Of Ducks and Diners

Meet Anna and Emma, a nod to our favorite Jane Austen novel, our female Rouen ducks. I think ducks are my favorite farm animal, with their waggly walk and quackety quacks. They are simply delightful!

The girls primary job during the day is tick and bug patrol. We've had guineas in the past, who worked splendidly at keeping our property tick free, but their looks and temperment were not much to our liking. So after a bit of research, we decided to give the ducks a try. Here's hoping they work as well, because they are much so much cuter!

Yesterday I decided to go into town and spend some time at Barnes & Noble while my daughter was working, and we decided to leave a little early and have lunch together.  Woodruff's Store Cafe and Pie Shop is legendary in our neck of the woods, but until yesterday, we had never eaten there. To be honest, it's so remote that it took me awhile to even find it. But when we were house hunting last summer we finally came across it, and to my delight we now live relatively close by. We've been planning for some time to finally make it over, and yesterday was the day.

I have to say, I am often disappointed when something gets a lot of hype, be it a movie, a restaurant, you name it. Maybe I'm just pickier than the average person, but when something seems too good to be true, for me at least, it often is. But thankfully Woodruff's proved to be as good it claims, and we were not disappointed! 

We had the chicken salad sandwich on a ciabatta roll with chips and an pickle, and I have to admit, I think I may like it even better than my own! My recipe was one that through trial and error, I finally arrived it while trying to mimick another chicken salad sandwich we loved when we lived in Texas, from The Great Outdoors. Their chicken salad sandwich is served on a croissant, and I always got mine with lettuce, tomatoe, avocado salt and pepper and vinegar and oil and it was DIVINE! It took me awhile to get the recipe as close to theirs as possible, but in the end both my daughter and I were satisfied with the results. I love it so much I typically make up a batch at least once a week. Woodruff's recipe is actually very similar, but perhaps slightly sweeter than The Great Outdoors, and I think I know how they do it! Not that we could be kept away even if I were to figure out how to make something relatively close, because the pie! The pies are what they are known for, and now I know why! 

We decided to split a piece, and we ended up choosing Chocolate Chess. This was our first time tasting Chocolate Chess pie and it was simply divine! The flavor actually reminded me of my mom's, though it is actually a meringue pie, but since I detest meringue we eat it every year without it. Chocolate Chess pie has more of a fudgy consistency, I guess you would say, almost a cross between a brownie and a pie. I decided to do a quick search for a recipe for one and I'm thinking of making it for the 4th. So far, I like the looks of this one.

Our plans for Independence Day are a little scattered, primarily because for whatever reason almost no one in our area has fireworks on the 4th? There's a big display happening tonight in downtown, which we had originally planned to attend, but with my daughter working we decided instead to do what we've done in years past and go to the one that is hosted by Liberty University, which is always on the Sunday before the 4th. So our plans for the actual day are to grill some hot dogs and spend a leisurely day at home. I picked up a package of sparklers, and maybe we'll finally break in the fire pit I got for Mother's Day this year.

What are your plans for the 4th, my friends?  Do you follow long held traditions for celebrating the day, or wing it and try something new every year? About the only thing that is traditional for us is the menu. It's one of the few days each year that we have hot dogs because I personally, am not a big fan. But there's something about the three summer holidays, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day that just call for hot dogs, it is a decidedly summer menu in our home!

Until then, my friends, I hope you are finding wasy to slowly savor the summer days!

❈