Staying Healthy While Enjoying Life and Enjoying The Garden!!

I got a carrot!! Alex and I did our best Bugs Bunny imitation while we chomped on our first little carrot of the season! Today, August 1st, we celebrate the first harvest of the season; and though the harvest isn't quite as big as I had hoped, I'm really happy with my garden so far this year! A Blessed Lammas to all those who celebrate! :) May your first harvest be PLENTIFUL with much more to come!!! :)))

A Wee Bit of Trivia:

Did you know that Bugs Bunny's carrot-chewing mannerisms were inspired by Clark Gable? Clark chewed on a carrot, rather Bugs-like, in the movie It Happened One Night (1934). The creators of Bugs used Clark's chewing and talking to give Bugs a little flair when he was created in 1938 as the "Un-named Rabbit" whose mission was to annoy Porky Pig at every turn. And you thought Clark's claim to fame was Gone With The Wind!!! :)

I got another nice gift today just in time for Lammas! Dianna, who many of you know as Mrs. Duncan Mahogany in the comments (not a Blogger- yet? :)) sent me a potato bag! The left photo is the one she sent, but it's hard to showcase in the photo, so with her blessing, I included the photo on the right, which is her potato bag set up in her garden! This is a photo from June though, I'm sure hers are going nuts like my garbage bin potatoes are by now! It's too late to plant more potatoes now, but this will be fun to use next spring, thanks again so much Dianna! :)) xxx

My "Peach Melba" nasturtiums are finally blooming! It happened overnight and I couldn't be happier!! They are the first flowers to bloom that I seeded in early June! :)))

Oooh, I have some progress on my cucumbers!! They flowered overnight too!

Nachos...I made this yummy plate of nachos the other day while it was raining. Alex and I snacked in bed watching Westerns...one of my favourite pastimes!!  My Blogger friends know that I don't skimp on ingredients!!! :) And I refuse to use anything labeled "low fat", "low sugar", "low carb" or anything that has ingredients that I cannot pronounce. My grandma used full fat butter and cheese and she lived into her late 90's. I do believe in moderation and Alex and I switch it up with very healthy breakfasts and salads. We like to "have it all" when it comes to eating! :)

Charlie and I have a new daily habit! We walk up the mountain and through the woods to the river together for just over an hour a day. I still walk all three dogs in the mornings for about 45 minutes. But this hour-long walk serves as my daily workout and to help our highly energetic husky work out all that energy! Her head is bigger than mine lol!

This is the view from the top of the mountain hike. It's called the "Green Peak" and that's our lake where we catch bass and trout.

The trails are very nice in this area but I wouldn't step foot here on a weekend! Too many tourists with loose dogs. But then, even the ignorant locals break the law and let their dogs loose here during the week...so just having Charlie is much more manageable than all three dogs. It's nice though, pine needle trail and very humid but cool under the shade of the trees.

One of the sections of the trail is lined with toadstools, they are so colourful!

And Charlie gets to swim in the river at the end of the walk! She gets really hot, huskies are made for the winter, but she absolutely loves our "mommy and me" time! :) Too bad I can't bring the Cheddar with us. ( <=== that's me laughing at myself since many of you are teasing me about my cheese-sitting and implying that I read my Cheddar bed time stories each night lol...) For a little Cheddar update, feel free to check out my post at Rainy Day Cheese Making,  I encountered my first real hurdle...

Last night I made Club sandwiches for dinner. The fries were very last minute as I nearly refused to put the oven on...it was so hot out! But we felt like a diner meal, so I did! Plus I can't say no to Alex, he has a way of convincing me I'm the greatest person on earth when I make him his favourite food! ;)

After I burned out in 2003, I was on meds for 7 years and after I got off them, I found out that all those years on pharmaceuticals caused a metabolic disorder that couldn't be reversed. Lucky me! :) During that time I gained and lost 97 pounds. But the loss only came from exercise. Even if I ate only carrots all day long, I wouldn't lose any weight at all. So if I want to stay healthy, I need to move every day. I've had comments asking me how I eat what I eat and not end up the size of a house...exercise! How do you keep a healthy weight? I refuse to diet, I love to eat too much, so I know I need to move and luckily I enjoy doing it!

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut - oh the anxiety of it all!!! I may or may not post a photo after!!!

Aging Cheddar - Bursting Garden - YOP Week 5

I hope everyone has had a nice week/weekend and is enjoying the summer weather! I know I am. It's hot and humid and wonderful out! As some of you know, I've been pretty much cheese-sitting all week, but I also had a few mornings on the porch knitting to work on one of my Year of Projects projects. I'm working on the back of my beach cover up and it's going very well! I have about nine more inches to knit before I start making the sleeves. I think I should rename this to a fall cover-up since it will likely only get done in September! It's fun though, and very relaxing to sit on the porch and knit. :)

My container garden doesn't know if it's coming or going! Look at all of these little lemon buds forming!! My lemon tree is really thriving but alas...I don't think I'll get all of these lemons growing to their fullest. This tree needs lots of sun and warmth; my hopes are up, but I think they'll all drop before the end of August unless we have an unseasonably hot autumn (fingers crossed!!).

My third round of lettuce is bursting out of the container too. I have to start another container to make sure we have a steady supply in August. We have to get to eating it!

I made a Mozzarella yesterday morning so we'd have it super fresh for our dinner salad! We eat this cheese far too quickly...I may have to start making half-batches to keep portion control lol...

Last night for dinner I made a Caprese Salad. It's basically a tomato and Mozzarella salad with basil, but we added lettuce. I can't wait until we can use our own tomatoes for this salad! Everything else is home grown or homemade! I also made a few Bianca pizzas with our leftover pita bread. This is just olive oil, garlic, basil and fresh Parmesan.

The pumpkin patch is bursting through the fence...but I do see yellow and orange flowers growing! I still have the chicken wire sitting on top of those leaves...I'm paranoid about the birds. People put up scarecrows for a reason! The leaves are strong enough to hold the chicken wire up without it pushing the plants down anyway, so I'll leave it as is for now. The tomatoes are slowly starting to grow bigger...I counted maybe 3 dozen between the regular tomatoes, Romas and cherry tomatoes.

Alex pitted another couple of hundred cherries and we used the last of them. He made more concoctions with brandy, Amaretto and Absinthe and I asked for a cup to do something on my own. I remembered once having a cocktail that had Irish Whisky and apple so I decided to try that combination with the cherries. We'll see in a few months if my palate is spot on or way off!

Drum roll please!!!

My pride and joy of the day :))  My first Cheddar is now coated and aging in my "cheese cave". (More detailed post on Rainy Day Cheese Making). As I mentioned there, this cheese will now age for three months. Alex and I decided we'll open it and taste it on Halloween and we hope it won't be a frightening experience! :) As it ages, I have to flip it daily, wipe off any mildew and make sure the temperature and humidity levels remain constant. I'll be starting another Cheddar this week and if I get my bacteria order soon, I can start a new cheese! I'm dying to make my own poutine so it might be a curd cheese! :)

Now I'm going to sit and enjoy the sweltering heat while I have it! The huskies are happy in the shade under the trees, getting all nice and dirty. I hope this little heat wave continues!

Black Forest Cake; Frittata and Coating The Cheddar

I made the Black Forest Cake! :) I used some of those brandy-soaked cherries...it turned out so delicious! Here are some artsy shots for your pleasure:

It was very good, but we like fluffy cakes better than dense ones - and this recipe made a dense cake! Next time I'll try something different. There is only half the cake left and I made it last night!

For dinner I made my very first Frittata. I followed a recipe very loosely for the number of eggs needed and the cooking time, but kind of winged it beyond that. It turned out light and delicious and there will be more frittatas in our future that's for sure!

And the Cheddar is coming along! I'm at the coating stage where I brush it with 3 coats of "cheese coating" which acts to protect the cheese from too much moisture during the aging process. I wrote a more detailed post on Rainy Day Cheese Making about coating and the attempt to make my own cheese cave. The cheese making process, at least the Cheddar, has proven to be much more complicated than I thought it would be. But it is quite a learning experience and I intend to keep learning and keep making lots of cheese!

Bell Canada is here rewiring our internet lines that were damaged by squirrels...those silly creatures, wires can't taste all that good. But soon our internet will be as quick as a flash! I'm stuck in the bedroom babysitting the dogs and cats while Alex does all the techie stuff with the Bell techie. It's a forced rest for me because I'd much prefer to be in the kitchen watching cheese coating dry lol!

Food, Booze, Cheese and a Funny Little Bird

Alex and I have a monthly ritual. The day after the monthly shopping, we go out for dinner. And we always go to the same diner and order the same food! Pizza and poutine...no fail. And it's funny because this diner has a great big ol' menu and we always look at it, then each other then order the same thing. Why mess with something that works? :)  So the shopping is done and my energy is back so I can get back to my life again! The fridge, deep freezer and cupboards are packed to the brim...and if I'm lucky, I might even have enough food for the next SIX WEEKS so I don't have to go out shopping again until September! Wouldn't that be nice??? :)

One of the cherry concoctions that Alex made was a Cherry Brandy Liqueur. We tasted it last night and wow...it was good! Right now it's the first tasting. We have to let it sit for a while and allow the cherry sediment to pool at the bottom of the jar and keep straining it through cheesecloth until we achieve a nice clear liquid. We've done it twice now and it's getting more clear each day. It's really fun to make your own liqueurs!

Part of the process was draining all of those (now) brandy-soaked cherries from the liquid. They are happily sitting in the fridge, waiting for me to make a Black Forest Cake today! The recipe calls for Kirschwasser, which is a clear cherry brandy - distilled. But I'm going to use the liquid from our cherries, I think it'll be delicious! I'll post photos before we devour it! :)

Here is the latest on the Cheddar (I posted a few more photos and info on Rainy Day Cheese Making). Look! It's turning yella!!! Oh joy! :) It's in day 3 of 6 of the drying process then it ages for 3 months. My darling Alex did something quite generous. He is giving up his bar fridge for my cheese making. This might not sound like a big deal, but Alex's passion is mixing new cocktails, creating fruit liqueurs and aging fruits in spirits and spices - all which require every inch of that little fridge. But we're going to try to pack his stuff into the "big" (lol...not so big) kitchen fridge so I can use the little one only for cheese aging. I love that guy! :)) Now some Camembert, Dry Jack and Blue Cheese may not be so impossible after all! :)

We were sitting on the porch yesterday evening before we left for the restaurant and we saw a little bird on the lawn. We thought he was poking around for seeds or something, but he was actually picking up stray dog hair! LOL...This photo is a little blurry (phone camera close ups are awful)...but you can see he has a beak-full of Charlie's shedding coat. I've never seen that before, I guess he's building a little nest of dog hair! Funniest thing we saw in a while!

Cheddar Cheese Making, Gardening and Knitting (YOP Week 4)

Hello Everyone! :)))

I started my first batch of Cheddar cheese today! Please see my post on Rainy Day Cheese Making if you are interested! First thought? Doesn't look like Cheddar does it? Well, that's okay because this is just the first stage of the process! :) The next stage is letting it dry for a few days, covering it with an orange cheese coating and letting it age for 3 months. I'll keep you posted with the progress! This was so much fun...in the next few weeks, I'll be making a few more to age 6 months and 12 months too.

Last night's dinner was the easiest recipe I have ever come up with: Chicken Fricassee. It's just onions and potatoes and chicken all cooked up in butter...after spending the last four days doing the menu planning and shopping list, I actually felt a little wiped out! We ate from the pan lol...less dishes that way. Tomorrow is shopping day and then I'm done for the next month! :)

After last week's fiasco with the dogs playing with my knitting, I restarted my beach cover up and this is my progress. I'm not a fan of casting on, so restarting meant casting on 130 stitches, and I admit I dallied a little, but I've got 2 1/2 inches done on the back of the garment and I'm happy with that! My focus was on the menus and shopping list this week so I didn't get in as much knitting as I wanted to. But honestly...isn't it relaxing to just sit and knit? (as long as I don't have to count!) :)

Want to visit my little garden? :) ROMA TOMATOES!!! Woo hoo!!! :)

My Chamomile is finally coming up! At least I think it's Chamomile. My brilliant idea of putting my plant labels in little baggies failed...the moisture erased everything so I can only guess at this point! :) Reminds me of my grandma who used to buy canned vegetables all the time. When she got home, she removed all the labels so veggie side dishes would always be a surprise. :)

Since this is my first attempt at most plants...the question is: Is it a good thing or a bad thing that my green beans are flowering?

The Morning Glories are really climbing! My Blue Fescue grass and Lavender haven't budged, sigh...but the herb shelf is thriving! I finally have some good basil and oregano!

The pumpkin patch is getting "jungular"! I think I just made up a word. I have to remove the chicken wire because the plants are growing through it...I hope the birds leave them alone. I have no idea what's going on IN there under all those big leaves...

Maybe this? I'm just waiting and seeing at this point!!! :)

And in all the hub-bub over my NEW garden...I forgot to update you on my little Meyer lemon tree! It's a year old now and I have 4 lemons growing this year! (one is hiding) Oh and look Mama Pea...I DO have weeds!!! I guess I can be thankful that those little clover dealies are the only weeds I need to pluck out of my containers once in a while!

Alright...that's it for this week. Tomorrow will be eight hours or so of grocery shopping and driving. I have to say I'll be glad when it's over! Alex made us some cocktails today so we could relax on the hammock together. He made his own creation, a Vanilla Flip (made with brandy and an egg white with sugar); and he made me another of his creations, and Apple Brandy Punch with brandy and Calvados. Cheers! :)

Tomatoes! Monthly Meal Planning Nearly Done

The last three days have been hot, humid and (finally) SUMMERY!! Everything in the garden seems to have popped! I saw a few regular tomatoes growing in Tomato Land.

And some cherry tomatoes too! :) The Romas are flowering now since I pruned off the yellow leaves, fingers crossed!

My potatoes are starting to flower too, aren't those flowers pretty?

I've been spending most of the last few days with my nose in cookbooks and flyers. This is my baking and cheese making list for the month. I usually always make more stuff but these are the planned items. Alex and I have made so many different cherry concoctions lately! One of the liqueurs will be ready to taste on Tuesday which means we'll have lots of brandy-soaked cherries - thus the ice cream and the cake!!

Speaking of cherries, we're at it again! They're back to being a good price! I'll have to check the quality at the store, but if they're good, we will be making more spirit-infused cherries and various liqueurs!

Monday is my monthly shopping day so I had 30 days of meal planning to do. I'm on Day Three of the Planning. 

Day One: Download and look through all the grocery flyers for this week; make a list of things we need and update the freezer and pantry inventory. - done!

Day Two: Go through the cookbooks, my online recipes and my recipe idea list and plan 30 dinners based on flyer sales and what I have on hand. - done!

Day Three: Make a shopping list for each dinner, baking and cheese making item, make a list of what needs labeling and "reserving". Schedule each dinner to a date. - done! 

If anyone wants dinner ideas, I'm starting to post my menu planning on separate pages. Here is my 30-Day Menu for July 24th through to August 22nd page. I've included links to recipes where I could, if they're online or I've posted them before.

I always schedule the fresher meals right after I buy the produce. If necessary though, I'll drop by the local store to buy more produce if I need it. I can't wait until the day that I don't have to plan to BUY produce...one day... :)

So the last step is to make an actual shopping list and estimate the prices based on flyer sales and past shopping bills. If I'm over budget, I need to cut things out or change the meal plan a bit. That's Day Four of my process!

It sounds like a lot, but I've found I'm less stressed when I take four days to plan for a month, then get it all over with in one day. It works for me.