Picked pimbina

I picked pimbina this morning and put them in the freezer.  Sylvia will be coming next week and we will make our yearly batches of pimbina syrup for pancakes.  It was 1C this morning so it was a bit cool for picking but it has been a week full of meetings and other commitments so I decided it had to be this morning before I head out to babysit Kale.  I picked a few more than the two pails because I was not picking very clean so I will have two pails for cooking up.  Someone had already picked from several of the bushes so there seems to be more interest than in past years for free fruit.            Therese

Picked the biggest tomatoes

With a prediction of frost over night I decided to pick all the large tomatoes in my square foot garden.  A whole bowl full.  I have wiped them all down and they have joined the other boxes under the bench in the living room.  I have seven boxes with one layer of tomatoes in each.  I have about two and half of red ones with several on their way and three full of green ones.  We have been eating fresh salsa and tomato sandwiches.  I will give a few to the kids as well.  It is a much better crop than last year!!!!!!!!
Therese

Squashes

They are predicting frost for over night so I went and picked my squashes at the community garden.  The little one is not quite as dark but it has grown a lot in the last few weeks so I decided I would pick it.  There are three other small ones that if the frost doesn't get them might be big enough to pick by Thanksgiving!!  I am very happy with my harvest of these and am looking forward to pumpkin pie and maybe other ways of using these great orange squashes!!

Therese

The last of the zinnias

Another bouquet for the kitchen with the last of the zinnias that I picked at the community garden yesterday.  I have been very happy with my flowers for cutting this year.  The zinnias are very nice though the calendulas are more prolific.  They play off each quite nicely in terms of colours so I may be planting both again next year!!

Therese

Another birthday

We attended a surprise birthday for a friend of ours this weekend.  His grand sons were so excited about the cake!! It was a fun evening with good food, friends and family.

Therese

Suzanne's birthday

 We went to the village wide garage sale in Clive this weekend with Suzanne and Sal and the kids.  We all managed to find a few things to bring home and then headed back to the house for lunch and cupcakes for Suzanne's birthday!!  It was great to see them all and do some "fun" shopping with them.  The kids really like garage sales and they made very good choices when making their purchases.   Kale got a fun lady bug lamp and some hot wheels track.  Mina bought some rainbow loom glitter bands and a set of books from "A series of unfortunate events" series.

They were headed back home by early afternoon for an evening out as a couple for her birthday!!

Therese

Yummy Zuchinni fritters with a recipe

I got several zuchinnis from Paula last week and put LOTS of bags of grated zuchinni in the freezer for making muffins.  I saved aside several of the smaller ones to be eaten over the next few days as vegetables at meals.  It is always am challenge to fix zuchinni in tasty ways so after remembering that Madeleine fried some last year at the campground I went looking for a recipe.  I found a great one for fritters at allrecipes.com!!   It is quick and easy and tastes great!!  We have had these with green as well a yellow zuchinni (show here) and Brian prefers those made with green zuchinnis.  I like them both but I am mostly really happy to have found a great way to prepare zuchinni as a vegetable for a meal.

Easy Zuchinni Fritters

1.5 lb zuchinni, grated (12" by about 3" at the large end)
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese  (we have used cheddar - more calories but still tasty)
1 large egg
1 clove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Toss grated zuchinni with the teaspoon of salt in a large colander and place in the sink to drain for 10 minutes.   Put zuchinni in cheese cloth and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.  Put zuchinni  and garlic into a bowl, add the egg and mix until egg is well distributed.  Mix flour, salt and pepper, and cheese in a separate bowl, add to the zuchinni mixture and mix until all is well distributed.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Scoop batter by the tablespoon (3-4 for larger fritters) into the hot skillet and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.
4 servings - 157 calories per serving

These are great and fairly quick to prepare!!

Enjoy!!

Therese

Cherry juice for drinks

While I was home for the move Madeleine mentioned that she has been drinking Canada Dry Lemon & Lime club soda on its own and often with a bit of juice added for extra flavour.  The advantage of club soda is that it has no calories and no sugar and flavour is a wonderful bonus.  I like to make herbal iced tea for company in the summer but it does not work for last minute guests who drop by so I thought it would be nice to have some fruit juice canned that could be opened and offered with some flavoured club soda as a refreshing drink in the summer.  In hopes of being ready for next summer I canned 6 jars of cherry juice today.  I mixed the Evans cherry juice I got from Linda's cherries last week and what was left in the bowl after I finished extracting juice from the nanking cherries to make a batch.  I mixed the 3 cups of Evans cherry juice with the 5 cups of nanking cherry juice and added a half cup of honey.  I boiled this for a few minutes while I was prepping jars and rings to melt the honey and reduce it just a bit.  I got 7 one cup jars of  juice which will be very convenient for making up summer time drinks next summer.  I will have to give it a try with the club soda Madeleine mentioned.

I found two flavoured club sodas when I was at the No Frills yesterday so I bought a case of each. - Lemon Lime and Orange Mandarin.   I will be giving them a go with my juice to see how well they go together.  They may be really good with the black currant syrup as well. Either way I think I will enjoy these flavoured club soda's on their own as well.  Nice to see that these are showing up to give people options for carbonated drinks that do not have have sugar or chemicals.

It was a full day in the kitchen today and the canner was working all day as well.  Nice when you can use the water in the canner more than once!!

Therese

Black currant pancake syrup

When I picked the black currants from my bush I made juice from them and put it in the freezer until I had time to make apple pectin.  I took it out of the freezer last night and made the syrup after finishing the nanking cherry syrup.  I started with 4 cups of black currant juice and added 2 cups of apple pectin, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 cup of sugar.  I cooked it a full boil for 10 minutes until it started thickening up a bit.  I got 6 one cup jars which will be wonderful for pancakes or drinks over the winter.
Therese

Nanking cherry pancake syrup

I was fortunate to pick the nanking cherries from my bush, from Ken's and from Alison's so I had just over two bags full in the freezer!!  I put those in the Creuset in the oven to cook while I was making up my cranberry sauce this morning.  They were nicely cooked by the time I was done so I just got started on making nanking cherry pancake syrup!!  

I took 10 cups of juice from the bowl, added 4 cups of apple pectin, 10 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 cups of sugar and cooked that up at full boil for 25 minutes until it thickened up a bit.  I managed to get 6 jars of about 1 cup and two more jars that probably make up about 3 cups!!  I processed them 15 minutes in the canner.  Mom gave me her medium one while I was there packing for the move and it is the perfect size for processing these smaller jars.    I have set aside two of them - one for Ken and the other for Alison.  So nice to have neighbours who are so willing to share.  This is going to be good for pancakes and maybe even for making drinks.

Therese

Ataca - cranberry sauce

I picked some atacas when I was home  last week in between the move days.  I found a partial package that Mom had given me a while back in the freezer so I added those in.  They were much redder than the ones I picked so they helped give the final result its typical look.Gotta love the look of cooked atacas!!  It made some really nice cranberry sauce.  I had about 8 cups of fruit and I added 2 cups of honey.  I canned the sauce into 1 cup jars and got eight of them and had about 3 cups leftover so my guess of 8 cups was probably not accurate - more likely 10 cups of fruit.  So I have two jars for the fridge and eight for the cold room!!  Will be good with turkey this fall and winter.  Probably with a few pancakes as well.  It would have been nice to keep a few for making muffins but I totally forgot about that option when I got started this morning.  Madeleine uses hers in muffins right from frozen and they work really well.
Next year, though they were so plentiful it would have been nice to get a few more this year.  They are probably nice and ripe about now!!  That is they way is goes!            Therese

Apple pectin and some spare applesauce for me

With the second pail of crab apples I made my self some apple pectin and sauce as well.  I added some very tart red crab apples from the pumping station (by the basket ball nets) to add a bit more pectin to this batch.  It worked out very well and I have about 10 cups of pectin and three jars of applesauce.  I have lots of applesauce left over from last year so I do not need much more.  Sylvia said she would take some so I will set them aside and she can take them home when she comes to make up pimbina syrup in the next week or so.         Therese

Applesauce and apple pectin for Paula

I picked crab apples at Alison's and made up some apple pectin and applesauce for Paula.  She has chemical sensitivities and is always looking for chemical free food.  The neighbours here to do spray their trees so it works out well for me to pick some for her.  She used the apple pectin I made for her last year so I got some jars from her last week and made her some applesauce and apple pectin.  The processes are symbiotic because the apple pectin is collected after cooking the apples and the pulp that remains is put through the food mill to make the apple sauce.  Win - win!  I managed to get 6 cups of apple pectin which I canned for her so she can use it when she is ready.  The same with the applesauce - 6 cups which I also canned into her jars for winter use.

She made mention that she was hoping to make some mint jelly and thought that the pink pectin might detract from the look of it.  On this morning's walk I found a few green crabapples on a downed tree so I made up almost 2 cups of non red apple pectin for her to use for the mint jelly.  I have this on the fridge to give her.  She can put it in the freezer if she is not ready to make the jelly just now.

Therese

Library books - negatives and meditations

I returned these books to the library last week.  I did not read the one on scanning negatives so I am hoping to take it out again.
The "How to Create a mind" was very technical but after reading "Now, your strengths" it might be easier to understand.  I did not get this one finished.
The meditations books was also returned with out being read.  It was a recommendation from a blog but I will have to give another try later on.
Embers by Richard Wagamese was excellent - wonderful photography as well.

Therese