Average Day

I had a pretty average day.  Far from a bad day, but no real excitement.  The greenhouse didn't need watering, it was pouring rain when I got home so I stayed warm in the house instead of visiting the barns.

Breakfast was good.  I'm back on to the 'brown' box of Dorset cereal, Super High Fiber.  Yum.  With blueberries and skim milk.  See the giant coconut flakes?  They MAKE the cereal.

In the morning I had a pear.  I don't know what kind it is but it was good.  I haven't had pears in years and I'm going to start eating them, they're so good, what was I waiting for?   I think talking about the orchard and what pear trees will get made me think about eating them from our own tree as a kid, so I bought a few.

Then, just before lunch, half of this Cliff bar.

Lunch was great.  I had some carrot/ginger/orange soup, and a great salad.  Very full, so much barley in the soup.

But I still had room for an apple in the afternoon, mostly out of boredom.

Hit the gym and it felt great.  For a change, I was actually looking forward to it!  40 min on the elliptical, upper body weights, Core Control class.  Great workout.  Sweating felt good.  I'm glad a took a semi break the last 2 weeks and only went a couple of times. Sometimes I need a break, not physically, but mentally.

When I got home I made some fruit salad, had a bowl and some almonds.

I saw eggs on so many blogs yesterday and had been thinking about them ALL day!  So, I knew it was a breakfast night.  2 scrambled eggs, 2 pieces ww toast with butter and 3 slices turkey bacon.  Really good.  I could have ate double the eggs.

Then some frozen yogurt in my pj's on the couch.

Really average but good day.

Jess

THANK YOU ALL!

Today I want to start by thanking you all!  Those of you that leave comments, and those that don't, I appreciate it all so much.  You've made me happy, feel good about myself and what I do, shared your (food) secrets and overall, made my life fuller.  I only know 2 of you (maybe 3, if you're reading this Christina), but I feel like I've found a new group of friends.  I didn't know how it easy it would be to become accepted in blog world, but I feel like it's happened. 

THANK YOU LADIES (and gents??)!!! 

On to the day...A very usual breakfast for me, granola, vanilla yogurt, blueberries. :)

EDIT: Hey...looks like I posted the wrong photo!  Whatever, you gals know what yogurt looks like.

Before lunch I thought I'd make some soup.  Carrot, ginger, orange.

I started by sauteing some onions.

Then add a bunch of chopped carrots, chopped celeriac and minced ginger.  I don't really measure.  As well as a few cups of homemade stock and some water.

Simmer for about 40 min, put in about a cup of OJ, s&p and blend with the immersion blender.  I cooked up some barley and put it in as well.  I had a great (fuzzy) bowl for lunch.

And an apple.

Hung out in the greenhouse for a while, planted more leaf lettuce and radishes.  Worked in my attic - oh the joy!  Then, decided it was curry night.  A simple, chicken yogurt curry.

Start again, buy sauteing onions, black mustard seed and cumin seed.

Add chili peppers, garlic and ginger.

Add cut up chicken, a bunch of yogurt, some chickpea flour and a bit of water.  Simmer for 40 min.

Stir in some tomato paste and sprinkle on garam masala.  Cover and let sit for about 5 min.

Stir everything together again, and voila!  Beautiful curry.  I added more tomato paste after this, it just needed more.

Served with saffron basmati rice and topped with cilantro. 

I use a recipe from this book,

The dish does not call for tomato paste, but I add it in anyway.  It seems to need something more.

All in all, a good, semi relaxing day.  The house is cleaned up from our guests, I'm stuffed after more mini eggs.  My chocolate cravings are out of control.

Jess

Awards, Friends and Food

I was given a bunch of awards this week, so I'll post one a day, or every other, in the order I received them.

The first was from Simply Life - a Happy 101 award! 

I'm now supposed to tell you 10 things that make me happy, I choose 10 that make me happy about my garden.

10 Things that make me happy about my garden:

1. Getting hands dirty - love connecting with the earth
2. The satisfaction of seeing the first spout - new life, new beginnings
3. Being out in fresh air, doing something I love and getting exercise at the same time
4. A hobby and passion I can share with The Shepherd
5. Eating what I grow. I know how it was grown, and where it comes from, you can't get closer to the source than that
6. Serving the food I grow to other people
7. Being at the Farmers Market - last summer I was told, "I feel good buying your food". Enough said.
8. Meeting other market gardeners and having a world of people to chat and learn with
9. The colours, the scents, every veggie is different, yet they share one thing - uniqueness
10. Gardens grow in warm weather, I am a sun baby, so the warmth and the sweat dripping off my nose while I dig potatoes really does make me happy.


I also need to give this award to some other bloggers, but time is precious this weekend, so I'll hand it out later this week.

Saturday:
Breakfast was vanilla yogurt, omega granola and strawberries.

Question: Do you shy away from flavoured yogurt because of the high sugar content, or just go for it because it's so good? I guess this question is for us gals that can't get naturally sweetened yogurt without making it ourselves.

Friend arrived at lunch time, and we had a munchie spread.  I like picking at food - but always end up eating more than I know.  We had smoked salmon, lemon pepper salmon, a really creamy, spreadable cheese, gouda, Breton Mini crackers and Kashi Honey Sesame crackers.  Also a great plate of carrots, red peppers, strawberries and dip.

Then a bunch of mini eggs throughout the afternoon. 

We went out to the barns to visit all of the animals.  The puppies were even greater today than they have been.  They are so alive and cute.  Barking and playing.  They now run all over the barn, just hangin' with the sheep and lambs like they're part of the flock.  I guess since they turn into guard dogs, that's the point.

This is The Shepherd and I.  We don't have a lot of photos taken, and when we do, we're usually in oversized work clothes, this is a happy medium. Bundled up - it was NOT warm here today, but not dirty either.

Dinner was smashing good.  I love dinner parties that I get to host.  And, I ate it without taking pictures, then realized, so The Shepherd helped me put a mock plate together for the blog.  He's realizing how cool it is and how much I like it so he's been helping out with photos and being very patient. 

We had ribs.  Yum.  I learned from a friend recently, that if you don't have time to slow cook ribs, the best thing to do is the boil them for 30 min, then quickly grill on the bbq with sauce.  They were super moist, really gooey and saucy, the way ribs should be.  We had sweet potato fries and salad with them, the fries were gone before the picture was taken.

The sauce is super not good for you and was a dipper to the fries.  I bought it at Whole Foods when I saw it, for this very dinner.

Dessert was an amazing Caramel Cake.  Pouring the sauce - very slowly - on top, it settles and hardens just a little, and softens the top 1.5 inches of the cake.  More gooey deliciousness.  The only thing I'd do differently to the cake is bake in a 9x13 pan, and make a little more sauce.  The bottom was a little dry, as the cake was really thick, so a little thinner with more sauce to make up for the extra space would work perfectly, though I'm not complaining, and the boys ate most of it. 

I cut it once before remembering to photo.

We had a nice day with our friends, some left in the evening, some stayed the night.

Looking forward to Sunday.

Jess

Happy Friday

I'm so glad it's Friday.  It was tough sitting in front of the computer screen all week.

I had a great start to the day with a mix of Dorset cereal, granola, blueberries, strawberries and skim milk.

During the morning i wasn't hungry, but my sweet tooth keeps acting up so I had half of this Cliff bar.  It's good, it always is, but after the Peanut Butter Crunch, it doesn't compare anymore.

I met my friend at Loblaw's for lunch.  Weird to meet for lunch at the grocery store, but they have this great upstairs seating area.  We always get some sushi rolls and fruit to share, and have a leisurely hour chat.  I only have a 30 min lunch, but really, at work, no one pays attention to what I do, where I am, when I come or go.  I'm pretty lucky that way.

More sideways pictures.  One day, I'll  snag the admin password at work and download WLW and this won't be a problem anymore. ;)

I also had the other half of the Cliff bar in the afternoon.

It was a perfect evening for the first bbq of the season.  I bought some bison burgers at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and had them in the freezer.  They were HUGE!  And tasty.  Served with a small salad was the perfect Friday night dinner.

Today in Loblaws I found large bags of dark Mini Eggs.  Too many of these were eaten.

I was given a lot of awards yesterday, but don't have the time to post them today.  I'll get to them all in the next few days!

Happy Friday!

Jess

Not into the Breakfast Cookie

When I got home from work today, this is what I saw.

It might not look like much to you, but this picture means The Shepherd has started planning our orchard!  The white steaks represent the trees.  We looked into planting trees this spring, but the types we want are sold out, so I think what is going to happen is we'll sew grass throughout the orchard area, and put the trees in this fall, or next spring.  There aren't a lot of fruit trees we can grow here, mostly it will be apples, a pear tree or two, and a plum tree or two.  Plums, we may only get fruit every few years, but it will be so much fun when we do!

I tried to make a breakfast cookie.  I DID make a breakfast cookie, adapted the recipe to my tastes.  It was far from bad, but when I took a bite, it was oatmeal, and I'd way rather have cold cereal.  Miss Annie had a few bites, and unfortunately, the rest went in the garbage.  It looked great.

This box of Dorset cereal is starting to drag, so when I was in the Bulk Barn yesterday I bought just a bit of Salba Omega Granola to mix with it half and half.  MUCH MUCH better.  The box IS almost gone, this will make it last a few days longer, but taste miles better.  It's not that I don't like it, I just like the other box a lot more.

And with berries and milk.  The way breakfast should be. :)  To me.

This mornings snack were some great strawberries and an apple.  I love fruit.  Sometimes it's as good as candy.

Lunch was very similar to yesterday, more soup, and a great big salad - today with extra avocado.  I didn't finish all the soup, there were too many black eyed peas in it and I was stuffed.  I've decided to hide my salad dressing in a bag at work - this way no one eats it!

When I got home, I had a Kashi Pumpkin Pie granola bar.  I'm waiting for the crunchy Pumpkin Spice bars to come to Canada.  They were super. 
Hung out with The Shepherd after work, planning things we're going to do, planting trees and berries, what we'll do around the greenhouse, how to control our crazy dog Rigger.  I did some raking then came in to make dinner.

The Shepherd is sick, and I say, when you're sick, you get whatever you want for dinner.  The request was soup and grilled cheese.  Yawn...I had something better in mind tonight as I had a lot of time to cook, but it wasn't my call.  I made mine a little exciting. A ww thin with spinach, lots of hot peppers and cheddar.

I like this soup a lot.

All together now.

Sitting on the couch I wanted something sweet and remembered how earlier in the day I thought fruit was like candy.  I decided on an orange and it did not disappoint.

More seeds came in the mail today!  A great big load.  So pumped! 

Jess