| I wanna be the last thing you hear when you're falling asleep |
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| Procrastination |
[17 May 2012|08:35am] |
tap tap tap.
Is this thing still on? I suppose I meant to update, but life gets in the way, and my camera sucks, and I'm really really good at making excuses. For example, earlier today I made a to-do list and now I'm updating this blog, rather than actually to-do-ing. Things on the agenda for today:
Wash dishes
Take out trash
Vacuum house
Wash scrubs (by hand since our washer crapped out)
Sort through paper on desk
Clean bathroom
Perhaps I should add
Update blog and
Drink coffee to the list and then I'm already well into the day.
I suppose I'm being to hard on myself. It is only 8:00 am on my day off. I'm working the entire long weekend (the joys of hospital employment), but the weather is supposed to suck so I'm not missing out on much.
I need to get the rest of the garden beds amended and planted in the next week or so. I've planted the shallots and onions, and potted the tomatoes (though they're still inside) but I need to get the potatoes into the ground, not to mention the carrot, beet, squash, bean, and lettuce seeds.
Rhubarb is ready to harvest and I'm making up more chutney this year. It was really popular with friends and has become my favourite burger topping. I might do a double batch due to friend requests. One of things I'm going to miss most when we move is the garden, especially the rhubarb and raspberries.
Right, yes, we're moving. The Mister and I are building a condo across town as the mother-in-law is returning from living in China. Size-wise we'll be downsizing (quite a bit) but we'll make up for that with living in a new space, with new appliances, and air conditioning. It's going to be awesome. Two bedroom, two bath condo with a great kitchen (and fantastic upgraded appliances) . Can't wait, we should be in late August, early September.
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| busy busy |
[17 Sep 2010|05:30pm] |
Note to self: never buy 40 lbs of food that must be dealt with immediately (or almost immediately) when working 6:00 am start times. Coming home after an 8 hour shift when you're exhausted and having to cook for 2 or 3 hours each day is exhausting.
First off, it screws up your math skills. For some reason I had convinced myself that I had bought 5 lbs of lean ground beef. When I was carrying it through the store it seemed heavier than that. When I was portioning and wrapping it the blobs seemed bigger than usual. But no, it took me until yesterday (coincidentally my first day off after working 6 in a row) that when beef costs $1.99/lb and you pay $20 that in fact you get 10 lbs of meat, not 5 lbs. No worries though, I can always chop a hunk in half while frozen, but my large batches of chili take 2 lbs as does a meatloaf (which I'm making tonight along with a zucchini potato casserole)
 The 10 lb tube of ground beef I bought
In addition to that I had 10 lbs of zucchini that I had received from a coworker in exchange for some jam. Well I insisted on the jam, she was just offering up zucchini. I have zucchini growing in my garden, but I bought and planted the seeds late so while we have enough to eat as a vegetable (though did you know that technically it's a fruit) I didn't have enough to bake with, and I've been dreaming about carrot zucchini muffins and chocolate zucchini loaf since I planted the seeds. We've since eaten one loaf and 8 muffins and I froze the second loaf and 4 muffins. I totally forgot to take pictures of that production however I'll now entertain you with a shot of one of the zucchini along with the jalapenos (pre-pickling) and peaches (pre-canning)
Large Zucchini, Jalapeno Peppers, Peaches
The zucchini in the above picture was grated and I froze two packed 2 cup portions for future baking and will be using the remainder for my casserole tonight. The peaches were canned in a light syrup and I've got about 8 servings for later in the winter (first time trying to can peaches - didn't want to go overboard). The peppers were either sliced into rings or diced and pickled and canned along with the serrano peppers from my garden. I have two half pints of jalapeno slices, 1 of diced jalapenos, 2 of a diced jalapeno/sliced serrano blend, and one 1/2 cup jar or sliced serranos.
I had also bought peas (shelled, blanched, and frozen), green beans (I have enough for one meal in my yard - god this has been the shittiest summer for vegetable growing) and while I blanched and froze the bulk I used the brine from the peppers to jar 2 half pints of dilly beans (dill from the one plant that survived summer of fail) and a bunch of green Roma tomatoes at $.99/lb. I'm ripening them in shoe boxes with bananas (speeds the process) and will quarter and jar those next week. Tomatoes ripened off the vine are nowhere near as good as on the vine of course, but with my plants producing enough for one jar at the moment, beggars couldn't be choosers (and the green tomatoes fit my budget.
Tomato + banana (close box) = ripe and decent 10ish days later
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| Crab Apple Sauce |
[23 Aug 2010|08:59pm] |
The tree in our backyard is a huge and beautiful crab apple. It's about 50 years old and wasn't necessarily trimmed properly for those 50 years, leaving us with branches threatening power lines and blocking sunlight to the garden. Two summers ago however we gave it a pretty solid trimming, and took off one more large limb last summer before it game out of it's winter slumber. The task however left us with a thrillingly healthy tree of epic proportions for last year...so healthy in fact that I threw out over 10 000 crab apples last year after the tree bloomed and bloomed and bloomed. And I made two batches of crab apple jelly then too.
This year has been less sunny and more wet so the tree is simply producing to proportions that we can manage however I still don't want to throw away food unnecessarily. I'll be making jelly again (I created a fantastic sauce for pork roast using last years batch) but wanted to use up more apples. Figuring that crab apples are simply small tart apples I came up with the following sauce, which is simply amazing. We ate one jar with pork chops tonight and I canned the rest in half pint jars.
Crab Apple Sauce
9 cups crab apple pieces (skin left on, blossom ends and cores removed)
water to cover (3ish cups)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice
1 1.2 tsp cinnamon
Bring crab apples and water to a boil. Cook until apples soften then coarsely mash with potato masher. Add sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Cook another 10 minutes on medium-high heat. Use immersion blender to puree into sauce. Continue cooking until desired consistency reached (if not thick enough for your tastes, add another cup or two of diced crab apple).
Ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2" headspace. Remove any air bubbles, wipe lids of jars. Center hot lids onto jars. Apply screwbands until finger tip tight. Place jars in canner ensuring that the water level is at least two inches above jar tops. Process jars for 20 minutes (Calgary altitude). Remove jars and set aside to cool.
Makes 9 half pint jars.
**Canning instructions here are not fully detailed, if not an experienced canner, refer to general canning safety rules regarding processing times, etc.
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| Chicken Stock |
[19 Aug 2010|04:20pm] |
 The weather Tuesday was blah and cool which made it a perfect time to get a batch of chicken stock going on the stove.
My stock is typically made of odds and ends that I've frozen making it essentially a zero cost project. The stock simmering on my stove is made up of 4 chicken carcasses (mostly precooked with a few uncooked bones) and 2 medium freezer bags full of vegetable ends (including carrots, celery, onions, bell pepper, broccoli, and tomato) plus some seasonings. If I were to make this batch from scratch I'd need:
3-4 chicken carcasses
2 onions (quartered)
4 carrots (cut in half)
4-6 large pieces celery (cut in half)
3/4 cherry tomatoes
4 cloves garlic (cut in half)
4 small bay leaves (or 2 decent sized ones)
1 tbsp peppercorns
salt to taste
Cover with water, bring to a boil and then simmer for 3-4 hours. Strain, cool completely skim off fat layer from top of stock. Portion out into containers for the freezer and make soup.
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[01 Jul 2010|09:41am] |
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Happy Canada Day everyone. Looking forward to BBQ and beer later on!!
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[30 Apr 2010|04:33pm] |
Chocolate Loaf and Cinnamon Swirl Loaf
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| Tasty Sausage Pasta |
[05 Sep 2009|06:52pm] |
1 package red wine flavored sausage
1 box (500g I think) whole wheat rotini or penne
1/4 - 1/2 red onion
12 medium - large white mushrooms
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup half and half cream
3 cloves garlic
ground black pepper to taste
1. Pull 1 package red wine flavoured sausage from casing and brown on stovetop.
2. Chop onion into pieces about 3/4 inch. Nice chunks really.
3. Quarter mushrooms.
4. Smash and mince 3 cloves garlic.
5. Boil water for pasta. Use a big pot as you'll be tossing the frying pan of stuff in at some point. When ready add pasta.
6. Toss garlic, onion, and mushrooms into frying pan with sausage and cook for 10ish minutes (or until the veggies look done)
7. Drain pasta and put back in pot.
8. Toss frying pan o' stuff into pot.
9. Add about 1/4 cup of half and half cream and 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (real parm cheese, not that crap that comes in a can) and stir until you've mixed it all up into a nice saucy mass. Grind some black pepper over the top.
Serves 6.
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| Writer's Block: More Island Time |
[03 Mar 2009|08:45am] |
Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery
Memoirs of a Geisha - Authur Golden
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon
The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
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| wheeee |
[12 Nov 2008|10:57am] |
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mood |
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 excited |
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This time tomorrow I'll be on an airplane on my way to the Dominican Republic. Squeeeeee.
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[28 Oct 2008|08:16pm] |
in the last 4 days I have:
baked chocolate chip banana bread
made soup from scratch for dinner and lunches
made pizza for dinner
and carved my pumpkin for halloween
seriously, getting married turned me into martha stewart
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| politics |
[14 Oct 2008|08:36am] |
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I've already voted :)
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| saturday |
[30 Aug 2008|11:17am] |
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Off to the gym now, followed by a trip to the Calgary Farmers Market. I'll be getting there around 1:30 so if anyone else is around keep an eye out for me.
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[23 Jul 2008|03:14pm] |
dear ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) ophelia_is_dead,
for our wedding I have ordered you a beef meal (as I know chicken isn't cool for you) and have requested an alternate dessert (we're having strawberry rhubarb pie) that contains no cocoa.
hope you enjoy,
kisses and squeezes
danielle
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| bum de badda badda |
[06 Jul 2008|09:16am] |
There is a marching band rehearsing/performing in the field directly across from my house.
That is all.
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| Can't stop, clowns will eat me |
[15 May 2008|02:59pm] |
It's been a productive week. We:
- Got the rest of the side flower bed weeded
- Got our wedding rings ordered
- Have our invitations being printed
- I picked up the new perrenials and annuals for the back yard
- Got my Folk Festival ordered
- Helped Kendra attack her front flower bed with hacksaws to cut a foot and a half off of it
Thank goodness this is a long weekend because we have tons more yardwork to do, plus a birthday party, and heading off to the Bay to finish our registry.
It also occurred to me that I need like three new summer dresses for wedding related events (showers, rehersal dinner, gift opening. I guess "the dress" actually means one of the dresses…lol.
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| ouchy |
[12 May 2008|03:58pm] |
I'm sore, to be precise my entire body is sore. After my training session at the gym on Saturday, I hit the grocery store and then came home to get some yardwork done. I weeded for about 3 solid hours and then cooked dinner for Ty, Pat, and I. (I did the whole thing on the grill, marinated steaks, corn on the cob, and a potato/carrot/onion dish)
Sunday I did another 3 hours of work in the yard and now I hurt everywhere. My back is sore, my knees are sore, my right hand is sore from putting pressure on it for over four hours of kneeling and pulling weeds.
On the plus side, the flower bed that run the entire length of the back yard is now weed free (all 20 odd feet of it) and ready for a few new perrenials (stupid ATCO killed our purple flowers).
We're also up to about 75% of the raking being finished (and for our property that's like 6 garbage bags filled already). This week I need to buy a hose caddy, the few aforemetioned perrenials and a couple annuals for pots and we'll really be flying. One of the goals for this weekend is re-oiling the patio furniture and finishing the planting.
I love springtime. Sore is good when you earn it :)
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| dearest friends |
[10 Apr 2008|11:49am] |
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How long was your morning commute? Mine was 1 hr 45 min.
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