Earning our Keep and Enjoying Oregon's Summer Bounty

Back in the day when we simply vacationed in Oregon we always arrived before the blackberries were ripe. Native Oregonian's consider these plants invasive weeds, and they certainly do take over just about anything in sight given half the chance......but since I adore picking fresh food from any source I am in heaven this summer because we have arrived smack dab in the middle of blackberry season.

Recently, we had a delicious dinner with Chantal's dad and stepmom; featuring fabulous Mediterranian chicken and corn on the cob and bean salad and grilled veggies...a summer's bounty on our plates. Plus, I finally got an opportunity to grill stone fruits for our dessert. We had picked up some beautiful apricots at the Bandon farmer's market and I made Apricots with chocolate and raspberry balsamic drizzle. (Click for recipe)

Grilled Apricots

We are spending about two weeks with Chantal and James here in Myrtle Creek and we wanted to repay the favor by helping them out around the house. The biggest project has been installing baseboard in about 75% of the house. Luckily Hans has some experience in this department, and we made a good team tackling this project. Here is the master at work!

Happy at the end of 270 linear feet of baseboard!