How does your Garden Grow?

So here we are well into spring and I am ready to go. I am anxiously awaiting the time when I can plant more things in the ground. I put some veggies out late in the season hoping that they would survive the winter and be good early season food. They have proven them selves worthy. They survived the hard winter we had with three heavy loads of snow. I did dig up a new section of my yard this year to expand my veggie possibilities. Now to figure out how things are going to fit into the new space and play well together.

Of course there are many questions that I still have about a successful veggie garden but I have some good hands on experience from the last couple of years.

Also on my mind is canning all of the goodness that comes out of the ground in my small yard to make the winter less dreary. I got a pressure canner for Christmas this past year so I'm excited to get to experiment with that. At least I know I will be able to eat something during the next winter.

Canning Classes Announced

Canning Classes are now posted and ready for your inspection and reflection. 

Do you need an excuse to Souffle?

I had a really bad excuse to make a souffle, I had a bunch of egg whites in the freezer that had been calling to me lately to do something with them. So feeling in a bit of an odd mood I made a French dish with Irish cheese. It wasn't as hard as I was expecting and tasted fabulous!

It did fall pretty quickly after the picture was taken but I was sort of excited that it rose as well as it did. 

For the Brussel Sprout lover in you!

I have discovered there are so many things that as a kid I probably would not have even contemplated eating and actually enjoying. Brussel sprouts are one of those things, but pare them with sauteed mushrooms, bacon and onions and a little cheese and you have yourself quiet a tasty dish.

It is a bit difficult to give an actual recipe with measurements since I have stopped using recipes when I cook. I usually just go by feel and see what happens. This was about 1/4 lb of brussel sprouts and a handful of shiitake mushrooms, half an onion, one and a half strips of bacon.

Give Brussel sprouts a a chance.

The Marmalade Incident

I like orange marmalade. Since I am trying not to buy things that I can make for myself I haven't had orange marmalade in quite some time. Oranges are not commonly grown here and I don't  think I have ever seen them at the farmers market so I did have to buy them from the grocery store. So I set out to make my marmalade and first you cut up the oranges, the peel and some water, let this simmer for 5 min. then cover and let sit over night. So check those steps off. Yesterday at the end of my 12 hour wait I start adding the sugar and cooking the marmalade. I cook it until what I thought was the gel stage, it was getting think and it had been boiling for a while so I start putting it in jars. Immediately it is apparent that I don't have enough jars. The recipe said it would make 7 half-pints but what I ended up with was 5 pints, 6 half pints and 5-4oz jars. After processing all those jars the marmalade didn't set.

Today I went and got more jars and lids and opened all of the jars I processed yesterday and tried to re-cook the marmalade. I think that it worked this time. Orange Marmalade at high temperatures is like having a vat of bubbling hot lava on your stove that spits hot sticky goo on you. I have a few burns but I also have Marmalade!

New adventures

So I have been given a new opportunity that could either fizzle out or take off and become something new and exciting. Since Jan. my hours wt work have been cut down to almost nothing and I am beginning to wonder how the bills are going to get paid. Then I thought why don't I teach canning classes. People want to learn how to do that and they want to save some money on food bills. It's a win-win!

More info to come as I get something finalized and figured out.

New Year, New Me?

So here it is the first day of the new year. I always think about what I'd like to accomplish in the year at the first of it but generally those ambitions fall away after a few months and I have settled comfortable back into my old routine and made no progress. So rather than thinking of things that I need to change I'd like to think of things that I can improve. One thing is food, which is already a huge part of my life. I would like to continue the trend of buying food from the Farmer's Market and shunning the grocery stores. I would also like to continue to prepare most of my food myself. This should be easy since I have lost most desire to eat out and most pre-packaged food tastes horrible to me. My bigger picture accomplishments are that I need to have more confidence in my self. I have recently been able to see how I have a lot to give but because I feel shy or inadequate or what ever reason it is that fits the situation I don't feel confidant is my ability.

Hopefully in the next year I can continue this path of self discovery that will lead to a new understanding of who I am and who I can be. The year is wide open and what I make of today is the most important part. So Cheer's to you New Year I'm ready for an adventure.