Cocktail Cruise

We're promised warm weather through the end of the week at least. It isn't too bad today.

It's 81°F. at our house right now, and I'm resisting turning on the A/C. The windows are open and there's still a nice breeze blowing, keeping it comfortable, if not cool.

Last night was lovely, and we sat outside with the kitties for a while. Smitty is always on the hunt for furry mammals.

Gracie, on the other hand, has apparently gone vegan. She continues grazing on the grass while a gopher digs right next to her.

Miss Gracie would like to remind all the lady cats that a lady cat always keeps her paws together.

Smitty took an interest in our trailing evergreen tree, as he does from time to time. What I'm calling a "trailing evergreen" is like any other evergreen, only think of it as more of a vine. It grows up out of the ground about two feet, then falls over and crawls across the ground.

As we watched, this guy popped out of the uppermost part of the tree. He's been living under the tree for at least two seasons. He's big and fat, obviously making a good living off the peanuts and sunflower seeds under the bird feeders.

Moments later, Smitty came over the top and tried to grab him, but the squirrel was too quick. Curses!

The squirrel grows more and more bold in his wanderings. Smitty will have him for lunch one of these days. For now, they continue, and it gives Smitty something to think about. It also keeps him up close to the house.

While we were outside, Mike suggested we try to take the boat out again. We've been having mechanical problems. When we took it out last week, it was making a noise Mike didn't like. He felt as if he'd exhausted his diagnostic capabilities and so he took it to a boat mechanic who pronounced it sound (no pun intended). He told us it probably had bad gas from sitting through the winter. Mike had dealt with the old gas, and put some kind of cleaner in. The boat mechanic felt the boat just needed to be run up and down the river for a while and stated confidently the noise would go away. (I'm probably not explaining this very well, but I listen to these "man things" with only one ear.) So all of that to say that we're taking the boat out tonight for a cocktail cruise.

This morning I went out for a short grocery trip and came home to make up a cold dinner for our boat outing. We're taking along a bottle of wine and I made some chilled Cucumber and Avocado Soup with Tomato and Basil Salad.

This is something I've made before, and Mike really likes it. It's served cold with a sprinkling of crispy crumbled prosciutto. Of course I'm always happy for a recipe that uses some of my CSA veggies. This one used two cucumbers, some of the sweet onion, some of the basil, and one of the tomatoes. I added seasonings, an avocado, and some buttermilk, pureed it in the blender, and Voila! Dinner is served.

It's a very light dinner, however, with practically nothing but vegetables, and so I picked up a bag of frozen cooked shrimp and made up some cocktail sauce. I like The Barefoot Contessa's recipe for the cocktail sauce.

It's simple to make and delicious. We like lots of horseradish in ours...enough to knock our heads off if we get too much. We call it "The Cruel Food".

Also, I picked up a loaf of rustic olive bread at the grocery store to give us something crunchy. And with that our boat picnic is ready to go! It should be fun. Mid-week, there is almost no one on the river, so it should be a good time.

Aside from that, I have a little bit of housework to do, and then I'll get back to sewing my flying geese together. I'm looking forward to a good day, and I hope you're doing likewise.