marscarpone cheese, topped with fresh cherries and powdered sugar. Both of us got a kick out of the fact that as I focused in on the cake, I got the sprinkling of the sugar!
fj_duncan_brixxs_bone
Duncan gets to look and not touch because he's on a special diet. Brixx, the rottweiler, will be over later on with her folks and claim this great big bone as her own.
fj_duncan_schooner
Duncan and Scooner appear to have a meeting of the minds

14 comments:

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

wish I could eat there!! :)
great collection of great shots!

brian stout said...

beautiful photos lynette, and that food looks delicious...

ptowngirl said...

Excellent photos! Fourth of July done right -- food, family and fun! Y'all sure know how to cook -- looks delicious!

Jim Klenke said...

May have to get the grill out today. All of the pictures look great. I am hungry now.

Andrea said...

Wow, it all looks great, especially all the veggies.

And yes, we got our painting done. Still have some things to do but we are slowly getting there.

YPsworld said...

Lynette, I love your pictures. I can see that you had a great time with your family and friends and wow, the food really looks delicious. We spent our first 4th July in PDX, watched the firework from Hawthorne Bridge and I have to admit: it was the biggest firework I have seen so far (in Europe everything is smaller :) Jasmin

YPsworld said...

I think going to Hawthorne Bridge was a good idea. There were lots people, but it was not too crowded. (they closed the bridge down for traffic) I am sure that you could even go there with a wheelchair. And you get a great view of the firework!
Btw. if you need someone to walk your dog sometime, let me know. He is adorable! I would love to have a dog myself, but we travel quite a lot (also home to Europe) and there is no way to take a dog on an 11hour flight just for a week. Have a good week, Jasmin

WendyB said...

Looks like a great time. Poor Duncan though!

Anonymous said...

mmm love grilled asparagus! these are a great set of photos

ben wideman said...

what an incredible meal! you're making me salivate.

Louis la Vache said...

What fun to look at this series of photos!

Despite his balcony view of the Berkeley, San Francisco, Marin and Richmond fireworks shows, "Louis" didn't get any photos worth posting... :-(

"Louis" got a chuckle out of the photo of Duncan and Scooner. - wary of each other... Meeting of the minds:
Scooner to Duncan: I'm a cat. You're a d-a-w-g. I'm superior to you!
Duncan to Scooner: (sigh) Whatever...

Anonymous said...

Looks like great fun Lynette and the food! Wish I was there.
I have something a bit special to announce my new site tomorrow, and thanks for your recent comments.

from South Shields Daily Photo

Chris said...

Oooh! Asparagus is my absolute FAVORITE vegetable. A few years ago, I ate so much I got sick of it. Of course, that was because I ate it everyday for a month.

I want to know how your kids got interested in cooking!

Kim said...

Thank you for including us in your 4th celebration. It was really fun for me to see into the grill and get a whiff of what's cooking. Everything looks so delicious and your photos capture the good time had by all so very well.
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo