Leaf Fun

We enjoyed another beautiful Fall day here today. A perfect day for raking up a big pile of leaves and jumping in them!

Quote of the Day

"Can I pee in the dog's water?"

Who is this boy and where did he come from? Sheesh!

Preparing the garden for Winter

Its kind of difficult to think about preparing for winter when I am outside in nearly 30 degree weather wearing a tank top and capris as I was today. But that also makes for perfect rototilling weather! I snapped some pictures of the trees in my yard this morning so you can see how beautiful the leaves are!

Anyway, back to the garden! I had my Man-Servant(my husband obviously) put the rototiller on the tractor for me this afternoon. And then I got to work expanding my beds. I decided that instead of eight smaller beds, I have turned those into two long beds. I think it will make it easier for tilling in future years and also for crop rotation.

There are a few things that need to come out in the spring such as the strawberries, rhubarb, and all the perennial flowers.
On the north side of the garden(the front) we will plant Saskatoon berry bushes next year.
And along here will be all raspberries and hopefully thorn less blackberries.

My Mean Green Machine!

Its going to take a few years for the garden to really get going but I have all Winter to dream and plan and I can't wait for Spring!

Mmmm more peaches

While my husband slept off his jet-lag on Friday, I got up early(it was a Pro-D day for my daughter) and got the canner going again. I blanched and sliced peaches for Spiced Peach jam(my own concoction) and then moved onto canning peaches in a light syrup.

Peaches in light syrup
Spiced Peach jam
After I was done with the canning, I made a peach pie...

which went in the oven right after my two loaves of sourdough came out
and then the peach tarts went in. See my new mortar and pestle in the back there? That was one of my presents from China!

Everything turned out delicious. The spiced peach jam is amazing! The sourdough was delicious though not as 'sour' as I was expecting. The pie was so yummy as were the tarts! The only thing left to try are the canned peaches but I think we'll wait until the snow starts to fly before we open up a can of summer sunshine! :)

Quote of the Day

"Daddy, can you turn this song up? I love vampires."

While listening to the Eclipse soundtrack in the truck. :)

FYI

I popped into my local Sobey's today to pick up a frozen turkey for the upcoming Thanksgiving and happened to see their 'Inspired' magazine as I was leaving the store. I just spent a couple of minutes flipping through it and wanted to let you know that there are some phenomenal sounding recipes in this issue. If you are like me and need inspiration with dinners once in a while then I would suggest going and getting a copy of the magazine. I think next week's menu is going to come directly out of these pages!

Oh and a little P.S. to add. I don't mean to gloat or anything... well actually I do... but it was 28 degrees here today. Sunny and beautiful with all the Fall colors and yup, 28 degrees!

Mmmm Peaches!

I bought a case of BC Grown (Osoyoos, BC) peaches on Tuesday and decided that today I would get down to business and make some peach jam. Seven jars of jam later, I hardly even made a dent in the case of peaches. Oh dear. Tomorrow I am hoping to make canned peaches and then if there are any left over after that I will make a peach pie. And to tell you the truth I could almost go back and buy another case because for one thing, they were inexpensive and for another, I think we'll need more than seven jars of this delicious jam!

My canning bible. Unless you have a great book from your mother or grandmother that is your own canning bible, this book is amazing! It has every recipe you could possibly ever need!
Seven jars of delicious not-too-sweet peach jam. Mmm yum! I'm making my first attempt at sourdough bread tomorrow and if all goes well I think sourdough bread with a layer of peach jam on top is going to be heavenly!

Hope you have a peachy afternoon. :)

Today is the day!

Well, after 45 long days my husband is on his way home from China today. I guess technically he left yesterday (Wednesday)... which is today... very confusing. Nonetheless he is cruising somewhere over the Pacific right about now and hopefully he is getting some sleep because his schedule is going to be so messed up when he gets home and something tells me that the kids aren't going to be very excited about him wanting to sleep!

The last few days have been tough. The last few always are. I've been tidying the house(I should be doing more laundry right now) and tidying up outside as winter is creeping slowly up on us(which reminds me, I need to take his winter coat to the airport!) so thankfully I am keeping busy and not going crazy over the last few days of waiting. But we only have a few more hours to go before we can pick up my daughter from school and hit the highway to Edmonton. I think there will be coffee involved. Yup, definitely a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is in order for this afternoon.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Nail Polish

My son and I went into town this morning to do our weekly shop. Our usual stores include Walmart, Extra Foods and Big West Farm and Ranch Supply.

When we got home I called my friend K(who has an adorable little 1 year old who we'll refer to as Baby S) to tell her of a conversation my boy and I had had while in the Cosmetics Department of Walmart. It went something like this:

S: "Mommy can we get some new nail polish?"
Me: "No, we have lots of nail polish at home. We don't need any more."
S: "Can we get some nail polish for Baby S?"
Me: (laughing) "I don't think Baby S needs any nail polish either."

My kids love nail polish, even my boy! So just so you know K, Baby S might be getting nail polish for Christmas!


Just a few from my kids' collection. :)

Pasta with Mixed-Vegetable Ragu

I try to make at least one vegetarian meal a week to give us a break from meat and this is one of my go-to meals. Its from the Weight Watchers All Time Favorites Cookbook.

When I put this on the table the kids of course look at me like I just dumped a steaming cow patty on their plates but I like it and I'm the cook and the mom and I say eat it!

The recipe:

2 TBSP olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 zucchini, finely chopped
1/2 bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
6 fresh white cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 TBSP chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 16 oz box whole wheat spaghetti

Now, I stray from the instructions in the book so I will tell you how I do it as my way is faster than the book's way and turns out the same.

Heat oil in a large non stick pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook stirring for a minute or two. Add remaining vegetables and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes and herbs then simmer stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes(enough time to go check your email.)

Meanwhile cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Top the spaghetti with the sauce and serve with a bit of Parmesan if you like.

Delicious! Perfect for one of those wet days like we had today and doesn't taste at all like cow patties despite what my kids may say!

Winter? What happened to Fall?

Yup, I woke up to snow this morning. Not much of a surprise to be perfectly honest. Its been cold and wet for the last hmm... well its been cold and wet for as long as I can remember now so it was bound to happen sooner or later. This is officially the worst 'summer' I've ever experienced. But I have winter sunshine to look forward to... not today by the looks of it but soon I hope! My husband arrives home from China in two days and seeing as he hasn't seen temperatures under 30 degrees for the last 40+ days I guess I'd better take along his winter coat to the airport!

The puddle ducks are wondering where their puddles disappeared to and this young chicken isn't quite sure what to make of the ick.

Hope it isn't snowing where you are!

Harvest Time!

We had a hard killing frost last night which pretty much levelled anything still standing in my garden. I decided that today would be a good day to get my root crops out of the ground. The sun was shining and it was one of those Fall days that is warm yet crisp and after digging in the dirt for a few minutes you have to take your sweater off.

The boy and I spent the afternoon digging potatoes and carrots. I dug while he put them in the bucket and when he needed a rest from all the hard work he kicked off his boots and socks and ran around the garden.


Red Potatoes

Yukon Gold curing in the sun
And what better way to relax after an afternoon of digging in the garden than to have a nice soak in the tub... er... sink (and no that is not my handiwork on the sink!)

After meeting my daughter at the bus the kids went inside to watch a movie and I pulled the beets. Not a plentiful harvest by any means but for a first year of growing carrots, beets and potatoes I think we did pretty well!
Now I just need to get some pickling spice to pickle beets! I'm the only one who likes pickled beets(or beets in general for that matter) so these are all for me!

Do Not Disturb

Or else...

Autumn

Autumn doesn't officially start until the 23rd but the signs of it are everywhere. This is probably one of the wettest Septembers I can think of and it certainly reminds me of Fall on the West Coast.

Mushrooms are popping up all over my yard which of course the kids enjoy destroying(particularly the boy) despite my efforts to remind them that mushrooms are living things too.

The trees are changing rapidly.
A rhubarb leaf.

A very late blooming zucchini. If you look closely I think that's a spider hiding out in there.
Little puddle jumper.

Dexter is always happy to accompany us to the end of the driveway to meet the bus in the afternoon.

Have a lovely cozy evening.

To the doghouse with you

While my mom was here, one of the projects I wanted to get done was turning a section of the shed into a dog house for Indi and Zama to get out of the weather this winter. Well, I hate to use the flu excuse again but I was half dead and my mom decided to work on it herself(probably to get away from the germs that were floating around the house.)

She built a 4x8 box against the inside wall of the shed with a removable side and top so I can easily take the dogs' beds out and clean their area. Then while my step dad was here, he cut the hole for the dog door which will more than likely consist of a piece of carpet stapled to the wall because I refuse to pay $169.99 for a dog door kit!

Yes, Zama is posing because I asked her to.
As is Indi. You can see how nice and cozy this would be in the winter!
But instead of sleeping in their new dog mansion, my darling canines are sleeping on my patio furniture! There's that guilty dog face again!

Isn't she just a peach?
And when she realized she was having her picture taken she quickly tried to flee only to get herself caught under the table with her tail waving in the air!

Aren't dogs great? *sigh*

Cat and Mouse

Even this mouse isn't safe... :)

At least I can grow carrots!

Hail may have destroyed the better part of my garden back in mid-July but luckily hail doesn't bother carrots! The kids and I have been pulling up a few carrots here and there in the last couple of weeks but this morning I decided to go pull out enough to make a batch of pickled carrots. So off I went in my jammies. Bucket and fork tool in hand to harvest my garden's bounty. Nothing compares to the taste of a home grown carrot. Those things you buy in the grocery store- you may as well be eating cardboard.

My first batch of pickled carrots. I'm so excited to try them! I will let you know how they turn out when I open a jar! I hope they are delicious!

While I was out...

taking my son to the doctor and then the hospital for an X-Ray to find out why he won't stop puking(turns out he's bound up inside and just needed a little help letting things go) my parents:

were at my house toiling away to create this fabulous chicken coop expansion for us(me)!

It will need a proper roof in the spring but for now its roofed with a nice sturdy tarp!

The chickens are going to love their new digs thanks to my parents!! Thank you! xoxo