Onion confit

I left 2 pounds of onions roasting in the oven today (something i can't do mid-summer), with some dried cherry tomatoes (leftover from a garden we had two houses ago) and some herbs. They turned out so sweet, i slathered them on italian bread and devoured it. Then, we grilled some chicken and vegetables and gathered it all together, including the confit, with freezer pesto, fresh arugula, and homemade tomato sauce, and topped it with caraffa olives (a recent delicious discovery from london ontario) and a few cheeses. It was pretty much a crowd pleaser.



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mango chutney

my only two preserving goals this year, in addition to the standards, was to make more pizza sauce (a la orangette) and to make a chutney that didn't taste like vinegar. i thought if i didn't can it and freeze it instead, it wouldn't need any vinegar at all.

i used the leftover peaches, cooked them down, mashed them up, and blended them a bit. then added sugar, chilies, ginger, garlic, and salt to taste. the fastest preserving project to date.

it's time for champagne

we ought to celebrate. the cement is poured (the start of our new shed), the canning season is done (30 jars pickles, 12 salsa, 15 peaches, 40 tomatoes, 8 pizza sauces, and 50 bags of pear-apple cider), and the kids are still alright.

seed saving

seeds collected in Larry's woods - blue cohosh, orange-fruited horse gentian, wild leek, red oak acorns, american beech, alternate leaf dogwwod, running strawberry bush, and jack-in-the-pulpit - being cleaned, sorted, and dried.

burgers

now that it's bbq season and the meals are easier, we've taken to making smaller burgers. some call them sliders, but the buns really are a bit bigger to accomodate all the accompaniments. in this case, zucchini relish and salad greens.

rotis

the other night, we tried making rotis - something i'd never done and Brett had tried only once. usually, when i make something ethnic, particularly something that involves dough, it either needs a lot of fine-tuning or i decide it's more worth it to order in the next time. but this time was different. they were great: spicy chickpeas and potatoes in a thin roti wrap. we had them with homemade plum chutney and hot mango chutney from ten thousand villages. which reminds me, next summer, i think i'll try freezer chutney so it won't be so vinegary. we made the roti dough using this recipe and the filling was from here.

october days

the weather today was lovely and mild - even though rain was expected - but we are still managing to think about the coming cold.

Eily snipping stalks from the thyme patch.

preserving celery and white beans
and trying out the winter coat. i found it at the thrift store and discovered it had a few rips along the seams where the polyester stuffing was coming out (like that's gonna keep a kid warm). so i fortified it by adding alomst 100g of carded wool and now it's divinely poofy and warm.

we finally sold the hutch that was taking up most of our dining room. now, there's room for our sideboard and though it still needs to be sanded and stained, this weekend's work quickly find a home on it; a "tree" for displaying felted work, calendula drying, and eily's printmaking from the open doors at the button factory yesterday.

busy days

sorting embroidery thread

preparing for wet felting workshop

felted bag

chilies for drying

calendula for salve

painting in the sun room

september cleaning

the cold makes me want to clean. somehow. and it's a good thing too because not much has really been cleaned well since we moved. the stove was a sight after canning 60 plus jars of peaches (a ridiculous amount...thankfully, shared amongst four households). so it began with that.

the most satisfying cleaning project was removing 5 years worth of lime on the bottom of the kettle. i celebrated with making bread from artisan bread in five minutes a day (no kidding...they're not joking; see here for more inspiration or admire this fine loaf and witness my son devouring a slice).

Last night and the night before there was a harvest moon, full and low on the horizon. Looking out into the night from the front porch with our elbows deep in tomato juice, I said to Brett "I guess this is why they call it harvest"

finished jars
ripening pears
jewelry sitting on the counter while i work on the canning dishes
more tomatoes

blueberries

the weather turned milder and we spent our afternoon at the blueberry patch. the wooden windmills to keep birds at bay sounded like ice cubes clinking in a glass and we could hear the wind make waves in the cornfield next to us.
back in the car and the cd had left the song in the most perfect spot, like a choir accompanying us along the laneway out. with 25 pounds of blueberries in the trunk. a good day.

settling

some spaces i'm trying to build into inspiring places, as we begin to make this house our home, and some that are growing on me all on their own.

my sewing room

canning shelves
sunroom window

Eily's craft space


a view from the stairs coming up

G is for Gluttony

forget condiments. berries begin each meal around here. i've been doing my best to fulfill my vow. thus, strawberries for breakfast:

strawberries for supper:

ok, and a few made their way into the rhubarb pot for jam:

oh my!

they may not be wild, but these berries pretty much take the cake (or maybe make it?). i vow to eat large amounts just as they are instead of deliberating on how many will go into jam or into the freezer.

Activities Around the House

Poaching pears:

Sorting heirloom beans:

Eily lounging in the wool to be carded for doll filling:

Yesterday's project was to increase the softness of the landing beside Eily's bed...he's been known to end up there fairly frequently. I found the fabric at Salvation Army and stuffed the pillows with bits and pieces of sweaters leftover from other projects. The stuffing's inconsistent of course but the resulting pillows are actually quite soft.
I didn't get a chance to post last night because we picked raspberries until dusk at a farm near Rockwood. The berries were divine and the farm, the gardens, the house, so peaceful.

It was a little less hot today...the perfect day for strawberry picking and the perfect break from grouting. last night, i grouted until 11pm and learned all about tiling spounges, rubber grout floats, and grout bags. i'm pretty relieved to see the rows of shiny tiles after all that work. during it, my mind alternated between deliberating over a new trades career and being tempted to leave an assignment for Brett to write "i will never again start a tiling job" 100 times.

Now i'm going to hull strawberries in the garden to celebrate being that much closer to a finished washroom.