Week 5

I am happy to report the chili peppers have arrived.

1 in the pot on the ground.

3 on 1 of my plants in the hanging baskets (See if you can find them the 3rd is tricky).
The Sweet Million has still been impressing me with a huge output. There is over 40 little ones and probably just as many flower still to sprout. The 3 tomato's on The Golden Boy are getting quite big, unfortunately the pic I took of them was fuzzy and didn't do them justice - stay tuned next week to check them out.

The Library

About a month ago, I walked by the local library, while getting to know my new city.

I went in, thinking that I could check out the local paper for employment ads. Unsuccessful in finding anything I walked around the library and noticed a DVD section. Not only did it have the old library classics but it had fairly new releases. I very happily stood in a line and managed to procure a library card and since have been renting a number movies per week.

After the initial infatuation with free DVD rentals wore off, I dove a little further into the library's world of books and discovered a big section of cookbooks.

So far I have ventured into the worlds of:

Jamie Oliver - "Jamie and Home" - which was quite pleasent and simple.

Bobby Flay "Mesa Grill" - which he wrote before the world of TV/Iron Chef. There is one recipe in particular which I am desperate to make, if I could only find some tapioca pearls in this city (perhaps a trip to the bulk barn will turn some up). It's looks so good that intend to blog about it when I make it.

I guess I should take a walk to return my most recent movie due back today - lets hope the rain stay away for an hour!

Trackballs

As a child, I spent much of my summer vacation up north camping with my family. One of the ways I would pass the time was by playing trackball on the road beside our campsite - typically with my Father (happy fathers day), because 5 minutes of playing with my brother (Not saying which one) would have no doubt resulted in me crying and running to my Mother.
As the years have past, the trackballs have been long abandoned, perhaps lost/given away or sold in a garage sale. I do have vivid memories of seeing them covered in dust in the ball bin in the fort (which later became the storage shed).
Last summer Teegan and I were talking about them with fond memories wondering how on earth we could get a hold of a pair to play with. We thought to ourselves trackballs were perhaps an activity we could do together as some form of play/exercise.
Low and behold while I was working at MCC (Village Green Furniture) a pair came in and I immediately put my name on them and stored them up on my shelf with all my other claimed possessions (Mason jars/golf balls/etc.). Later that day Teegan, her parents and I decided to go to the park for a rousing game of bocce ball and perhaps even a few throws of the trackballs. We set them down beside a tree in the park where we play, along with the case for the bocce balls. After being defeated by the prevailing Rick (happy fathers day) and Donna we walked back to the tree to find they had been in fact stolen (along with the bocce case).
So today, after a year of mourning the loss, I came face to face with a brand new set of trackballs - at Chapters none the less. So 10 bucks later and I am once again a happy little boy, with no need for tears.

Pizza!

For those of you who don't know, I am quite fond of Pizza. Ever since my brother and sister in law gave me a pizza stone for Christmas (2008) I have been tinkering with recipes almost on a weekly basis (I will admit the pizza stone is seldom used).

My dough recipe came from the same box as the pizza stone - it's pretty good. I have altered it a bit though - here is the basic recipe with my additions in brackets.

1 Cup warm water
dump in 1/2 tsp sugar and 2 1/2 tsp of yeast (I use traditional).
Let this sit for 5 minutes till it bubbles.
Meanwhile mix together
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups (roughly) of flour (I sub in 1 cup of Semolina)
Add the water and yeast mixture and mix/knead until you have a nice ball of dough (5 minutes or so).
Cover and give it an hour to rise.

Fresh Basil goes great with pizza.

Some of the toppings - Parsley, Zucchini, tomato sauce

Pizza 1: Salami, Zucchini, Basil, Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella
Pizza 2: 3 cloves Garlic (minced), Olive Oil and Parsley

The finished product.

Friends

A week later and "Sweet million" has some more little friends. I count a total of 10 tomato's and a number of flowers still to produce. I am very excited and optimistic about this little plant.

I am also happy to say "Golden Boy" has also sprung 2 little ones. I think I will make some yellow ketchup out of these, when they reach maturity.

This is my mint. It's out of control (in the best way possible). I took a handful of stems off this week and they have grown right back.

The whole Gang.

New BBQ

I got a BBQ!

My wonderful friends Shez & Ahmad so graciously offered it to me, seeing as they bought a shiny new one. I couldn't be more pleased!


Yesterday I made some chicken thighs.

I marinaded cubed chicken thighs for a few hours in:

1/3 c. Soy Sauce
1 tsp or so of sesame oil
a splash of water
The juice of half an orange (not a huge orange)
1 Tb Brown Sugar
as much Grated ginger as you like (if you freeze it, it's easier to grate)
as much Sambal Oelek as you can handle (hot sauce)

After marinading I poked onto skewers and BBQ'd.

Week 3

Well hello there!

I am SO please to already have a little tomato (4 actually). This is on the sweet million - and so far in 3 clumps, I have counted over 30 flowers! Every few days I have been plucking all those little suckers that are trying to grow in between the stems so they don't steal all the water from the tomato's.

My little Garden is a little bigger - with few more flowers.

My mint is out of control (I need to go buy some rum!)

Creole Seasoning

I made this for the first time while living in Regina, to season my Gumbo. The Gumbo was a huge success (and to this day is among the top dishes I have ever made), though I think I owe all the credit to this mix.

2 Tb Onion Powder
2 Tb Garlic Powder
2 Tb Oregano
2 Tb Basil
1 Tb Thyme
1 Tb Black Pepper
1 Tb Cayenne Pepper
5 Tb Paprika
3 Tb Salt

After the Gumbo, this mix sat on my shelf until I mustered the courage to play with it again. I mixed a few spoons of it in with some mayo and put it on a burger - Fantastic! Later it became a fry dipping sauce (I am especially fond of what it does to my sweet potato fries).

Give it a go!

p.s. The pic is bad because I took it with my computer. Tragedy struck our digital last week - to learn more check out Teegan's blog

Doing David Proud

Teegan and I were thrilled to find out we had a drying line just outside our door. Since being married, Teegan has trained me not to dry clothes in the dryer. She tells me that after time the elastic fibers of the clothing can be broken down, not to mention they can shrink.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of hang drying your clothes check out David's Blog.

Week 2

There was significant progress this week with my little potted garden.

There are tons of little flowers on my Sweet Million and My Golden Boy is following suite at it's own speed. I have harvested from all my herbs this week and they basically still look untouched. It's all I could have hoped for.

Veg Stock

So, I will confess that I have the tendency of wasting vegetables. I don't mean to, I buy them with every intention of using them (Eating them raw/in salads/pasta/soups and so forth). Yet for some reason when I get them home they fall by the wayside and die a slow death in the crisper drawer.

Since moving to Peterborough, I have been way more aware this waste, due mostly to the dumping of said waste into the compost bin. Before, back in the SK, I would just chuck things into the garbage - and not actually being able to see how much was in there, I didn't think to much about it.

So this being said - I am making an effort. My first order of business - a Veg Stock - which was inspired by my floppy celery (which in my defense, was only a few days old).

This is what I had so here's my recipe:

1/2 a bunch of celery
3 carrots - washed with skin on
1/2 and onion
1 bunch/tree of broccoli
2 garlic cloves
A tablespoon dried thyme
Salt and Pepper

Basically I threw everything into the pot and covered with water and simmered it on the stove for 2 hours. It produced about 10 cups of stock (cause that's how big my pot is), which are being stored in my freezer, until I am craving some soup.