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.