Cooking, Critters and First Tomatoes

I was so busy eating at this month's cooking class that I forgot to take phone photos. We made Bison Burgers with Thousand Island Barbecue Dressing (pictured), Bratwurst with Tomato Jam and Sauerkraut, and Grilled Portobello & Goat Cheese Sandwiches. I didn't expect to like the bison burgers but they were very tasty.

Randy got a new bread pan...it's called a Pullman Pan (kinda looks like the railroad car) and it makes great sandwich bread without much crust. This loaf was made with white whole wheat flour.

Something was eating a corn plant a day for the last 4 days so we put out a trap and we caught this very fat and rather large mouse. He or she took a ride to the golf course with the dogs this morning and was relocated!

Our first tomatoes!!! They are really our second, third and fourth tomatoes. We were waiting to pick our first tomato and a critter beat us to it.....left just the skin. Randy wasn't taking any chances with these three and picked them a day or two earlier than he would have liked. We are going to enjoy them with the thoughts of more to come!

Concerts and Dog Hike on the Rim

Every Saturday in June and July we look forward to concerts in our local Green Valley Park.
The music is a nice mix...jazz, blues, country, classic rock, pop, motown....you name it. This week we listened to an acappella group from Phoenix that loved to sing doo-wop from the 50's and 60's.

We ventured up to the Rim today and hiked around Woods Canyon Lake. It was beautiful! We had to take a short detour as a pair of eagles are nesting and the forest service has fenced off a large area around their tree.

This is a five mile hike so we had to bring extra water for Argo. The lake water wasn't enough as parts of the trail are above the lake. This is the longest hike he has been on.

We also had to bring some dog chow because Argo is used to getting three meals a day. Much to his dismay, he will be down to two meals a day as he is almost 4 months old.

Cooper likes to go off and explore by himself. He takes frequent dips in the lake.

Argo is great about staying with us. The only problem we have is meeting other folks on the trail. He is so happy to see people that he jumps on them and he often has dirty paws. We are working on the jumping up problem.

The tree in the middle of this photo has a heron nest in it. We heard a lot of squawking and looked up. (I only had my iPhone for picture taking as a pup and an expensive camera don't mix.)

Then we saw this.......

And this....dead baby heron.
We noticed about 3 eggs on the ground. Herons usually have three to five eggs. Puny members of the brood weaken if not fed enough and often end up falling out of the nest, pushed aside by others eager for space to stretch their wings. On the ground, they starve because the parent will not feed outside the nest. However, this nest could have been raided by another bird and the result was all over the ground. I have to hope that there was still one or two babies in the nest.