Roman Life

Diapering Dilemma - An Overwhelming Choice

2012-01-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

Trying to be somewhat responsible to the planet, and yet recognizing that life needs to be not too complicated, we have travelled down a convoluted path, working out what diapers to use. I really hate the concept of disposables, but they are undeniably convenient. We started with a local diaper service, and at the beginning when Kate was brand new (I can't believe that was 18 months ago!!!), we were really happy. They provided unlimited cloth diapers, and once a week picked up the bag of soiled diapers and left freshly cleaned ones for us. It was perfect, until she grew a little bigger, and then she was in between diaper sizes for some time. The positives about the diapers used by the diaper service: they were very absorbent (they had microfleece lining and some kind of microfleece suede outer cover) and the waterproof covers meant that usually we only had to change the diaper but not the cover, and of course the convenience of having them collected and cleaned cannot be overstated. The negatives, however, were too annoying to overlook. The diapers themselves didn't have many snap choices. They sold that as a positive (i.e. only one snap per side!) but that was not a positive as far as we were concerned, because as Kate grew, it became more and more challenging to find an appropriate setting for the snaps. That, and the manufacture of the diapers was hugely inconsistent and variable in the placement of the snaps and the shape and dimensions of the diapers themselves, so if you figured out the alignment for one diaper, it certainly didn't automatically work for the next one. I also wasn't a fan of the rash that developed along the serged seams on the leg openings. We ended up having too many blowouts for my liking, which kind of defeats the purpose as far as I'm concerned: it ceased to be convenient and relatively easy to use.

So we thanked them for their wonderful service, explained that it was more about the product than their service (which was fantastic, and for other babies, it's possible the diapers would work just perfectly), and I had to figure out what else we could do. We went through some various disposable options; I hate the chemical smell that most disposable diapers contain to let you know when the diapers are wet (like you can't tell just by squishing them slightly), so I tried to find unscented and undyed options. We loved the price and fit of the PC Green disposables, but I hated the plastic smell of them so much that I'd open a package and open every single diaper to try and air it first before Kate used it. They also gave Kate a rash, so that didn't work We ended up using the 7th Generation disposables for a number of weeks. They worked well, they didn't give Kate a rash, and they didn't smell, but they are not inexpensive. We went back to the PC Green brand since, as they have ceased to be plastic smelling, and haven't given Kate a rash again, so they're now our go-to disposable for travelling and night time; not cheap, but a somewhat inexpensive dye-free and scent-free alternative

I didn't want to stay with disposables, so I started the search for cloth diapers. Oh. My. Goodness. The options! Well, I suppose that's good, but it's certainly overwhelming. We luckily had a store not too far away that offered a trial borrow program. Fantastic! I decided that I wasn't a fan of fitted and prefold diapers. The fitted were pretty similar to the diapers used by the service, but like those diapers, the serged stitching along the leg openings were abrasive. One-sized diapers appeal, because they will grow with your baby, and in theory, you only have to buy one set to last for the length of diapering. The down-side is that for small babies (and Kate seems to have a skinny waist and thighs), one-sized diapers can be too big for some time. I didn't mind the concept of stuffing, so pocket diapers were a reasonable sounding option.

So we tried a few different varieties, and my favourites that we borrowed were the Baby Kangas one sized pocket diapers. The pockets on these were accessed from the front and outside, which, when you consider what you have to do to unstuff a poopy diaper, had huge appeal. They worked quite well, but had hemp inserts. While hemp and cotton are very absorbent, they're not very good at wicking moisture away from the skin. The Kangas do have a polyester layer between the baby and the inserts, it didn't seem to do a good enough job keeping Kate's bum dry.

I decided that I really liked the ability to remove a soiled layer and replace it, while keeping the outer covering for reuse. I started looking for something along those lines, and discovered gDiapers, which seemed to fit the bill perfectly. I looked high and low for them, but the only option you can buy here in Canada is the cover and the disposable insert. Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of the reusable cover and not disposing (they say they can be flushed, but we're on septic and I sure didn't want to take the chance).

Finally, I ran across the Flip diaper system, and it seemed to meet all of my requirements: an absorbent insert that is easy to load & unload, leak-proof outer covers that have soft edges for around the legs and middle with lots of snaps options, and they're "one size" such that you change the rise dimensions with the three sizing snaps in front. And I was able to purchase them in Canada!

The verdict? These work really, really well for us. They seem to fit our skinny, tall & lanky little girl, and they've grown well with her. The process of washing every three days takes a little getting used to, and making sure to strip the detergent build up every once in a while is important too. Sadly, since we have to use so much oily creams etc. on Kate's legs and mid-section for her eczema, I've had to replace the covers recently (i.e. after about a year of use) because they all of a sudden just lost their waterproofing (hardly surprising: oils and waterproofing do not mix well), but I think that wouldn't be necessary in most situations. I believe that this product should be useful for most people right up until no more diapers are required. And I feel that they were a good, economic solution to the cloth diapering that we were hoping to achieve (because oh boy, are those "all in one" diapers expensive).

What are your favourite cloth or disposable diapers and why? Have you had any true disasters? Please share - it's great to learn other options!

Winter Relief Update

2012-01-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

I originally posted a recipe for Whipped Shea Butter over a year ago, and we've been using it quite religiously ever since. I've made a few changes, though, which I find quite effective. So here's the updated recipe.

10 oz Shea butter (preferably unrefined, cold pressed or however the equivalent works for it)
4 oz carrier oil (I used grapeseed oil or calendula-infused sunflower oil, if I've got it on hand)
1 oz unrefined beeswax
1 oz unrefined cocoa butter
essential oils - I use about 20 drops each French Alp lavender, tea tree and grapefruit seed extract to help with K's eczema, but a nice smelling combination is peru balsam & cinnamon oils.
10 capsules of vitamin E - just the oil inside, I discard the capsules

Prepare your mixing bowl (i.e. if you've got a stand mixer, use that bowl, otherwise get a different bowl to whip the ingredients) by placing in the freezer. Best not to use a glass or ceramic one, so that it doesn't shatter when you pour the hot liquid into it.

Melt the shea butter, beeswax and cocoa butter in a double burner (I use a ceramic bowl over a pot of almost boiling water, careful that the water doesn't touch the bowl). Let the temperature of the mixture reach 180F, and keep it there for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour the melted mixture into your chilled bowl, add your carrier oil, and place in freezer for about 5-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your freezer. Just long enough to start to resolidify the mix, which will make it a little creamy but not solid.

Use stand mixer (if you've got one) or an electric beater to whip the mixture until it forms really thick peaks. About half way through the process (i.e. it's getting more stiff but still quite creamy and soft), add the essential oils and vitamin E capsule contents, then finish beating. Scrape the bowl often, because the mixture will solidify at different rates.

When the mixture has reached a nice stiff consistency and holds very strong peaks:

scoop into clean and preferably sterilized containers. I haven't yet tried, but I bet using a parchment paper icing bag with a big icing nozzle would work really well. Place the lids on the containers and put away. Make sure to use up all the extra loveliness stuck to the bowl & mixer parts!

When you go to apply the cream, it will be stiff and hard-ish in the container, but the heat from your hands will melt it really quickly, so as you apply it to your skin, it will soak in beautifully. Enjoy!

So Much to Tell

2012-01-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

We have been very busy in the garden & kitchen during 2011, I just haven't had a chance to share with everyone. In quick summary:

Despite the extremely slow start to the season and depressingly cool summer, we had a surprisingly bountiful harvest from our garden, especially potatoes, dried beans, squash, and tomatoes. Once again, we figured we would have no tomatillos and ended up with a bumper crop (although they didn't ripen very well, and as a result didn't store very well at all). Even our peppers did really well this year, and we smoked our Guajillo chillies in our new Bradley Smoker! They are fabulous in soups, stews and sauces, with just a little bite and a lovely smoky flavour to enhance anything they're tossed into. We also tried dehydrated tomatoes and had enough of our Red Ruffle bell peppers to dry again this year, which I've been adding to just about all of my savoury recipes.
We have our first livestock! In July, we picked up 9 young Muskovy ducks: 3 drakes and 6 ducks. They've been enjoying our orchard & field, and keeping the weeds cropped beautifully. Plus, they really got into slug duty this summer, so we're enthusiastically looking forward to their slugging abilities this coming spring. They started to lay in late November, and Dave's been collecting about 3-5 eggs every day since then. We'll be letting them raise their babies in the spring, in the hopes that we can have duck meat to make into confit, casssoulet, ham, sausage, and just duck!

We participated in a Community Supported Fishery through the Michelle Rose in Cowichan Bay. As a result, we had about 11 pounds of king shrimp and spot prawns, and a little less than 10 pounds of sockeye and pink filets. We christened the Bradley by cold-smoking some sockeye, and I made my first batch of gravlax. The seafood (including the smoked salmon) has made it into a few chowders with our root veggies (rutabaga, potato, parsnip, leeks & onions), smoked guajillo & dehydrated ruffle peppers, home-made chicken stock, our grilled corn nibblets and coconut milk finish - totally yum.
We had our first "feast of the fields" equivalent - we hosted a mid-winter feast with our friends, and dined on the gravlax with home-made butter (sigh, not yet with our own cream) on home-grown home-made rye bread, spicy pumpkin soup, espresso-braised venison, rutabaga potato gratin, and pumpkin pie, accompanied with home-made apple plum wine. It was fabulous, and we're looking forward to repeating this new tradition annually (maybe even semi-annually with a summer feast, too!).
In dealing with eliminating eggs, wheat & dairy (and now corn & rice for the foreseeable future) due to Kate's eczema, I've been exploring baking with allergy-friendly alternatives. I purchased allergyfreemom.com's recipe book and have made quite a few of her recipes very successfully. I recommend trying the cinnamon rolls (they're weird to make but really, really tasty) and the gingerbread cookies (even if it's no longer Christmas). I used sorghum flour in both to great success. There are also some great recipes on Bob's Red Mill site. I'm also now trying to eat a lot more veggies, especially greens (check out the TedX presentation by Terry Wahls), and have discovered that I actually love kale chips (go figure)! I've also invested in some super food stuff via recipes from Meghan Telpner's Making Love in the Kitchen blog. After enjoying the Tumeric Tea (actually more like spicy chai tea with tumeric added) and Raw Chocolate Bark yesterday, I am definitely looking forward to some more experimentation in this department.

Since I can't seem to keep up with what I'm doing in the kitchen, you can always have a look at my SpringPad site to see what recipes I'm collecting and trying out.

I'm sure there's been more activity - of course there has, Kate's now 18 months and there's been a year's worth full of development and exploration in that department. The addition is now mostly complete, certainly Mom has been living there since about May, and really enjoying it. We're now turning our thoughts towards getting Dave a shop built, so that he can get back into making his beautiful furniture.

Sausages in Jars

2011-10-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

We've become huge fans of the "meat in jars" concept. We started this last year when Dave got into making sausages, and we tried a pretty basic venison sausage recipe. It's great opening a jar of meat and adding it to whatever you've got on the go - much quicker than having to think about taking something out of the freezer to thaw first.

This year, we played around a little with that basic sausage recipe, and came up with three new ones, two of which are in jars, and the last we made into freezer patties. I'll give you the ingredients here for the mix, but please follow the directions from Hunter Angler Gardiner Cook's venison sausage recipe for the "how to". Also, if your canning, please follow the pressure canning instructions for ground meat on the USDA's National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Dried Tomato & Fresh Basil Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
> 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil, chopped
1 head (small, about 8 cloves) garlic, peeled & chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup dehydrated tomatoes, chopped (we used 1/2 cup each of our dehydrated Black Plum and Principe Borghese tomatoes)
1/2 cup dehydrated bell pepper, chopped (we used our Red Ruffle peppers)
1/2 tsp dehydrated jalapeño pepper, chopped (more if you want it spicier)
1 tsp ground smoked sweet paprika
< 1 tbsp sea salt
1/2 cup cold grape juice

After making this into sausage, we canned it.

Curry Ginger Apple Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
1 tbsp smoked sea salt
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (my own mix)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup dried tomatoes (Black Plum), chopped
1/2 cup dried bell pepper (Red Ruffle), chopped
1/2 cup dried apple (Gravenstein), chopped
2" fresh ginger root, grated
1 head (medium, about 12 cloves) garlic, peeled & chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cold grape juice

After making this into sausage, we canned it.

Fruit & Maple Breakfast Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
1 tbsp smoked sea salt
1/2 cup each, chopped: dried cranberries, dried blueberries & dried apples

2 tbsp dehydrated bell pepper, chopped (Red Ruffle)
1/2 tsp dehydrated jalapeño pepper, chopped (more if you want it spicier)
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp ground white peppercorns
1/2 cup cold maple syrup

After making this into sausage, we froze it into patties on wax paper-lined baking sheets, then cut the wax paper around the patties and vacuum sealed them into freezer bags.

Kitchen Whirlwind

2011-10-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Summer Preserves by chotda on Flickr

We've just spent the better part of this week on our feet, preparing food for the coming year. Dave shot a small buck for us (more on that separately), and the produce from the garden has just been continuing to roll in (I'll try to compile a preserves tally again this year).

We made a discovery this year of a product for canning that I'd read about, but hadn't really investigated. Low methoxyl (LM) pectin allows you to significantly reduce (or eliminate) the amount of sugar used in a recipe, and you can use honey, or other sweeteners (like stevia, or agave nectar or whatever) in place of sugar, because the gelling process does not require sugar to occur, unlike standard pectins.

I found Pomona's Universal Pectin at Galloway's Speciality Foods in Burnaby, so I picked up a couple of packages to try. I had a huge batch of various berries (Oregon grape, currants, gooseberries, wild blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, evergreen huckleberries) that I needed to get out of the freezer (we're going to be getting a pig from my Dad soon), and was really keen on making a tart jelly with these fruits.

Well, I made the equivalent of six batches, and it gelled beautifully and perfectly, using little honey as the sweetener, and I made two triple batches following the directions on the package. I did the same thing with whole strawberries and made the equivalent of seven batches all in one go! Finally, I made a herbal jelly which I added very little honey to, and it gelled beautifully again.

Benefits of the Pomona's Universal Pectin:

Low sugar or use sweetener of your choice.
Beautiful gelling (although this might vary... I'll keep experimenting!) even if you make a multiple batch (unlike normal pectin which I don't have any success with because I'm always mucking with the sugar levels and am in a rush so I want to double & triple recipes!).
Keeps indefinitely as long as properly stored (cool, dry location).

Drawbacks of the Pomona's Universal Pectin:

Can be difficult to source (but check out their "free package" offer, to get you to encourage your local store to carry it).
Expensive compared to regular pectin (but I'm looking into the option to purchase in bulk, as it keeps indefinitely).

Still not done yet... we've got a local source for some pears, and our Italian prune plums need dealing with, as do the tail end of our tomato harvest. Sigh. But it's so satisfying having all this good food available!

Canning Season Again

2011-08-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Jars by nicholasjon on Flickr

This is just a brief note of a list of canning & preserving links that were mentioned in the Victoria Times Colonist on Sunday, August 28, 2011:

Punk Domestics - sounds right up our alley! Preserving, foraging, home brewing... when I've got some time (hahahaha!) this will definitely get a good look.
Well Preserved - a blog about food & foodies, with a bent towards home preserving techniques. I like this post especially discussing safety issues around home canning, one of their first references therein is the USDA National Center for Home Preservation, my bible for all things stuck in jars.
Food in Jars - a blog about home preservation. Some really intriguing recipes.
laundry etc. - a UK blogger's interesting collection of home-related stuff, with lots of luscious sounding recipes and lovely photos.

Another recent article in a recent Times Colonist about preserving fresh herbs.

Salmon Puff Muffins

2011-04-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Red Running

by burnishings on flickr

Having given up dairy since about October, I have now decided to try eliminating obvious sources of gluten from my diet, to see if that further helps with Kate's rash and eczemic skin. As a result, my lunch options are even further curtailed, sigh. Looking through the pantry this afternoon, I saw some salmon, and I was just not interested in salmon salad without the sandwich (we get fabulous whole grain bread from True Grain in Cowichan Bay, which mills their own flour, but alas, no more for me or Kate for a while). So off to the internet to see what else I could come up with (what on earth did we do before the internet? oh, yes, books... well, I still use those too!), and ran across this post which mentioned a sort of fishloaf muffin with salmon. Hmmm, I could do that! So here's my effort from today:

Salmon Puff Muffins

2 large eggs, separated

2 cans salmon (8 oz tin, or 213 g if you're in Canada)

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon dried dill weed (or if you've got fresh, go for it)

1/2 teaspoon curry powder (I make my own, so I reckoned, what the heck!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Beat the egg yolks, then mix in the salmon, cornmeal and seasonings. Use a blender or food processor to mash the salmon mix up into a fairly fine consistency. Gently fold the egg whites into the salmon mix, then dollop into prepared muffin tins (I use the silicone muffin tray and I managed 10 muffins out of this recipe). Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until muffins have risen a bit and are golden brown, starting to crack & separate from the sides, and a tester inserted comes away clean.

I thought this recipe would also be delightful with some smoked salmon added in, or instead use crab meat (although why waste perfectly good crab meat this way?). Season to your taste, and it's very nice served with a little (wheat free!) soy sauce. I bet it would be super good with spicy red pepper jelly too.

As everyone in the household, including Kate, loved these (and I was hard-pressed to save a few for tomorrow's lunch), I guess I'll be buying the full salmon share off the Michelle Rose's community supported fishery, and getting busy canning salmon this year!

Smoked Pork Hock Soup

2011-04-16T20:10:00.001-07:00

Soueee!

by burnishings on Flickr.

We discovered a wonderful source for local smoked pork products at the Duncan Farmers' Market in the Square a couple of weeks ago: Ravenstone Farm. We'd been making a delicious pork & beans recipe in the slow cooker, but I wanted something different. I cobbled together a couple of recipes from Art of the Slow Cooker by Andrew Schloss, my "go to" manual for slow cooking and pretty much 80% of our dinners lately! I used a roasted vegetable soup with what I'd been doing for the pork & beans recipe, and got something like this:

Smoked Pork Hock Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 carrots, peeled & chopped into 1" rounds

1 sweet potato (the orange fleshed one!), peeled & chopped into 1" pieces

1 small squash (I've used butternut and Marina di Chioggia), peeled & chopped into 1" pieces

3-4 celery ribs, chopped into 1" pieces

1 large onion, chopped into 1" pieces

4 whole garlic cloves

4 cups total liquid - I used about 2 cups red tomato salsa and 2 cups chicken broth, both home-made

1 medium (about 2 to 3 pounds, depending on the size of your slow cooker - ours is a Crock Pot VersaWare, I think 6 quart) smoked ham hock

1 to 2 cups cooked (or canned) chick peas, drained

1/2 tsp cracked white or green peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 425F. Toss the vegetables and garlic in the olive oil and spread over a rimmed baking pan. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until softened and slightly browned at edges. Place ham hock in the slow cooker. Scrape vegetables into slow cooker. You can use some of the broth to wash off the pan into the slow cooker if there are bits stuck, but I've not found that necessary. Pour the chick peas into the slow cooker. Add the salsa and broth and stir the ingredients together a little to distribute. Add the peppercorns, cinnamon stick and bay leaf and cover the slow cooker and cook on low for about 10 hours, or high for at least 5 hours, or until the ham is falling off the bone and the vegetables are tender.

This is a very versatile recipe: use whatever root vegetables you've got on hand that you feel like including. It's wonderful with parnsip, turnip (rutabaga), etc. Just enjoy! And like most soups & stews, it's even better the next night. And if you happen to do the baked beans recipe (which I'll have to post at some point) as well, it's fabulous mixed in with this.

Addition Part 3 - Raising the Roof

2011-02-10T15:01:00.001-08:00

We're now pretty much past the weather-critical work, so we'll see how it progresses, but we're so excited that we've got to this point. Len has worked very hard constructing the pieces and figuring out how he'd manage to put it all together. It was a bit of a nail-bitter when the crane engaged the roof, but when the tension caught and everything lifted all beautifully in one go, it was perfect!

Addition Part 2 - Raising the Walls

2011-02-10T15:00:00.001-08:00

Addition Part 1 - Construction & Deconstruction

2011-02-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

We've had some delays with the construction of the addition to the house, but the bits are finally constructed and installed, yay!! So here's a quick review of the process for your viewing pleasure, broken into three posts.

Baby Led Weaning - an update

2011-01-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

OK, we are totally hooked!! All of us are thoroughly enjoying this baby led weaning thing. Kate is having fun, we're amazed at what she'll try and what she actually manages to consume, and mealtimes are just so joyful. I know that Dave & Mom were both quite skeptical, Mom especially worried about the choking hazard possibilities, and while that's not completely eliminated (hey, we eat & breathe out of the same hole, choking is a risk for everyone), Kate seems to be developing the skills needed to successfully maneuver her food around safely. As long as we provide her with safe shapes and textures within reason, she's been pretty good at managing her food very well. She does gag now and then (much more at the beginning) as she would hit her gag point and try to move the food around, but she's definitely figuring things out very well.

I have been grappling with the dilemma of choosing between the order of foods I'm supposed to be introducing Kate to and following the concept of letting Kate try different things. We're balancing it somewhat, and I'm not being a very strict adherent to the order, although I am keeping her away from cow's milk products until she's at least a year (as she's demonstrated a reaction to milk proteins), and probably will wait until she's at least a year before introducing legumes & wheat due to intolerance demonstrated in our family. Other than that, we're having a great time exploring new foods together.

Baby Led Weaning

2010-12-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

We are hugely enjoying parenthood. Yes, we're exhausted, yes it's an enormous challenge physically, mentally and psychologically, yes it is overwhelming. And it's fantastic. It is so much fun watching Kate develop and to see the changes as she gets more and more control over her actions. We didn't have any experience with babies, and I figured that babies were just lumps until they were a few months old; so I was sure surprised to find that Kate had a definite personality right from day one, and it's only got stronger.

What we've just started recently is introducing Kate to solids, and we're doing it through the "baby led weaning" methodology (thanks to Mila's Daydreams for the inspiration, otherwise I would never have known about it). So instead of spoon feeding her mush, then graduating up to solid solids, we're giving her pieces of whole food with appropriate shapes and "handles", and the argument is if she can support herself sitting comfortably, has sufficient development to pick up the food and bring it to her mouth, and be given the opportunity to work out how to move the food around her mouth on her own, she'll be able to feed herself when she's ready. Obviously, we have to provide her with healthy choices, and to not give her physically dangerous shapes or textures, but otherwise, if she's given the opportunity to figure it out on her own, with plenty of time, then she'll manage ok on her own. I really liked the idea, so here we are trying it.

Kate has been sitting up quite well for some time, but I didn't want to introduce her to solids until she was at least 6 months. Instead, we've been sitting her up at the table with us when we eat, and we gave her a baby spoon (plastic & silicone) to play with on her tray along with some other toys. She worked on getting it to her mouth, and figuring out how not to gag herself with it. Then we progressed to raw carrot sticks that she could do the same process; once she got something with flavour to suck on, the spoon was history. I was going to keep up with the raw carrot sticks for a bit longer, but yesterday we got some sweet potato fries on the ferry, and she was all eyes, so we thought "what the heck". We found one long enough for her and let her grab it and straight to mouth and suck suck suck, and grumpy pants when we didn't want to give her any more (they were a bit too salty so I didn't want to overdue it; besides, it was just an experiment).

Hmmm. OK. So last night, her Grandma prepared her some separate roasted veggies (with the appropriate dimensions and no added salt), and I cut a stick off for her from my steak, and she was hugely happy. She noshed on the squash right away, then tried the French fingerling potato (white shot with pink), then really sucked away at the steak, and finally tried the purple potato. We were fascinated at what she wanted to pick first and the fact that she ignored the purple coloured food until last, but once she tasted it and realized it was the same as the potato she'd been enjoying, she really got into it. This morning was some apple, banana and mango slices. She tried them all, but banana was the first and primo choice. The mango produced some consternation and a decision that she wasn't really that interested in the mouth feel or taste but loved the hand-squishiness of it! The apple was a bit of a challenge to get a handle on but she did enjoy sucking on it.

A whole new dimension has been opened up, for her and for us! What fun (and what a mess!).

Winter Relief

2010-11-24T17:07:00.001-08:00

We had our first snow of the season (Kate's first snow!) and it's still sticking around as the Arctic outflow is keeping temperatures down. Rather unusual for here in November; that's more like January. So we're all suffering from really dry skin and chapped lips & cheeks this week. So off to the pantry to mix up some winter relief.

Rich Body Lotion

A beautiful thick lotion that feels silky going on and smells even better.

Step one:

Steep about 1 tbsp herbal blend (I use 1 tsp rose petals, 1 tsp comfrey root, and about 2 tsp calendula petals) in:

100 mL boiling water (distilled is recommended)

for at least 15 minutes. Drain into a ceramic dish or glass measure to cool. Once cool, add:

2 tbsp aloe vera juice
2 tsp witch hazel extract

Step 2:

Melt in non-reactive double boiler (I place the oils in a ceramic bowl over a pot of water and simmer):

100 mL carrier oil (I use grapeseed oil)
1/2 tsp grated cocoa butter
2 tsp grated beeswax
2 tbsp shea butter

Once the oils have been melted, get the temperature up to 175 F (I use a candy thermometer), keep stirring & heating for at least 20 minutes to properly and completely melt the shea butter, otherwise it'll crystalize into little bits in your mixture once cooled.

Let the oils cool down once finished, so that they're still at least mushy if not totally liquid, but not still super hot.

Step 3:

Gradually pour your herbal liquid mixture into your oils while using a stick blender to thoroughly beat everything together until creamy. Make sure to do this part gradually and thoroughly so that a proper emulsion forms, otherwise you'll get separation of the oil & water. You may wish to add essential oils at this point; I use about 10-15 drops altogether, but you can use up to 25-30 drops. Suggested essential oils would include lavender, citrus, rose geranium, depending on what you need or what the purpose is for.

Lip Balm

...which also doubles as a great baby bum balm!

Essentially, you want these proportions:

20% beeswax
25% solid at room temperature (e.g. coconut oil or shea butter)
15% brittle at room temperature (e.g. cocoa butter)
40% liquid at room temperature (e.g. pomace olive oil or grapeseed oil, cold pressed for either)

So when I make it, I use:

20 g beeswax
25 g shea butter
15 g cocoa butter
40 g grapeseed oil

plus
1 tbsp total of rose petals & calendula petals
10 drops of essential oil (e.g. lavender, tea tree, rose geranium)

I heat up the grapeseed oil separately in a Pyrex measure in the microwave, then infuse about 1 tbsp altogether of rose petals and calendula petals while the other oils are melting & heating, then strain it. If you're coordinated enough, you could do this a few days in advance so that the herbs have some opportunity to infuse into the oil; if you do, keep the oil in a warm spot, like a sunny windowsill (hah! around here?) or on top of the refrigerator.

As with the lotion, I heat up the beeswax, shea and cocoa butters in a double boiler, heat to 175F and hold for 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Once that's done, I add the strained oil infusion to the hot mixture and bring it back up to 175F, stirring. You can remove from heat, let cool a little, and stir in any essential oils at this point if you wish. I pour it into clean plastic jars that I got for the purpose (a long time ago), but I'm sure Tupperware/Rubbermaid or margarine/cottage cheese/cream cheese containers would be just fine. Let cool, and it'll solidify quite solidly. You have to scrape it a bit with your finger or thumbnail and rub it in your hands to soften it a bit before applying, but it works really well once warmed. If you want it a little less solid, you can always change the proportions by increasing the amount of grapeseed oil in the recipe.

Whipped Shea Butter

This is now my favourite dry skin relief.

10 oz Shea butter (preferably unrefined, cold pressed or however the equivalent works for it)
6 oz carrier oil (I used grapeseed oil)
essential oils

Melt the shea & oil in a double boiler (as before, I use a ceramic bowl set over a pot of boiling water) and bring up to 175F. Keep at that temperature, stirring regularly, for 20 minutes.

Cool over a bowl of ice water, add your essential oils, then whip using a hand mixer or stand mixer, until it reaches "soft peak" stage (like whipping egg whites or whipping cream). I didn't wait that long; mine got just to the equivalent of "trace" when making soap (which means you can dribble some of the mixture over the surface and write with the dribbling). Pour into your clean containers, and it'll set up into a mousse/paté like consistency.

This makes a HUGE batch, so feel free to halve or even quarter the recipe; although with one family member that has psoriasis, one with eczema, and all of us with dry hands, we'll go through it pretty darned fast. The consistency when cool is fabulous, creamy smooth, it melts into the skin instantly and stays moisturized for a long time.

Pickle-y Goodness

2010-11-24T15:50:00.000-08:00

Dave & I visited family in Ottawa a couple of years back, and while we were there, we went to the Canada Agriculture Museum. While we were there, one of the demonstrators was canning up pickled carrot sticks. Before I started preserving the harvest, I wasn't that huge of a pickle fanatic; I mean, I like some pickles, but I know that some people like all kinds of pickled things. These pickled carrots were absolutely marvellous. So I knew I had to have the recipe, and lo! they had the recipe right there for us to take away.

Pickled Carrot Sticks

4 lbs carrots, peeled & cut into 4" sticks
6 fresh dill sprigs or 3 tsp dill seed
18 peppercorns
6 cloves garlic, peeled & thickly sliced
3 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup honey

Boil water, vinegar & honey
Raw pack carrots with 1 clove garlic, 3 peppercorns and one sprig of fresh dill or 1/2 tsp dill seed per scalded pint jar.
Pour hot liquid over carrots to 1/4" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
Process for 15 minutes in boil water bath canner (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

And of course, if you're pickling, why not do pickled cucumbers?

Dill Slices

4 lbs medium cucumbers
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup pickling salt
4 cups cider vinegar (see *Note below)
4 cups water
3 tbsp pickling spices in tea ball or spice bag
5 bay leaves
5 garlic cloves, peeled & thickly sliced
5 heads fresh dill or 5 tsp dried dill seed
2 1/2 tsp mustard seed

Wash cucumbers, scrubbing lightly with soft vegetable brush to remove spines. Cut 1/8" off blossom end and discard. Cut into 1/4" slices or rounds
Combine water, vinegar and salt, and place tea ball or spice bag of spices in, bring to a boil & simmer 15 minutes.
Add honey, dissolve, and bring back to boil.
Into each scalded pint jar, place 1 bay leaf, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp mustard seed and 1 head of fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seed.
Pack cucumber slices into hot jar with 3/4" headspace. Add hot pickling liquid and cover to within 1/2" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
Process in boil water bath canner for 15 minutes (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

Note: When I do this recipe, I always get about 1 L of liquid left over from 6 pint jars. As a result, I've got pickling liquid left for another batch.

We have usually an over-abundance of lovely French filet green beans (we grow Maxibel), and while we freeze a lot, we thought it'd be nice to try some kind of pickle recipe. This one is a winner, and is fantastic with dumplings like pot-stickers.

Dilled Green Beans

4 lbs green beans, tipped & snapped into pieces (of course, if you want to have competition worthy beans, then Blue Lake is apparently king, and you want them cut exactly to fit your pint jars. Meh, I say; I just wanna eat them!)
4 cups cider vinegar
4 cups water
1/2 cup pickling salt
1/3 cup honey
3 tbsp pickling spices into tea ball or spice bag
7 cloves garlic, peeled and cut thickly
3 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
7 heads fresh dill heads or 7 tsp dried dill seeds

Bring to boil vinegar, water, salt & spices; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add honey, dissolve, & bring back to boil.
Into scalded pint jars, place one clove garlic, 1/2 tsp mustard seed, 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes, 1 head fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seed.
Pack bean pieces into hot jars.
Ladle hot pickling liquid into jars, leaving 1/2" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
Process in boiling water bath canner for 10 mintues (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

Impossible Pie

2010-11-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

I had this dessert for the first time at my best friend's house when I was in my early teens, and thought it was just so awesome that I got the recipe from her mum. What makes this impossible is that all the ingredients get piled into a blender or food processor, and the end result has three distinct layers: a crust, a middle, and a topping. Pretty cool, huh?

The original recipe calls for milk, but as I'm on a total dairy elimination diet for my little girl's eczema, we thought we'd try it with coconut milk instead. We're never going back. It was incredible.

We've also done this recipe using a can of pumpkin, and it works really well too. So in the following recipe, replace the coconut milk with actual milk, and just add a can of pumpkin puree, eliminate the coconut, and add some pumpkin pie spicing as desired.

Impossible Pie

4 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup flour
2 cups coconut milk (take a 400 mL can of rich, full coconut milk, not skim, and make up the difference with water)
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup grated coconut
2 tsp vanilla extract

Blender the eggs first. Add oil & coconut milk & blend again. Add remaining ingredients and blend until fully mixed. Pour into greased 10" pie plate and bake at 350F for 1 hour (check at 45 minutes if your oven runs hot), or until centre is firm, and top is toasted a golden brown.

UPDATE: While quite tasty hot, it's even better chilled and eaten cold the next day. It might be something like soups and stews, it improves with sitting in the fridge over night. If you can manage to keep your fork out of it until then, I recommend it!

Cucumber Relish

2010-11-09T00:09:00.000-08:00

We had an overabundance of cucumbers this year (they went a little nuts in our greenhouse), so aside from doing pickled cucumbers (we had a bit of a glut left over from last year as I couldn't bear eating them during pregnancy - I know, go figure!), I had to find something else to do with them. Along came this great cucumber relish recipe, which worked really well for us.

Cucumber Relish

6 lbs (about 10 cups chopped) cucumbers (we used a mix of Cool Breeze, Lemon and Suyo Long)
1 cup chopped white onion
4 cups chopped red bell peppers
3 cups chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery (about 4 ribs)
1/2 cup pickling or Kosher salt
3 1/2 cups pickling or cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 tbsp mustard seed
2 tbsp celery seed
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground turmeric

Place all vegetables into an enamel lined or stainless steel pot and stir in salt. Cover & let stand 4 hours at room temperature.
Put vegetables into large colander and drain. Rinse with cold water, using hands to squeeze out excess liquids. Repeat rinse & squeeze.

Combine vinegar & spices & sugar and bring to boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Add drained vegetables and stir to blend. Bring back to full boil, reduce heat & simmer 10 minutes. Fill hot, scalded half-pint or pint jars to 1/2" headspace and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes (up to 1000 feet altitude).

Nose to Tail... almost

2010-11-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

This year we did a much better job of using the lovely venison that Dave got. We've become a little more adventurous, so we saved the heart, liver and tongue, along with the meat and bones this year. With our fabulous pressure canner, we can do meat preservation. Last year was the first year we tried chicken stock, and that was hugely successful. This year, we tried venison chili as well as stock, and they were brilliant.

One of Dave's favourite blogs is Hunter Gardener Angler Cook. Here's his venison stock recipe, which we basically followed (maybe a little less salt, as we didn't add salt to the final product), plus an onion (skin on) and a couple of parsnips, so the result was quite a bit sweeter, likely, than the original.

We made a couple of batches (so far!) of venison chili with our own tomatoes, and while I'd like to use our own kidney beans, the recipe calls for 3 cups worth, and we didn't have enough for two batches as well as saving seed stock for next year. I started with the USDA's Chili Con Carne recipe, then went from there. I can't use chili powder (don't know what's in it that bothers me, but it does), so I added a lot of my own spicing to it. Star anise is just magic with rich meat; I've started adding it to most of my venison recipes.

Venison Chili

3 cups dried pinto or red kidney beans
5-1/2 cups water
3 lbs ground venison
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped red & green bell peppers
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp toasted ground cumin seed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp paprika
3 to 6 tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 qts tomatoes, peeled & puréed
2 jalapeño peppers, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped

Yield: 9 pints

Please read Using Pressure Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning.

Procedure:Wash beans thoroughly and place them in a 2 qt saucepan. Add cold water to a level of 2 to 3 inches above the beans and soak 12 to 18 hours. Drain and discard water. Combine beans with 5-1/2 cups of fresh water, and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat simmer 30 minutes. Drain and discard water. Brown ground beef, chopped onions, and peppers, if desired, in a skillet. Drain off fat and add 3 teaspoons salt, pepper, chili powder, tomatoes, and drained cooked beans. Simmer 5 minutes. Caution: Do not thicken. Fill jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations below.

Recommended process time for Chile Con Carne in a weighted-gauge pressure canner.
			Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 - 1,000 ft	Above 1,000 ft
Hot	Pints	75 min	10 lb	15 lb

Dave also got all the accouterments for sausage making this autumn, so we made some batches of venison sausage, too (with lots of meat in the freezer for making plenty more). We started off again at Hunter Gardener Angler Cook with this venison sausage recipe, tried it, then tweaked it for ourselves.

Venison Sausage

4 lb venison meat, ground
1 lb pork back fat, ground
1 tbsp Kosher salt
1 tbsp (heaping) dried juniper berries, chopped
2 tsp crushed dried sage (omit if canning the sausage meat, rather than casing & freezing)
1 tsp black pepper, ground
1/4 tsp (heaping) celery seed, ground
1/2 tsp cumin seed, toasted & ground
1 tsp coriander seed, crushed
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
2 star anise pods, ground
1/2 cup cold grape juice (the original called for gin; this is what we had on hand and it worked just fine)

Follow Hank's instructions for turning into sausages. It's usually suggested that you fry up some of the seasoned meat before you proceed much further, to make sure that you like the flavours you've added before you go to the bother of casing the sausages then find out you don't like it. Not a bad suggestion.

Finally, from one of my favourite cookbooks, Art of the Slow Cooker, comes a marvelous recipe for beef brisket that works just fine with venison cuts, especially big, juicy rump roasts.

Espresso Braised Venison

Rub:
2 tbsp finely ground espresso coffee beans
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves garlic finely minced)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin seed, toasted & ground
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 tsp Kosher salt

Mix above ingredients in a small bowl & rub all over the meat. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest at least 1 hour (we usually let it rest in the fridge overnight).

2 tbsp olive oil, divided
3 lbs venison
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (we used our own fruit vinegar here, yumm)
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 whole cloves

Heat 1 tbsp oil in large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the venison on both sides (about 5 minutes per side). Transfer to a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.

Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to skillet, add onion & cook until browned (about 3 minutes). Add remaining ingredients except for the cloves and bring to a boil. Pour over venison in slow cooker and throw the cloves into the liquid. Cover the cooker and cook on high 4 to 6 hours or low 8 to 10 hours until meat is fork tender.

Remove cooked meat from cooker and let rest. Cut across the grain, and serve with the sauce.

Happy Pantry

2010-11-08T20:43:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite chores at the end of the growing season, once the hectic pace of harvesting and preserving is over, is to take stock of what we've got on our pantry shelves and create a tally of our preserves for the year. This summer was quite the challenge, balancing looking after our new girl Kate with the work of the harvest. Dave, of course, did most of the work. I won't go into totals, but here are lists of what we put together last summer and this summer.

2009 Preserves Tally

Spiced sweet cherries - great with pork
Cherry pie filling
Cherry conserve
Cherry juice - this was fabulous
Tomatillo salsa verde
Tomato & pepper salsa
Pickled carrots
Pickled dilled cucumbers
Dilled green beans
Preserved baby figs
Orchard fruit chili sauce
Pears in juice
Pear ginger conserve - another fabulous preserve
Spiced pickled pears - weird but good with meat
Blackberry juice
Blackberry pear juice blend
Apples in blackberry juice
Lime & ginger tomatillo marmalade
Apple pie filling
Tomatillo/Green tomato mincemeat
Grape juice
Cranberry salsa - a fantastic condiment with poultry, especially on leftover sandwiches with mayo
Cranberry juice
Hot pepper jam - quite a bit like sweet Thai chili sauce, and an essential condiment with pot stickers
Chicken stock
Fruit vinegar - another essential condiment with pot stickers

2010 Preserves Tally
No cherries this year; really unfortunate year for cherries, sigh.

Dilled green beans
Pickled dilled cucumbers
Apple blackberry juice
Blackberry juice
Raspberry juice - check out the Basil Sorbet using raspberry juice, yumm
Cucumber relish - we used our overabundance of cucumbers and golden zucchinis, as well as our unripe Ruffle peppers for this fabulous relish. I highly recommend this recipe!
Tomato & pepper salsa
Tomatillo salsa
Orchard fruit chili sauce
Ginger pear conserve
Tomatillo ginger & tangerine marmalade - even better than with lime!
Green tomato mincemeat
Hot pepper jam
Honey plums
Basil raspberry syrup - was supposed to be jelly, but didn't gel. Makes great syrup for pancakes!
Chicken stock
Venison stock
Venison chili
Fruit vinegar

It's sure nice having a happy pantry!

Halva... Sort Of

2010-11-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

I don't have an enormous sweet tooth, but I do love dessert, and I adore halva, a Middle Eastern sweet. We had some fantastic tahini in the cupboard, and some local honey, so I figured what a great use for these ingredients. I've never made it before, so I followed this recipe; I didn't find that it went into the correct texture for halva, I don't know what I did wrong, it's more like fudge. But it tastes great so who cares!!

Tahini Honey Halva

2 cups honey
1 1/2 cups tahini (stir it well if it has separated)
1 cup blanched, roasted & chopped almonds
vanilla or other flavouring to taste

Bring honey to a simmer, stirring to keep from getting hot spots or scorching. Cook until soft ball stage (or 240F/115C). Meanwhile, heat tahini in a separate pot (to 120F/50C), and blanch & roast the almonds (want the almonds hot). Let honey cool a little, then mix in heated almonds, then fold in warmed tahini.

I poured the warm mixture into a very slightly oiled Tupperware container. You can use oiled cake pan, lined with parchment, or oiled ramekins, as long as you can extricate the cooled candy afterward! If you let it cool, then cover to keep air out, leave for 36 hours in the refrigerator to develop the texture of the halva. I wasn't successful with that, but I didn't let it cool enough probably first (it was about 10 pm when I was done cooking it), so I'll try again!

Handsome Visitor

2010-11-03T20:38:00.001-07:00

We had a barred owl visit us this afternoon - he sat on our orchard fence at least long enough for me to snap some photos. I think he was looking for our meadow voles, I hope that he got dinner (and that he comes back for more)!

It's an Orchid!

2010-08-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

Dave found this on our property in June:

We thought it was a False Solomon's Seal, but the inflorescence wasn't quite right. So we waited until we got mature flowers. Today, Dave declared that it was an orchid based on the flowers. I was skeptical (bad me), so we went in with our camera, and yes! it certainly was an orchid.

We think it's Epipactis helleborine, an introduction from Europe. There's a native version, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it. We'll wait for some more mature flowers and try again with a better camera.

Basil Sorbet

2010-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) by The Marmot on Flickr

It's been a few years, but we've finally successfully raised basil from seed. Probably not a major feat for most people, but we've never had any luck just spreading the seed and hoping for the best. This year, we used our under-heat propagators and had them started at the same time we started the tomatoes, then put them out into the greenhouse about the same time, and they are doing really, really well.

I wanted to do something different with the basil than just pesto (although I do love pesto), so I searched for a basil sorbet recipe. I found an intriguing sounding one and mostly followed it, with a couple of tweaks of my own.

Basil Lime Sorbet

• 4 cups water**
• 2 cups basil leaves, gently packed
• 1 cup fine sugar (we used organic evaporated cane sugar, and I'd use less next time)
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (I used three small fresh limes)

1. Bring water to a boil in small saucepan. Add basil leaves; cook 10 seconds. Drain and reserve cooking water, and immediately plunge basil into cold water. Drain again.

2. Return cooking water to small saucepan, add sugar, and bring back to a boil. Simmer until all sugar is dissolved, creating a simple syrup. Let cool a little, then place in refrigerator to cool completely (2-3 hours at least).

3. Puree lime juice and blanched basil leaves in blender on high speed for about 1 minute, or until you have a smooth, bright-green liquid. If you don't want leafy bits in your sorbet, pour through fine-meshed strainer; I didn't bother. Keep the juice in the refrigerator until ready to combine (see next step).

4. Once cooled, you can return everything to the blender together and reblend to mix the juice, basil & syrup properly. If you blend everything while the syrup is still hot, the basil loses its beautiful bright green; not that it changes the flavour, but it doesn't look as pretty.

5. Freeze in an ice cream maker until slushy-firm (about 25-35 minutes). You may freeze the results into a container separately in the freezer once at this consistency to firm up further, or just eat directly.

This recipe has a wonderful, unusual flavour; the basil is very much present but not overpowering. The lime juice provides a nice acidic hint, and the sugar seems to bring out the flavours of everything beautifully. I think another time that I'd like to try a watermelon sorbet recipe using basil as well... will let you know how that goes when I get around to it.

**EDIT - I highly recommend using 4 cups of raspberry juice (or, if you don't have your own raspberry juice, this might be a little pricey, so you can experiment with water and raspberry juice).

Change Table / Dresser

2010-06-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

Dave has been working on a changing table / dresser for the nursery, and it's almost finished. He has to do a little sanding before painting it, but the top is a piece of Corian, so he's got a bit of sanding to polish that up to the right finish, too.

We picked up the hardware from Lee Valley, and it looks very nice on.

We've picked a colour to go with the purplish Corian, which will make repainting the nursery (when we get there) a bit of a challenge, but we'll figure something out.

Naturally, the piece is full of little details that just make it so beautiful, and of course, beautifully crafted:

So exciting!!

Blue Fungus

2010-06-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dave discovered a collection of fascinating-looking, intense cyan blue fungus yesterday, and kindly brought the branch to the awkward pregnant lady so I didn't have to go wandering through the brush to see it. The fruiting bodies ranged from about 3mm to 7mm in width.

Apparently it's Chlorociboria aeruginascens, which is not uncommon and found around North America and Europe; however, it is apparently unusual to see the fruiting bodies. Often, you'll just see the blue-green stain on the wood, usually a hardwood (apparently commonly on oak). We figure this is an alder branch, as Dave found it amongst the alder stand.

Here are some links to further information about this species:

Wikipedia - Chlorociboria aeruginascens
Mushroom Expert - Chlorociboria aeruginascens
Rogers Mushrooms - Chlorociboria aeruginascens
WiseAcre Gardens - Blue Stain Fungus

Thanks, Dave, for another great fungus find!!

Happy Tomatoes

2010-06-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

Things are progressing very well in the greenhouse.

Earlier this week, we replaced the wooden stakes that the tomatoes were supported by with lines strung between eyehooks in the rafters and the raised bed sills. Dave ran across this idea from The Cottage Smallholder last May, and we both thought it would be a good thing to try. Last year, though, with the half wine barrels, it wasn't quite practical. This year, with the raised beds, everything lined up really well for this project. We use the Velcro ties from Lee Valley to support the tomatoes from the lines, and they're fantastic - reusable, super easy to implement, and very soft & delicate against the tomato stalks.

As you can see, everyone is really thriving - here are some images to compare to early May when we'd just transplanted all of these guys:

Plus the middle bed now has plants in it: watermelons and cucumbers, and basil in between.

We have our first tomato flowers, many even on the bigger tomatoes (not just the cherries):

Our eggplants and peppers are doing really well; both varieties of each have really caught up. The initial transplants had the Dusky eggplants and Red Ruffle peppers ahead of the Listada de Gandia eggplants and jalapeño peppers, respectively. Everyone is looking fantastic now, and all our pepper plants are putting on little tiny flowers, which should be ready within the next few weeks for pollinating.

The eggplants all look alike, but the growth pattern of the peppers are interestingly quite different; the Red Ruffle is the one on the left, the jalapeño on the right.

So, fingers crossed that our "bumbling" hand pollinating will work again this year as well as they did last year.

Wee Visitor

2010-06-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Last week, we had a little visitor roosting above our porch in the evenings:

Now that the weather is better, he's not been coming around, but we noticed the bird poop first, as our bag of clothes pegs is right under his roost, and the poop was collecting. One evening, as I shut the screen door, I turned the outside light on and looked outside, and discovered the poop culprit: a wee chestnut-backed chickadee. Awww!!!

Birthday Cupcake

2010-06-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

My uncle's birthday is this coming Tuesday, and we had some leftover icing, so Mom made a lovely little cupcake for his birthday cake:

This is way too much fun!

Fondant Animals

2010-06-13T21:25:00.001-07:00

We took another workshop through Pat Spezowka at At the Sea B&B in Mill Bay, this time it was four hours this Saturday, introducing us to modelling fondant animals.

We started with a 1:1 mixture of fondant and gum paste, which you have to work quite well to warm up and make pliable. Once it's been worked, you must keep it out of the air, so we spent a lot of time shaping then sticking things in ziploc bags.

Our first project was a blue bird:

This gave us the opportunity to learn colouring and simple modelling techniques for the fondant. Next was a sheep, which has a fondant body that was then covered in royal icing piping for the wool (and fondant legs & head):

Finally, we did fondant dogs:

It was a great workshop, once again; we learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and are inspired to play with this some more in the future.

On Our Own

2010-06-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

We ordered some natural food colourings from India Tree and were anxious to give them a try with our own recipes. Mom sort of goes "by guess and by..." with her icing making, so I don't know what recipe she was following, other than using lots of icing sugar, a little butter, a little whipping cream, and I convinced her to use a little lemon juice (given the flavourings of our cake & filling). I can give you the recipes for the cake and filling though:

Lemon Cake

1 cup cream cheese
1 cup softened butter (although when baked, we found this way too much butter for the end result, so I'd suggest half that)
3/4 cup granulated cane sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sifted whole wheat flour
1 tbsp grated lemon peel (enough from one lemon)

Cream butter & cream cheese until smooth.
Mix in sugar and beat again until smooth.
Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated well.
Stir in vanilla and lemon juice and lemon peel.
Combine flour with baking powder, then stir into batter and beat until well combined.
Pour into 2 greased loaf tins, or one 7" diameter round cake tin, or (probably) 12 cupcake cups (fill each 2/3 full).
Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes (less for cupcakes), or until golden brown and cake tester comes away clean.

Lemon Custard Filling

3/4 cup granulated cane sugar
5-6 tbsp cornstarch
2 cups water
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon rind

In microwave-proof glass measure, combine conrstarch and sugar.
Gradually add water, stirring until smooth.
Microwave on high (100%) 3-5 minutes until mixture thickens, stirring often.
In a small separate bowl, beat eggs. Add small amount of hot cornstarch mixture into eggs, mixing, until bring temperature of eggs up.
Slowly pour eggs into remaining hot cornstarch mixture, beating rapidly to prevent lumping.
Cook custard on medium (50%) in microwave for 2-3 minutes until custard thickens slightly, and coats back of spoon. DO NOT BOIL or custard will curdle.
Add lemon juice and rind and butter, stirring until butter melts and rind is incorporated.
Let cool, but not set, if using for cake filling.

To use as cake filling, build a dam of icing about 1/4" in from edge of cake, then pour just enough custard within that dam so that it doesn't exceed the height of the dam.

We stuck the tooth pick into the top half and bottom half of the cake before separating the layers so that we could align it properly after the filling was added. Put the top layer of cake onto the filling, then frost the cake. We used the "blue" straight out of the bottle for the base icing; however, there is no true natural "blue" that you can eat, it was more lavender coloured, which was actually very pretty.

We formed roses using the red and yellow dyes, respectively, which made beautiful colours individually.

You can see that the "blue" is quite lavender, and as a result, the "green" isn't! Next time, we'll start with yellow and add just a hint of blue; this time, we were using the icing from the cake which was "blue" to start with.

The consistency of our icing was also far to thin for the roses; I think next time we'll stick with the Wilton "stiff" recipe for proportions, or use royal icing for the roses. The other problem is that the dyes are very liquid (unlike the artificial colouring that we used during the course), so you have to adjust the recipe to include the amount of dye you're going to use (or add more icing sugar). The butter in the icing also melted really fast in our hands in the piping bags, so it's worth chilling it in the bag first, then doing some icing, and maybe chilling in between once in a while.

As you can see, we didn't spend a lot of patience on trying to smooth the icing on our cake first. We did a little, but not a lot. It still tasted good! We used the "green" for the bottom border, and I placed some yellow and pink icing in one piping back without mixing to get the two-toned star border.

The cake was very rich and moist, and the use of a little whole wheat flour with the rice flour worked really well. The lemon custard could be more lemony, so I'd recommend a little more lemon juice and/or rind.

Last Cake Class

2010-05-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

...for now, anyway! This class we learned how to make roses (can you tell?!?). The "old rose" coloured ones are mine, the white ones are Mom's, and we both did leaves & the bottom border. The buttercream (except we used Crisco for this class) icing got kind of soft; I'd like to try with a royal icing. The roses were difficult, but I think with practice, they'll be fun to do. I just ordered some natural colouring, so we'll hopefully get to play with that soon.

We really had a great time in this four-week introductory piping class. We've signed up for a fondant animal sculpture workshop (assuming I'll still be able to make it... it's scheduled for June 12, so we'll see! At least the teacher is OK with me cancelling at the last minute). So if we make it to that workshop, I'll be sure to post about it. Otherwise, it'll be awhile before we take any more classes, but we might get an opportunity to practice what we've learned.

Bird Feeder Visitor

2010-05-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

Mom decided to put some birdseed out as we've got a lot of black-headed grosbeak activity around lately. While there's plenty of food for them in our neighbourhood, it's nice to have them come right by the window so we can get a good look at them.

Of course, not only birds are interested in bird seed:

And other members of the family like to take advantage of the wildlife viewing opportunities presented:

Cake Decorating

2010-05-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Since we've got a new addition on the way, Mom was getting into "Grandma" mode and really wanted to get prepped for making some proper birthday cakes in the future. We signed up for an introductory cake decorating class, and have been having a lot of fun with it. This class is about introduction to piping techniques, and how to bake & ice the "perfect" cake. It's being held at At the Sea B&B in Mill Bay, as the instructor, Pat, much prefers to work out of her own kitchen when possible (although she does teach at the Michael's in Langford, too).

The first class was a demo by Pat, then the next class we had to bake & ice a cake, and prepare icing in a bunch of different colours & thicknesses before the class in preparation. I just about walked out on the project at that point; I had no idea it would be so much prep work!! But the end result (a combination of piping techniques by both Mom & I) was pretty darned good for a first try:

As Mom can't eat the cake (made with an instant cake mix for this class) or the icing (because of the food colouring), and I just didn't want to eat all that fat & sugar all by myself, we gave the cake to our cousins, as we figured they'd at the very least have more mouths to divide the results between (they are five in the family).

We do have a recipe for a pound cake that works really well with rice flour, and apparently pound cakes are good for cutting up into layers, so we'll give that a try. I've also found some "natural dye" suppliers, so we'll also give that a go, rather than the chemical dyes that we don't really want to use anyway. Of course, they won't be as intense, but what the heck!

The third class this week was more piping techniques, but this time on cupcakes. Fortunately, we had left over icing, and we were a little better prepared so it wasn't quite the mad dash that the prep work for the second class was. Here are our results:

Mom's cupcakes:

and my cupcakes:

and our two "clown" cupcakes:

Next week is the last class; we'll be learning the "Wilton Rose" which is a somewhat fancy piped rose, as well as sweet peas. The cake is baked, and while we've got the icing made, I think we might need to make some more or adjust what we have for consistency, and definitely add some colour to some of the batch (unless we want just white roses - which we might do). It's been really fun, and I'm looking forward to taking further classes in the future. Since next month is "D-Day", I think I'll have to hold off for at least a few months before I sign up for the next sessions, though!

Vancouver Island Bees Threatened

2010-05-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island has had restrictions of the movement of bees and beekeeping equipment to the Island in place since 1990 to prevent the introduction of pests and diseases to our local honey bee population.

In 1997, an illegal importation of bees and/or equipment to Vancouver Island resulted in the introduction of varroa mite, which until that point had not been present on Vancouver Island. Since that introduction, the mite has spread rapidly and has caused significant damage to commercial and hobby beekeeping ventures on Vancouver Island.

In early May 2010, the BC Government Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, without appropriate consultation with Vancouver Island beekeepers and beekeeping associations, lifted the 20 year quarantine, opening Vancouver Island to introduction of diseases and pests which are present in the rest of BC and Canada, but as yet not present on Vancouver Island.

Please spread the word; I don't think that the general public, especially on Vancouver Island, is even aware of this issue, let alone the potential problems resulting in this lifted quarantine. Support the reinstatement of the quarantine, or at least extension of the original quarantine restrictions until appropriate consultation with key stakeholders has occurred.

My concerns regarding this move by the BC Government include:

Vancouver Island's food security is threatened through significant potential loss of commercial pollinators via the introduction of foreign diseases to our local honey bee population, which, so far has a unique disease profile that has been mostly successfully managed since the introduction of the quarantine 20 years ago.
This move potentially threatens other BC honey producers and commercial pollinators, as this year's (2009) winter die-off experienced on Vancouver Island (90% or more in most areas of southern Vancouver Island) has not been successfully explained: what if there's something that our population introduces to the Mainland as a result of the lifted quarantine?
Beekeeping has become much harder, both commercially and as a hobby, all over the world; why would we add complexity to the issue by introducing further pests and diseases to manage that Vancouver Island apiculturists do not currently have to manage?
I am deeply disturbed that a significant change to the status quo was implemented without communication or coordination with the key stakeholders involved. There was sufficient opportunity to introduce new bloodstock into the honey bee population under the original quarantine restrictions; why did the quarantine get lifted wholesale without any consultation with the appropriate groups involved?

Please visit http://www.cowichanbeekeepers.ca for further information on this issue, including contacts for the Minister responsible, as well as the NDP Agriculture Critic, who has created an online comment/petition form at http://www.islandbees.ca/.

And, just out of interest, May 29, 2010 has been declared "Day of the Honey Bee". Somewhat ironic, in my opinion.

Garden Update - For Dave

2010-05-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

Dave's on the Mainland for the next week or so, so I thought I'd provide him with a visual edition to the daily summary I've been giving him over the phone in the evenings.

Rutabega flowers (no bees today - too cold)

Sunflowers are up!!

Peas in orchard progressing (still not up in Kitchen Garden)

Garbanzos progressing

Finally, lilac open!

Grrr, the dreaded black aphids, on the currants (not the golden ones though)

Fennel transplants

Celariac transplants

Natalino transplants

Nematode originally on Grace Ward,
moved to raspberry leaf for photo op - really long (4")!!

Narcissus blooms

More asparagus up amongst the coriander

Strawberry flowers (still no berries, but so many flowers)

Rosemary flowering!

Spanish lavender blooming

Golden iris blooming (deer missed it this year, obviously!)

Sweet rocket blooms (yeah, its a weed, but so purdy!)

Greenhouse as Nursery

2010-05-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

We also get to use the greenhouse as a transition zone for started plants before they go out into the garden. I think we're probably safe from frost now, but just in case (you never know here), we're using our greenhouse for our Cucurbitaceae seedlings. Once again, under-heat and grow lights from our friend Bob made a spectacular result for our germination rate and success. Now we just need to let them grow a little bit more before they're transplanted to their final destinations.

Squash

Last year, we had grown Blue Hubbards and Marina di Chioggia from seed, and "freebie" compost squash which turned out to be Butternuts. The hubbards were somewhat of a disappointment; however, we adore the Chioggia, and the Butternuts were also lovely, so these are what we have started this year. Since we had two C. maxima varieties last year, I had to purchase new Chioggia seed, and as Butternuts are hybrids (although are a different species, C. moschata), I needed new seed this year. We grew squash in old tires filled with horse poop last year. This year, the oak wine half-barrels have been repurposed for our Cucurbitaceae. I'm just waiting for secondary leaves to get well established on the seedlings before I move them out.

Variety	Image	Description
Marina di Chioggia		"Heirloom squash developed in Italy. Large, bumpy, dark green turban shape with sweet, orange, fairly dry flesh. Traditionally grilled at the dockside near Venice. Average 10 lbs." - Two Wings Farms
Early Butternut		"Replaces Zenith. AAS winner. Medium-sized squash are uniform on productive, semi-bush plants. Each has a small seed cavity in dark orange sweet flesh with a tender, thin skin. Matures in 110 days. (hybrid seeds)" - West Coast Seeds
Summer Squash - Gold Rush Zucchini		"This early, bright golden yellow zucchini with stunning dark green stems is produced freely on compact, easy-to-harvest plants. Its clear colour and good eating quality add interest to your summer meals. Matures in 55 days. (hybrid seeds)" - West Coast Seeds

Cucumbers

We grew Cool Breeze last year for pickling and they turned out really well. As they're self fertile without male flowers, the production rate was better than I expected. But I can't save the seeds - they're hybrids. Thought I'd get another variety to try pickling, an open pollinated one, and we'll see how they do. I'll grow the two pickling varieties in the greenhouse (to isolate the one OP variety), but the fresh eating lemon cukes grow really well outside, so that's where they'll go. I might have gone somewhat overboard on the lemon cukes, but Mom & I loved them so much last year, I wanted to make sure we had enough to nibble on all summer long.

Variety	Image	Description
Lemon Cucumber		"This heirloom was first introduced in 1894. Similar in size and appearance to a lemon, with fruits that average 2" by 3". Very easy to digest with a crisp, clear taste and an edible skin. Pick small and use them whole for snacking in the garden or as a table treat. A favourite of our local chefs. " - Full Circle Seeds
Cool Breeze		"So early it caught us by surprise! Small 10-15cm (4-6), uniform, dark green cucumbers appear well before any others because they do not need pollination; and in our wet springs, bees are not out in the rain! There are no male flowers; the plants keep producing all summer on short vines. They have no ridges and and very fine spines that rub off easily. Use for pickles or salads and sandwiches. Tolerant to powdery mildew, scab, and Mosaic virus. Matures in 45 days. (hybrid seeds)" - West Coast Seeds
Suyo Long		"Trellis these very distinctive CERTIFIED ORGANIC Chinese cucumbers for straight, dark green, 30 cm (12") long fruits. The prolific vines produce non-bitter, crisp cukes that are almost seedless and perfect for salads and pickles. The fruit has the traditional ridges with white spines that brush off easily. It can be picked at shorter lengths as well. Matures in 60-70 days. (open pollinated seeds)" - West Coast Seeds

Melon

Last year we grew "Early Dew" honeydew variety; I couldn't find seeds for them this year, and since they're a hybrid, I couldn't save the seeds last year anyway. So this year I figured we could try an open pollinated melon, and we'll see how it goes. That, and Mom's not a huge fan of honeydews anyway, but we all like watermelons. This one, too, will live in the greenhouse this summer.

Variety	Image	Description
Blacktail Mountain Watermelon		"Blacktail Mountain is an extremely early, certified organic watermelon, with flowers appearing weeks before other varieties. This cold-tolerant melon is perfect for the cool springs here on the Coast, although it may perform better under a cloche or in a greenhouse. The vines are compact and bear several 23cm (9"), melons with very dark green skin and scarlet flesh that is sweet, crunchy and full of flavour. Matures in 75 days. (open pollinated seeds)" - Full Circle Seeds

Most of these cucurbits require some help with pollination: we take the male flowers off the vine and squish them into the female flowers. Seems to work, as we had pretty good pollination rate last year. And with a new little addition to the family on the way very soon, having lots of squash for the winter will be a boon, so fingers crossed I started enough plants to meet our needs!

We also started some basil, lupines and hollyhocks, which are sitting happily in our greenhouse nursery:

We have to figure out where the perennial flowers are going to get transplanted, but the basil will get interspersed amongst the greenhouse plants, and make our tomato cucumber salads this summer that much better!

Greenhouse Planted

2010-05-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

We started our Solanaceae plants a little later this year (I think around mid-March), hoping to catch just the right size for transplanting into the greenhouse. Seems like it worked really well; the timing, together with under-heat trays and grow lights with timers (thanks to the legacy of our friend Bob), the germination rate and success was magnificent this year, the best we've ever had. The peppers, when transplanted, this year have been the absolute best yet.

Heirloom Tomatoes

We purchased most of the seeds originally from Two Wings Farms in Victoria, I think the Black Cherry plants originally came from Dinter Nursery in Duncan. The text and images regarding these tomatoes are from Two Wings Farms website, except for the Black Cherry, which is from Trade Winds Fruit.

Variety	Image	Description
Canada Long		"I have grown Canada Long for many years, but never listed it until this year. It always produces well and they were so amazing this year I thought why not list them. A 4to5 inch long "pepper" shaped tomato that could be called a paste type, but it tastes wonderful fresh too. As with all elongated varieties, watch out for blossom end rot."
Black from Tula		"Large purple colour, Beautiful globe shape, mid/late season. Delicious, flavour. productive Indeterminate. Rare. Top 10."
Aurega		"A deep apricot orange sweet tomato, with a rosy interior. About 2" in size. Ripens fairly early. Very productive and reliable. Said to originate in Switzerland, I've seen it spelled "Auriga" too. I love this one. Indeterminate, Endangered. Top 10"
Apple of Novi Sad		"Another great Tomato from Serbia. These plants were started late, but still produced a wonderful large crop of beautiful Red Tomatoes. After growing in a different part of the field, they are quite a larger plant than I previously thought! and Once again, a very nice crop in a poor season!"
Green Grape Cherry		"Productive, very sweet, green/yellow cherry. Absolutely delicious, fruity tomato flavour. You'll be a fan after your first bite! Small sprawling plant works well in containers too. Determinate. Heirloom."
Black Cherry		"Round, true cherry tomato, one of the only having black skin. Color is a deep red, with blackish hues. Flavor is sweet, much like other cherry tomatoes, and very full-flavored. This variety is fairly rare."

Eggplants

Last year we tried a cultivar that is suited for our wet coast climate: Dusky. It grew really well in the greenhouse, and we ended up with plenty of lovely 3-5" long eggplants that had a very mild, wonderful flavour. So this year, I thought I'd try them from seed. Another variety that I got "just 'cause" was Listada de Gandia, as they're open pollinated and I could save the seeds for next year (if we like them). I found this variety through the Seeds of Diversity site. Descriptions and images as indicated.

Variety	Image	Description
Dusky		"Big, deep-purple, 20cm (8-9") oval fruits mature early on 60cm (24-30") disease-resistant bushes. Dusky will yield even in a poor summer and heavily in a hot summer." - West Coast Seeds
Listada de Gandia		"An old Italian heirloom that is decorative as well as tasty. The bushy plants produce beautiful 6-8” purple eggplants with many white stripes. Mild white flesh without bitterness. This variety is beautiful on the patio as well as the garden. Start early indoors. (85-90 days maturity)" - Heritage Harvest Seeds

Peppers

Back to Two Wings Farms again for our seeds (and the descriptions & photos). We've enjoyed growing jalapeño peppers, although not hot according to our Mexican friends, certainly hot enough for us. This year we thought we'd try a sweet one, too.

Variety	Image	Description
Jalapeño		"Traditional flavourful hot chiles for fresh use. I still love to add this one to fresh salsa for that great clean crisp spicy flavour. Lots of folks like to pickle these too, or dry and smoke them to make Chipotle a real treat."
Red Ruffle		"Red Ruffle also was a heroic producer out in the field with no protection. We were amazed by how strong and productive it was. Beautiful dark red pleated heirloom. Wonderful, complex, sweet flavour. A sweet paprika type with thick walls. My very favourite pepper. Absolutely delicious!"

Physalis

If you've never had a tomatillo or a ground cherry/cape gooseberry, you're definitely missing out. Tomatillos are spectacular producers in our climate, and do not need to be put under any cover. They are a magnificent staple for salsas (fresh and canned), and I use them in any recipe that calls for green tomatoes (check out some of these recipes for ideas). Tomatillos can be eaten green or fully ripe, and have very different flavours depending on the ripeness. This year, along with our staple greens, we figured we'd try a new purple variety, because it intrigued me.

The ground cherries, while they don't have to go under cover, definitely produce better in the warmer climate of the greenhouse. They're a sweet fruit with a tang, and are beautiful to eat just as is; however, I do know people use them in preserves, or as pie filling. I couldn't hold off eating them long enough to turn them into anything other than fresh-into-the-mouth-poppers! Both of these fruit have a great shelf life, especially if their papery husks are intact and not dirty.

I originally got our cape gooseberry seeds from Stellar Seeds, but have since been saving our own for a few years. I don't remember now where the original green tomatillos came from, but they've been starting themselves in our garden and I've been saving seeds from year to year. Descriptions and images as indicated.

Variety	Image	Description
Toma Verde Tomatillo		"An earlier maturing green tomatillo that is indispensable for Mexican cooking. The large green fruit have good quality flesh and excellent keeping qualities. Highly recommended. Start indoors 4-5 weeks before transplanting out. (65 days from transplant)" - Heritage Harvest Seeds
Purple Tomatillo		"A rare tomatillo that turns purple when ripe. The purple types are sweeter than green tomatillos. The small tomato like fruit are enclosed in a papery husk that is easy to remove prior to cooking. The purple fruit store very well after harvest. Used in traditional Mexican salsas. Delicious. Start indoors 4-5 weeks before transplanting out. (70 days from transplant) EXTREMELY RARE." - Heritage Harvest Seeds
Ground Cherry		"These upright, branching plants grow 80cm tall and 50cm around. Hanging from the branches are small husked fruits with an incredibly sweet yet tangy flavour that is much sought after in food circles. Fruits grow 2-3cm in diameter and are ready when husks have dried down and fruits turn bright orange in colour. (~3000 seeds). Certified Organic." - Stellar Seeds

Now we just have to look after everyone 'til harvest time, and "bumble" the flowers (hand pollinate) so we actually get something!!

Progress of Garden

2010-04-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

When Mom first moved back to Cobble Hill a few years ago, the property hadn't had any active gardening, at least not from the vegetable raising perspective, for a number of years.

In the first summer when Mom first arrived, we didn't get much done other than a patch of potatoes dug. It looked like a couple of graves in the lawn! And, somewhat surprisingly, the deer had chewed the new potato leaves to the ground. But we did manage to get potatoes that year, and we figured that in order for any edible food to be grown, we needed a deer fence.

So we had lawn to remove, and fencing to put up to keep the deer out. I realized recently that I haven't got any posts showing the progress from grass to garden, so I'd like to remedy that now.

The start of the deer fencing for the Kitchen Garden

Deer fencing up! - Early spring 2006

The first planting - spring 2006

We moved our dwarf heritage apple trees and some blueberries from Burnaby over to Cobble Hill and installed them in the Kitchen Garden, and built some raised beds in the next year:

In 2008 the "little mule" arrived: Dave's two-wheeled tractor, a Grillo made in Italy, which has hugely helped the conversion from raw land to garden. We decided that once we had the tractor, the raised beds were more work than they were worth, so now we just have dirt.

Dave's "little mule" set up to rototill the Kitchen Garden

And while it wasn't the first year we grew tomatillos, it was certainly a bumper crop year (which has been repeated pretty regularly since):

Tomatillos

So we keep getting a little better every year, and try new things to grow. In 2009 we had pretty much all of the Kitchen Garden under production, with chick peas (garbanzo beans), shelling and snap peas, tomatillos, brocolli, kohlrabi, carrots, beets, Chinese greens, and of course the odd left over spud from years before poking through.

Kitchen Garden 2009

Our tomatoes, peppers and ground cherries were moved out to the new greenhouse and we tried our hand at "Early Dew" melons and pickling cucumbers there, too.

And we grew a number of squash varieties and some lemon cucumbers, along with dried beans, out in the newly enclosed Orchard, which I don't seem to have photos of right now.

This year, we've done even more - I'll post photos in a while!

Greenhouse Update - Raised Beds

2010-04-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Last year we constructed the greenhouse, then earlier this spring Dave put in some more windows, and then last month, Dave changed the planting arrangements inside by building some wonderful raised beds to replace the half wine-barrels that we used last year:

We bought these nifty metal connectors from Lee Valley for converting concrete paving stones into the sides for raised beds. All that was needed further was to purchase the paving stones and some pressure-treated lumber from the local building supplies store. And some sand. And then lots of labour.

Dave spread some landscape fabric on top of the gravel foundation of our greenhouse, then laid some sand to level the areas where the raised beds were going to be built. On top of this went the footing for the raised beds (which are the connectors attached to the lumber). Then the pavers go upright between the brackets on top of the lumber footings.

Aligning the pavers between brackets

Tightening the brackets

Next wall of pavers

Construction complete

The raised beds are 2' deep, 2' wide, and I can't remember how long altogether, but we'll fit an awful lot of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and ground cherries in there this year!

Maple Syrup Harvest

2010-02-25T21:27:00.000-08:00

On the West Coast? Are you kidding?

Nope.

We've got bigleaf maples. They produce sap that actually has enough sugar in it to make it viable to produce syrup. And they've got a long harvesting season (from mid-November to mid-February most years; in the east, it's only a few short weeks). Of course, we have to collect more sap to make the equivalent amount of syrup, but what the heck!

Thanks to the Forest Discovery Centre's Maple Syrup Festival, Dave has now got a new hobby. So we got the book, picked up a kit from Bees 'n Glass, got some wine kit bags from Valley Vines to Wines for sap collecting and cleaned them out, and all we needed was Dave's drilling expertise, and a little patience.

We got started at the very end of the season, yet the weather cooperated to give us some hope for success. After a week's worth of collecting, we ended up with about 20 litres of sap which boiled down to 500 mLs (two cups) of syrup. YUMM!!!!! This is definitely something we'll be looking forward to doing next winter.

Water Collection

2010-02-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

We now have 1200 gallons of water storage available!! Here are two of the three tanks (one in the background):

We get lots of rain during the fall, spring, and winter, but precious little during most summers. Since we are putting in a lot of food plants (greenhouse, orchard including soft fruits, veggies, grain crops, root crops), and we live on a well, we figured we needed to put in some water storage. We still recycle our laundry water (you'd be surprised at how much water goes down the drain just from your washing machine). These tanks will definitely help a lot. We might need more, but this will have to do for this year!

Greenhouse Modifications

2010-02-25T20:41:00.000-08:00

While the greenhouse worked beautifully last summer, and its design was always intended to extend the season on either side of summer (which it did at least this past fall, and we think it will do really well later this spring), the light levels inside were not ideal in the middle of summer. So Dave spent a week or so recently adding some windows, some of which had always been in the plans, but the rest we'd not had the materials for originally.

The door was reclaimed, having been stored in our barn, and the opening windows were reclaimed from a house that we got from a used building supplier. This is the north face, where no light (other than ambient) comes in.

This is the west face, with three windows we'd acquired from our cousins when they replaced their windows this summer, plus a shower door (and another one of the reclaimed windows) newly installed. The apex is now enclosed with plexiglas. This face gets a lot of heat and sun in the afternoon.

This is the east face. Again, another shower door, and another window from our cousin. There is some sun in the morning over the trees and around the hazelnut in the summer, but not enough to warrant putting a lot more windows in this end. The holes at the top will be vents.

Dave also built hinged wooden vents at the base of the south wall (you can just make them out in the lower left-hand corner of the above photo), that we'll have open in the summer to let air & pollinators (hopefully!) in.

Now we're reconsidering our options for the planters inside. As you can see from last year, we used oak half-wine barrels:

They worked very well; however, there is a lot of "wasted" space in there. We might build some raised beds instead. Last year, there just wasn't time, budget, or energy; this year, we'll see!

There's Always Room for Jell-O

2009-11-22T12:07:00.000-08:00

OK, not actual store-bought Jell-O, not when you've got a pantry full of beautiful canned fruit juices, straight out of your garden. This is the best fruit gelatin you'll ever have, and I doubt you'll want to go back to that awful chemical stuff once you've tried it.

Fruit Juice Gelatin

Each tablespoon of gelatin should gel 2 cups of liquid. The original recipe from Joy of Cooking calls for a total of 1 cup water (1/4 cup cold, 3/4 cup boiled), and 1 cup of juice. I use all juice, what the heck!

Soak:

1 tablespoon gelatin

in

1/4 cup cold fruit juice

Dissolve it in:

1 3/4 cup boiled fruit juice

You might wish to add up to:

1/2 cup honey

for sweetening, depending on the juice you're using (e.g. unsweetened cranberry juice, you might wish to try 1 cup of Sprite or 7Up or ginger ale to the 1 cup of fruit juice, or perhaps all juice with more honey).

Let set in refrigerator about 4 hours or more. If you want to do this in a jelly mold, make sure to chill and wet the mold before pouring the jelly into it. I've not tried that, but it would be neat!

If you want to add pieces of fruit, wait for the jelly to set mostly (but not entirely) so that the fruit will stay suspended.

You can also replace 1/2 cup of the juice with 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt for a bit of a different flavour.

Crochet Project

2009-11-22T10:36:00.001-08:00

Last year, I purchased a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet for my art. A few months ago I decided that I needed to protect the tablet somehow, because I travel quite a lot with it. I place it in a pocket in my bag, but I still wanted something a little more substantial to protect it. So I took up one of my trusty little steel crochet hooks from my Grandma Hillaby, a couple of fine Mercerized cotton yarns (yes, bamboo yarn would have been much more appropriate, but I had this in stock and didn't want to spend any money), and my favourite crochet pattern (I've created two baby blankets out of this pattern to date) to create a little Bamboo Pocket!

Here's the pattern, for anyone who might be interested. I believe I started with 87 chains (there are 8 full repetitions of the wheel across the body of the pocket, plus the 3 stitches to start, and 4 stitches to end the first row. I just crocheted a "scarf" (i.e. a rectangle), folded it in half, and single crocheted the pocket together at the two edges. I attached a button at the top inside to just keep it closed. I had thought of doing an envelop flap, and I might do so still at some point, but the holes in the pattern fit a little button nicely, so I think this'll do fine for my purposes.

Catherine Wheel

The circular motifs are achieved by working one row of clusters and one row of shells. Try a piece starting with 27 chains.

Row 1: (wrong side) 1sc in 2nd ch from hook, 1sc in next ch. *skip 3ch, 7dc in next ch, skip 3 ch, 3sc, rep from * to last 4ch, skip 3 ch, 4 dc in last ch, turn
Row 2: ch1, 1sc in same place. 1 sc, *ch3, 1dcl worked over 7 sts, ch3, 3sc, rep from * to last 4sts, ch3, 1cl over 4dc, turn
Row 3: ch3, 3dc in same place, *skip 3ch, 3sc, skip 3ch, 7dc in loop of cl, rep from * to last 5sts, skip 3ch, 2sc, turn
Row 4: ch3, 1cl over 3 sts, *ch3, 3sc, ch3, 1cl over 7 sts, rep from * to last 5sts, ch3, 2sc, turn
Row 5: ch1, 2sc, *skip 3ch, 7dc in loop of cl, skip 3ch, 3sc, rep from * to last st, 4dc in last st
Rep rows 2-5 to desired length.

For two colour Catherine Wheel, work as above, changing to the second colour on row 2. Change colour on every alternate row. Here's a video; it's about 20 minutes, but she goes through the whole pattern - very helpful if you don't figure out patterns easily without help from someone showing you what to do. It's a little different pattern than the one above - the demonstrator only does 1sc rather than 3sc in between each 3ch/cluster/3ch combination (and obviously she must only do 1sc wherever it says to do 3 sc above), but you get the idea of how to do the cluster stitch really well by watching.

Renos Progressing

2009-11-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

The original house layout was this:

A few years ago, Dave constructed these beautiful built-ins at the window end of the living room:

This year, Dave's built a pair of china hutches to go into the dining room:

Then in October, Dave framed in the new walls between the dining room & living room, to house the new built-ins, and installed them:

Here is the new layout of the house:

Along with framing the walls to house the built-ins, Dave moved the entry from the hallway into the living room down towards the other end of the hallway from it's original placement:

This has already improved traffic flow and has made the living room both physically (because it's blocked the draft from the front door) and psychologically more cozy. A huge side benefit to all this construction is the addition of a "hall" closet (it's actually in the living room, but close enough).

Dave has a beautiful piece of furniture that he'd built to hang jackets and store shoes on; however, it takes up a huge chunk of the hallway. Now, we can move all that stuff into the new closet when it's completed, and repurpose that furniture piece somewhere else, thus opening the hall even further.

What's Eating You (or rather the other way around...)

2009-10-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to minouette for this - sounds like fun so here goes:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) ~~Cross out~~ any items that you would never consider eating.

1. Venison - kind of hard not to when we hunt & eat what we hunt ;)
2. Nettle Tea - does nettle beer count?
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare - but am not keen to repeat it; it was a Japanese version.
5. Crocodile/alligator - yup, in Queensland
6. Black pudding - Dave has and loves it. I think I'll avoid it but wouldn't put it in the strikeout list.
7. Cheese fondue - thanks Elizabeth, especially for serving with new fingerling potatoes, yummy!
8. Carp
9. ~~Borscht~~ - having had an unfortunate, life-altering experience with beets at a very young age, I can't even get past the smell to get anything beet-related into my mouth
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. ~~PB&J sandwich~~ - love it but can't eat it any more; no more peanuts for me.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart - is there any other kind?
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffles
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - Practically anything alcoholic we drink in our household is fruit wine we've made not from grapes: apples, pears, blackberries, raspberries, plums, rhubarb (not really a fruit, though), while we don't make it yet, blueberries too.
19. Steamed pork buns - unless you're religion prevents this, how can you not?
20. ~~Pistachio ice cream~~ - allergy
21. Heirloom tomatoes - Um, yeah. See also here and here.
22. Fresh wild berries - Definitely. Leetle teeny tiny ground-covering blueberries in the Cariboo are our current favourites; next to impossible to find, and getting more than a mouthful is a challenge, but so much flavour. Also try this lovely pie filling version for wild huckleberries.
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans - staple. With salsa, of course!
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~
27. Dulce de leche - I hope that gelato form counts?
28. Oysters - thought this one would be a strikeout if you'd asked about a year ago, but I've since been converted, at least to the deep fried variety.
29. ~~Baklava~~ - while everyone in my family adores it, I'm allergic (dratted nut allergy)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder - Manhattan & New England, and all sorts of other seafood chowder combos
33. Salted lassi
34. ~~Sauerkraut~~ - ugh. Cabbage.
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac
37. Clotted cream
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. ~~Oxtail~~ - never again. So sick of ox tail stew from childhood experience. Ugh.
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects - probably have without knowing it, so won't eliminate it from the running
43. Phaal - not likely; not a huge curry fanatic
44. Goat's milk - not again if I can avoid it
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - mmmmm
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. ~~Sea urchin~~ - not again if I can avoid it.
51. Prickly pear
52. ~~Umeboshi~~ - not again if I can avoid it.
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. ~~Dirty gin martini~~ - don't like gin & don't like martini's
58. Beer above 8% - "I live in Canada" - ditto
59. Poutine - "I live in Canada" - ditto
60. ~~Carob chips~~ - rather a shock as a kid; don't want to repeat it.
61. S’mores
62. ~~Sweetbreads~~
63. Kaolin - not on purpose, but it's probably in something I've eaten.
64. Currywurst
65. ~~Durian~~
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - "They should add beaver tails to this list" yeah, and whales' tails
68. ~~Haggis~~ - hopefully, I'll never repeat that event. Ugh.
69. Fried plantain - also barbequed / deep fried bananas are great, too.
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette - I think so?
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill - Probably wouldn't.
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie - the things you try as a kid!
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong - love it.
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. ~~Eggs Benedict~~ - hate hollandaise.
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare - well, rabbit - does it make a difference?
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse - not knowingly, but I did have non-duck "duck" in France, so maybe it was horse?
90. Criollo chocolate - maybe?
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. ~~Lobster Thermidor~~ - don't like lobster
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Heh, heh, heh.... Whooops!

2009-09-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to clear out Mom's freezer to make some room for meat. She'd gone to all the work of peeling, coring and slicing apples into chunks, then freezing them. I thought it'd be nice to have them preserved in some of the juice that we'd been making.

Good idea. Bad execution.

Wanna know what happens in your pressure canner (yes, pressure canner, i.e. under pressure, not just as a boiling water bath canner) when you don't have enough headspace for your jars?

Yup. That was a mess. And it was fun to clean up.

FYI - for apples that have already been frozen, by the time you bring them up to temperature in the juice, they pretty much become applesauce consistency, no longer firm apple slices. Follow applesauce headspace directions (heck, maybe even give 'em a full inch, just to be sure), otherwise, this too could be what you experience when you open your pressure canner!

The Greenhouse Built by Dave

2009-09-26T20:23:00.001-07:00

We decided that we didn't want to mess around with little plastic sheds over our tomatoes this year, so we took a plunge into the savings, plus hauled a load of donated materials from Uncle Steve, and built our greenhouse this year. This is no ordinary glass house type greenhouse; we wanted to be able to insulate it at least somewhat during the winter, and we want the structure to be a season extender, more than the "perfect" mid-summer growing unit. So it's positioned a little differently than a summer-only glass house would be, and it's not all window (cheaper that way).

Dave laid out a foundation of gravel, then built a frame for the walls to be attached to, sitting on the gravel.

He built the walls, we helped him hoist them up & held them in place while he secured them.

He built the trusses, we helped him hoist them up & held them in place while he secured them.

He did everything else, just about by himself; we watched while he did the work. Especially the tall stuff on ladders.

(That wire across the front of the greenhouse is deer proofing; the little so-and-sos were reaching into the greenhouse and nibbling my eggplant and tomato leaves. Oh, yeah - Dave, helped by Mom & I, built a ruddy great deer defense around what will be our orchard and field crops, which the greenhouse falls within).

Mom grew & maintained, and "bumbled" flowers on the plants that got stuck into the tubs that he filled with horse manure labouriously hauled from the local riding stable.

Then I preserved the results.

Nice results.

Yay, Dave!! He's our hero. And we shall be toasting his efforts all winter long as we crack open those jars filled with all the lovely goodies from the greenhouse that Dave built.

v. to "bumble" - pretend you're a bumble bee, buzzing sounds included if you're Dave, and gently shake the flowers of Solanaceae plants to improve fertilization and fruit setting.

Joys of the Harvest

2009-08-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

Today's Harvest - Ingredients for Tomato Pepper Salsa

Yes, this is a lot of work. During the winter, you scour seed catalogues (online and in paper format), cruise the Seedy Saturdays, and pick out what you want to plant for the upcoming season (or maybe you were organized and patient enough to save some of your own seed from last year). Some stuff gets started inside and babied through until ready for hardening off. The rest get directly planted outside at the appropriate time. Gauging when that time falls is always a challenge with variable frosts and capricious early spring weather. Then you have to weed, water, prune, trellis, water, water and water.

But what magic! From a teeny, tiny little package of DNA and nutrients springs forth a new generation, ready to provide us with flavour, colour, gourmet delights and inspiration for art on many levels, sometimes within a matter of short weeks, others take the whole season or many years to bear forth with a result. And being in the garden really brings you in touch with the seasons, with all the critters that make their homes in your garden (the good, the annoying and the downright destructive, alike), and with the complexities of the soil from which all your plants draw forth their resources.

While the work involved in starting, growing, protecting and maintaining these plants so that we can at some point glean a harvest, and then of course the work involved in putting that harvest away in the freezer, canning jars, dehydrator or fermentation vessel, can be overwhelming, the returns of satisfaction, knowledge and pleasure are sure worth it!

Baby Green Fig Preserve

2009-08-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

A Fig Tree by Melita on Flickr

We had a wonderful harvest of our green figs this year; however, every year, we seem to have a second crop which absolutely never matures. It seems a shame to let them just drop off and rot, so I tried to find something to do with them. I'll tell you, it was a challenge. While I did find a couple of recipes (or thought I did), none of them provided me with actual, specific processing instructions, and that's a problem for figs (here are instructions for canning fresh, ripe figs - you'll notice how long the boiling water bath processing takes with them).

Figs are not a highly acidic fruit, so you either have to acidify what you're preparing them for, or you have to pressure can them (I got reference for the pressure processing from a couple of different sources, including Stocking Up, to use 5 lbs pressure for 10 minutes, but my pressure canning manual that came with my weighted-gauge pressure canner doesn't recommend anything done at less than 10 lbs pressure). That's fine, but I didn't really have a positive idea of how long & at what pressure to process in the pressure canner. And how much lemon juice or vinegar do you need to add to acidify them sufficiently to just use the boiling water bath method? And really, who wants to process for 45-50 minutes in the boiling water when a pressure canner cuts the time enormously?

Not really knowing what to do, I sort of combined knowledge from a few different locations. My base recipe was from a post by "denninmi" on a garden forum. But I added a signifcant amount of vinegar (roughly based on this pickled green tomatoes recipe) to hopefully increase the acidity sufficiently.

Sikalaki Gliko

2 pounds unripe figs
3 pounds sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 lemon, seeded & diced fine
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

Rinse the figs and poke a hole in blossom end of each fig with a thick nail, a screwdriver or just a paring knife. This step is very messy from the sticky latex oozing out of the figs. I also pruned off the stems, but other recipes suggest to leave the stems intact (I suspect this is for ripe figs only, but I'm not sure).
Place figs in water and let them soak for a few hours (I basically let them soak overnight). Discard the soaking water.
Boil the figs in plain water for 15 minutes.
Transfer figs into cold water, allow to cool down, then drain.
Replace cooking water with fresh water, and repeat the sequence of boiling the figs for 15 minutes, putting them in cold water until they’re cool, and then draining them.

I used a less than perfect aluminum pot (stainless steel is always recommend for preserving foods as it's non-reactive), because I didn't want to have an uncleanable, boiled-on latex mess on my wonderful stainless steel maslin pan. Yes, the boiled latex came off with a significant amount of elbow grease and a scrubby pad.

Boil the 3 pounds of sugar with the vinegar and water for about 5 minutes, then add the figs, diced lemon and spices.
Boil the figs in the syrup for 30 minutes, then turn the heat off.
Leave the figs in the syrup for 12 hours.
Remove the figs from the syrup and boil the syrup until "thick" - I boiled the syrup to soft-ball stage (230F). This took a good hour of stirring and waiting.
Put the figs back in and bring back up to a boil so that the figs are hot and the syrup is boiling. I did this part in my maslin pan, which was perfectly shaped for this step, and by this point the latex had been boiled out of the figs.

Transfer the figs to clean, scalded half pint (250 mL) jars. ~~Squish the figs down so that the air is pushed out of the centres, and to pack the jar well.~~ Don't pack the figs too tight; I did that and had to reprocess 5 of my 7 jars! And as a result of reprocessing, I had to make up a quick & dirty vinegar syrup to bring up the volume. Pour a little syrup to bring headspace up to 1/2" from rim. Run non-metal spatula around inside edge of jar to let air out, and adjust the headspace as necessary. Wipe rims with hot damp paper towel and apply two-piece metal snap & screw lids.

Now here's the tricky part. I couldn't find any concrete information about the processing time, so I placed the jars in my weighted gauge pressure canner and processed at 10 lbs pressure for 10 minutes (remember that you have to vent the canner according to the manufacturer's instructions before you place the weighted gauge on the vent, and timing for processing starts once the gauge starts to jiggle, indicating that the 10 lbs pressure has been reached).

I have to say that boiling the green figs is horribly stinky. I didn't enjoy that at all (about as pleasant-smelling, in my opinion, as boiling stinging nettle for nettle beer; in fact, I thought the boiling figs was far worse than the stinging nettles, and that's saying something). But once you get the figs into the syrup and start to flavour them with sweet & spice, it seems much less unpleasant. I tried one of the figs today and while it's not sweet, exactly (the syrup is), and it doesn't taste like a fresh ripe fig, you can certainly get an essence of fig-ness from the flavour, as well as green-ness. It'll be really interesting to try it with stinky cheese and crackers; that's what I'd originally wanted to do this for. So, fingers crossed it was worth doing!!

And fingers crossed that I don't kill us all with botulism from under-processing the figs. But with the vinegar, and the increase pressure, I think (hope!) I've over-compensated.

Gulf Islands

2009-08-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

Dave & I took a break from the garden and took to his Dad's sailboat for a week. We had a fantastic time, had some great sailing, beautiful weather (not necessarily coinciding!) and managed to not kill each other in the tight quarters of the 22' Puffin.

Day 1 - Ioco to Mannion Bay, Bowen Island

It takes a remarkably long time just to get out of Burrard Inlet from Ioco in Port Moody; we spent a good chunk of our time fighting the current to get out past First Narrows (our fault; we didn't get going early enough in the day). Then it was clear motoring past West Vancouver, beyond Point Atkinson and into Mannion Bay, just on the other side of Snug Cove. It was our first anchorage, and it was beautiful.

We had a couple of gentleman row past warning us of the low tide that night and that the anchorage would get shallow. We were ok - with only about 3 feet below us in the keel, we're more flexible than larger boats. But just in case, we set the alarm on the depth sounder; it went off around midnight, with only an hour's worth of ebb left and about 6 feet to spare below us to go, we turned it off and went back to sleep.

Day 2 - Crossing the Salish Sea to Silva Bay, Gabriola Island

A little jockeying for position as we sailed out of Bowen Island to avoid power boats and ferries, we managed to get out into the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia) in pretty good time, and cross with the wind pushing us all the way. It wasn't exciting sailing, but it was good sailing, and we averaged about 4.5 knots (given our hull speed is about 5 knots, that's not bad at all). The weather was overcast & glaring until we got about 2/3 of the way across, then we broke past the cloud banks into glorious sunny weather. We gave Thrasher Rock a wide berth, and managed to navigate our way successfully into our second night anchored out, this time in Silva Bay. Another gorgeous sunset and lovely evening.

Day 3 - Through Gabriola Passage and Sailing Trincomali Channel

I was getting little sleep (and that pretty much continued) as our forward berth is a little cramped, and pretty hard surface. Hips & knees weren't particularly pleased with me, so I took some kick-starting in the mornings to become somewhat human. The weather was grey and breezy; we wound our way out towards Gabriola Passage close in time to maximum ebb, and rode the currents wildly through. It was great, but brief, excitement. We poked our nose into Degnan Bay, an alternative anchorage to Silva on Gabriola (depending on which side of the Passage the tides catch you), then headed out to Trincomali. We decided the wind was fair, so we set the genny & main, and had a fantastic sail down the Channel - we heeled over 35 degrees at one point!

We took a brief lunch at Clam Bay on Kuper Island, then fought our way past the waves and wind back into Trincomali Channel, and sailed for another few hours. Unfortunately, our time ran out and the wind wound down a bit, so we had to motor for the rest of the afternoon and into early evening to reach our destination at Montague Harbour on Galiano Island. On our way there, we saw a small pod of Orcas off our starboard (maybe 50 yards away), it was magic! We moored at the public wharf, so that we could get up and spend the day exploring the Marine Park.

Day 4 - Montague Harbour Provincial Marine Park

We woke up to drizzle, so we waited out the weather until late morning, reading and playing cards on board. When the weather cleared, we made our way along the shoreline to the forest, and walked along the trails through the salal (nibbling berries as we went), then down to the shoreline again, looking in tide pools, watching bees on flowers, looking at weird and wonderful rock formations. After lunch, we felt we should brave the temperatures and snorkel. Yikes, but it was cold!! And on the side we were on, pretty murky. So we kept the snorkel brief, and then went back to move the boat around the other side of the peninsula to a beautiful bay for our night's anchorage.

Day 5 - Ganges Harbour on Saltspring Island

The weather finally caught up to us and turned rather snotty. So we motored across Trincomali and up into Ganges for the day. We spent the day wandering the shops, and were delighted to find the complex work of Quadra Island printmaker, Richard Calver at the Pegasus Gallery. The gallery manager spent a very long time showing us the portfolio they carry of Calver's work, explaining his inspirations and stories behind his works. It was delightful. We stayed tied up at the Ganges Kanaka public wharf, watching the sea planes arrive and their pilots dock dexterously across from us.

Day 6 - Sailing to Sidney Island

We motored just out past the Three Sisters on a sunny, clear day, then brought up the sails and tacked our way along Saltspring and Pender Islands, and we finally had to start the motor just past Portland and Moresby Islands, then we saw another small pod of Orcas just off Sidney Island. The way into the wharf at Sidney Spit on Sidney Island is somewhat anxiety-inducing; there are some really shallow bits. So we aimed our bow for where all the big sailboats were anchored, and worked our way between them, keeping mostly to the less shallow areas. Sidney Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. We had a little walk around the Island, noting where the overpopulated fallow deer had chewed all undergrowth into non-existence, and a "high tide" line of branches trimmed six feet above the ground, as well as very stunted and thorny hawthorns. We even saw a small herd of six bucks wandering through the forest.

Day 7 - Sidney Island

We spent the day walking the sand spit, looking at birds & flowers (of course!), and searching the shallows for critters off the dock, then the afternoon walking through the forest, surprising fallow deer and seed eating birds. We shared the wharf with a huge catamaran crewed by a family with five kids and four adults; they loaned us their little foot-driven paddle kayak for a little trial run around the lagoon in the evening. Our other neighbours were a powerboat from Washington, and one of the gentlemen took a beautiful photo of Dave & I on board.

Day 8 - To Cowichan Bay

Another poor weather day, but we saw a raft of rhinocerous auklets, a nice sighting to add to all the pigeon guillemots we'd seen up to that point. Again negotiating the passage between where the WSDOT ferry from Anacortes comes to Sidney, and the BC Ferries travel between the Island and the Mainland, and the Island and the Gulf Islands. We made it into dock at Cowichan Bay just catching the tail end of a squall, so we didn't have to endure rain in the cockpit for long. Mom picked us up, and we were off the boat for four days. Guess what I got up to? Yup, canning!

Day 9 - Cowichan Bay to Silva Bay

Our intention had been to cross the Strait, but we once again didn't get going early enough. Through Sansum Narrows at a great speed near maximum ebb, then caught sight just barely of what we think was a Harbour Porpoise. Little wind, but we were trying to make the tide through Porlier Pass. We did succeed, but got out into the Strait with little wind and waves running across our path. We tried, but it was so slow that we'd have gotten across at midnight, and not even into anchorage by then. So, cutting our losses, we turned up Valdez and went to Silva Bay again for our final anchorage. Sitting at dinner, Dave noticed a river otter swim towards a sailboat, haul himself up the ladder on deck, and proceed to chomp down on the huge bullhead sculpin that he'd dragged up with him. It was such a great sight!! We would have loved to see the owners return to a gut pile and fish head... I wonder what they thought?

Day 10 - Return Home

We had a beautiful wind for 2/3 of the way across the Salish Sea, and sailed along at 5-7.5 knots, then the wind dropped off, yet the waves and swell didn't. I made the mistake of trying to focus on something through the binoculars, and that, combined with the chop and swell, seemed to make me really feel sick (an unusual event for me). So I had not much focus other than feeling like crap while Dave manouvered us towards the entrance to English Bay. We managed to get closer to shore and out of the chop and swell, and I felt much better as we motored through First Narrows (making over 9 knots!), and proceeded through at maximum flood towards Second Narrows (making over 11 knots on the other side!!). We made it back to Ioco, and managed to haul our crap off the boat, then collapse at home.

Cherries!

2009-08-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pirxthepilot/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Our friend has a large Bing cherry tree in her backyard, and a next-door neighbour of hers has a small, sour cherry variety. Dave the monkey climbed up into the farthest branches of each to pluck a significant harvest for us. As a result, I got busy preserving (of course)!

Cherry Pie Filling

Quality: Select fresh, very ripe, and firm cherries. Unsweetened frozen cherries may be used. If sugar has been added, rinse it off while the fruit is still frozen. I used a mixture of sweet and tart cherries to give the pie a more complex flavour.

Yield: 1 quart or 7 quarts

Procedure: See Table 1 for suggested quantities. Rinse and pit fresh cherries, and hold in cold water. To prevent stem end browning, use ascorbic acid solution.

For fresh fruit, place 6 cups at a time in 1 gallon boiling water. Boil each batch 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain but keep heated fruit in a covered bowl or pot. Combine sugar (use less sugar if you're using more sweet cherries than sour, or if you're using all sweet cherries) and Clear Jel® in a large saucepan and add water. If desired, add cinnamon and cardamom. Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained cherries immediately and fill jars with mixture without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process immediately according to the recommendations in Table 2.

Table 1. Cherry Pie Filling.
	Quantities of Ingredients Needed For
	1 Quart	7 Quarts
Fresh or thawed cherries	3-1/2 cups	8 - 9 quarts (original called for 6 quarts, but I found this insufficient)
Granulated sugar (see above)	1 cup	7 cups (I suggest 3 cups for tart filling)
Clear Jel®	1/4 cup + 1 tbsp	1 3/4 cup
Cold water	1 1/3 cup	9 1/3 cups
Bottled Lemon Juice	1 tbsp + 1 tsp	1/2 cup
Cinnamon	1/8 tsp	1 tsp
Cardamom	1/16 tsp	1/2 tsp

Table 2. Recommended process time for Cherry Pie Filling in boiling-water canner
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 3,000 ft	3,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints or Quarts	30 min	35	40	45

Spiced Sweet Cherries

Original from Stocking Up

6 to 7 cups of sweet cherries (e.g. Bing)
Juice of 1 lemon
3 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup honey
2 sticks cinnamon, each 2" long
24 whole cloves
1/8 tsp dried ginger or 2 slices fresh ginger cut 1/8" thick
2 bay leaves
3 segments of star anise
5 green peppercorns

Wash, pit & stem cherries and chill in ice water and juice from half a lemon.
In saucepan, bring to boil remaining lemon juice, vinegar, honey & spices then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Drain cherries. Fill 4 to 5 half pint (250 mL) clean, scalded jars 3/4 full with cherries. Strain hot pickling liquid over cherries, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations below.

Recommended process time for Spiced Sweet Cherries in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	10 min	15	20

Black Cherry Conserve

Original from Stocking Up

2 seeded oranges, chopped fine, and if sweet, add:
(1 peeled & seeded lime, chopped fine)
1 quart black, sweet cherries, stemmed, pitted & washed
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 tsp cinnamon
6 cloves or 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cardamom

Barely cover the citrus with water (or cherry juice*) and cook until very tender.
Add cherries, lemon juice, honey & spices, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thick and clear.
Ladle into hot, scalded half-pint (250 mL) jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations below.

Recommended process time for Black Cherry Conserve in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	10 min	15	20

*We made cherry juice by steaming a mix of sweet & tart cherries in a very shallow amount of water (to prevent scorching). After canning (leave 1/4" headspace and process according to instructions for Grape Juice), I had some juice left over and it was perfect for the preserves.

Cowichan Beekeepers

2009-07-25T12:46:00.001-07:00

Dave & I recently joined the Cowichan Beekeepers, in the hopes of one day having our own bee hives. We're no where near ready yet, but we've been participating in the monthly mentorship program, where participants go to each others' yards and have a look at the hives, learn about beekeeping and hive maintenance, problems & trouble shooting, and just to get hands-on experience with the bees. It's been a lot of fun; we're going to be extracting honey at the next mentorship event, so I'm really looking forward to that. You can see some of our photos here.

Not surprisingly, I've become somewhat involved with the group, and have set up a website for them at cowichanbeekeepers.ca.

If you're in the Cowichan area, and are interested, the Beekeepers meet on the third Thursday of every month (excepting December & January), for a brief business meeting, and we also have guest speakers on diverse & fascinating topics.

Trip Through the Pacific Northwest

2009-04-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Dave & I did a bumber through Washington & Oregon for his birthday last week, and it was fantastic. A lot of driving, but really fun. We covered a lot of different ground, so we saw plenty. The weather was interesting, to say the least.

We followed the Columbia River to its mouth from Longview and crossed the long bridge to Astoria. We followed a little bit of the northern Oregon Coast (saw a large herd of elk lounging in a farmer's front yard just outside of Astoria) to Cannon Beach and the sea stacks, then wound our way inland to Troutdale, just east of Portland.

We stayed a McMenamin's Edgefield, where every surface is covered in beautiful paintings of both a weird and wonderful nature. Fabulous food & beverages from the Edgefield acreage and surrounding countryside on both sides of the Columbia.

A little side-tracking off from Lacey to Yelm, Tenino to Centralia for a more rural side of life. East up the Columbia Gorge to Multnomah Falls, which were very enthusiastically jumping over the cliff.

Over the Columbia at Biggs, through rabbitbrush and Ponderosa Pines to Toppenish and Yakima.

Over the Snoqualmie Pass (not actually snowing at that point, but had a lot of snow from the winter still), and following the Snoqualmie then Snohomish Rivers, and eventually back to "civilization" near Marysville.

Mmmmmatcha!

2009-04-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

I love green tea lattes. But I don't like how sweet they are commercially, so I thought I'd try to make something myself. This works very well, and you can totally control the sweetness.

Green Tea Latte
(makes a grande - 2 cup size travel mug)
1 scant tsp matcha powder (same green tea used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony)
1/3 - 1 cup whole milk (or whatever you like: skim, soy milk, rice milk, etc. - and use the greater amount if you want it creamier)
1 tsp - 1 tbsp honey (again, flexible to what sweetness you want)
make up rest with boiling water

Stir & enjoy. Mmmmmm.

Another wonderful recipe that I discovered via Cake Wrecks was on Bakearella, the Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake. Here's our version from tonight - if you use a silicone bundt pan, the cake comes out perfectly. My version is not as beautifully green as Bakearella's, and considerably less sweet, but it was very moist, rich and tasty, so give 'er a try!

Chocolate Ginger Matcha Bundt Cake

Chocolate Mixture
1 cup plus scant 1/4 cup rice flour*
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Matcha Mixture
1 cup plus scant 1/4 cup rice flour*
2 tsp matcha powder (original recipe calls for 3 tbsp of a "sweet" (?) matcha, but the original tea ceremony stuff I used is very bitter, and very expensive, so you decide!)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 baking powder

*original recipe is 1 1/2 cups flour per dry mixture, and you need 1/8 cup less rice flour per full cup of regular flour when baking; so I measured a full cup, took away 1/8, then added another 1/4 cup when measuring for this

Wet Ingredients
1 cup honey
2/3 cup olive oil**
2 duck eggs (or 3 chicken eggs), room temperature
1 3/4 cup milk, room temperature
**this version is more liquid than original, so you won't easily be able to marble batter

Preheat oven to 325 F. Dust a 10-12 cup bundt pan with cocoa powder.
Mix dry ingredients for chocolate mixture in small bowl and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients for matcha mixture in small bowl and set aside.
Cream oil & honey.
Beat eggs, then add to creamed mixture. Incorporate milk and mix until thoroughly combined.
Divide the creamed mixture evenly into two separate bowls.
Slowly add chocolate mixture to one half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
Slowly add matcha mixture to other half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
Carefully pour both mixtures in slowly & simultaneously (if possible) into bundt pan to achieve a marbling effect.

Bake about 1 hour & 15 minutes or until set and toothpick comes away clean.

Thanks, Bakearella!!

Creative Uses for Green Tomatoes

2009-03-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Like anyone who grows their own tomatoes, I had a significant harvest of green tomatoes left over from all our cherry-type tomato plants this past summer. What to do? Well, I love green tomato pie. I slice & freeze the larger green tomatoes to make this recipe during the rest of the year.

Green Tomato Pie

2 pastry shells
1 1/2 lbs green tomatoes, sliced
2/3 cups honey (or less, if too sweet)
1 1/2 cup water
1 lemon zest
1 scant tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup currants or cranberries or raisins

Cook tomatoes in honey & water in heavy-bottomed saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes then add zest and cinnamon. Cook until transparent.
Add dried fruit and cook another five minutes.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes between two pie shells, until brown.

I also decided to try making pickled green tomatoes using the cherry-type green tomatoes left over. I haven't yet tried green tomato mincemeat, but that'll be on next year's list!

Pickled Green Tomatoes

4 lbs small whole green tomatoes (peeled, if possible - make x cut in one end very shallowly and place in boiling water at least 30 seconds or until peel starts to curl back, transfer immediately to ice cold water bath and remove skins)
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tbsp whole cloves
1 tbsp mustard seed
1 tbsp celery seed
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp pickling salt

Heat sugar, vinegar, spices & salt in heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer, stirring, until syrup thickens slightly.
Add tomatoes and boil until become translucent. Remove cinnamon sticks.
Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, packing tomatoes into jars tightly, and pouring syrup over them, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Salsa in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints	15 min	20	25

I'm not much of a pickle of any kind fanatic, unlike some, so I got Dave to swear he'd eat them, even if I didn't. Well, that hasn't happened yet. So I brought a pint with us to Cobble Hill to try, given that there were three of us to finish the jar, if needs be. I made one of my green tomato recipes using the pickled green tomatoes and I will forever more make this loaf with the pickled variety rather than just straight green tomatoes. Wow. I've included both recipe options so that if you have just green tomatoes you can still make this quick bread.

Green Tomato Bread

8 - 10 green tomatoes, peeled, cored & diced or 1 pint (500 mL) pickled green tomatoes
2/3 cup raisins or currants
2/3 cup boiling water
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup honey
4 eggs (or 3 duck eggs)
3 1/2 cups flour (or 3 1/8 cups rice flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
If you're using the pickled tomatoes, that's it. If you're using just tomatoes, continue with:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two loaf tins, and line with parchment paper.
Place raisins or currants in boiled water and set aside (preferably up to 1 hour before).
Puree tomatoes in food processor.
Add oil and honey to food processor and blend well.
Add eggs and blend well.
Decant the water into the food processor and blend well.
Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add half the dry ingredients into food processor and blend well. Add rest of dry ingredients and final blend. Stir in raisins (and lemon zest if using).
Divide batter evenly between the greased loaf tins.
Bake at 350F for 70 minutes or until done (toothpick comes away clean when inserted into centre, and outside is golden brown).

Making Discoveries

2009-03-23T18:17:00.001-07:00

I was trying to figure out whether I really wanted to follow a Chickpea Eggplant Rollup recipe verbatim or modify it to the Eggplant Casserole that I'd done earlier this winter. It was more work than I felt like. I ended up deciding against it and going into creativity mode. This was the result, and our favourite part was the chickpea crust: I've since used it on a squirrel cacciatore to make into a pot-pie*, and while we enjoy normal pie crust, this chickpea crust really lends fabulous flavour & texture.

*If you're going to use it for pot pie, make a double batch of the chickpea crust.

Eggplant Salsa Pie

Chickpea Crust
1 cup dry chickpeas, cooked & drained
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
3 to 6 tbsp olive oil **

**unfortunately, I didn't measure, so I'm not sure!! it's mostly about texture; you want the chickpea mixture to be dough-like and not crumbly, but also not so liquid as the oil will squish out between your fingers if you took a ball & squeezed

Use food processor to blender the chickpeas and liquids until dough-like consistency. This takes a good 3 to 5 minutes of processing.
Press the ball of dough evenly into a greased round casserole dish, flatten with fingers, making sure to distribute the dough as evenly as possible so that there aren't very thick or very thin areas of the crust.
Bake the crust for about 5 minutes in a 350F oven, then remove.

Filling
1 large eggplant or 2 medium eggplants
1 cup of salsa***

Poke eggplant(s) with fork and place in microwave safe dish. Cook in microwave on high for 3 minutes. Flip and rotate the eggplants and cook another 3 minutes. Repeat this until soft and cooked.
Scrape the flesh of the eggplant(s) into food processor and blender until smooth (discard the skin). Add salsa and blend.

Pour filling into chickpea crust. If you wish, shred some cheese (e.g. cheddar) over the top. Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes, or until filling is steaming hot and crust is baked golden brown.

***I made up a batch of Apple Pepper Salsa, and it's a bit heavy on the turmeric for my tastes. However, the eggplant flavour compliments the flavour of this salsa beautifully. Here's the salsa recipe, should you wish to use it.

Apple Pepper Salsa

10 cups green apples, cored & coarsely chopped
6 cups green and red bell peppers, cored & coarsely chopped
4 cups tomatillos, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp pickling salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp green coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Bring ingredients to boil in heavy sauce pan (Lee Valley's maslin pan is fabulous for this job). Reduce heat, stirring occasionally, and boil gently until thickened.

Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Salsa in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints	15 min	20	25

Visitor

2008-12-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

Dave discovered, quite ironically, a little visitor this morning:

He and Mom had just been discussing how the deer snuggle up against the house in the heavy snow, and why don't they take rest in the barn or tool shed? Well, one must have been listening, for in the tool shed it was!

It finally stopped snowing, but only yesterday afternoon. Today the melt has begun. Apparently, it's a disaster in the Lower Mainland, with roads flooding everywhere. We're hoping that the snow drops off our roof (here and in the Lower Mainland) before the weight from the melting snow and rain gets too heavy.

Last night, I put together a very tasty meatloaf for dinner. In addition to these ingredients, I also had about 1/2 cup of lentil sprouts that were almost past their prime, so I stirred them in too. It was a very nice addition, although not necessary. And the sweet potato topping, while not necessary either, was delicious.

Meatloaf

1 lb ground meat (I used a mix of pork & beef this time)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp ground peppercorn (I used green, but black is just fine)
1 tsp ground sea salt
2 tsp crumbled dry oregano
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 tbsp molasses or maple syrup
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
dash (or more) of Louisiana hot sauce (to taste)
1 tbsp Dijon or regular mustard
1/3 cup cornmeal

Beat the egg in a mixing bowl. Add all the sauces, spices and flavourings, and stir until well mixed. Blend in cornmeal. Add ground meat and combine until well incorporated. Spoon into a greased quickbread baking tin or Pyrex casserole (I also lined with parchment, with enough sticking out as wings to lift the meatloaf out after cooked), and cook at 375F until reaches appropriate inner temperature for the meat you've used.

Optional Topping: Cook and mash one sweet potato (orange-fleshed root vegetable). Mix a little butter & milk into the mash until it's creamy. Add a dash of cloves, if you wish. (We have since discovered that cooked squash is also lovely as a topping; treat the same as the sweet potato)

After the meatloaf has cooked for about half an hour, spoon the mashed sweet potato on top, and cook for remaining time.

Enough, already!

2008-12-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

OK, the snow is pretty, but really, we've got almost 2 feet on the ground now. I think it can stop, thank you very much.

For those of you who still have power (obviously, otherwise you'd not be reading this!), grab the slow cooker, and get some good food in ya!

These recipes are all originally from Art of the Slow Cooker: 80 Exciting New Recipes by Andrew Schloss. Naturally, I can't let something just be, I have to make my own addition/alteration. I'll put the modified ingredients in italics so you can decide what to do for yourself. These are all for a 5-6 quart slow cooker.

Chicken Cacciatore

1/3 cup flour - as Mom can't eat wheat flour, corn flour or rice flour work, too
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp poultry seasoning - alternatively, toast some whole corriander and cumin then grind coarsely, together with dried sage and thyme
4 lb skinless chicken thighs (about 8) bone in - I have successfully used rabbit, venison, and lamb
2 to 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 lb mushrooms, cut into thick slices
2 cloves garlic, minced - I have not yet put in garlic, and it's just fine
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, or dried rosemary, crushed
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained - I have yet to use this; I've been using all of my salsas in this recipe to wonderful end results

Mix the flour, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning into a bowl, and dredge the pieces of meat, shaking off excess. Reserve extra seasoned flour.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the meat in batches, do not crowd the pan. Add oil as pan becomes dry. Transfer browned meat to slow cooker.
Add more oil to pan and saute onion & mushrooms until tender, stirring often. Add garlic, oregano, rosemary and saute another minute.
Add reserved seasoned flour and coat vegetables by stirring. Add broth & tomatoes, and cook until thickened, stirring and scraping cooked bits up off bottom of pan into the juices.
Transfer to slow cooker, and cook 3 to 4 hours on high or 5 to 8 hours on low, until meat is tender.

Mushroom Barley Risotto

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
8 medium white mushrooms, trimmed and cut into slices - I use crimini (brown) mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced - I omit the garlic
2 cups pearl barley - I actually have yet to try this with barley; we us oat groats
1 cup dry white wine - we've been using our rhubarb wine, which is very dry
4 cups chicken or mushroom broth
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 oz (about 1/4 cup) dried porcini mushrooms - I have been using a woodland mix that I bought, although Schloss really recommends the porcini, specifically
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup cream or half and half

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat and add the onion and mushrooms, saute until tender. Add garlic and barley, and saute, stirring continuously, for about a minute.
Add wine and stir until almost absorbed. Transfer to slow cooker.
Add broth, seasonings and dried mushrooms, and stir to moisten the barley. Cover the crock with a folded tea-towel and place lid on top. Cook 3-4 hours on high until barley is tender.
Stir in Parmesan and cream and fluff until cheese melts and barley is moistened.

* Today I was making a squash soup with the remaining stock, and had plenty. I stirred in about 1/2 cup of the soup once the risotto had finished cooking, and it added enough moisture, body and flavour to the dish that you could get away without adding the cream.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

You will need a casserole/souffle dish that will fit within the slow cooker for this dish.

nonstick oil spray
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup boiling water or coffee

Spray 1 1/2 quart souffle dish with oil.
Combine flour, baking powder, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder in a bowl. Add milk, vanilla and oil and mix into batter. Scrape into prepared souffle dish.
Mix brown sugar, remaining granulated sugar and remaining cocoa in a separate bowl and sprinkle over the batter in the souffle dish.
Pour boiling water over all, and place into slow cooker. Fold a tea towel and cover the slow cooker, place lid over top, and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours, or until cake is set but bottom is still saucey.

* We have successfully reduced the sugar in this recipe.

Tomatillo Marmalade

2008-12-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

As mentioned earlier, we had so many tomatillos this year, I had to come up with some way to use them (although, it turns out that I could probably have made twice as much tomatillo salsa verde and not had too much for the year). We are not huge fans of preserves generally, but we do love marmalade. This is one recipe with a couple of variations:

Tomatillo Marmalade (kind of similar to Tomato Marmalade, at least for processing!)

10 cups tomatillos, outer husks removed, washed and chopped
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
3 cups mild-flavoured honey (e.g. wild flower or fireweed)

either:

1 orange, seeded and finely chopped (I used sweet honey tangerines)
1/2 lemon, seeded and finely chopped

or:

2 limes, mostly peeled (but leave a little peel for flavour), seeded and finely chopped
1 1/2 lemons, seeded and finely chopped

optional:

1/3 cup finely chopped (peeled) fresh ginger)

Bring ingredients to a boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan (Lee Valley's maslin pan is perfect for making preserves). Reduce heat and simmer briskly, stirring often, until thickened sufficiently (about three hours). Ladle hot into clean, sterile hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations below.

Recommended process time for Tomatillo Marmalade in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	5 min	10	15

Candy, candy, candy!

2008-12-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

This is tasty stuff, just in time for Christmas!

Chocolate Candy

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup flour
1 cup raisins/currants/dried cranberries

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, boil sugar, milk, butter and cocoa until forms soft ball in cold water. Add flour and raisins, and mix well. Pour into greased 9"x13" pan and let cool (put in fridge).

Make them Melt Truffles

> 1 lb white chocolate
< 1 lb dark chocolate
1 300 mL can Eagle Brand condensed milk
3/4 tsp each vanilla, Drambuie, Kahlua, Bailey's (or whatever flavouring you'd like to use)

Partially melt white chocolate in microwave (half power in two minute intervals; probably two intervals sufficient), then remove & stir until completely melted. Add condensed milk and stir completely. Divide into four parts, and mix in separate flavourings into each separate part. Let set in fridge for about three hours.

Roll into 1" balls and place on parchment/wax paper lined baking sheets. Let set in fridge again for another three hours.

Melt dark chocolate in same manner in the microwave. Dip truffles to coat. Place on lined trays again in fridge to set.

Chocolate Bark

6 squares white chocolate
1/2 cup crushed candy cane

OR

2 squares bittersweet chocolate
4 squares semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Melt the chocolate (in microwave as described above). Mix the candy cane (if using white chocolate) or cranberries (if using dark chocolate), then pour onto parchment/wax paper lined trays and let set in fridge. Once set, break into pieces and serve.

Harvest Time Blues

2008-12-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

I know this is not quite topical any longer, but I was listening to Folk Alley this morning and heard Stephanie Davis' "Talkin' Harvest Time Blues" and just had to smile. Pretty much sums it all up!
I've started playing the mandolin this year; I used to play violin as a kid (not brilliantly, nor diligently), and Dad gave me his mandolin a few years back. They're strung the same as the violin, but a mandolin has double strings for each one on a violin, there's a visible fret board, like a guitar, and you use a pick rather than a bow. There's quite a lot to learn, but the fingering is at least the same. I never had to do chords with the violin, nor particularly thought about note relationships. I've started taking some lessons with Mark Vaughan, in order to learn a bit of bluegrass feel, chords & improvisation. I've got a loooong way to go.

Anyway, as a result, I've been trying to listen to more music, and different music. Hence the discovery of Folk Alley, which I've really been enjoying. We also went to a great concert a couple of weekends ago with Pe de Cana, a local group that plays Brazilian choro music. It was all acoustic instruments with percussion, and it was a solid two hours of fabulous music. The rhythms & sounds were fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable. One of the instruments was a cavaquinho, which was lovely to listen to and very bright sounding. It's "not a ukelele" but it is a small instrument that looks like a miniature guitar, but with only four strings. Might have to learn another instrument!

Pie in a Jar

2008-11-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our friend Jacqueline, I get beautiful, home-made pie pastry shells all nicely rolled out & cut to pie-plate shape, frozen and ready to use. It's much tastier than the store-bought variety, and as I hate rolling out pastry, it is particularly nice. So to our delight, we discovered recipes for preserved pie filling, now forever forward known as pie in a jar, or more colloquially, "Jar Pie", after Homer Simpson ("mmmm...floor pie"). We used two fruits that we had lots of: apples and blue evergreen huckleberries (not the same as blueberries, but very similar, just a bit more tart). Both taste fabulous, and work just great in between pie shells, on ice cream or yoghurt, or just with a spoon out of the jar!

If you are going to use the filling in a pie, a quart jar is good enough for 8", but 9" needs about a quart & a pint. Lay the bottom layer of pastry in your pie plate, open the jar & empty contents onto the pastry, then lay the top layer. Seal with a little lemon juice along the edges of the two shells & press edges together, fluting the edges as you go around. Baste the top with lemon juice & dust top with sugar. Poke holes in the top shell to vent steam, and bake at 400F for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325F and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

The original recipes call for ClearJel, but I couldn't find that here in my local dry goods store. Ask for cerioca or carioca corn starch - I assume that ClearGel is the brand name. You can't use regular corn starch, apparently other corn starch breaks down during the processing of the pie filling, resulting in a runny sauce. The cerioca corn starch that we bought worked like a charm, and the gelling was perfect in the jar even after processing.

These recipes are taken directly from the National Center for Food Preservation's website. You can reduce the amount of sugar in the recipes if they are too much. They recommend that you make a quart, test it in a pie, and adjust the sugar content to suit your taste.

Apple Pie Filling

Quality: Use firm, crisp apples. Stayman, Golden Delicious, Rome, and other varieties of similar quality are suitable. If apples lack tartness, use an additional 1/4 cup of lemon juice for each 6 quarts of slices.

Yield: 1 quart or 7 quarts

Procedure: See Table 1 for suggested quantities. Wash, peel, and core apples. Prepare slices 1/2-inch wide and place in water containing ascorbic acid to prevent browning.

For fresh fruit, place 6 cups at a time in 1 gallon of boiling water. Boil each batch 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain, but keep heated fruit in a covered bowl or pot. Combine sugar, Clear Jel®, and cinnamon in a large kettle with water and apple juice. If desired, food coloring and nutmeg may be added. Stir and cook on medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained apple slices immediately and fill jars with mixture without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process immediately according to the recommendations in Table 2.

Table 1. Apple Pie Filling.
	Quantities of Ingredients Needed For
	1 Quart	7 Quarts
Blanched, sliced fresh apples	3-1/2 cups	6 quarts
Granulated sugar	3/4 cup + 2 tbsp	5-1/2 cups
Clear Jel®	1/4 cup	1-1/2 cup
Cinnamon	1/2 tsp	1 tbsp
Apple juice	1 1/4 cup	7 1/2 cups
Bottled lemon juice	2 tbsp	3/4 cup
Nutmeg (optional)	1/8 tsp	1 tsp

Table 2. Recommended process time for Apple Pie Filling in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 3,000 ft	3,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints or Quarts	25 min	30	35	40

Huckleberry Pie Filling

Quality: Select fresh, ripe, and firm huckleberries. Unsweetened frozen huckleberries may be used. If sugar has been added, rinse it off while fruit is still frozen.

Yield: 1 quart or 7 quarts

Procedure: See Table 3 for suggested quantities. Wash and drain fresh huckleberries.

For fresh fruit, place 6 cups at a time in 1 gallon boiling water. Boil each batch 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain but keep heated fruit in a covered bowl or pot. Combine sugar and Clear Jel® in a large kettle. Stir. Add apple juice. Cook on medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained berries immediately and fill jars with mixture without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process immediately according to the recommendations in Table 4.

Table 3. Huckleberry Pie Filling.
	Quantities of Ingredients Needed For
	1 Quart	7 Quarts
Fresh or thawed huckleberries	3-1/2 cups	6 quarts
Granulated sugar	3/4 cup + 2 tbsp	6 cups
Clear Jel®	1/4 cup + 1 tbsp	2-1/4 cup
Apple juice	1 cup	7 cups
Bottled Lemon Juice	3-1/2 teaspoons	1/2 cup

Table 4. Recommended process time for Huckleberry Pie Filling in boiling-water canner
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 3,000 ft	3,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints or Quarts	30 min	35	40	45

Sea of Cranberries

2008-11-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

Our friend works at the Richmond Nature Park, where they have an annual cranberry sale in the fall as a fundraiser for the park. We ended up with a windfall of cranberries, and had to figure out some way to use them. Some we juiced - the hard way: pile lots of cranberries into a stock pot & cook until most of the berries burst, then strain through a jelly bag. We brought the resulting juice up to a boil then canned into sterilized, hot jars and let the cooling process form a seal. If we'd had a steam juicer, the end result would have been easier to obtain and much clearer (ours is more of a syrup than a juice, but not sweet as syrup might imply!). But our result is great as a cordial with ginger ale; very refreshing and such a gorgeous colour.

I tried a couple of other recipes, one of which was candied cranberries. As we've not cracked those open to taste yet, I'll wait to post that one. Here are the ones that we have tasted, and they're great. I recommend the salsa on poultry, sausages or pork.

Cranberry Marmalade (sort of similar recipe here)

10 cups fresh whole cranberries, washed & sorted
2 tangerines, seeded & finely chopped
1/2 lemon, seeded & finely chopped
3 cups honey
1/2 cup peeled & finely diced ginger (optional, if you're not a fan of ginger)

Yield: about 6 pints

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens to marmalade consistency, stirring often to prevent scorching. Ladle hot into clean, sterile hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations below.

Recommended process time for Cranberry Marmalade in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	5 min	10	15

Cranberry Salsa (original recipe here)

14 cups whole, fresh cranberries, washed & sorted
3 large red bell peppers, seeded & chopped
6 cups sweet red onions, chopped
1/2 cup jalapeño peppers, seeded & chopped
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp pickling salt
1 1/3 cup honey

Yield: about 6 pints

Caution: Wear plastic or rubber gloves and do not touch your face while handling or cutting hot peppers. If you do not wear gloves, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your face or eyes.

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2O minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner as follows.

Recommended process time for Cranberry Salsa in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	10 min	15	20

Want some more cranberry recipes? Check out:

Salsa!

2008-11-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

This summer provided us with a bumper crop of tomatillos, with a successful experiment growing some jalapeño and baby bell peppers. As a result, we cooked up a ridiculous amount of salsa, which is good thing, because we use it a lot in cooking. I found an invaluable resource for canning recipes at the National Center for Home Preservation, as well as the Bernardin canning website.

Here are some salsas from the summer. All were processed using the boiling water bath method. If you're not familiar with canning techniques, you definitely need to read up on it before proceeding. Check out the "How Do I ... Can" section of the National Center for Home Preservation's site.

Some general instructions first:

Caution: Wear plastic or rubber gloves and do not touch your face while handling or cutting hot peppers. If you do not wear gloves, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your face or eyes.

Preparing Tomatillos: Remove the dry outer husks from tomatillos; wash thoroughly. They do not need to be peeled or seeded.

Preparing Peppers: The skin of long green chiles may be tough and can be removed by heating the peppers. Usually when peppers are finely chopped, they do not need to be skinned. If you choose to peel chiles, slit each pepper along the side to allow steam to escape. Peel using one of these two methods:

Oven or broiler method to blister skins - Place chiles in a hot oven (400°F) or broiler for 6 to 8 minutes until skins blister.
Range-top method to blister skins - Cover hot burner (either gas or electric) with heavy wire mesh. Place peppers on burner for several minutes until skins blister.
To peel, after blistering skins, place peppers in a pan and cover with a damp cloth. (This will make peeling the peppers easier.) Cool several minutes; slip off skins. Discard seeds and chop.

The jalapeño peppers do not need to be peeled, but seeds are often removed.

IMPORTANT: The only other change you can safely make in these salsa recipes is to change the amount of spices and herbs. Do not alter the proportions of vegetables to acid and tomatoes because it might make the salsa unsafe. Do not substitute vinegar for the lemon juice.

Tomatillo Green Salsa (original recipe here)

5 cups chopped tomatillos
1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped red bell peppers
1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped jalapeño peppers
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup bottled lemon or lime juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp green coriander berries (unripe seeds of cilantro plants)
1 tablespoon pickling salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Yield - about 5 pints

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2O minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Note: You may use green tomatoes in this recipe instead of tomatillos.

Tomato Salsa (original recipe here)

6 cups peeled, cored & chopped tomatoes (we used yellow plum, black zebra, novi sad & calabash)
6 cups seeded & chopped bell peppers
1 1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped jalapeño peppers
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp dried oregano leaves
3 tsp pickling salt

Yield: about 6 pints

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Orchard Fruit Chili Sauce (not exactly a "salsa" but we use it the same way; original recipe here)

4 cups chopped tomatillos
1 cup chopped green tomatoes (or only use 5 cups total tomatillos instead)
4 1/2 cups pitted, chopped purple plums (we used Italian prune plums)
3 cups cored, chopped pears and/or apples
3 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup seeded, chopped bell peppers
1 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp pickling salt
2 tbsp pickling spice
2 tsp celery seeds

Yield: about 6 pints

Combine pickling spice* & celery seeds in spice bag (folded square of cheesecloth) or stainless steel herb diffuser.

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Salsa in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints	15 min	20	25

*Pickling Spice

4 cinnamon sticks (3" long), crumbled
1 dried ginger root (1" long), crushed/crumbled (with mortar & pestle)
2 tsp yellow mustard seed
2 tsp whole allspice
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 tsp whole cloves
2 tsp dill seed
2 tsp coriander seed
2 tsp whole mace
8 bay leaves, crumbled fine

Mix all together and store in a clean, dry sealable jar. Yield about 2/3 cup total.

What's not to love about eggplant?

2008-11-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

Personally, they're one of my favourite items in the grocery aisle, at least to look at. Not entirely from taste: I've had some really bitter ones, and those aren't great. But they are such a beautiful colour and their shape is also very appealing. What do you do with them? Here are a couple of options for you to get started with this intriguing fruit (yeah, I know, everyone thinks of them as a vegetable, but technically, and I am a science geek, they are fruit).

Baba Ganoush (my version of it, at any rate!)

1 - 3 eggplants (one really large one or 3 really small ones; or something in between!)
2 small golden zucchini squashes
(1 or 2 ripe tomatoes, if you have any)
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
dash of hot sauce
pinch of kosher (or better yet, grey sea) salt

Steam the eggplant(s) and zucchini in the microwave: poke them repeatedly with a fork to allow the steam to escape them, and place rinsed fruit on a paper towel lined microwave safe dish. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, rotate the zucchini & eggplant so that a different surface is up, and microwave again. Repeat until softened. Scoop the contents of the eggplants into a food processor, chop up the zucchini into food processor, and add the remaining ingredients. Pulse the mixture until its paste-like. Serve with pita wedges or tortilla chips.

Eggplant Casserole

1 large eggplant
1 cup garbanzo beans, cooked
1 cup salsa (I used our home-made tomatillo salsa verde, and it was great)
1 tbsp tahini
2 tsp tamari sauce
1 cup grated aged cheddar cheese
(sprinkling of cornmeal for topping)

Cut eggplant lengthwise in 1/4" thick slices. Microwave in microwave-safe dish until slices are softened (about 4-6 minutes on high; rotate the slices mid-way through cooking to cook evenly). Place cooked garbanzo beans, salsa, tahini and tamari into a food processor and pulse until well blended and the garbanzo beans are chopped and somewhat mashed (but not total paste). Lay half of the softened slices of eggplant in a baking dish, spoon half the garbanzo bean mix in a layer on top of the eggplant slices, and sprinkle half of the grated cheddar cheese. Layer the remaining eggplant, then garbanzo bean mix, then cheese. Sprinkle cornmeal for topping if desired. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and centre of dish is heated right through.

Tractor!!!

2008-11-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

Dave's new toy arrived this summer: a two-wheeled, walk behind tractor. This sounds kind of unusual to most North Americans, but they're very popular in Europe. This model is from Italy. Also with the tractor arrived a rotary plow, rototiller, brush mower, and wood chipper. We are so set!

Back on Track

2008-11-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

I've been very busy with work over the summer, and hence have not really cherished time spent on the computer for a use of my leisure time. That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything worthy of posting here, though. I shall be catching up with all of my recipes discovered over the summer, from baking to canning to slow cooking, plus highlights from some interesting events.

Summer Delights

2008-07-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

We've been busy harvesting & processing our pea crop. We shell & freeze them for winter enjoyment, but we've also been eating them for the last few weeks to enjoy them during their right season.

Yesterday, I did a 5km walk in the Underwear Affair, my third year in a row raising money for research towards cancers below the waist (thanks to all my donors whom together contributed over $1,000 for this year's event). They had a lady doing mehndi (henna) for donation, so I got my hand done. I've never had mehndi before, and it's just lovely.

After the walk, we went over to Elizabeth's for dinner and cherry picking. Dave did about 2/3 of the work, and the haul was easily 10-15 lbs of cherries, of which we probably got half. This morning, we needed to process them fast, so Dave figured out an ingenious pitting method, using a thin metal bar, and a piece of plexiglas which he'd drilled a hole into. Isn't he clever? Made the job heaps easier. We had some in our morning smoothie, but the rest went into two-cup packages in the freezer for enjoyment this winter.

Finally Summer!

2008-07-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

Yikes! Has it ever been a while since I blogged here. Not that many people read it, so no big deal, but nonetheless. I'll have a few recipes to upload in the nearish future, but I've been crazy-busy at work. Don't know what my excuse was otherwise before that!

We've done practically nothing on the house since the lighting. Dave's been working on a beautiful bed commission, which I will post about when it's done & I have photos. We've been back & forth to Dad's (May) and Mom's (well, lots). Last trip to Mom's, we had tree fellers in to clear three trees in the field for the future orchard.

Lots of neat critters, too.

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly

Rough-skinned Newt

Garter Snake (juvenile)

Painless Broccoli

2008-02-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Natalino broccoli

From our garden last year

My Aunt Jean introduced me to an extremely painless, low fat, way to eat steamed broccoli - sprinkle with lemon juice. Thanks Aunt Jean! That's how I always serve it now, with a little scrunch of mixed pepper & pink salt, perfect.

She also introduced me to broccoli slaw, which I don't remember ever having before. I did get the recipe from her, but I believe it's sitting at Mom's right now, doing not much of anything. So I did a search to see what I could turn up, and got this dressing recipe.

I had purchased a couple of deep butcher-trays filled with cut broccoli this week while grocery shopping; each one was less than a dollar, and I'm pretty sure there was the equivalent of one large head in each. I suppose that they were trimmings, but they were all perfectly good and very fresh. So I steamed some up, others went into a frittata this afternoon with the leftover roasted root veggies (very tasty and filling); the rest got de-stemmed, blanched & vacuum sealed for the freezer in single-portion units.

I was going to toss the stems into the compost when Dave reminded me of the slaw. Oh, yeah!! So Dave shredded his way through all the following veggies, and I mixed up the dressing.

Broccoli Slaw

Grate the following using a coarse grater:

stems off of two heads of broccoli
2 gala apples
2-3 medium carrots
1 small zucchini

add

1 cup raisins
1 cup sunflower seeds

for dressing, combine:

1 tbsp malt, balsamic or apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dark maple syrup
1/4 cup mayonnaise and plain yogurt (half and half)

Stir everything together and refrigerate overnight if you can (or serve right away) to let the flavours develop.

Blood Orange Marmalade

2008-02-24T11:15:00.001-08:00

As I've mentioned previously, I love blood oranges. When Thrifty's in Mill Bay had Buck Brand organic ones for sale, I knew I had to do something interesting with them.

My trusty, recently purchased food preservation bible Stocking Up: The Third Edition of America's Classic Preserving Guide
has a wonderful marmalade recipe, but I didn't even think to look there first! I found a blood orange marmalade recipe on the web, and decided to kind of merge the two together. I know, you're supposed to follow jam and preserve recipes exactly, but what the heck! But I did follow the boiling-water bath processing instructions in Stocking Up. I am lucky enough to have two enormous enameled metal water bath pots, each with racks, one that's Mom's and one from Dave's uncle Steve. As a result, I was able to process two layers of jars simultaneously. Bonus!

Blood Orange Marmalade

This recipe here resulted in seven (7) 250mL/half pint jars of somewhat loose marmalade. I'm sure that I'd have better results exclusively following the Stocking Up recipe, but I really liked elements of both that I wished to incorporate.

10 blood oranges (two were larger ones, 8 were very small - the online recipe calls for 7)
1 lemon
12 cups of water
approximately 1 cup of chopped fresh rosemary per two cups water (we have LOTS leftover in the freezer from a couple of years ago)
3 cups mild-flavoured honey (yes, honey - Stocking Up uses honey in all its jam & jelly recipes)

Bring water to boil (I did this in 4 cup stages), and pour over appropriate measure of chopped fresh rosemary (e.g. for 4 cups water, use 2 cups rosemary). Let steep for at least 20 minutes. Repeat until you've got 12 cups of rosemary infusion.

Slice citrus very thinly, and place into non-reactive (e.g. stainless steel, enameled metal) pot large enough to hold the mixture and allow for boiling, together with the rosemary infusion. Bring to a full boil, then reduce heat and cook at a simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and let sit, covered, overnight (we placed the pot outside on the veranda to keep cool).

Bring fruit mixture to a boil. Stir in honey. Return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, until mixture resembles a thick syrup (keep at a full rolling boil or it will take longer to reach the gel stage). In Stocking Up, this is supposed to take about 30 minutes. I think that we boiled for closer to 45 minutes altogether, and it probably still could have stood to be reduced a little further.

Pour into sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, and seal. Process for 10 minutes in boiling-water bath. Stocking Up recommends allowing the marmalade to "age" two weeks before tasting or it might be too bitter. We couldn't wait, and yes, it's bitter, but it's SO GOOD! If you're not familiar with the "modern" method of boiling-water bath processing, I highly recommend that you learn about it before proceeding. Many sites/books don't usually suggest it for jellies, but the Rodale Stocking Up recommends this processing method for all preserves, jellies included. It's a sure-fire way to sterilize everything and have it last.

Crunchy Banana Breakfast Muffins - This morning I discovered that using 1/2 cup of no-fat vanilla yoghurt instead of 1/2 cup milk really makes these fluffy and moist, so I recommend the substitution. Also, I just purchased some silicone cupcake cups (12 of those were cheaper than a silicone muffin tin yielding only 6), which seem to work really well for baking muffins. Yes, they're somewhat annoying and futzy to clean, but they are easier to clean well than a metal muffin tin, and so much easier to decant the muffins from!

Sunny Spring Day

2008-02-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

Spring? In February? Yup, we're sure blessed here on the West Coast. Or maybe you're thinking more along the lines of "Sun? In Vancouver?" We've had spectacular sunny weather for the past few days (we'll appreciate it while we've got it, because I'm sure it'll change to rain soon!), and our early spring bulbs are poking their noses through the ground and even flowering. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is some cheerful evidence of spring beauty to enjoy!