My Old New House

Independence Days Challenge!

2012-02-01T12:16:00.001-05:00

It's back!

And for the first time, I'm in.

So what is the Independence Days Challenge? You can read more about it here, but it is basically a way of thinking about food, broken down into a manageable number of steps.

I think a lot of people are concerned about their local food systems, food safety and quality, and other food issues, but get bogged down in the complexity of it all.

And it is complex. There are so many factors to consider, and everyone has their own priorities, skills and limitations. One reason I like this challenge is that it isn't a set of "rules" about what to eat, what not to eat, how much money to spend, etc. It's simply a number of items to try to accomplish, in your own way, on a weekly basis.

And just what are those items?

1. Plant Something. Obviously, those of us in the north aren't going to be out planting seeds in our garden in February, but this also can include garden planning, seed starting, etc.

2. Harvest Something. Again, unless you have a way of growing year round (and there are cheap ways of doing this), most of us won't be harvesting in the winter, but it can include things like sprouting and microgreens - which also count under "plant something".

3. Preserve Something. This is something I need to get better at. Many of us do the big canning sessions during the harvest season, but preserving is something that can happen year round. It obviously includes traditional winter preserves such as marmalade, but can also include making applesauce out of those apples that aren't storing well, freezing the last of the winter squash that are staring to soften, pressure canning the stock you made from Sunday's roast, etc.

4. Waste Not. This is one that I REALLY need to address. I'm embarrassed at the amount of food I waste, and it needs to stop. One big step: I need to get better at saving scraps for stock.

5. Want Not. This is about building up your food stash for emergencies and long-term needs. And no, it's NOT hoarding ;)

6. Eat the Food. Yes, this is important. It covers such things as rotating your food storage, and eating out of that storage. It also covers trying new recipes - and for me, it covers giving myself permission to eat my preserved food.

7. Build Community Food Systems. This is one I think I'll have the biggest problem with, given my hermit-loner proclivities, but it is important. It addresses improving your local food systems, but I think, for me, it will be more about hunting out local resources. I think this is one that really depends on where you are on your journey - if you know all your local producers, you can work more on sharing that information. But you have to know your local producers first :)

8. Skill Up. This is new this year, and it addresses learning new skills that may come in useful in the coming years. I'm choosing not to limit this to food, but to include any new skill I want to learn - from seed storage to soap making, and everything in between!

I choose to do this challenge according to my own resources and priorities, and so for now, items 7 & 8 will be monthly items, while I hope to report on the other six weekly.

So, how about it? Are you in? And even if you aren't completely in, try to at least keep these steps in mind and think about where your food comes from, and how resilient your local food system is. And how resilient you are when it comes to feeding yourself and your families.

And really, it will be FUN! Really. :)

Side note: Sharon Astyk is an incredible resource and I cannot recommend both her blog and her books enough. I have her first three books, and re-read them often for both information and inspiration. And I'll be first in line to buy her fourth when it is published this year.

Review: Greg Frewin Magic Show

2012-01-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my brother, I got the opportunity to see the Greg Frewin magic show Wednesday night in Niagara Falls.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I was born and raised in the Falls, and it's interesting to see how much it has changed in the last few decades. Whether the change is for the better or worse is debatable, but the reality is that the Falls is dependent on tourist dollars - and a good quality, family-friendly attraction can be a very good thing for the area.

First, the magic show itself. I'm of the skeptical persuasion, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed, or, at the most, whelmed ;)

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised! While not completely flawless, the show was both amusing and amazing. I prefer sleight-of-hand stuff over "disappearing lady" tricks, and there was a good mix of both, in addition to a lot of audience participation. Some of the tricks were a bit repetitive (how many times can you oooh and awww over the same stunt?), but it still managed to keep me entertained and wondering just how some of it was done.

My one criticism was the use of animals in the show - tigers, a dog, a goose, a parrot, a cockatoo (or something similar), and of course, the traditional doves. It's not so much the use of the animals on stage (but one does have to wonder just how stressed they get with the loud music and bright lights), but what happens to them when they aren't on stage. I'm not a big fan of privately-owned exotic animals, especially large cats, but I do realize this is a bigger issue (and one that most zoos are complicit in, as they keep producing an excessive number of babies, without anywhere for them to go but into private hands). I don't believe that the tigers (and there are four of them) spend their off-time in a enriched environment that provides them with both mental and physical stimulation, and that is imperative for any animal, especially a large, intelligent, powerful carnivore.

But that's my issue, and may not be of concern to others.

So, overall, I would recommend the show itself.

Now, the venue.

It's a nice room, with both booths and tables, set up to hold a large audience while still providing everyone with a good view of the stage. The booths are nice for large groups (six or more), but the tables (which seat eight) are shared with other smaller parties. I'm not sure I'd want to go in a small group and be seated at one of the tables, but again, that's me :)

We didn't have the optional buffet, but it is catered by one of the better local restaurants, so I'm sure the food is good, keeping in mind it is a buffet (i.e. it's not gourmet fare).

When we first got there, the rest of the party was still looking over the drinks menu, and I asked for water.

To which the waitress replied "Bottled water?". Fair enough, and thanks for clarifying. When I asked if there were any other options, she replied that there was tap water, but the quality was poor.

Okay...

Let me back up a step. This was a special show, put on for local people in the industry, so the servers should realize that most of the people in the room are from the area, and not tourists. You know, people who live there. And quite possible drink the tap water in their own homes.

I don't have an issue with the waitress trying to up-sell me to a bottle of water, I have an issue with her trying to do so in a deceitful and, frankly, stupid manner.

I eventually got my glass of tap water, no harm, no foul. Not a big issue, and not one that would prevent me from recommending the show to a tourist.

However...

The drinks.

I am, for the first time in my life, actually contemplating calling the liquor board and lodging a complaint. And this is what will prevent me from recommending this attraction to anyone.

Again, keep in mind this was a show put on for industry insiders. Those that work in area attractions, hotels and restaurants, with the hopes they will in turn recommend the venue to tourists. Which is the main reason to have an industry night. If you were the ones arranging it, would you try to scam your audience?

My sister ordered a margarita, and my brother and I decided to split a "pitcher" of cosmos, which was advertised as a "savings" over buying three separate drinks.

If there was 3 ounces of alcohol between all of the drinks, I'll be a monkey's uncle.

The margarita tasted like salty lime koolaid, and the cosmos tasted like poor-quality cranberry juice. There was NO evidence of any alcohol at all in the cosmos, and if there was any, it was nowhere near the ounce-and-a-half to two ounces that is standard in a cosmo. Again, the pitcher was supposed to contain three servings, which means a minimum of three ounces, and more standard for a cosmo, 4.5 - 6 ounces of alcohol. The margarita was around $7 (going on memory here), and the pitcher of cosmos was a whopping $24. Which would have been fine, except the quantity wasn't enough to pour two full glasses, let alone the three is was supposed to fill. We would have been better off buying two separate drinks for around $7-9 each.

Niagara Falls has a well-deserved reputation for crappy, over-priced restaurants, and that's one BIG reason why many tourists either only come once, or stay for a only a short period of time. A lot of effort has gone into diversifying the attractions in the area, to get more tourists to come during off-season and to stay longer.

And I applaud most of these efforts.

But until the local restaurants realize they can't keep treating tourists like shit, trying to pawn off insanely priced crap on customers they never expect to see again, it won't work.

If this is how they treat people that they want good recommendations from, how will they treat a tourist?

So, no, I cannot recommend this attraction, at least without a warning. If you do go, don't order any alcohol. Or stick to bottled beer, and ask for it to be opened at the table.

Oh, wait... maybe making the alcohol disappear from the drinks was supposed to be one of the tricks? If so, well done!

Things I don't buy: soup

2012-01-27T15:03:00.001-05:00

Anyone who has read my blog for a while should realize I eat a lot of soup.

It's cheap, it's healthy (or can be), it's a great way of using up odd bits of food... and I simply like soup!

The one thing I don't do, however, is buy soup. The last time I bought condensed soup was a few years ago, during a particularly bad cold, when I didn't feel like eating, let alone cooking. (Which is why a stash of homemade soup is a good thing!).

It was DISGUSTING.

So disgusting that the second can stayed in the cupboard until I found it a couple of months ago, long expired. Now, I really don't like wasting food, but I figured I was doing the world a favour by trashing it ;)

And I noticed recently that some stores are selling liter jars of soup in the deli section - for over $6 a liter!!!

I don't buy soup, and I especially don't buy it for more than five time the cost of gasoline!

Regular readers should also realize I seldom use a recipe for soup. It's a flavour base (generally stock) plus bits of solids (meat and/or veggies), with an optional bit of starch or grains (pasta, barley or other grains, potatoes, etc.). Some soups I make can be more expensive (leek and blue cheese, French onion with beer), and some are almost free, like veggie soup made with produce from the garden, or beef soup made from a leftover roast.

Clam chowder, corn chowder, bacon and potato, chicken and rice, tomato tortellini, roasted red pepper, turkey noodle, Italian sausage, beef and barley, curried root veggie with chickpeas... the list is almost endless, and is limited only to your taste and budget.

My one failure in this area, though, is stock. While I have chicken/turkey stock down pat, I still buy beef and vegetable stock. So, one resolution this year is to start making my own. Especially vegetable stock, which is so cheap to make. I'll start saving scraps in a dedicated container in the freezer, and when it's full, a bit of water and some time on the stove - and hey, presto, vegetable stock. And I made beef stock a couple of weeks ago, from some bones my mother saved for me from a roast. Again, it's not hard, it just requires some time and water :)

This will be the year of stock making (and canning!), and then stock can be one more thing that I don't buy.

Sad dog is sad

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm forced to lay in the hallway.

On the bare floor.

Then Kip steals my sun.

Katy loves to lay in the sun. Unfortunately for her, the only windows that get good sun in the winter are in the side of the house, making the hallway the best spot for sunbathing.

And I am NOT putting a dog bed in the hallway.

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I have NO idea what is going on with Kip's back leg in that last picture. It is not on backwards, and isn't broken, nor is it 25% longer than his other legs. Freak. :)

Coffee!

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Almost a year ago, I posted about my main method of making coffee. And thanks to an excellent Christmas gift from my sister, I now have a way of making espresso*-based drinks!

Yeah! She had no idea how long I had been coveting one of these, which makes the gift even more perfect!

Y'all know what it is, right? Of course you do! It's a Bialetti, aka a moka pot! And it came with funky cups and saucers, based on some vintage Bialetti ads.

I love this dude. He reminds me of Inspector Clouseau. (Are you now humming the theme to the Pink Panther**? You should be. It is now the theme song for coffee making in my house.)

The water goes in the bottom chamber, and when heated, goes up through the coffee grounds in the basket.

The coffee then goes through a filter and up the tube into the upper chamber.

And hey presto - espresso!

I can now have a cafe latte every day, without breaking the bank. Just heat the milk in the microwave while the coffee is perking away - easy! And quick - the entire process takes next to no time at all.

Sis also got me a this for my birthday***:

Which has the innards of a french press, but is made by Cadbury's and came with hot chocolate, leading me to believe it's meant to be a "chocolatiere", aka fancy-schmancy hot chocolate maker. I'll try my hot chocolate mix in it, but I think it will find more use as a french press. And as my old french press broke a while ago, it is also a perfect gift!

Thanks sis! Wanna come over for coffee?

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*yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not "true" espresso, but it's as close as I'm going to get, as I refuse to waste money on a cheap espresso maker, and I don't have the money to waste on a real one!

**which was written by Henry Mancini. Who also wrote Moon River. Thanks, Dad, for filling my head with useless facts!

***Oddly enough, my brother got me some excellent coffee for my birthday, and gift certificates for Starbucks for Christmas. I think my love for coffee hasn't escaped my family's notice :)

One of Twelve

2012-01-24T14:29:00.000-05:00

Sunday night, my family finally got the first installment of their Christmas present: supper.

Huh?

Yep - instead of gifts this year, I gave food to all adults in my family, in the form of one family meal a month at my house. The kids get to come along as well, even though they still got gifts :)

And Sunday night was the first supper: pulled pork on a bun, cole slaw and baked beans.

Hey - I said supper, not "gourmet meal".

And when you are feeding 9 guests on a budget, well, the meals will tend more to simple fare. Tasty, but simple.

This is what was left of the pork... I guess they liked it!

I simply put two roasts (combined weight ~6 pounds) in the slow cooker in the morning, added a couple of bottles of BBQ sauce, and cooked on high for 6 hours, took out the roasts, shredded the meat with two forks, added that back to the slow cooker, and cooked on low for another 2 hours. If I do this again, I'll use either larger cuts, or boneless cuts, since running out of food is not a good thing!

I used this recipe for the baked beans, and it was GOOD. Fantastic. Yummy. I could have eaten the entire thing - and I don't like beans. And yes, I realize adding sugar and bacon to beans turns a healthy food into a not-so-healthy food, but, wow - so good! The only thing I did differently was to use my cast iron skillet for the entire recipe - why cook everything in the skillet, then move to a second dish to bake it? Reason #3085 I love cast iron - oven proof!

The cole slaw was a family recipe: grate one carrot, chop up some cabbage (I used half each of a red and green cabbage), then add the following dressing:

1 cup vinegar
2/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar (I cut this back to 1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons salt

Add everything to a sauce pan, bring to boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt, then cool before using.

I really prefer vinaigrette dressing on slaw, and this one is nice and simple. I also add a few twists of ground pepper once the dressing has cooled. And make this ahead of time - it just gets better with time.

I picked up these two local wines - one from Pelee Island Winery and one from the more local Strewn winery. Both under $12 a bottle, and both quite good. I love living in an area with so many wineries!

Oh, and the dogs say having company is tiring!

Now, this wasn't the most sustainable or locally-sourced meal, but it could be. I want to work on the baked bean recipe so I can use home-grown dry beans. I also need to find a home-made BBQ sauce recipe I like, and that can be made mostly from stuff I can grow. The salad, other than the dressing, can be also completely home-grown. And of course, one could make the buns as well, if one could actually learn to work with yeast dough. Yeah.

So, by growing the beans and all the veggies, by making the BBQ sauce and buns myself, and by using locally-sourced, sustainable produced pork and bacon, this meal can easily be a local, sustainable one! With local wines :)

Now, on to next month...

It's official: Katy is a freak

2012-01-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

I really shouldn't be so mean to the poor, wee dog, but...

Katy had her annual vet check this week, and everything is great. I realized we had never done a blood panel* on her, so gave the vet the okay to run one. Katy was a champ getting the blood work done - even to the extent of shrugging her shoulder to increase the flow of blood :)

All her numbers came back fine, except for two liver tests - one is a couple of points higher than normal, one is a couple of points lower. The vet called herself to explain the numbers, and that she had absolutely no concern about the out-of-range values - the worry starts when the values are5 to 10 *times* normal, not just a couple of points.

(Have I mentioned that I love our vet? The fact that she made a point of calling, and explaining everything is wonderful. And the entire clinic treats both dogs SO well!)

While there, I pointed out two bumps that Katy developed recently - one on her ear, and one on her upper lip, right by her nose.

The vet doesn't think the one on the ear is anything to worry about - probably just a cyst, so it's officially a wait-and-watch item. No prob.

The other one had a very small "thing" coming out of it, so the vet grabbed some tweezers, and pulled...

... and a clump of thick, black, 1/2 inch long hair came out!

The vet said in 17 years of small animal practise, she has NEVER seen anything like that. Ever.

So, it's official.

Katy is a freak!

I'm not a freak, and I'll lay here and pout until you take it back.

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*The vet recommended the geriatric panel. Shhhhhh, don't tell Katy! Kip had his panel done before he was neutered, so now both dogs have a baseline blood panel done - a good thing, if they ever get really sick, as it gives the vet a "healthy" reference point. If you don't have one on your dogs/cats, please ask your vet about it next time you go in! IMO, the cost is worth the information and peace of mind.

Things I don't buy: breakfast cereal

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

I happened to walk down the cereal aisle in the grocery store recently, and almost fell over. I couldn't believe the prices! How do families with growing children afford to buy cereal? And why do they?

Because that is another thing I don't buy, and haven't bought in a while. Even then, for years all I ever bought was granola. I've posted before about homemade granola, but my winter choice is, of course, oatmeal.

Steel-cut oats topped with dehydrated blueberries from last summer and sweetened with local maple syrup.

Specifically, steel-cut oats. They are chewier and nuttier than rolled oats, but rolled oats are good too. Both are better than those packets of oatmeal, which, while the ingredients aren't too bad, are so expensive when compared to making your own. If you like your oatmeal on the go, you can actually make your own instant packets, or just make some in the morning and take it with you in a wide-mouthed thermos.

Steel-cut oats range from $0.30/100 g at the bulk store to $0.70/100 g for store-bought organic, but even at the highest price, that works out to around 22 cents for a quarter cup serving (about 1 cup cooked). Even if you are a big breakfast eater, and double that amount, it's still under 50 cents. Of course, that doesn't include the additions. But if you stock up on cheap, in-season fruit in the summer, the cost isn't that high - and the flavour! Dehydrated strawberries are my current favourite - it's a little hit of summer every morning :) The fruit also adds some sweetness, and of course, you can always swap the maple syrup for cheaper honey or sugar. All told, it's still under, WAY under, $1.00 per serving.

Yes, oatmeal takes time to cook. And yes, you do have to stir it occasionally. But soaking overnight cuts down on the cooking time, and some people even use their slow cooker, and have breakfast ready for them in the morning. I've tried neither of these methods, since I can easily work the 30 minute cooking time into my routine, especially on weekends. I have even made a large batch, and used the microwave to re-heat the leftovers. You have to add a bit more liquid, but it works fine for those busy mornings.

Cheap, healthy, tasty and filling - you can't ask for more from a breakfast cereal! And you certainly won't find any of that in a processed breakfast cereal.

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I use a 4:1 or higher ratio of water to oats, since I like mine on the thin side, and I don't add milk before eating. I add the dehydrated fruit in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.

1 breed, 2 dogs.

2012-01-19T17:30:00.002-05:00

SNOW!

I LOVE SNOW!!!!!

Are you freakin' kidding me? Get out of my way, woman, I'm coming inside.

What do you mean there are two more months of this??

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Kip digs snow. Loves it. He will play "find the snowball" for HOURS. My neighbours think I'm nuts because I'll stand there and kick snow at him, to his everlasting joy.

And Katy? The dog that would spend 25 hours a day outside if she could?

She is not amused.

Same breed, two totally different dogs!

Things I don't buy: hot chocolate mix

2012-01-13T12:17:00.000-05:00

I have been noticing a common theme on some of the other blogs I read: a list of common items they do not buy. Now, I could make my own list, but I think it's interesting to expand on the theme. If I don't buy these things, what do I do instead?

First up: hot chocolate mix.

Even though we have had an unseasonably warm winter (no snow, no ice on the lake, green things still abounding outside), hot chocolate is still my go-to drink for winter evenings. I still remember looking for recipes a few years back for home-made mix, and being surprised at the number that started with Nestles' Quik, or something similar. Here's a hint: if you are starting with a chocolate mix, it's not really that different than simply buying a hot chocolate mix.

So, with some trial and error, I developed my own recipe. Fair warning: I like mine dark and rich and chocolatey, without being too sweet, so you may find you have to add more sugar.

Hot Chocolate Mix:

1 part powdered milk
2 parts Dutch-processed cocoa
2 parts sugar

Mix well, getting cocoa all over everything in the process, then store is a sealed container. Use 2-3 Tablespoons per mug of hot water (depending on the size of the mug and your taste).

Both because I'm lazy and I tend not to have milk in the house, I add powdered milk to the mix. This can be left out entirely, and you can either choose to drink as is (it's more chocolatey that way), or make it with hot milk instead. There will be a few bits of milk floating around, but they eventually disappear. If this offends you, apparently bashing the mix about in a food processor or blender helps. I wouldn't know, because, well, I'm too lazy to try it :)

I often add things to my hot chocolate: a candy cane for mint (which also makes it sweeter), some cinnamon and chili powder for a Mexican twist, and sometimes, if I'm feeling really decadent, Skor bits. YUM! Oh, yeah, marshmallows. Not a big marshmallow* fan, so those aren't on my list, but hey, if you like them... ;)

If you're not a big hot chocolate drinker, but enjoy the occasional cup, simply add a 1:1 ratio of cocoa and sugar to a mug, add hot water, and presto, hot chocolate.

Why Dutch-processed cocoa? Because I think it tastes better, and the local bulk food store carries it. For those interested, here is a comparison of "dutched" cocoa vs "natural". All I know is that I really do prefer Dutch-processed cocoa for hot chocolate!

As for cost, it works out to somewhere around 35 cents a mug, based on the going rates at the bulk food store (yes, I did actually weight each component to figure that out. Geeks rule). Leaving out the milk would drop that to around 28 cents a cup, but most of the cost is in the cocoa.

I actually have no idea how that compares to store-bought mixes. I think you could find coupons for those, so it's not as simple as checking out the normal price, plus I don't know how many cups you would actually get out of a can (my mugs are BIG, so the serving number, if available, isn't really accurate for a true comparison).

But here are the ingredients of one mix:

SUGAR, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, VEGETABLE OIL (PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COCONUT OR PALM KERNEL AND HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN), DAIRY PRODUCT SOLIDS, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, AND LESS THAN 2% OF CELLULOSE GUM, NONFAT MILK, SALT, SODIUM CASEINATE, SODIUM CITRATE, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ALUMINOSILICATE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, GUAR GUM, ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS. (Ingredients found here)

Yeah. I know I'd much rather drink something with only three ingredients. Also something with cocoa higher than fourth on the list. And vegetable oil? Really?? WTF?

Plus, homemade tastes SO much better! Especially with those left over candy canes....

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*that link is from this site. Yes, I do find that site funny.

Lunch of champions....

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Poached local, organic eggs on toast made from bread from a local bakery, washed down with kick ass (literally) fair trade coffee and apple juice made from Ontario apples.

YUM!!

Wordless Wednesdays - January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Allen's!

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

I don't know if I can express how happy this can makes me. You see, apple juice is my second favourite liquid in the world - the first being fresh apple cider :)

And I haven't had as much as a sip of it in at least 10 years. Not one sip, ever since I learned the amazing fact that most of our apple juice comes from overseas.

Now I realize the perception of Canada is that it is a land of snow and ice, but the reality is that we have a LOT of agricultural land, and a lot of that is quite suitable for orchards - peaches, cherries, pears, plums, apricots, nectarines, tree nuts - and of course, apples.

I also remember the government paying farmers to pull out cherry orchards when I was a child. It didn't make sense to me then, and years later, it still doesn't make sense to me. So, long story short, I refuse to support an industry that chooses to purchase a product from overseas to the detriment of local farmers. We have lost so much farm land, and so many processors, like the local cannery, and I'm tired of trying to get people to see the link between buying cheap foreign food and the loss of good-paying local jobs.

So, I boycotted apple juice. Until yesterday - when I saw that Allen's was actually promoting local apples and local farmers!! Of course, it's a "special edition", but I am going to buy as much of this as I think I can use in the next year, and I will contact Allen's to show my support for this, in the hopes that it continues.

And if you live in Ontario, and love apple juice as well, I ask you to do the same.

Let's start rewarding companies for making good choices, for supporting local farmers, for trying to make farming a viable industry.

And join me in toasting Allen's with, of course, a glass of apple juice!

WARNING! Cute dog pictures may cause an uncontrollable urge to squee.

2012-01-06T17:16:00.001-05:00

Going...

Gone!

$500 Challenge - October, November and December

2011-12-30T16:01:00.003-05:00

Yes, I know I really fell down on reporting the final 3 months of the challenge. Basically because October and November were boring additions to the stash :) So, without further ado, I present the final 3 months of the challenge:

October:

I use Tupperware containers to store most of my dry goods, and I want to gradually change them over to glass. Some things can go in the small glass canisters I bought in April and some can go in mason jars. However, I get picky when it comes to baking staples like flour and sugar. I want to be able to scoop out of the containers for these things - I remember one set of canisters my Mom had, where she could only fit a very small measuring cup in the flour canister. Needless to say, those didn't last long! Who wants that extra grief when it comes to baking??

So, when I spied these, I picked up the two largest sizes - one for flour, and one for sugar.

I may end up with more, but I want to wait until the kitchen is done, and see how much counter space I end up with. And for now, flour and sugar are the main items I use a lot of!

Costs:

2 glass canisters: $30.90 + $4.02 tax
Total: $34.92

Balance: $43.11

November:

Since beginning this challenge last January, one of the major hurdles has been cold food storage - both fridge and freezer. I still have no good alternative to plastic bags for freezer storage, and in the last two months, have lost FOUR mason jars to breakage in the freezer. No, they were not overfilled, but were old jars, and I think that the temperature fluctuations were too much for them. I'm not too happy about losing the jars, never mind the contents! So these came on sale at just the right time:

I bought one round set, and one rectangular set. I already have some, but not enough, so these will come in handy. Yes, I know they have plastic lids, but I've yet to come up with a way to store food long term without plastic, and at least this is a minimal and reusable amount.

Costs:

2 glass food storage sets: $16.90 + $2.20 tax
Total: $19.10

Balance: $24.01

December:

With less than $25 left for the challenge, I was trying hard to come up with something to finish off the year in style. I still needed to replace a few plastic cooking utensils, and I still need to source small pie plates, but I ended up with something completely different.

And I blew the budget in the process :)

But when I found out a good quality pressure canner was on sale for almost half off, it was too good to pass up. How does a pressure canner fit the challenge?

Well, I can use it to store things, like stock, in glass that would otherwise be in the freezer. It allows me to reduce my use of plastics and frees up freezer space at the same time. Soup, stew, sauces, juices - low-acid food of all sorts can now be safely stored at room temperature.

And once again, it's my challenge and I get to change the rules :)

Costs:

Pressure canner: $79.95 + $10.39 tax
Total: $90.34

Balance: -$66.33 OOOPS!

Summary:

All in all, I'm glad I did this. Even though I went over budget, and I found it next to impossible to source items made in North America, it was an interesting process. By spreading it out over a year, I had time to think about each purchase and determine what would be the best use of the money. I think by setting aside a fixed amount, it allowed me to spend "guilt-free" :)

My favourite purchases are the cast iron cookware. This is something I use all the time, and I'm loving it. My second favourite is the pour-over coffee "maker" - again, something I use daily. The most disappointing has to be the bakeware, simply because of the deception in the name and where it was made. The other items, while functional, simply aren't all that exciting!

I still have plastic in the kitchen, so this isn't the end of the quest. I need to get rid of the final few plastic cooking utensils, and I need to find and buy small pie plates (I like them for individually sized pot pies, which are kept in the freezer for a quick meals!). Once the new kitchen is in, I need to figure out all my storage needs, so more containers for staples may be on the wish list as well.

Thus endth the $500 challenge.

Now, I wonder what's in store for 2012....

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T08:27:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas!!

From all of us here to you, may you have a safe and happy holiday!

Messin' with Texas, Day 5

2011-12-20T16:36:00.003-05:00

My plane was scheduled to leave early in the afternoon of my last day, so Ms. PB and I had a lazy morning (poor Mr. PB had to work), spent mostly with the real reason for my trip: the poodles!

Hershey is definitely the queen of all she surveys. At the grand old age of 13, while she has some heath issues, she is still a feisty, happy, imperious old gal.

Kyra is next in line. A sweet-natured girl, but I do have to say - while she tolerates the presence of humans, she really only wants your food. Silly chowhound! I think she and Katy would get along just fine...

Next comes the beautiful Boo. A complete sweetheart, even if he is a mamma's boy!

And last, but sooooo not least, is Hemi. Regal, dignified.... oh, wait. Right.

This is the real Hemi. One big goofball of energy, wrapped in gorgeous silver fur!

After snuggling with the poodles for the last time, Ms. PB and I headed to pick up Mr. PB and have lunch at a near-by Hard Eight BBQ.

And wow, what a lunch! This was BBQ - real BBQ. Two huge grills, covered with meat. Pork, chicken, beef - plus things like grilled shrimp, potatoes and corn-on-the-cob. The smell alone was incredible, never mind the taste of the actual food! You choose what you want off the grill, and then pay by the pound, plus extra for any sides you want - things like mac 'n' cheese, potato salad, etc. The beans are free :)

Of course, I ate WAY too much, but it was soooo tasty. We just do not have food like this around here! After rolling back to the car and dropping Mr. PB back at work, we drove to the airport. And past the airport. And back past the airport. Hey look kids, there's Big Ben and there's Parliment! Okay, it wasn't quite that bad, but I still say there was NO sign for the gate we were looking for! Even with the drive-bys, I still made it with time to spare, so I hunted down the closest coffee place, grabbed a huge latte, and sat and waited for my plane.

Which was basically what I did for the next 12 hours. Argh! The plane was slightly late taking off from Dallas, making the connection in Detroit REALLY tight. Which ended up not being an issue, as the fight from Detroit to Buffalo was delayed. By 3 ~~3.5~~ 4.5 hours! Now, it was blamed on bad weather on the east coast, and I really don't expect anyone to risk life and limb by flying in a storm. But - there was NO communication from the airline. None. Postponements, gate changes, further postponements, more gate changes, more postponements... nothing. Thankfully, the people waiting all ended up looking out for each other, and sharing what information they had - but I still expect a professionally run company to be able to effectively communicate with their customers. Big fat fail, Delta!

After a phone call to Dad, to tell him about the delay (which ended up costing a whopping $13!!!!!!!!!!!, but was money well spent, since the web site still had my flight arriving before it actually took off), there wasn't much to do but sit and wait. And wait. And wait.

However, all good things (!) come to an end, though, and I got home in the wee hours of the morning. To this:

"Where were you, and why do you smell of poodle?"

All in all, it was a fantastic trip - filled with good food, great times, and even better friends. Who could ask for more? Thanks a million, Mr. & Ms. PB, and all the poodles, for putting me up, feeding me, and driving me all over!

And that's how I messed with Texas :)

Messin' with Texas, Day 4

2011-12-19T11:30:00.000-05:00

My fourth day in Texas saw us venturing into the countryside, to see some of the wildlife.

What? Zebras aren't indigenous to Texas? Really?

Okay, fine, we were at a safari park, specifically the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center :)

The center has many different types of antelope-type animals, but I'm going to be cruel, and let you try to figure out which is which...

As different as they may be, every animal in the park had one thing in common: they know where their food comes from. This was the most common view of the animals:

Dude, personal space!!

Zebras: the thugs of the animal world.

Antlers come in handy - for keeping the beasts out of the car! Otherwise, this one would have been sitting in Mr. PB's lap, I think.

Giraffes have the aerial surprise attack down pat:

Side note: hand-feeding giraffes? Coolest thing EVER.

Look up, waaaay up... (only Canadians of a certain age will know where that quote comes from!)

The park is HUGE, and we were there for at least 3 hours. If you ever go, there are a few things you have to know:

1. The animals WILL drool down the inside of your car door, so have some sort of wipe handy. And the bigger the beast, the more copious the drool.
2. If you point and laugh at your companion getting almost tongue-mauled by an overly-friendly beast, this is only a diversion for the beast's partner in crime, who will be waiting for you to turn around and realize it's totally in your face. Right, Mr. PB?
3. The beasts know that every car has a driver, and will preferentially go to the left side of the car. So pick your driver carefully. Right, Mr. PB?
4. They all have REALLY long tongues. Freakish long. And they know how to use them...

After driving through the park, and laughing so hard my stomach hurt, it was time for the drive home, stopping for a small ice cream treat. Then, that evening, it was time for TexMex! Some great food - including three different types of salsa (very good!), a cheesy nacho dip (wow!) and a Texas-sized chimichanga. The best part? A frozen margarita-sangria combo - also Texas sized!

After all that food and alcohol, it was time for home and bed :)

The End...

Messin' with Texas, Day 3

2011-12-06T10:52:00.000-05:00

Day three once again saw us braving the Texas traffic, in order to get to the biggest hotel I have ever seen: the Gaylord Texan. Although, after parking in the designated area, and walking the 58.6 miles to get from the parking garage to the hotel, I think we might have been better off to just walk in the first place...

However, back to the hotel. Or, as I like to call it, the small town masquerading as a hotel. Seriously, this place is HUGE. Things really are bigger in Texas! The interior-facing rooms cluster around a 4.5 acre glass-enclosed atrium, a two-storey space that is filled with live plants, pathways, and even a "river".

The hotel puts on an amazing Christmas display, with running miniature trains, real poinsettias planted in the flower beds, and a lot of decorations.

And yes, I did think that placing Frosty the Snowman in the desert, along with a covered wagon, was somewhat humorous :)

One of my favourite things was this display, especially the lights in the garland.

What, you can't see them? Here's a close-up:

You know you're in Texas when...

As we walked though the area, we started smelling something REALLY good. It got better and better, and stronger and stronger, until we rounded a corner and saw this:

A life-sized gingerbread house. Made out of real gingerbread and decorated with real candy!

But real attraction was the hotel rug - I think I'm going to put some in the house:

Okay, not really. The REAL attraction was the amazing ice display the hotel puts on every year. This year's theme was Shrek, and wow, was it incredible! It takes a very large tent, cooled very well, 2 million pounds of ice and many Chinese artisans to construct this incredible display.

All the characters were there. Shrek and Donkey:

Fiona:

Puss-in-Boots (my favourite!):

The Three Blind Mice:

And Gingy!:

The photos can't convey the amazing attention to detail, but it was incredible.

There was even a slide made of ice! And yes, I may have gone down it more than once...

After hiking back to the car, we went to see another amazingly large Texan attraction: Bass Pro Shops*.

A one storey-aquarium, filled with sport fish, miles of displays of everything you could want for outdoor activities, and the site where I proved, once and for all, I can miss the broadside of a barn with a gun :)

After the humiliation of having Mr. PB ask me, ever so nicely, if I knew what I was doing with the gun in my hand**, we went to one of the best restaurants around: The Bavarian Grill.

A fantastic meal of bread (I'll fight you for the pretzel roll!), goulash and great beer - such great beer!

All incredibly tasty. And filling. Very filling. And if you hear rumours of me being serenaded with a cowbell version of "Happy Birthday", with a resounding Canadian "EH!" at the end, well, they are just rumours. It's not like there is a video of it or anything...

After the rolling our way back to the PB lair, we spent the evening in that great American pastime: watching football on TV, whilst laying around digesting our amazing lunch :)

And thus ended day three...

______________________________________________
*Apparently, there is one in Toronto. So, I didn't have to go all the way to Texas to see one, but then again, I don't think I'd ever have gone into one on my own :)

**Hey, give me a break! It was my first time ever holding a gun, never mind target shooting***. And yes, his advice helped greatly, and I got much better. I only missed the barn by a city mile, instead of a country mile, after that ;)!

*** Playing Duck Hunter doesn't count.

Presto Pressure Canner for $79.95. But wait, that's not all!

2011-12-02T07:53:00.001-05:00

Okay, cheesy TV sales pitch aside, this is a quick post just to let you know the Presto Pressure Canner (canner, not cooker) is on sale at Amazon.ca for an incredible $50 off!

And we'll throw in free shipping, if you call within the next 30 minutes... :)

I don't know how long it will be on sale, but if, like me, you've been thinking of getting one, now's the time!

Hat tip to Canadian Doomer, who also has some advice about buying a better regulator for the canner.

Small print - I do not get anything for this post, I am not an Amazon affiliate and have no links to Presto. It's just an amazing deal, and I thought I'd share :)

Messin' with Texas, Day 2

2011-11-26T11:40:00.001-05:00

After surviving my first day in Texas, we fortified ourselves with some amazing home-made sausage biscuits, and once again braved the Texas traffic to go the historic Stockyards in Fort Worth.

There were immediate indications that I was no longer in Canada, Toto:

The Stockyards celebrate Texas history, especially that surrounding the Chisholm trail and the associated cattle and cowboys.

The Cowtown Coliseum is still used to hold rodeos and other events. Unfortunately, none were scheduled during my visit ;)

I did have a chance to practise my bull riding...

... but after he turned and glared at me simply for taking his photo, I decided not to :)

One neat attraction is the Texas Trail of Fame, and I was impressed at the number of names I actually recognized! And yes, I do know who Audie Murphey is!

There are a number of shops and restaurants (fantastic pulled pork sandwich for lunch, along with the fried okra I stole from Ms. PB's plate. I know - fried okra! But it was really good!!). And of course, most of the shops were decorated for Christmas, in a very Texan way :)

Other attractions included a small petting zoo, a cattle pen maze, and the Fort Worth Jail, into which we immediately forced Mr. PB.

Also on site is Billy Bob's, the world's largest honky-tonk. No, I'm sorry, I have no idea what makes a bar a honky-tonk, rather than just a bar. I think that's insider information that they do not divulge to foreigners like me.

It is large enough to have real bull riding inside, but once again, unfortunately, none were available for me to ride...

A number of famous entertainers have graced the stage over the years, and they are immortalized with handprints in the Wall of Fame. (Please note, I'm not a big country music fan, so this might be a bit more interesting to those of you who are. Also, you would have recognized more of the names on the handprints. I struck out after Styx, Cheap Trick, Huey Lewis and Johnny Cash.)

But there was a small photo of a guy I recognized - yes, indeed, that is Buddy Holly!

However. the real stars of the Stockyards weren't to be found in any honky-tonk. There were in the cattle pen, resting up for their big moment.

Yes, real, live Texas Longhorns!!

And when they say everything is bigger in Texas, they mean those horns! Yikes!!

Twice a day, the Longhorns are taken for a ~~casual stroll~~ cattle-drive down the main street of the Stockyards.

And it's a good thing these cattle are good-natured, for they get really close.

I don't think the bride is a normal part of the cattle drive, but I may be wrong ;)

After a long day immersed in some Texas history, we wrangled back through the highway system to the Poodlebug lair, where upon Ms. PB made a delicious, authentic southern meal for me: fried chicken!!! Yes, I am sorry to say, real fried chicken is not really a Canadian thing, and as KFC doesn't count, I hadn't had the pleasure before this trip.

A cast iron chicken fryer is now on my Christmas wish list, and one of the local chickens I bought is destined for a bath in hot oil!

And thus ended day two...

Messin' with Texas, Day 1

2011-11-26T10:49:00.001-05:00

What? Texas? Huh?

Yes, dear readers, part of the lack of posts here is due to my mini-vacation mid-month to the Republic of Texas, to visit some fantastic friends. The same friends who came here this time last year.

And please note, for those of you who are planning vacations: the weather is generally much warmer in Texas, vs. Ontario, this time of year. You know, mid 70s to low 80s, rather than snow :)

I flew out of Buffalo on a plane that held approximately 5.7 people (okay, it wasn't that small, and isn't the smallest plane I've ever been on*, but it was still really small). After the worst flight of my life (first time I ever came *that* close to hurling on a plane. In fact, I was too sick to even think about looking for the barf bag, assuming those are still complimentary. Gotta love turbulence in a small plane, no?), I changed planes in Cleveland, then had a much better flight to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, where I was met by Mr. Poodlebugs, and taken to the secret Poodlebug lair.

Okay, it's not a secret lair, but the highways in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are complex, large, and apparently multiplying at an alarming rate, given the construction I saw everywhere. My new version of hell: being trapped on Dallas-area highways, without a functioning GPS.

After surviving the Greeting of the Poodles, we hied our way to a local steak house for an incredible steak supper, then fought our vehicular way into downtown Dallas.

Where upon Ms. Poodlebugs abandoned me in favour of hearing some obscure author speak about his newest book.

Geesh! Like anyone else would pick Stephen King over me!!! ;)

To deal with our abandonment, Mr. PB and I went to a nearby bar, where upon I had my first-ever margarita (non-frozen variety).

Cell phone photo of 1st margarita, with salsa and chips for scale.

Oh, my. I have to say, a real margarita made with some damn good tequila compares to those university tequila shots with the mandatory licking-salt-from-hand manoeuvre like a good Texas steak compares to mock meat made from soy. In other words, it was GOOD. Too good. Like "if I lived here, I'd be broke and an alcoholic" good. Almost as good as a good Scots whisky, in fact ;)

In addition to great salsa, and excellent margaritas, the bar also provided a real Mexican cowboy singer. And, I think Mr. PB and I actually had more fun with the Mexican cowboy singer than Ms. PB had with her author. Even though neither of us like country music. And the Mexican cowboy sang with a twang that made Willie Nelson sound like an opera singer.

Cell phone photo of our entertainer, complete with stetson.

The fun started after I realized the Mexican cowboy wasn't singing just country songs.

He sang songs like "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. And covered the Rolling Stones. And Hootie and the Blowfish.

The night devolved into "Name That Tune, Texas-style"!

And so, after a long travel day, followed by good food, great booze and much laughter, we won the highway fight once again, and made it safely back to the Poodlebug lair, and so to bed.

To be continued...

______________________________________
* 10 passenger ~~sardine can~~ plane flying from Edmonton, Alberta to Prince George, BC. For those of you not familiar with Canadian geography, that flight is over the Rocky Mountains. And it still wasn't anywhere near as bad as the flight from Buffalo to Cleveland.

I think the dogs like the new couch.

2011-11-07T05:31:00.000-05:00

This is why I made sure to get a couch with a wide back :)

After grooming...

2011-11-06T19:56:00.004-05:00

I think Katy might be finding her recent haircut a bit chilly, since she found a cave to sleep in, silly girl!

The old love-seat is still here, and in the middle of the room. I have the old cushions piled on it, and tossed a couple of jackets over it. I'll have to give Katy a blanket when I finally get rid of it!

Before and after...

2011-11-06T10:33:00.002-05:00

Poor Katy. She hates being groomed, but she sure looks more like a schnauzer, and less like a Muppet, afterwards!

We don't need no stinkin' walls...

2011-10-29T14:10:00.000-04:00

No walls, no paint, no flooring... why do things in a sensible order??

Although the living room looks the same as it did last spring (i.e. no drywall, still has crappy green carpet on floor), I went ahead and bought new living room furniture. I sold the furniture I had in Saskatoon before I left, since it wasn't worth the cost to move it home. So, for the past three years (THREE YEARS?!? It's been three years?? Yikes!), all I've had is a hand-me-down hand-me-down love seat in a horrible burnt orange colour - the one that appears in a lot of the pictures posted here. It was my parents', back in the day (we're talking mid 80s here), then they gave it to my sister, who then gave it to me. Now, I'm happy I had the use of it for the last three years (!!!), but I'm even happier it will be going far, far away very soon.

After looking at a number of stores, I ended up ordering a couch, love seat and chair from Stoney Creek Furniture. They have a HUGE selection, and while their prices are a bit more than other places, the service and selection cannot be beat.

And more important: they sell furniture from Canadian manufacturers.

Another reason I bought there was the VAST fabric selection: I knew I wanted a dark grey couch and love seat, then some sort of brighter fabric for the chair. The sales staff spent literally hours with me, making sure I got exactly what I wanted, without any pressure to buy. And it arrived today!

Sorry for the crappy pics, but all the furniture is shoved to one end of the room, until I can organize a bit more :)

The couch:

End profile:

Wonder where I got the colour scheme pf grey and cream from???

I haz new couch. (He needs a new haircut!)

And the chair!! It swivels!!!!

Yeah, crazy green fabric! But I love it. I never would have picked it out on my own, but it goes great with the rest of the furniture, and won't clash with the kitchen and dining room.

This furniture is well made, Canadian-made, and should last almost forever. And when the sales clerk realized I was in the middle of renovating, she went one step above and beyond any other furniture store I have even dealt with: she sent fabric swatches to help me with the rest of the decorating.

Now, if I only had walls....

Wordless Wednesdays - October 19, 2011

2011-10-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

Katyhead and the fall garden.

CSA Basket 10 of 10

2011-10-16T10:33:00.000-04:00

Due to circumstances beyond my control*, there will be no picture of the last CSA basket. It's rather fitting, in that I'm ending the same way I began ;)

I actually got the basket last Friday, a week ahead of schedule, as that was the last week of the CSA. But, as far as I can remember, the basket had squash, potatoes white and sweet, radishes, peppers, salad mix, carrots, celeriac, turnip and apples... and grape jelly!!

The radishes, peppers and salad mix became lunch, the taters and carrots ended up in the turkey shepherd's pie and I still have the rest of the food. The apples and jelly will be eaten as normal, but I have no plans for the rest.. yet.

Being that it's the end of my first CSA year, I'm thinking about how it went, and if I'll do it again.

And I wish I had a definitive answer, but I don't.

I like the connection the CSA gives me, the link to my local farming community. I like the fact that my money is going directly to the farmers. I like the fresh, healthy, local food.

But...

I found a lot of food to be repetitive of what I was growing in my own garden. I found that the quantity I received (although plentiful for the money spent) wasn't enough to either keep me in fruit and vegetables for two weeks, nor enough to preserve for winter. And, although this speaks more toward my own need for stability and control and not toward any lack in the CSA, I found the whole "Surprise!" thing slightly frustrating. At least with my own garden, I can see what's getting close to harvest, and plan accordingly.

So, what am I going to do going forward?

Although I haven't ruled out the CSA for next year, this year taught me that what I really need is a source of local food that does two things:

1. Supplements what I grow myself, and fills in the gaps.
2. Provides large quantities at one time for preserving.

Which, when you think about it, describes a Farmer's Market, not a CSA.

I do have an idea in the back of my mind, though, about approaching the farm about a "Preserver's CSA": I give them some money up-front, and plan to receive, for example, larger quantities of items I don't grow myself - fruits mostly, but also cucumbers and squash (since I can't seems to keep them alive here) and maybe a few other items, like corn. I think the benefit to the farm would be knowing they have a guaranteed sale, instead of waiting for me to show up at the Market, and the fact that I won't show up at the Market and buy the entire bushel of whatever they were hoping to sell that week :)

I still have a few months to figure this out, and I might just pop over to the farm one of these days and sound them out about this.

And maybe they still have some grape jelly....

_______________________________________________________________
* I spent last weekend at my parent's house, cat-sitting while they went and had fun at a cottage for Thanksgiving. Thus, no camera and no photo!

Wordless Wednesdays - October 12, 2011

2011-10-12T11:05:00.000-04:00

How can I afford to eat a $30 chicken?

2011-10-09T12:15:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about those chickens that will be moving into my freezer in a few days. You see, I don't make anywhere close to a six figure salary, and with the dogs, the mortgage, the renos, etc... I'm not destitute by any means, but I'm also not dripping with cash.

Kinda like most people.

So how can I, how can any of us, afford sustainable, humane, local meat, that costs 2-3x as much as grocery store meat?

Easy. And while I'm not taking part in the October Unprocessed Challenge, I am going to be posting a bit more on food, especially frugal food, this month.

Today's frugal food post is again poultry related. And of course, since it's Thanksgiving here, it's all about turkey!

My sister is hosting Thanksgiving this year, and she cooks her turkey ahead of time. This year she did two birds, and had no interest in the carcasses. Disclaimer: she often makes soup, but she had just roasted a turkey a few weeks ago and made a big batch of soup, so decided she wasn't interested in turkey soup again this soon. (Note: roasting a turkey, especially if you are feeding 6+ people on a regular basis, is not just a holiday thing!)

She asked me if I wanted them, and of course, I jumped at the chance. Free food!

This was what I did yesterday: put each carcass in a stock pot and added fresh water, a bay leaf or two, a few peppercorns, and onion and a carrot to each pot. They simmered just until the bones fell apart. I strained the solids out, and put the stock back on the stove. I sorted through the bones, picking off all the meat, and tossing the bones and veggies back into the stock. I added a splash of white vinegar (probably about 1/2 a cup) to the stock, then simmered it for another few hours.

Huh? Why do I do stock in two parts? I find if you simmer the meat too long, you get mush. And I also find if you don't simmer the bones long enough, you get poultry-flavored water, not stock :)

By doing it in two parts, you get nicely-textured meat, along with rich, flavourful stock. And adding the vinegar is supposed to help leach some calcium out of the bones, making it even more nutritious.

I ended up with around 8 L (~34 cups) of stock and enough meat to fill a 2.3 L (~9.5 cups) Corning-ware dish. That is a lot of meat - and it was free. Even if these weren't, um, "hand-me-down" carcasses, doing this with your own bird is also essentially free. It's meat that would be thrown out - and what a waste!!

And this is what will become of all this free food:

1. 8 cups of stock, plus 1/4 of the meat, plus veggies and pasta = turkey soup for lunches this week.
2. 8 cups of stock, plus 1/4 of the meat, plus veggies and rice = turkey soup for the freezer for future lunches. Rice tends to freeze better than pasta, thus the pasta for eating now, the rice for eating later. If you have some wild rice, it is great in turkey soup.
3. 16 cups of stock frozen for later use.
4. The rest of the stock will be thickened with a rue and some seasoning to make "gravy". This will be added to the rest of the meat, then placed in an oven-proof dish. Topped with some veggies and mashed potatoes (either sweet or regular), and hey presto, you have turkey shepherd's pie! I came up with this dish the one year I roasted a turkey whilst living alone - you get REALLY creative after a while trying to use up that much meat! I'll use sweet potatoes (from the CSA) for this - I love the combo of turkey and sweet potatoes. If you were doing this with Thanksgiving leftovers, stuffing makes a great addition too. This also freezes really well, as long as it's in a sealed container. Then simply toss in the oven to re-heat for a quick supper later on!

So, two free turkey carcasses results in about 24 "extra" meals, for the cost of a few hours of time (most of which is letting the stock cook) and some cheap pantry items like potatoes, pasta, rice and vegetables.

Maybe about $5.00 worth of food? For 24 meals?

You can't get much more frugal than that.

So see if you can't score a turkey carcass (or two) this year. And if you don't luck out at Thanksgiving, well, Christmas is coming...

Sustainable vs. frugal - the chicken edition.

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

While most of my produce this season has come from either the CSA or my own garden, there is one thing neither can provide - meat.

So, I just ordered my first batch of sustainable meat: chickens from Chez Nous Farm.

Pasture-raised, certified organic chickens.

After a bit of phone tag, I managed to speak to Mr. Chez Nous and placed my order for five chickens, which should be ready in about two weeks. I'm lucky to have a farm like this so close - less than 15 km away, and close to my parents, close to the Garden Club meetings, and on an alternate way to work, so I can combine trips to make going there even more economical.

As an aside, the closest slaughter house he can find that handles organic birds is in St. Jacob's, Ontario - a day trip away just to get the birds slaughtered. The farm's quota is 300 birds per years, which is a bit much to be slaughtering on the farm, hence the use of a slaughter house. This drives home just how fractured our food system is. And why the cost of local, sustainable meat is so high.

High, as in over $5 a pound. There is a slightly cheaper option, but it's over 50 km away from me, and driving that far to save about 50 cents a pound is, well, not on. And while the birds they sell are organic, I don't know the farmer. I can't drive to the farm, talk to the farmer, see farm pictures on Facebook. I can't stop off and see if they have some garlic to sell, and maybe some kale. I can't chat with the farmer about the crappy spring, and how you really can't till wet clay, no matter how late in the year it's getting and how much you NEED to get your plants in!

What is personal contact worth? What is keeping local farmland worth?

To me, it's worth my CSA share and chicken at triple the price I can get it for at the grocery store.

But, of course, I still haven't won the lottery, and I need to stretch this chicken as far as I can.

So, I'll roast a chicken. And along with some potatoes and onions and veggies from the garden, get 4 meals* out of that. I prefer dark meat, so each leg is two meals, leaving all the white meat for leftovers.

I'll cut the remaining meat off the carcass, and toss all the bones into the stock pot, along with veggie scraps and some seasoning. This makes stock.

Half the stock goes in the freezer, and half, along with the meat picked off the bones and some of the left-over meat, makes soup. Of course, I'll add pasta or rice, and some frozen veggies, all of which will cost less than $1.00 total for another 4 meals.

Since there is a lot of left-over meat, I'll add some more veggies and a rue, make a quick batch of pie dough, and have a chicken pot pie, which can be frozen for another time. And results in another 4 meals. And all for an additional cost of under $2.00.

That frozen stock can be used to make a risotto, or more soup - maybe a nice curried sweet potato and chickpea soup. Another 4 meals, for the cost of the sweet potato from the CSA basket and some dried chickpeas - maybe $2.00 worth of ingredients?

At the end of my $30 chicken, I've added maybe another $5.00 worth of ingredients, and eaten 16 meals - all tasty, nutritious and mostly local.

$35.00, 16 meals.

Just over $2.00 per meal.

Local.

Sustainable.

AND frugal.

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*For me, meal = serving. I'm the only human here, so a roast chicken that will feed four people will feed me for four meals. Sorry for any confusion this causes you :)

Horseradish!

2011-10-06T07:00:00.000-04:00

This, my friends, is my big ugly horseradish plant. I started it from a small plant in 2010, and have let it grow undisturbed until now.

Why now?

Because I put a beef roast in the oven, of course.

So, without any more thought than "yum, beef and horseradish", I decided to go dig.

And dig.

And dig.

These roots go down forever.

After about 15 minutes with the shovel, this is what I had:

I think I went about this all wrong (gee, really??). I didn't want to harvest the entire thing, just enough to get some to eat with my roast. Of course, one should wait until a heavy frost, or early spring to harvest, and then harvest the entire plant at the same time, re-planting some of the roots to grow again next year.

But why follow the established way of doing things...

After some more hacking, the plant looked like this:

And this was my harvest:

After a quick rinse:

After peeling:

There is a fibrous outside to the root, which is slightly darker than the inner portion, but nothing I have read said to discard this portion, so...

If I was harvesting a lot, I would have dug out the food processor and used that. But for the few roots I had, I decided just to grate them. Oh, and all that advice you read about doing this outside? Yeah, it's good advice. Onions have NOTHING on horseradish in the tear department. Oh well, live and learn. And cry.

After grating:

There seem to be a lot of different ways of making horseradish - some with straight vinegar, some a 50-50 mix of vinegar and water, and some with a salt and/or sugar brine. For my first attempt, I chose straight vinegar, just enough to make a slurry. I ended up with almost two 125 ml jars of horseradish, one of which will go with my roast, and one which will go to the neighbour.

This is not preserved in any way, but it will keep in the fridge for a week or two, or in the freezer for long-term storage. And yes, I'll be digging up the rest of the plant after a good frost, and making a larger batch. Using the food processor. Because this is what happens when I use the grater*:

OUCH!!

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*no horseradish was contaminated in this incident.

Wordless Wednesdays - October 5, 2011

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

My artichoke flowers - not quite the same as these...

CSA Basket 9 of 10

2011-10-04T09:36:00.001-04:00

The second-last CSA basket! I cannot believe it's gone so quickly!!

This week, we got the end of summer mixed with the start of fall...

The last of the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, kale, radishes, green beans, onions, apples and pears, potatoes both white and sweet, beets and a fantastic squash. The Katy-head did not come from the CSA :)

I think the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and radishes will join some dressing and feta cheese for the last "Greek" salad of the year, and the rest will get eaten as part of some nice hearty fare over the next week or so.

The Katy-head is for decoration only :)

$500 Challenge - September edition (and yes, I do know it's October)

2011-10-03T13:16:00.000-04:00

Oops! Late, again. I didn't forget about he challenge this month, I just forgot to blog about it!

Maybe because I cheated a little.

Or a lot.

Or, since it's my challenge and I get to make the rules, not at all ;)

You see, this month, I spent.... nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

But, what about the challenge?

Oh, I still got something. These, to be exact:

Both quart and pint canning jars, about 24 of each. Free! And while these are canning jars, of course, I also use them a LOT for storage. For dried foods, for bulk purchases like grains and bean and other legumes, for storing soup, stock and sauces both in the fridge and freezer - I can always use more jars.

So, this month's "purchase" does fit the challenge... sort of :)

Where did they come from? An old friend of my Mom's mentioned she was cleaning out her house, and was getting rid of a lot of stuff, including these jars. Boxes and boxes of jars. Mom jumped at the chance to take them, and gave the excess to me - thanks Mom!! And there are still more, if I need them!

September costs (jars): $0.00

Balance: $78.04

Wordless Wednesdays - September 28, 2011

2011-09-28T05:00:00.000-04:00

Chili Sauce

Yep yep yep yep yep... nope nope nope nope nope

2011-09-24T07:25:00.001-04:00

Don't waste time reading this blog - go Google today!!

Wordless Wednesdays - September 21, 2011

2011-09-21T05:00:00.001-04:00

Pickled Beets

Wordle fun!

2011-09-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

I decided to make a Wordle of the blog*, just for fun.

I'm glad one of the largest words is "thinking".

I'm somewhat startled another of the largest is "tomato".

I might need help.

__________________________________________________
*I'm pretty sure Wordle just captures the first page of any web site, so this is not an accurate portrayal of my blog. Except the "thinking" part :)

$5 Dollar Challenge Vegetable Soup

2011-09-17T18:55:00.000-04:00

I had heard about this challenge from a couple of different blogs, but decided to pass, given the busy weekend ahead of me.

I made a run to the CSA farm last night, and to the Welland Farmer's Market this morning, without even thinking about this challenge.

I ate a late breakfast of local eggs and toast made from bread bought at the market, without even thinking about the challenge.

I canned up some tomatoes today, and worked a bit in the garden, without even thinking about the challenge.

I ate a "lunch" of an apple and pear from the CSA basket, without even thinking about the challenge.

I decided that vegetable soup sounded like an excellent supper idea, without even thinking about the challenge.

Half-way through making the soup, I thought about the challenge.

$5 Challenge Vegetable Soup*

2 quarts canned tomatoes, from last year's garden
2 quarts of water (use the jars from the tomatoes to measure, thus also rinsing out the jars)
All the tiny potatoes found from digging the potato patch, from the garden plus a few from the CSA basket
4-5 carrots, from the garden
1-2 onions, from the garden
Green and yellow beans, from the CSA
Corn, cut from 2 cobs bought from the CSA farm
Salt, pepper and a dash of celery seed and some thyme
Vegetable Oil

Warm the oil in a large pot, add the chopped onions and carrots (and celery, if I had any, would be added here), stir and cook for 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Add the chopped potatoes, tomatoes, salt, pepper and any spices you are using, then simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots and potatoes soften. Add the beans and corn, cook until tender, then serve with slices of local bread.

Of course, I'm not really following the rules of the challenge since I'm not sharing this meal with anyone but the dogs, who may get to lick my empty bowl, and the salt, pepper, spices and butter on the bread aren't local.

I also didn't keep track of costs - how much does home-grown produce cost? How much for the stuff from the CSA share? The corn was $6/dozen, so two cobs comes out to $1.00. The bread was around $3, so two slices is... somewhere around $0.50 maybe?

So I didn't really do the challenge, but thinking about it made me realize something.

Almost everything I ate today come from local suppliers.

Without even thinking about it.

And that makes me happy.

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* of course I didn't follow a recipe. It's vegetable soup. Clean and chop some vegetables, toss in a pot with some liquid and some flavouring, cook then eat :)

CSA Basket 8 of 10

2011-09-17T14:25:00.000-04:00

My horrible composition of Week 8's haul :)

I stopped at the farm after work to pick up this week's basket, and realized I had forgotten (yet again) the box. As I had reusable shopping bags in the car, I used one of them instead - which means I had to take everything out of the bag and set them on the porch railing to take a photo.

As you can see, I should have picked another spot!

Oh well.

This week's goodies include beans, tomatoes, a green pepper, an onion, potatoes, a squash (yea!), and the first of the apples and pears - SO good!

I think one of the reasons I love fall so much is because of apples and pears. It sounds odd, I know, but that very first bite of a freshly picked Macintosh?

Sublime.

I think I could go for days eating nothing except apples and pears, but luckily enough, it's also the season for so many other goodies!

The tomatoes, onion and pepper will go into a pasta dish, the squash will probably join some of my carrots in a roasted veggie soup, the potatoes and beans will form part of my supper for the next few nights (along with some grilled steak), and the apples and pears will very quickly disappear :)

Bread & Butter Pickles

2011-09-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

So, I said, more than once, that I wasn't going to do any canning this year. Because, you know, lack of a kitchen* kinda gets in the way of actually working in the kitchen.

But then Liz went and posted this. And it made me remember I really wanted bread & butter pickles.

And then I went to pick up my CSA basket, and found out they had pickling cucumbers for sale.

Thus, for the first time ever, I made pickles.

$7 worth of cucumbers, onions from the garden, some vinegar and spices... and I now have 10 pints of pickles for the coming year.

Yeah!

____________________________________________________________________
*Technically, I still have a kitchen, but it consists of one sink, one stove, one fridge and one counter, 3 feet long. Have I mentioned lately I'm tired of living in a reno site?

Wordless Wednesdays - September 14, 2011

2011-09-14T05:00:00.003-04:00

Bread & Butter Pickles

A bowl half full.

2011-09-11T14:28:00.000-04:00

I spent a couple of hours outside today, pulling up the dry beans and "threshing" them.

A couple of hours, for less than 2 cups of dry beans.

A couple of hours, for a couple of pots of chili con carne.

And, since shelling beans is pretty mindless work, I had a lot of time to think: why do I do this?

Let me be quite clear up front - I garden, first and foremost, because I enjoy it. But why beans and not begonias?

If I grow it myself, I know what went on it. I try to grow organically, but I'm not adverse to using chemicals when warranted.

If I grow it myself, it means I'm that much less dependent on industrial agriculture. I still buy a lot of food at the grocery store, but every meal I grow myself means one less meal that needs to be grown, processed, shipped and stored.

If I grow it myself, I have a start on a decent food storage. It's not enough to feed me for more that a few weeks at most, but I'm not going to starve if the power goes out for a week.

If I grow it myself, I know that two rows of dried beans this year means a few meals, and a whole bed of them next year means somewhere around 1/10th of my meals for the entire year.

A lot of blogs are written by "preppers".

I'm not just a prepper.

A lot of blogs are written by locovores.

I'm not just a locovore.

A lot of blogs are written by "greenies".

I'm not just a greenie.

A lot of blogs are written by "frugals".

I'm not just a frugal.

So, when some read my blog, they see the inconsistencies of growing my own beans, but buying a large, brand-new fridge with built-in ice maker (even though my current fridge still works - for now, anyhow). They see the inconsistencies of buying a dishwasher, but spending labour day weekend canning. They see the inconsistencies of buying new living room furniture but growing a yard full of vegetables instead of buying them.

Yes, I know I can buy 2 pounds of onions for 99 cents, and dry beans are cheap cheap cheap. I know spending a few thousand on new appliances, new furniture, house renovations (okay, more than few thousand here...) can't be recouped by a vegetable garden.

But this all part of me. So, when you question my choices, please keep two things in mind:

1. I'm not just one thing - I'm a normal Canadian, doing what I think is best at this point in time.

2. They are MY choices, and I am not forcing them on you.

I write this blog to keep friends and family up-to-date on the house and my life, and I hope some others find it useful, or at least amusing. I'm not just one thing, and this blog will not be just one thing either.

Now, I have a pot of vegetable soup to make for lunch this week. YUM!

Saturday in the garden...

2011-09-10T17:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, that carrot is as big as my foot. My size 8 foot.

White and red onions, 4 varieties of taters and some carrots. The onions I grew from sets bought at a local big box store, and should have come out weeks ago. Since they didn't, I lost a few to rot, but it seems I still have more than enough :) I plan on dehydrating them for use over the winter. I planted just over 1/3 of a bed for each kind, and they grew quite well this year, unlike the garlic, which was in the rest of the bed :(

The potatoes came from seed potatoes bought at a local feed store. They were selling four different varieties in bulk, for some insanely low price. I bought a handful of each, which together cost less than $5.00 - much less. I don't remember the final price, but it was CHEAP. Compared to garden centres that were only selling 5 - 10 pound boxes, it was a good way to try growing potatoes for the first time. I bought Chieftain (the red), Yukon Gold, Kennebec and Superior (white). Then, with no malice aforethought, I simply plopped them in the ground - no trenching, no hilling, no nothing.

And from each 4 foot row, I got over a 3 quart basket of potatoes. There are a lot of tiny ones, but quite a few good sized ones too. There doesn't seem to be any big difference in variety, but I will cook a few of each to see if the taste varies.

And really, why didn't anyone tell me how FUN digging potatoes is? Seriously, it's like an Easter egg hunt - just more dirty :) I was almost giggling every time I found another batch of tubers. Definitely going on my "grow" list for next year. I harvested all those potatoes from 1/3 of a bed, with no special growing techniques, so now I'm interested in seeing what I can grow with more space and a bit more attention.

The carrots are from last year's seed - I only planted a couple of rows due to space issues, but they always grow good. And BIG.

The other harvest today was all the hot peppers. My sweet peppers did NOTHING this year, but the hots did great! I grew the cayennes in pots this year, and I'm quite happy with the results. I'm seriously thinking of expanding what I grow in pots, which will give me more "ground" for other crops. Like potatoes :)

The banana peppers will be pickled, along with some of the jalapenos. I'm going to try grilling some as well, then popping in the freezer. And the cayennes will be strung up and dried.

Wordless Wednesdays - September 7, 2011

2011-09-07T05:00:00.002-04:00

CSA Basket 7 of 10

2011-09-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

Lettuce, tomatoes, corn, onion, ~~zuchinni~~ ~~zuchhini~~ zucchini, beans, sweet peppers, peaches and a couple of patty pans.

The squash will be grilled, as usual, the maters, lettuce and peppers will go to a salad, the onion is already in a batch of chili sauce and the beans and corn will be suppers (or lunches, as I'm on afternoon shift this week).

Only 3 more weeks... wow!

Roasted Harvest Tomato and Sausage Pasta

2011-09-05T17:48:00.000-04:00

I've been canning all weekend, and am tired, hot, tired, hungry and tired.

Oddly enough, after about a bushel and a half of tomatoes, I'm still not tired of them. Go figure.

So, faced with the prospect of making a quick, tasty supper with few pots (two batches of chili sauce are still cooking down) and the last of the fantastic garden tomatoes, I went with a roasted tomato sauce over pasta.

And since I had onions, red peppers, and some sausage in the freezer, I tossed them in too. If I had garlic, that would have gone in too, but I'm suffering a garlic shortage this summer :(

And, of course, there is no recipe :)

But this is basically what I did:

Fresh tomatoes, cored and halved - one large baking sheet full (I used a mix of "normal" and pasta tomatoes, simply because that's what was in the garden)
1 pound of sausage
2 medium sized onions, halved
2-3 red peppers, cleaned and halved
(1 head of garlic if you have it, top cut off and roots cleaned and trimmed)
Cheese, either mozzarella or Parmesan or both or whatever makes you felice*
Pasta, ~ 300 g dry (~2/3 pound)

Place the tomatoes on the baking sheet, cut side up. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over the tomatoes, and sprinkle with salt. Throw the rest of the ingredients in a roasting pan (one with sides), and pour more olive oil and salt over the peppers and onions (and garlic if there).

Bake in a 350 F oven for around one hour, or until the veggies are very soft, and the sausage is cooked. Meanwhile, cook pasta until just underdone (does that make sense?).

Place all the veggies in a pot, and blend with an immersion blender (or use a regular blender, but I find the immersion is quicker and cleaner). Remove the sausage from the pan, slice it, then add the sauce and sausage back to the pan, making sure to stir up all the good bits from the bottom of the pan.

Drain the pasta, add to pan, and mix everything together. Sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese (or Parmesan, or both) on top, and place back into the oven until the cheese is all melty, around 5 minutes. Then broil until the cheese in nicely browned and bubbly.

This doesn't have to be a baked pasta - you can just add the sausage and sauce to the pasta like normal (in which case, fully cook the pasta, of course!). However, I needed the same pot that I blended the sauce in to cook the pasta, so I went with putting everything in the roasting pan, which then let me top it with cheese and bake it :)

This recipe is very easy to modify (well, it's not really a recipe, so it must be easy to change!). No sausage? Go meatless. Other veggies, garlic? Toss them in. Basically, the key to the sauce is the heavenly taste of roasted tomatoes - so sweet. I like it with sausage, since that adds a smokey flavour to balance the sweetness of the tomatoes, and if I didn't have sausage, I would probably go with a Parmesan cheese instead of the mozzarella, just to add a salty note to the sweet. A dash or twenty of a good red wine would add to the flavour as well.

Enjoy!

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* happy in Italian. I think. If not, le mie scuse**

** my apologies in Italian, I think. If not... oh, never mind.

Guess what I've been doing?

2011-09-05T06:44:00.000-04:00

She is going to be the death of me...

2011-09-03T08:12:00.000-04:00

This is what I found when I went to let the dogs in after a potty run at 5:30 am this morning.

Fortunately, after 30 minutes of driving around looking for ~~the damn dog~~ pretty little Katy, I found her waiting for me on the front porch.

Really, I don't NEED this much excitement in my life.

Next up: the installation of the new fence.

Wordless Wednesdays - August 31, 2011

2011-08-31T05:30:00.000-04:00

I grew these...

Z is for...

2011-08-31T05:25:00.001-04:00

... zany!

Well, think about it. Take my geekiness, throw in odd family traditions, and add in things like trying to grow all my own veggies, buying a clothes line to use inside, and trying to dehydrate corn... and well, you get zany.

More examples?

As a young 'un (okay, not that young - teenager maybe?), my brother started, for some odd reason, to swap the first letters of words. So, "no problem" became "pro noblem", etc. It became infectious (of course!), and soon the whole family was doing it. My father recommends one does not try this with "Huckleberry Finn". But that's not the zany part. The zany part is when it becomes so ingrained, that you forget most people don't talk like this, and wonder why you are getting odd looks whilst singing along with "Jenny and the Bets". You know, the Elton John hit?

"Jenny, Jenny, Jenny and the Bets!"

Then there's that thing Dad and I do, where we will spontaneously say the same thing at the same time (oddly enough, generally some smart-ass quip), then look at each other and say "shut up!". Really - this happens ALL THE TIME.

It's inherited, I tell you. The whole famn damily is zany.

And also, to end with...

Z is for, of course, Zed, NOT Zee. I am Canadian, after all! :)

Y is for...

2011-08-30T05:00:00.002-04:00

... y not*?

"Y Not, What's the Worst That Could Happen?" has been my unofficial motto for years now.

While shopping for a new headboard and side tables, you note that the quality of the furniture is horrible, and it looks fairly simple to make. Make your own bedroom furniture?

Y not? What's the worst that could happen? Some money wasted, some time spent - but it might just work out. And it did.

Travelling by yourself to a foreign country?

Y not? What's the worst that could happen? Okay, the worst here is pretty bad, but most people travel with no issues what so ever. And maybe travelling by yourself opens up the opportunity for locals to notice and approach you, and tell you they lived in Canada for a while, and if you need directions to get on the right train to Bern, just ask! Or to tell you all about their life in St. Andrews while walking the golf course with you, or about how the village all comes out to curl on the rare occasion that the loch freezes over - after noting their surprise that you not only do you know what curling is, but that you have actually curled! Maybe travelling by yourself provides you with the knowledge that you can survive things like... travelling by yourself :)

Driving half way across the continent with a dog?

Y not? What's the worst that could happen? Sure, there could be break-downs and sick dogs, but maybe having the dog with you makes you actually stop more often, and find local areas to walk around, letting you see more of the area you are driving through, instead of driving from rest stop to rest stop.

Buying a house, knowing it needs a complete gut, and you will be doing a lot of the work yourself in your "free" time?

Y not? What's the worst that could happen? Well, I'll get back to you on that one!!

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* yes, it's a cheat, but hey - I did a real word for X!

X is for...

2011-08-29T10:07:00.000-04:00

...xenophilic.

At least when it comes to food, that is. I have yet to try a national cuisine I don't like.

Growing up, of course, we generally ate standard "meat & potatoes" food, but also dishes that came from the "ethnic" population of Niagara Falls - German and Italian, mostly. I still love gnocchi. And cabbage rolls. And pierogi. Oh, pierogi, with bacon and onions...yum!

And then I went to university and discovered the wonders of Greek food. And Mexican. And Lebanese. And Thai, and good Chinese. And Japanese and sushi.

And then I moved to Saskatoon, and found even better Mexican, and more South American regional foods, and even better Asian restaurants (oh, those appetizers at that place in Moose Jaw!!). And of course, the Ukrainians- more pierogis, and so many other great dishes.

And visiting Calgary, I was introduced to Ethiopian - oh, wow, if you ever get the chance, go for it!

And traveling to Switzerland (the cheese!), and Scotland (yes, I ate haggis!!).

I've eaten wild boar, and venison, and bison and even frog's legs. And quail and rabbit ... and even basil ice cream :) Smoked white fish, wild rice. So many different foods.

So my X is about all the fantastic food choices out there - here's to years of more good eating and discovery of even more cuisines!

Good-bye, Mr. Layton

2011-08-27T21:11:00.000-04:00

This is Canada.

One of my favourite songs, written by Canadian Leonard Cohen, sung by Canadian Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, at the funeral of Jack Layton, Leader of the Official Opposition.

No matter what the political flavour, the most common refrain this week was about how GOOD Jack Layton was. And he is gone too soon.

One indication of how respected, how liked he was: this was a state funeral, which is determined at the discretion of our Prime Minister, who was Mr. Layton's polar opposite and political enemy.

Good-bye, Mr. Layton. This country is poorer for your loss.

W is for...

2011-08-27T05:00:00.000-04:00

... water.

I don't know if it's because the first three years of my life were spent within a mile of the falls, or that it's just my nature, but I love water. I'm happiest when living near water, and that is one of my favourite things about this house - the lake is so close and so accessible. I love laying in bed in warm weather, listening to the waves on the shore. I love walking along the shore, watching the boats and the birds. I love canoeing, and want to eventually do more kayaking. I love swimming, and wish the dogs liked water more! I even take epically long baths, especially in cold weather.

However, I do wish the beaches here were dog-friendly, so I didn't have to break the law when walking the dogs :)

V is for...

2011-08-26T05:00:00.020-04:00

... vertigo.

I've blogged before about my odd form of vertigo, but thought it could use an update. Because a new attraction at Toronto's CN Tower has been in the news, and I'm almost positive it would give a LOT of people vertigo.

I haven't been to the CN Tower since grade school, but I was at Calgary's Tower just a few years ago - and realized that our brains are somewhat interesting. That tower, like many now, has a "glass" floor part that you can walk on, and look straight down. And since I'm not afraid of heights, no problem, right?

Wrong, very wrong. It took every ounce of will power for me to step onto that floor. I KNEW it was safe. I KNEW there was a floor there. I KNEW thousands of others had walked on it without incident.

But, that little reptilian segment of my brain kept shouting "Are you out of your freakin' MIND??????" It was the oddest sensation, and I'm quite sure it would happen again if I tried this new attraction.

In fact, my vertigo kicks in just from watching this video. Enjoy, if you can...

U is for...

2011-08-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

...unmotivated.

I have done almost nothing on the house this summer.

Nothing.

I lost my forward momentum when Dad took time off to recover from surgery, and just, well, never got it back.

I need a kick-start. I'm tired of pink walls, and the horrible green carpet and NO kitchen to speak of - but not tired enough to actually do anything about them.

Mind you, it was nice having some extra time this summer, but it would have been nicer to have the house finished...

Okay, I need to find my motivation. Anyone know where it is?? Anyone?

Wordless Wednesdays - August 24, 2011

2011-08-24T15:55:00.000-04:00

T is for...

2011-08-24T05:00:00.000-04:00

Image source

... travel.

I love to travel. I've been lucky enough to have been to Europe twice: Switzerland for 4 weeks (for work, so the trip was paid for - yay!) and 2 weeks in Scotland for a friend's wedding. I've travelled through most of Canada, from Cape Breton Island in the Atlantic to Prince Rupert on the Pacific. I haven't made it to the "real" north yet (Prince Rupert, at 54 N, is the furthest north I've been), and, Canada being so big, there is much of the country I haven't seen.

But I've travelled the Cabot trail, and made a road trip from Saskatoon to Edmonton to Jasper to Banff to the Black Hills to the badlands in South Dakota to home and back to Saskatoon, I've made the drive from Saskatoon to home more times that I can remember (northern Ontario in the fall? Must-see for everyone. Amazing, absolutely amazing!). I've been to a handfull of US states - mostly while driving back and forth to Saskatoon (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas north and south, Montana, Wyoming), and New York, of course, but I haven't travelled south at all - the furthest south, so far, is Pittsburgh. My planned trip to Texas this fall will change that, of course :)

One thing about the economy, and increasing gas prices that saddens me most is that it limits any future travelling I will do. There is nothing I love more than packing up the car and driving off - for a day, for a week, or for longer. But when it costs almost $70 to fill the gas tank....

So T is for travel, and I just hope I can do more of it in the future. There is so much I still want to see - Ireland, Australia, the drive along the Pacific coast, from B.C. to California. And I probably should get to Florida one of these days, since that seems to be mandatory for Canadians :)

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The picture is of Edinburgh castle. I had the BEST time in Scotland, and would go back in a heartbeat. Two weeks was nowhere near enough time - I could spend two weeks in Edinburgh alone!

S is for...

2011-08-23T04:27:00.000-04:00

... sustainability.

I realize I started this blog to document the renovation on the house (no, it's not finished. Yes, I am still working on it. Yes, I will get back to blogging about it, but drywall seams are only so interesting...), but you may have noticed that I've been posting a bit more about food and sustainability.

This is something that I've come to realize is very important to me, even more so in these times of high gas prices and increasing food costs. Food is the one thing that links every single human on earth, and is something we cannot do without. I will continue to blog about food and sustainability, and I hope that's okay will y'all :)

Of course, sustainability is about more than food - it's about the resilience of a community to be self-sufficient, and I hope to blog a bit more about this aspect of sustainability as well. I have been working on a few different things, and hope to share them with you eventually - I hope you are interested!

R is for...

2011-08-22T05:00:00.001-04:00

... raptor.

Although I'm not a "real" bird watcher, I do enjoy watching them, and being able to identify most of what I see (some even by their song!). I have this odd quirk, though, where almost everyday, I see a raptor of some sort - mostly hawks or vultures.

Yes, everyday.

There are 3 different hawks (probably red-tails, but I've never gotten close enough to really see, and I suck at raptor ID anyhow) I see daily on the way to and from work.

In Saskatoon, there was the pair of Merlins that spent their summer near one of the apartments I lived in, and that I would see on my way to work most days, and the hawk that lived year-round close to the university campus.

There are always turkey vultures hanging around here in the warm weather, and they are easy to identify, on size alone, as they soar through the summer sky.

And the guy in the picture hung out near the house for a few days earlier this summer.

I often wonder, especially when I see so many hawks on the drive to work, am I the only one that notices them? Or are other drivers aware of them too? And while I'm watching the hawks, what else am I missing that other drivers see??

$500 Challenge - August edition, with special guest appearance by July.

2011-08-21T16:33:00.000-04:00

Oh, wow - time has flown. I had planned what I was going to get for the challenge for July and August a while ago, but put it off, since getting the items meant either paying shipping, or making a special trip to two different stores, close to each other, but about an hour away from here.

Procrastination pays, since it ended up I needed to make a trip for another reason that would result in me driving right by these stores - so, no shipping costs, and no special trip required. Yay!

So, without further ado, I give you July: cutting boards. Exciting, no?

Like many other people, I seem to have amassed a collection of plastic cutting boards. There is SO much information on cutting board safety out there, and so much of it is either not backed up by real science, or contradictory. I've come to the conclusion that there are pros and cons to all materials, and so, I'll stick with wood - and just make sure the boards are cleaned well after use. After all, wood is natural, renewable, and great for knives - the opposite of plastic. So I made a trip to Ikea to pick up a couple of different sizes of cutting boards - the large one I plan on leaving on the counter for quick use for things that can be easily cleaned up (like bread), and smaller ones for meat, etc.

Small boards, pack of two, $6.99

Large board, $19.99

The large board is well made, and should last quite a long time, while the smaller boards are pretty much worth what I paid for them. I'll try giving them a light sanding, and treating with food-safe oil, and hopefully that will extend their life.

And August? well, around here, August is canning season, so what better than to replace my old plastic canning funnel with a shiny new stainless steel one? I've had my eye on this for a while, and I'm glad I could "justify" buying it for this challenge!

Funnel, $11.50

And of course, I always love an excuse to go to Lee Valley :)

July costs (cutting board): $26.989 + $3.51 tax

Total: $30.49

Balance: $91.52

August costs (funnel): $11.50 + $1.50 tax

Total: $13.00

Balance: $78.04

CSA Basket 6 of 10

2011-08-20T15:02:00.000-04:00

Beets, ~~zucchinni~~ ~~zuchhini~~ zucchini, cucumber, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, onions large and small, beans yellow, green and purple, peaches and plums and kale and amaranth (not shown).

I think the "hard" veggies will end up roasted, the tomatoes, cucumber, onions and peppers will, as usual, join some feta in a salad, and I'll do something or other with the beans and the fruit.

Oh, I should state for the record, the container of tomatoes was full. Somehow, many of them disappeared on the drive home...

Q is for...

2011-08-20T07:59:00.001-04:00

Image source

... question.

To make this short (because there is laundry to do and a house to clean) - question everything.

Any questions?

P is for...

2011-08-19T07:26:00.000-04:00

... pathologist.

Plant pathologist, to be specific. You see, for almost 15 years of my life, I was paid to kill plants.

Yes, to kill them. I did research on biological weed control - basically, finding and developing fungi that would kill weeds, without harming crop plants.

It was very cool (in a geeky way, of course) and I got to travel a lot in the summer, looking for weeds. I'm now an expert at identifying certain weeds in crops while driving by at 80 km/h. Really, with these talents of mine, it makes you wonder why people aren't knocking at my door, offering me a job...

I left research for various reasons, and while I miss some parts, I am very glad for the experience. And if you ever tell me that germ theory has been disproven* get ready for an argument, k?

And yes indeed, that picture is of one of my experiments!

_______________________________________________
* That is one "argument" anti-vax peeps throw out on a regular basis. When I mention my past experience, and that I proved it, with my own two hands, almost every day for 15 years, they tend to mumble something about something, and change the topic. Or try to explain to me that fungi only infect plants because fungi are "small plants". Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...............

O is for...

2011-08-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

...opportunity.

While some people think my O should stand for opinionated (I have NO idea why anyone would find me opinionated. Ahem. Moving on...), I decided to go with opportunity.

I wish to leave this earth, when my time comes, with as few regrets as possible, and one way to minimize regrets is to grab opportunities when they come our way.

Looking back on my life so far, it's not the choices I made that disappoint me, it's the opportunities I passed up, for various reasons. And while those reasons seemed valid at the time, I still wish I had chosen differently.

Money, time, effort... all are important, but $20 in your wallet will never make up for the lost chance of having missed supper with a fascinating individual.

And oddly enough, it's that missed dinner, over 15 years ago, that has made me realize that we sometimes prioritize the wrong things in our lives.

So my O is for opportunity, and for choosing wisely which we take, and which we pass up.

N is for...

2011-08-17T05:00:00.002-04:00

... nature.

Growing up, we were lucky to live almost at the edge of town, with a very large field across the street. And a second very large pond in a field behind our house. Both fields had ponds (great for skating in the winter!), and trails and trees and a thousand other interesting things. And I was lucky enough to grow up in a time and place where it was okay to wander off by myself for hours to explore these interesting things.

And play with crayfish and frogs.

And bring home the skeletons of long-dead animals.

And snakes. Live snakes.

Poor Mom :)

So I'm not sure if it was the influence of my childhood, or something inherent, but there is nothing better than walking through woods, or a field, or the lake shore, or along a river, watching and listening, and seeing what all lives around me.

I think this is one of the main reasons I dislike large cities - too many human neighbours, not enough non-human ones!

Wordless Wednesdays - August 17, 2011

2011-08-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

M is for...

2011-08-16T05:00:00.002-04:00

Image Source

... music.

But probably not in the way you think.

I am not musically gifted. In fact, the music teacher in grade 7-8 once told me to stop singing in choir practise - that's how bad I am at carrying a tune.

I do like listening to music, however, and grew up listening to Dad's favourite genre - rock from the 50's and 60's, mostly.

This led to a game we play called "Who Sings This?". It's pretty self-explanatory, and there are no rules, beyond one person having to guess the singer, and if they can't, the asker comes up with hints and/or initials.

Fun times.

No, really - it is fun! Pretty much anytime we were in the car with the radio on, someone would shout out "Who Sings This?", and it was game on. And the rumours that we still do this, to this day, may, or may not, be true. :)

It lasted throughout our childhoods, and we naturally infected the next generation with the bug, with some modifications brought on by technology.

Like those music channels you get on TV now, which provide the name of the singer. Of course, the askee can't look...

... which is why you'll often find a pack of us sitting in the living room, NOT looking at the TV.

This indoctrination has also had one other side-affect, which has afflicted more than one family member.

That's called "There is a Song For Every Occasion".

The maintenance guys at work are talking about the air filters on the roof? "Up on the Roof*", naturally.

Someone complaining about their job? Oh, so many, from "Take this Job and Shove It**" to "It's a Five O'clock World***

Really, there is a song for EVERY occasion. So be warned, if you ever meet me (or a family member) we may spontaneously break into song (out of tune, in my case) for no apparent reason. And it tends to be infectious, leading to more than one person complaining about having that song stuck in their head for the rest of the day. And since my music knowledge is firmly rooted in the era before my birth, with a good smattering in 80's one-hit wonders thrown in for good measure, people are often amazed I know the lyrics to so many obscure songs. Especially since I can't remember where I put my keys...

Unfortunately, there is no known cure.

But really, having your Dad know who sings "True Colors****"? Priceless :)

__________________________________________________
* The Drifters, in case you are playing "Who Sings That?'
**Johnny Paycheck
***The Vogues
****Cyndi Lauper

L is for...

2011-08-15T05:00:00.001-04:00

... laughter.

Similar to joy, I find laughter to be a vital part of my life.

I laugh daily - many times throughout the day.

At someone's blog post over morning coffee, while IM chatting with a friend, while visiting with a family member, while watching TV, while reading a book.

And at the dogs, of course. Always at the dogs.

In fact, they can make me laugh the hardest.

A good example was the other night. I was reading* in bed (a nightly occurrence), and laughing so hard I was crying (seriously? He got into the coffin? Bwahahahahahahaaa!!!!). Kip was laying there, wagging his tail, but Katy was somewhat concerned.

She showed her concern by creeping closer. And closer. And closer. Until I was trying to read through tears, with a schnauzer nose in my eye.

Which, of course, made me laugh even harder.

A life without laughter is a life not worth living. Also, a life without dogs is a life not worth living. I'm sure those two things are not mutually exclusive :)

_______________________________________________________
* Extreme Vinyl Cafe, by Stuart McLean. The Vinyl Cafe stories often have me crying with laughter, but have left others completely unmoved. I think you have to be a CBC listener, specifically of the Vinyl Cafe, since then you have Mr. McLean's voice in your head, reading the stories to you as you look at the words on the page. Or it could be that I just have an odd sense of humour. And voices in my head. :)

K is for...

2011-08-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

Image source

...knowledge.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts"

That quote, attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, sums up what my K stands for. I completely respect those whose opinions differ from mine, as long as those opinions are backed up by facts. I have no issue with those that have looked at the same information, and drawn a different conclusion.

What I have issues with are those that are simply too lazy to learn enough about a topic to have an informed opinion.

There are somethings that are purely opinion (I hate grey cars), and those that are based on fact (vaccinations save lives). I'm amazed by the number of people who seem to be content to have their opinions formed by others, even when those opinions should be based on facts.

And it saddens me that they can't even see the problem with their lack of knowledge. This is similar to my "I" post, in that this ignorance, this lack of knowledge, is somehow acceptable, and even praiseworthy.

It also worries me when education is valued only as a route to a job, rather than a goal in and of itself. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard or read that university is worthless, because it didn't lead to a job with a six-figure salary. I know there is a link between employment and education, and salary and education, and I realize there are some jobs where one needs a specific education (engineering, for example), but the pursuit of knowledge shouldn't be so focused. I went to university to learn, not to get a job. And I was surprised when I realized that wasn't the mindset of the majority of my fellow students. When one is taught to learn, one can learn anything.

I wish I lived in a society where the pursuit of knowledge itself was seen as a worthwhile, life-long vocation.

J is for...

2011-08-12T11:00:00.001-04:00

... joy.

I am, by nature, somewhat of a pessimist. Actually, strike that "somewhat" :) In fact, a friend once bought me this mug, which fits me to a tee - and I love that mug and use it for my morning coffee almost every day.

However, pessimism can lead to a worldview that is the opposite of rose-coloured glasses, and I realized a number of years ago that happiness is something that I have to work at. So, I set myself a task - to find at least one point of joy in every day.

The sight of yellow elm leaves against a clear bluer-than-blue Saskatoon autumn sky.

The way Kip's tail wags when I laugh.

The sound of the waves on the beach on a quiet summer's night.

The colour of the sunrise on my drive into work.

The taste of a fresh, sun-warmed tomato, of the first corn of the season, of the newly-picked fall apples.

The warmth of Katy snuggled against me on a cold winter's night.

The sight of Orion in the winter sky.

The quiet that comes after a big snowfall.

These are all normal, everyday things. They aren't the "big" things - winning the lottery, or getting that dream job, or a $300 purse, a perfect home, a big-screen TV. They are things that are free, that are always there, but only if we choose to see them.

I choose to see them.

In fact, I seek them out, on a daily basis.

J is for joy, and it is all around us - we just need to recognize what it really is.

I is for...

2011-08-11T17:04:00.001-04:00

Most won't know who EITHER of these people are...

... ignorance.

If there is one thing I cannot forgive in a person, it is wilful ignorance. I see it more and more often, in so many places.

I'm not talking about a simple lack of knowledge - hey, I don't know a lot about a lot of things, and I don't expect anyone else to know more than I do.

I'm talking about how prevalent it has become to brag about how little you know, as if that's a talent worth cultivating.

Think I'm exaggerating? Toronto, Canada's largest city, recently elected a new mayor. His brother was also elected to the city council. The council has the unwelcome task of reducing the budget, and is cutting services. Of course, this has a lot of people up in arms, but since I don't live in Toronto, I'm not going to weigh in on who's right and who's wrong (and really, when it comes to cutting services, no one wins).

One service that is on the cutting block is the public library*

A renowned Canadian author weighed in on the proposed cuts, and this was the rebuttal from the councillor:

"Well, good luck to Margaret Atwood, I don't even know her. If she could walk by me I wouldn't even have a clue who she is," Ford told reporters on Tuesday. "But she's not down here, she's not dealing with the problems, and if she did, tell her to go run in the next election and get democratically elected and we'd be more than happy to sit down and listen to Margaret Atwood."**

Not even touching the fact he thinks no one except elected officials have a voice in Canada (!!!!!), his arrogant summation of his own damn ignorance is mind-boggling! It's his pride in his lack of knowledge that astounds me - my jaw literally dropped when I heard that comment from him.

This is an elected official in the most populated area of the country, and his is trumpeting his ignorance for all to see - like this is a good thing.

And this isn't an isolated occurrence.

So tell me, when did knowledge become a four letter word?

___________________________________________________
* Not that it matters in this issue, but I am a *huge* fan of public libraries, and am amazed at the number of people who never go into one, and are completely unaware of the services they offer.

**Councillor ~~Redneck~~ Ford needs to do a quick google search, and maybe he'll realize the world knows who Margaret Atwood is: "Doug Ford" gets just over 500,000 hits, while "Margaret Atwood" gets over 3.5 MILLION.

Oh, and Doug? Picking up a book every-so often would be a good thing (and reading it too!). Try your local library - it's amazing how helpful those librarians can be.

H is for...

2011-08-10T17:54:00.000-04:00

... handy.

I know I tend to post funny reno stories, like locking myself out of the house, almost setting the door on fire, spending day after day installing taps, but in all honesty, I tend to besomewhat handy.

Well, at least I haven't cut off any appendages, made any hospital trips, or burnt down the house. Yet.

I can insulate a wall, put up drywall, install taps, install plugs and light fixtures, tile a floor, do drywall seams, paint a wall, shingle a roof, put up siding, install windows and doors.

I can cook dinner, plant a garden, bake a cake, can fruits and vegetables, mow a lawn, chop wood.

I can sew curtains and duvet covers, I can mend clothes by hand ... and I can embroider.

I can even groom my dogs.

I don't necessarily like doing all of those, and am DEFINITELY not an expert in any of them, but I can and have done all of them, and more.

How?

Easy.

I try.

That's all. I try. I will try (almost) anything. I know the things I can't do safely (like cut down the trees), and the things I have no interest in doing (like car repairs beyond changing an air filter), but most things, I'll try at least once.

Some things, like tiling, I'm happy to leave to the experts afterwards.

Some, like drywall seems, I despise, but will continue doing to save money.

Others? I find I both like doing them, and I'm not too bad at - like painting.

But my minimum is to try :) As long as I don't burn down the house, or lock myself outside again...

G is for...

2011-08-09T17:00:00.003-04:00

Who doesn't see Batman when they look at my blog stats?

... geek!

I admit it - I'm a total geek.

I get so excited over the geekiest things - like slime molds. And most of my entertainment tends to be geek-based as well.

TV Shows?

Star Trek (all of them). Babylon 5 - the first series that showed me what a story arc could actually do, and how amazing TV could be. Buffy, of course!

And Firefly!! - who doesn't love Firefly?

"Were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?"

Best. Line. EVER.

OH!!! Big Bang Theory - pretty much the only reason I still have a TV.

Books?

Asimov, Clark, Piers Anthony (if all you've read is the Xanth series, try his Bio of a Space Tyrant sometime. We aren't in Xanth anymore, Toto!), Baum (speaking of Toto), Bova, Bradbury, Ellison (shudder), Lovecraft (double shudder), Huxley, McCaffery, Lewis, Norton, Spider Robinson (so want to have a Callahan's in real life!).

HEINLEIN! Should I be ashamed I have every book he's ever written? Should I?

Oh, Douglas Adams. Trust me on this one - driving half way across North America is best accomplished with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on tape playing the entire time. Really. And it will also improve your mileage to 42 miles a gallon. Or something like that.

And Neil Gaiman. I love Neil Gaiman*. I want to have his children. Just don't tell his wife, k?

So many great authors - so many I'm sure I forgot to list.

Movies?

Too many to even start listing. Really.

So yeah, I'm a geek. Total geek.

I am not, however, a nerd. If I was a nerd, my DVD player would actually be hooked up to the TV properly, so I could have that Firefly marathon (plus Serenity, of course) I've been planning for ages...

_____________________________________________
*oddly enough, I didn't know him until I was looking for a present for a friend's young daughter, and saw "The Wolves in the Walls", and picked it up, thinking what small child wouldn't like a story about wolves that live in the walls? Ahem. Anyhow, upon giving it to the child, the father was heard to remark (ignoring the mother's somewhat horrified reaction to the book) "Neil Gamian? COOL!!!! You should read his stuff one day...". And the rest, as they say, was history.

F is for...

2011-08-08T18:30:00.000-04:00

Image credit

... fear of giant squids.

No, really.

Seriously.

You know the things that make a shiver go up your spine, right into that little remnant of lizard brain we all have in the middle of our skull? Yeah, that shiver. That's what the thought of the giant squid does to me.

And yes, I do realize I have a better chance of winning the lottery than encountering a giant squid, but logic fails in the face of irrational fear :)

I think it's the realization that this thing is huge, and exists, but we have almost NEVER seen it alive. We know SO little about it, yet it is one of the largest animals on earth.

This animal can grow up to 43' long - that's about 1/2 the length of a blue whale, the largest living animal on earth. Half a basketball court. One seventh of an American football field. Almost 8 times as tall as a 6' tall human.

This thing is that big, and yet, it remains hidden from us.

Hell, it's EYE is as big as my head. Just the thought of this behemoth lurking in the ocean, without us seeing it... yerp, there goes that shiver again.

And if you think the giant squid is bad? Wait to you meet it's big brother - the colossal squid*. It's a giant squid... with fangs!

After reading this, it also occurs to me that some may think F is for freak... :)

__________________________________________
*totally not making this up. Colossal squid are similar to giant squid, just with suckers lined with sharp hooks. How fun!

E is for...

2011-08-06T14:47:00.000-04:00

Image Credit

... earth. And environment. And education.

Yes, I'm one of those freaky tree-hugging, granola-eating, plastic-hating freaks :)

Or, at least, I try to be. Because E also stands for effort, and energy, and too little of either can lead to times where we all fall down, and resort to the easy (another E!) option, which is generally not the best one, environmentally speaking.

We can argue about global warming, and peak oil, and all the rest, but I personally, based on the evidence (E!) I've seen, believe we are headed for bad times, and sooner rather than later.

I believe we need to stop listening to those that have an economic (E!) stake in these discussions (read: politicians and oil companies), and start listening to those that are unbiased, or the least biased. We need to learn that our resources are not unlimited, and we need the education to learn how to best use those resources.

And even if you don't think things are that bad, who doesn't love this earth of ours? Isn't it a good goal, in and of itself, to try to reduce in our wasteful ways, the sheer amount of stuff we all seem to accumulate, to live a lifestyle that leaves enough for others, both while we are here, and after we are gone?

We only have one earth, and while it will survive right up until it gets consumed by the sun*, there is no guarantee that the human race will. We need to start taking better care of our major resource, because it is, literally, all that we have.

And no, I'm not perfect - in fact, far from it. But at least I know the path I need to take, and I hope this blog will, in part, allow me to share that journey with you :)

____________________________
*no worries - this is predicted to happen in ~7.6 billion years. We still have time for another cup of (free-trade, organically grown) coffee or two :)

D is for...

2011-08-05T20:13:00.000-04:00

... dog, naturally :)

I can't remember a time I didn't want a dog, but we were a cat family, so I waited. I waited until I was done school, and until I owned my own house. And finally, after more than 30 years of waiting, I got a Kipper. And then a Katy.

They make me laugh. They warm my back and my feet on cold winter nights. They give me a reason to get out and walk, and to stop and talk to my neighbours. They have even allowed my neighbour to lose a bit of her fear of dogs, as she gives them their daily treat, and they gain weight ;)

They bring joy into my life - joy to see Katy learn to play, to see Kip learn a new skill. The joy I see on the faces of those that love them, and the joy the dogs give in response. The joy they have when I come home, when I toss a ball, and, best of all, when I open the magic white box that contains their food.

Dogs are in our lives for such a short time, and they will eventually bring me heartache - but it is so worth it.

I waited over 30 years, and I won't be without a dog in my life ever again. So here's to dogs, all dogs, and to Kip and Katy - you give us so much, and all you ask in return is a warm bed, a full tummy, and a scritch or two after a game of fetch. We owe you so much for the laughter and joy you bring to us - I promise I'll try to walk you more often, and yes, I will get you that fence you've been asking for!

CSA Basket 5 of 10

2011-08-05T17:24:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe the CSA is half over!

In related news, I also cannot believe it's August already.

However, I am enjoying the fact it is corn season, and you can't have one without the other!

In this week's basket, we have carrots, green onions, a bunch of parsley, lots of peppers, a few tomatoes (first of the year!), a selection of peaches and plums (yeah!!), more corn (double yeah!!), some beans, kale, a cucumber, a ~~zuchinni~~ ~~zucchinni~~ zucchini and a green pattypan, and a little something extra:

Pesto butter! I can't wait to try it on the corn :)

The ~~zuchinni~~ ~~zucchinni~~ zucchini and the pattypan have a date with some sausage on the grill, the kale might join some eggs and bacon for breakfast - along with some tomato slice - I LOVE tomato with eggs! The rest of the tomatoes, cucumber, onions and sweet peppers will become a salad, probably for lunches along with the feta I have in the fridge, and the corn.... oh, I have something special planned for the corn, so stay tuned!

C is for...

2011-08-04T17:04:00.001-04:00

... Canadian.

Of course :)

The true north, strong and free. The land of the double-double and Timbits, of canoeing and curling. Of vast forests and amazing cities, of never-ending shoreline, and breathtaking arctic vistas. The breadbasket of the world.

A land known for hockey, and ironically enough, politeness*. A land where we apologize when you bump into us :) A country where I can eat at restaurants from cuisines from around the world - English, and French, of course, but also Greek, and Italian, and Lebanese and Indian, and Turkish and German and Chinese, and Thai, and Japanese - even Ethiopian (amazing - try it if you ever get the chance!). No good BBQ though :)

A land where, even with over 30 million people, we still tend to know each other. A land where I can sit next to a complete stranger, start talking, and in 10 minutes realize she was the maid of honour at my co-worker's nephew's wedding. A land where you can walk out of a store in a town 4000 km away from your home, and run into your neighbour. A land where people still tend to say hello to each other on the street, or at least nod their heads, and where you are expected to wave to a passing driver on a country road.

A land that runs a mari usque ad mare - a phrase that has been in my memory for over 25 years - since I first saw it, emblazoned in the Memorial Chamber of Parliament, where the name of each and every Canadian soldier to die in service is recorded. Every day, a page is turned in the books, so our war dead are always remembered.

A land of comedians, and inventors, of humanitarians and musicians. A land where a politician is expected to be satirized (does anyone else miss Marg, Princess Warrior?), and can become famous for flippin' the bird.

A land of fresh water, good soil, amazing skies, and great people. Most of all, my home.

Let me apologize in advance if this comes across as too patriotic. Can I get you a double-double to make it up to you? ;)

______________________________________________
A few years back, I went to Scotland. A Scottish couple (complete strangers) picked me out as being Canadian, since *I* kept apologizing to *them* for getting jostled while in a crowd watching the bagpipes at Edinburgh Castle ;)

Wordless Wednesdays - August 3, 2011

2011-08-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

B is for...

2011-08-03T05:53:00.000-04:00

Image credit

...bibliophile.

Last time I counted, I owned over 500 books. The vast majority of those I've read more than once, although I do own a few that I have yet to read even once (War and Peace comes to mind...).

I almost always have more than one book on the go (and no, I don't have a problem keeping them straight). I have books in both bathrooms, beside my bed, and in the living room. If I know I'm going to be doing something that consists of a lot of waiting (airplane travel, doctor's offices, etc.), I try to remember to take a book.

If I forget? I'll read anything that's there. Books, magazines, advertisements - and yes, even those informational pamphlets in the doctor's office that have been there since 1986, and that no one else ever reads.

I even read instruction manuals.

And the worst thing about owning so many books? Moving.

What's your B?

A is for...

2011-08-02T05:38:00.000-04:00

... atheist.

Yep, you heard me. This is the first time I've publicly proclaimed it, but I figured this was a good time to get it out in the open :)

I'm not stating this to be offensive to anyone, or to open up a debate about religion, morality, etc., but it is a fairly important fact about me, and goes hand-in-hand with a lot of other of my traits, good and bad.

I figure each person's religion, or lack there of, is a private issue and it doesn't matter to me what you believe - I'm more concerned with how someone behaves, rather than where they happen to be on a Sunday morning (or Friday, or Saturday, as the case may be). I've known some incredible religious people, and some atheist asses.

But I do get concerned when I see public policy being based on a religion, rather than on something like scientific fact or democratic consensus. I get concerned when I see public officials deciding to rely on a "Day of Prayer", rather than facing the source of the issue and taking concrete action. I really get concerned when I see the education system being subverted by small religious factions, especially when education is, IMO, one of the keystones of our society.

Now, this blog isn't going to suddenly turn into an Atheist's Screed - if you are interested, there are some INCREDIBLE atheist blogs out there, and even more blogs written by atheists that aren't strictly about atheism. And if I ever get around to finishing the changes to this blog, I might list a few of my favourites :)

So, what's your A?

Alphabet in August

2011-08-01T18:33:00.000-04:00

A neat little challenge for this month - come up with a word or phrase for each letter of the alphabet, that describes you, and post it for that day.

This challenge is from Chiot's Run - a great blog for all those who don't know about it already.

So, get ready, get your thinking caps on, and we'll begin with "A" tomorrow. Who's in?

Wordless Wednesdays - July 27, 2011

2011-07-27T09:00:00.003-04:00

Forget Smell-o-vision, we need Taste-o-Vision...

I heart Freecycle!

2011-07-25T19:34:00.001-04:00

It doesn't look like much, but this is actually ~~around 70~~ 98 (I counted while taking them out of the poor car) free bricks I can use for landscaping. I can go back later in the week to get a few more, and some rocks the original homeowners want to get rid of as well. The car was a bit loaded down at this point, so I decided to make more than one trip :)

There are 2 more large gardens the homeowners want to get rid of (complete with edging bricks), so those will be up for grabs as well, eventually. Hell, given the wife has two small children and is expecting the third, soon, I might just offer to dig them out for her - once this heat breaks! It took more than 45 minutes to load the car (really - these suckers are HEAVY, and I had to cart them from their backyard to my car, parked on the road), and I was literally DRENCHED with sweat when I was done. It. Is. Hot.

But back to Freecycle. You all know about Freecycle, right? The site where people post unwanted items, for free, or post wanted items, to see if anyone has it to give away. Did you note that this is all free? As in no cost? Gratis? Free?

But the "free" isn't the best part of Freecycle. The best part? Keeping perfectly good items out of the landfill, and giving them to people who can actually use them. Getting rid of your junk, and knowing someone else is finding it treasure.

Really - go sign up for your local one now. They are all on yahoo groups (I think) - just google "Freecycle" plus the name of your city, and it should pop up. I'll wait. Go. GO NOW! Really. Just do it.

Are you back? Did you sign up? Good!

In all seriousness, Freecycle has to be one of the BEST things on the web. I joined the four local ones here about 2 years ago, and I admit - 99.9999% of the stuff posted is either stuff I'm not interested in, or stuff that is taken by the time I read about it (I get the daily digest, instead of individual posts, which means fewer e-mails, but more time lapsed between posts and my reading them, which means many things are already given away, but that's okay).

To date, I've given away a lot of the extra flooring that was stored here when I bought the house (and no, I didn't want to keep it and try to re-use it - none of it was enough to do any one area, and I don't want either laminate or parquet anyhow), and I've received an "antique" dining room table plus six chairs - all solid wood, and while it needs to be refinished, it was free. (And I'm thinking of getting it painted a glossy black, which I think will go really well with the almost-lime-green colour I'm painting the kitchen and dining room, but I haven't told anyone that yet, because people will think I'm nuts. Maybe. Still deciding on the black. Pretty set on the green though. Maybe.)

Anyhow...

The bricks. I'm telling you, these are heavy-duty bricks. While I'm not the strongest person I know, I'm also not a 98-pound weakling, and I could only tote four of these at a time (partly because of the weight, partly because bricks are somewhat awkward to carry). The lovely neighbour came out to help, once she saw what I was doing, and brought over a dolly to help.

We broke the dolly. Sorry, lovely neighbour :(

So now, I have 98 bricks to use around the place. Stay tuned for future projects.....

CSA Basket 4 of 10

2011-07-23T11:12:00.000-04:00

Ooooh, two photos in a row! I'm on a roll :)

This week, we got more garlic (yeah!!), green onions, new potatoes, cucumbers, a ~~zuchinni~~ ~~zucchinni~~ zucchini, carrots, green tomatoes, plums and, best of all, the first sweet corn of the year!!!

The tomatoes came with a recipe for fried green tomatoes, so that is what they are destined for, the cuckes have a date with some vinegar and salt, the taters and carrots, along with some beets from my garden, are probably going in a baked veggie dish, the ~~zuchinni~~ ~~zucchinni~~ zucchini and green onions might end up as fritters, and the corn?

Seriously?

You have to ask?

The corn is the ONLY reason I will boil a pot of water in this heat!

Stop with the socks already!!

2011-07-22T18:12:00.000-04:00

My name is not Dobby, and if you give me one more sock, I'm going to chew it up*

Poor Katy. I shaved her down, since she doesn't like either the heat or grooming, and she's been putting up with not-so-nice comments ever since. Good thing fur grows back :)

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* It's a Harry Potter thing. Really, you should read the books.

Wordless Wednesdays - July 20, 2011

2011-07-20T09:00:00.003-04:00

One of these things is not like the others...

Great Beet Sea*

2011-07-15T19:15:00.000-04:00

Last year, in some round about way, I heard about Linda of Tree and Twig Farm, heirloom vegetable grower, tomato lover and owner of a local organic farm operation. I've been following her blog, and had to stop myself from spending a small fortune on seeds from her this spring. Due to a hectic winter, I didn't get any tomatoes or peppers started from seed this year, so on the great May 24 weekend, I hied myself to Wellandport and, after recovering from the shock of seeing that many tomato plants in one space, picked up some tomato and pepper plants. And some bean seed. Because a woman can never have too much seed. Anyhow...

So, when Linda announced she was giving away free beet seed for the great beet challenge of 2011, I was in like Flynn.

Tonight, I weeded the area where lettuce and radishes grew this spring, and planted 12 rows of beets, all about 4" apart, in my raised beds which are filled with a mixture of top soil and compost. No additional fertilizer or inputs of any sort, and the one drawback of this is the area is on the north side of the small corn patch - while it will get good morning sun, it is quite shaded all afternoon. However, that's the only free spot in the garden, so it was the best spot available :)

Linda's blog gives a bit more information about the challenge and beets (seed cluster? I never knew that!), and the comment section has some links to other participants.

And so, the countdown to September 18 begins... game on!!!

Oh, one more thing. If you live in the area, and want to support local agriculture, give Linda a try! (Well, not Linda herself, of course...). Because, really, who else do you know gives away well over 200 beets to complete strangers (I still have over half the pack left!!)? Thanks Linda! And oh, do you have any of that Mrocumiere seed left? Or the Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce? Potimarron? Or Sibley? Or... sigh. So many seeds, so little space...

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*I've seen them twice in concert - incredible. Oh, wait. That's Great Big Sea. My bad :)

My inclusion in the Crazy Dog Lady Club is now official.

2011-07-14T13:33:00.000-04:00

I finally went to the eye doctor, and got a check-up and new prescription. Considering my regular glasses were around 4 years old, and my sunglasses even older, it was time. I really don't like picking out new frames, but, for some strange reason, I had NO problem picking out these sunglasses...

What's that on the arm...

What the....

Yep, it's official. I really am a crazy dog lady. I expect to get the official certificate in the mail any day now.

Wordless Wednesdays - July 13, 2011

2011-07-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

First beets of the year - yum!

CSA Basket 3 of 10

2011-07-10T11:09:00.000-04:00

Hey! At last, a picture of my CSA haul*!

This week, we got kale and chard, a large bag of mixed greens, green onions, 2 HUGE bulbs of garlic, oregano, shell peas, cherries (YUM!) and the oddity of the week - radish pods!

The farm included a sheet on the pods, with different uses, preparation methods, storage and health benefits. Makes me wish I didn't just pull up all my bolting radishes :(

One preparation method is pickling, so I think that's what I'll do. The peas, garlic (well, some of it) and the oregano might star in a pasta dish (I'm debating using the peas for this - might do another curry for work lunches, since I still have some potatoes kicking around that I want to use up before my own start producing), the chard and kale made it into my breakfast egg dish yesterday, the greens and onions will be used in salads, of course (still loving the chive vinegar!), and the cherries... well, let's just say they aren't long for this world :)

I also picked up a 4 quart basket of cherries yesterday (from a local fruit stand) that have an appointment with Mr. Dehydrator. Busy weekend, as always!

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* I don't know what happened in the picture, but the peas are MUCH better looking in person!

Wordless Wednesdays - July 6, 2011

2011-07-06T07:59:00.000-04:00

Iris, bought at the "year end" sales last summer, and plopped in the vegetable garden for now. And did you really think I could publish a picture without dogs? :)

Give peas a chance*

2011-07-03T16:01:00.002-04:00

I planted both shell and snow peas this year, with only one problem - I forgot to label which was which. No big problem, except now I can't tell them apart. They are both producing really well, and yet, neither patch has pods that are filling out, so I've just been harvesting both as "snow" peas - yum.

I ended up buying some shell peas at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, since they were there. I then came home, and picked my snow peas. Today, I cleaned both batches, and looked at the results:

"Waste" from the home-grown snow peas vs. yield of the shell peas

"Waste" from the shell peas, vs. yield of the snow peas

It also took me almost twice as long to shuck the shell peas than it took to cut the tops off the snow peas. Now, I'm not the fastest shucker east of the Pecos, but still...

I decided to weigh everything, just out of curiosity. Shell peas - 24 grams peas, 390 g waste! Snow peas - 208 g peas, 22 grams waste!!

I can't stand seeing that much waste with the shell peas, even though it can be used to make stock, then get chucked in the compost. Snow peas just seem more... efficient to me, in terms of work and yield.

Of course, yield isn't the only thing to think about. What about nutrients, especially protein? From the USDA Nutrient database (a very handy site, btw):

Per 100 g:

Snow peas: 2.80 g protein, 42 calories = 6.7 g protein per 100 calories

Shell peas: 5.42 g protein, 81 calories = 6.7 g protein per 100 calories

Per gram, shell peas have more protein, but also have more calories. Per calorie, both types of peas have the same amount of protein.

So why grow both? They have very different uses, and as much as I love snow peas (especially raw, straight off the plant), I prefer to use shell peas in soups.

And besides - Dad would disown me if I didn't grow shell peas for him to eat. Raw, straight off the plant. I come by my weirdness naturally :)

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*yeah, yeah, I know. Old joke. Gimme a break - I just spent the last four days working like a mad woman. I need a weekend to recover from my weekend!

I do not own, and never have owned, a pair of Birkenstocks.

2011-07-01T09:00:00.001-04:00

I figured it was about time. Long past time, in fact. It seems granola is one of the baby steps most people take on their way to eating healthier, local, sustainable, green, whatever. And although I eat granola and yoghurt almost every day, either as breakfast or as a mid-morning snack, I haven't, up to now, actually made any. As I'm almost out of store-bought granola, I figured now was as good a time as any.

And of course, you should know by now that I tend not to follow recipes.

What I do follow, mostly, is ratios. If you know it's 8 parts oats, 4 parts add-ins, 1 part sweetener and 1 part oil, then your granola options increase dramatically - both in ingredients and in scale. Much more freedom for experimentation than a recipe that tells you to the teaspoon what to add!

This is what I used, but really, feel free to change it :)

8 cups rolled oats
1 & 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 & 1/2 cups ground flax
1 cups raw sesame seeds
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt (most definitely NOT Tablespoons, not that anyone would ever make that mistake. Of course not. But, if one did, one would be happy one used sea salt, and added it to the oil, and thus could strain most of it out before it dissolved. Ahem. Carry on, nothing to see here.)
1 c maple syrup (I used 3/4 c of regular, and 1/4 c of this most excellent dark local syrup)
1 c vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cinnamon (and not cumin, although, once again, no one would ever make that mistake, or be thankful that one actually looked at the label before adding. It's a wonder that one is allowed in a kitchen most days.)
1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix the oats and other dry add-in in a large (really large) bowl. Combine the salt, sweetener, oil and spices, bring to a boil, them pour over the oat mixture and stir well to combine. Place on a parchment-lines baking sheet in a thin layer (I ended up doing this in three separate batches - don't try to bake it all in one go!), and bake in a 250 F oven for 20-25 minutes, stirring mid-way.

How do you tell when it's done? Damned if I know. If it smells burnt, it's over done, so you want to get it out of the over before that. I took it out when it was dry-looking, and the oats, while still chewy, were more toasted-looking than the uncooked ones. I'm sure you can under-cook granola, but I know you can over-cook it, and I'd rather have mine a bit chewy rather than a bit burnt.

Cool, store in an air-tight container, and depending on how much you made, and how fast you eat it, think about storing it in the fridge or freezer.

Oh, and after it's cooked, feel free to add dried fruit. I didn't this time, since in the summer I often have fresh fruit to eat it with (like stewed rhubarb from the CSA basket, sweetened with more of that delicious dark maple syrup!).

So, how much did it cost me?

Rolled oats: ~$1.50 (I estimate I used ~3/4 of what I bought, so this is an estimate)
Wheat bran: ~$.20 (again, I didn't use all of it, but this stuff is ridiculously cheap!)
Ground flax: $0.61
Sesame seeds: ~$0.80 (ditto not using it all)
Maple syrup: ~$5.00, based on the price of a litre of local syrup.
Salt, oil and spices all from the pantry

So, a total of around $8.50 if you added in the pantry items. Around here, a 750 g box of granola costs at least $5.00 ($0.67 per 100 g), and I made MUCH more than 750 g - closer to 1700 g ($0.50 per 100 g). So it is a bit cheaper, but of course, that doesn't take into account my time or the energy for the oven. However, I know what's in my granola, and it most definitely does NOT include those "puffed" rice bits most commercial granolas seem to have these days! My granola also doesn't include nuts. Nuts would increase the cost, obviously, but you could reduce the cost by using a mixture of sweeteners instead of straight maple syrup. A combination of molasses and white sugar would be tasty and cheaper, and you could always add some maple syrup or honey for taste.

Granola with yoghurt and stewed local rhubarb sweetened with local maple syrup.

Will I do this again? Of course! It's incredibly easy, and quick, other than the baking time (which can be reduced by using more than one pan at a time!) I love the adaptability of home-made granola as well - what you eat is limited only by your imagination, instead of what a company thinks you should eat.

Garden v. 2010

2011-06-30T09:18:00.001-04:00

I didn't post much about the garden last fall, and so an update, before I start in on this year's garden.

I planted a LOT of things last year, and most did really well- especially for my first garden :)

The herbs did really well, even though I never got around to drying any for winter use (well, I tried - they went mouldy instead). My brassica crops did great as well, except for the green cabbage. I grew the red and the green cabbage right next to one another, and the damn cabbage moth caterpillars ate almost the entire crop of green cabbages, while leaving the red completely alone. I'll try covering the brassicas this year and see how it works, but I'm also willing to let the caterpillars have the green cabbages if it means they leave everything else alone!

The tomatoes and peppers did GREAT! I harvested over 90 pounds of plum tomatoes for canning (salsa, crushed tomatoes and sauce), plus a lot more "beefsteak"-type for fresh eating. And lots of peppers, both hot and sweet.

The beans and peas would have done better if I actually remembered to harvest them more often, but I did get a few meals out of them - none for the freezer though. And actually, the peas would have done VASTLY better had the local rabbit not decided to use them as it's bed every night!

The lettuce, beets, carrots, onion, etc. - all did good, and provided a lot of food over the course of the summer. Staggered planting really made a difference with these crops, allowing smaller harvests at regular intervals, instead of a glut all at once.

And then the squash. Remember the squash that was doing fantastic? That I bragged about?

I really should know better.

It went from this:

To this, one month later:

I got a handful of zucchini, two spaghetti squashes and one lemon cucumber.

That's it.

Enough for a meal or so, out of such a promising crop. And all because of the #($*@ cucumber beetles. The beetles transmit a bacterium, Erwinia tracheiphilia, that causes bacteria wilt. The grubs also feed on the roots of the plants, compounding the problem.

The worst part? I did plant pathology research for 15 years. I KNOW this stuff. And I still ignored the problem, resulting in a complete crop loss. Grrrr.....

Ah, well, live and learn, right? Part of this whole journey is to figure things out, before it becomes completely necessary to rely on them. A crop loss last year, while frustrating, didn't mean I starved last winter. But I did learn a valuable lesson :)

And now on to this year's garden...

$500 Challenge - June Edition

2011-06-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

It the time of year that I start harvesting my herbs, and hopefully this year, I'll figure out a good way of drying them. Of course, once they are dry, I need a place to store them. And, of course, while I don't want to keep all those little plastic bottles that my store-bought herbs came in, I also don't want to spend a fortune on glass replacements.

Local stores to the rescue!

I found the small ones at the dollar store, for $1.25 each, and the larger ones at the bulk food store for $3.39 each. 20 of the small, and 5 of the large should cover most of my herb storage needs. Yes, they are made in China, and yes, I could have simply kept and re-used jars from other products.

But I have a guilty little secret - I like pretty things. I like the idea of opening up a cupboard, and seeing all my home-grown herbs in cute, matching little wire-bail jars. With my tea herbs in larger ones in the next cupboard over. And while I do agree we need to make some drastic changes in our lifestyles (or we will be forced to do so eventually), I also know that I'm not perfect, and I'll make up for these guilty little purchases by not doing other things, like having a cell phone, or a large-screen TV, etc. This journey isn't about perfection, it's about doing what you can, the best you can, and enjoying the trip. And yes, these wee containers do make me happy :)

Costs: 20 x $1.25 + 5 x $3.39 + $5.45

Total: $47.40

Balance: $121.52

Drying, trying, and crying

2011-06-27T07:25:00.001-04:00

Drying: strawberries, blueberries and chamomile flowers

2 quarts of strawberries, already dried. The smell contained in that jar is indescribably amazing!

Did you know blueberries take FOREVER to dry? (20 hours and counting at this point...)

The beginnings of a winter's worth of tea:

Trying: four different methods of drying lemons.

Slivered zest:

Larger pieces of zest:

Slices without peel (the source of the zest, of course!):

Slices with peel:

And crying: my first drying failure. Well, second, if you count my failure in this same area last year. Mom and Dad gave me the dehydrator last year for my birthday, which is in the fall. So I first tried to dry my herbs and mints last summer by just bagging them with a paper bag, and letting air dry.

Total, complete, mouldy failure.

I blame Lake Erie :) Honestly, I think it's too humid here to air dry. So, this year, I tried the dehydrator.

Total, complete, tasteless failure.

Those are supposed to be two large bottles of dried oregano. It smells NOTHING like oregano.

That is supposed to be a large jar of dried lemon balm. It smells exactly the same as the oregano. Which means it smells nothing like lemon balm.

I jarred them up, thinking the scent would somehow magically re-appear once they were contained. Yeah, not so much. I've finally convinced myself the only good place for these is the compost heap :(

I think the problem is the dehydrator, which is simply too hot for drying herbs without ruining their scent. I'll try air drying again this year, in a place with better air movement. Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

Does anyone out there dry herbs in a humid place? Any trick or tips to share? Please??