Hats!...Jukebox Burgers and Thrift Store Bargains

The reason why Alex and I drove to Montreal on Wednesday was to look at some Akubra hats! Akubra is an Australian company that makes great outback-style hats and we recently have become very obsessed with them. We love the look and we have definitely become hat people!

These hats are worth hundreds of dollars, but we found a seller who had a few of them used for very little money and they were in amazing condition. I feel like I can't leave the house without a hat on anymore lol...

Okay, I couldn't resist lol...Jack in his ten-gallon hat! :)

From our house to Montreal is two hours each way so we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in town. We tried out a really neat diner called Jukebox Burgers. It's very 50's style and it was really fun, a bit pricey, but what the heck...you only live once!

I had the "Cheesy Dean" burger and Alex had the "Humphrey" burger. All the food is named after Hollywood stars of that era. Of course, we had side-poutines!! Martha, if you're ever in Dollard, it's worth a stop!

A little Camembert Update! It's been 2 days in the drying box and already my little Cams are forming bloomy white mold. I darkened the photos and put a little yellow in it so you can see the difference but it's all very white in reality. Soon that will cover the entire cheese and hopefully look like this in mid-November:

Sam if you're reading, a Camembert is a soft cheese from France that is very much like a Brie. Very creamy in the middle, sometimes mild, sometimes really stinky and strong! I think mine will turn out mild!

We made it to the bi-monthly thrift stores again yesterday and I got another haul of cookbooks for fifty cents each. I also found a quilt-making book! Honestly, it's a score to find English books here!

The most expensive purchase of the day was this beautiful glass cake stand at $10. Our last one had a big crack in it and no lid, Alex saw this one and snatched it up while some other lady was eyeing it lol...at least there was no big fight! ;)  And I'll be putting these two Corningware dishes to good use tonight with baked spaghetti. 

We also bought some clothes and blankets...which the cats decided to use for bedding this morning...back into the washing machine they go lol...good lesson -PUT YOUR CLOTHES AWAY right away out of the drier!!! :) A twenty dollar day also included a really nice chandelier that we packed away for when we buy our place. We try to be very frugal and our goal is to buy everything used if we can. Not only is it good for the budget, but I find that you get better quality items - even if they are used they are better quality than a lot of new items for sale. As we all know, the quality of merchandise has taken a nose-dive the last decade or so, and it keeps sinking. Sad but true.

We were so stoked with the Akubra hats we bought, in fact, I got one and Alex found three. One is too big for him, but he's been learning how to clean, re-shape, stiffen and mold the hats to his liking, it's a nice new hobby and maybe one day he'll make one of his own too. They're kind of like Stetson cowboy hats...so with that in mind, I made a "Cowboy Dinner" last night! Chicken Fricassee and Fart & Dart Beans.

Hmmm...all that was missing was the ringing of the big triangle dinner bell and a stiff shot of bourbon! :)

Today's mountain view walking the dogs. Life is pretty good isn't it? :)

Scribble Picnic: Watch Out!...Camembert...Garden Update

"Don't disturb the water and it won't disturb you!"

When you're in the ocean, do you think you're on top of the food chain? Think again. I'm a big fan of all critters...even the ones in the ocean that frighten me! I think we humans are much more dangerous...but that's for another post! :)

This week's Scribble Picnic theme is Watch Out! Whenever I do a watercolour, I'm always influenced by water...I guess that goes hand in hand! This is an image I saw online and only realized after I finished it that it is also an album cover for the band Faith No More. I know this because that's Alex's favourite band and he was pleasantly surprised to see it! I enjoyed doing this painting. The only area where I didn't use water is inside the mouth because I wanted it to be dark and dangerous! Who knows what's been in there??? :)

So how have you spent the beginning of your week? I had time to start my Camembert!! (I'll do a full post this weekend on Rainy Day Cheese Making!) This was such an easy recipe to make, but it took a lot of different cultures which I'd been waiting on in the mail. At this phase in the photo, the Cams are draining in the "Camembert/Brie Hoops" as they're called. They are molds with no tops or bottoms, which allows the whey to drain evenly downward; but also I've read this is to help the Camembert (or any soft cheese) sink down and you avoid holes.

This is a photo after about 18 hours of draining in the hoops. They still need to drain all day today. Tonight I'll be salting them, and then they go right into the cheese cave for about 2 weeks until that "bloomy white" starts to form all over the cheese. Then I wrap them and continue to age them about 4-6 weeks. They should be ready by mid-November!! I need to increase my dog walking because we have a Cheddar, a Colby, a Dry Jack AND TWO Camemberts to munch on from mid-October through to the end of November!!! Oooh la la! :) Gotta get more vino! :)

Camembert for some reason, seems intimidating...but it's not at all. The Mozza was more of a struggle! I made bread and yogurt while I was making the Camembert too, I guess I had energy overload...talk about tempting fate though...good thing the pets were all quiet so I could focus and not mess any of the three recipes up!

I used a sweet yogurt bacteria to make my Vanilla Yogurt and it turned out okay - a little tart, it could have been sweeter...I have to tweak the recipe a little next time, but some maple syrup saved the day.

Gardening News!!  I have TWO pumpkins! I had to cut down most of the plants because little did I realize, my poor pumpkin plants were infected with white powdery mildew. I read that this is due to way too much moisture and not enough sun - the perfect description of our summer this year. Anyway, I'm hoping the pumpkins will do okay despite that problem...next year I'll be more prepared.

I do have two more small ones growing, do you think they'll make it???

We have some funny looking cukes growing too, I can't believe they are finally growing though!

The tomatoes are sparse but turning red!

Another foggy morning walking the dogs on the mountain, you wouldn't know there was a forest and lake back there!

Jack's Birthday...Smoked Cheddar and Apple Fondue...YOP (Week 12)

Hi Everyone :)

Here is my Year of Projects update! I knitted another hat. You Ravelry people have created a monster !! :) I even did some more work on my Beach/Fall Cover Up. The weather is so nice I've enjoyed porch-knitting every day! :) I also found a Canadian based online yarn company and am happily waiting for an order of yarn and needles!! I can't seem to stop now! :) I want to make some socks and I have some fall decorative knitting in mind too! And I might make another hat...one colour for each of my moods, lol!!! :) 

All of my other projects have slowed down for now. No cheese making because I was waiting on an order, which I received on Friday! These are my Camembert molds.

And my Camembert moulds. :) This is my next cheese and if I have time this week, I'll make a few. Alex and I have some errands in the "big city" this week, gah....we hate driving to Montreal...but we'll grin and bear it. Heck, we'll even sneak in an authentic poutine while we're there to soften the blow lol! 

It was Jack's birthday yesterday!! Our little fella is eleven years old. We don't know his real birthday so we celebrate on the anniversary of the day we adopted him!

I made the Spoiled Dog Cake again and we cut a little piece for each dog after dinner. We have to cut Jack's up in small pieces or he'll swallow it whole!

The dogs wait patiently as Alex says "take your place"...they are ready to pounce as soon as he says "okay!"...the cake was gone in less than 7 seconds...I counted! :)

Alex and I celebrated four and a half years together last week too. :) I try to make a fondue once a month on our special day. This one was AMAZING...and perfect for fall. Smoked Cheddar and Apple Fondue. Wow...we had an apple cider with it, so nice! We had to go for a long walk after dinner to help us digest! One thing about Quebec...they do apples right. There are so many orchards here and a few spots that make ciders, apple ice wines and apple liqueurs.

The fondue called for Apple Butter so I decided to make some. I made it very bland since I didn't want any spices in it. It's just 8 apples (peeled, cored and sliced), tossed into the crockpot for 8 hours with a sprinkling of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. I blended it after and it made about 2 cups. Delicious! Since apples and pears are in season now, we're going to try to load up when we go out so we can store some...and so we can try making some apple and pear liqueurs!

The weather is PERFECT!! Each morning it's cool, around 10 degrees Celcius...when I walk the dogs up the mountain, it's been foggy every morning. I love it! Then the afternoons are hot and humid so I can sit on the porch and enjoy what's left of summer. I always take a photo of the lake to show you the view...

...and here is a photo from behind me. This is the top of the "Green Peak" where I live. It's nice that there are some benches there but unfortunately I often see cigarette butts and empty beer bottles. At least when I go early in the morning, there is nobody around.

September promises to be "Indian Summer" here in the Laurentians and I couldn't be more thrilled! My tomatoes are ripening on the vine finally! :)

Halloween On My Mind!!

Halloween is my favourite holiday! I just love the spookiness, the weather and the fun I make for us each year. It has special meaning for me in so many ways! Wanda from Got a Minute Or Two posted some lovely fall decorations so it got me thinking about what I'll be doing this year!

I've already got a bunch of new ideas. These were four of my five pumpkins from last year. My favourite was the Frankenstein. I didn't think I could pull it off, but it turned out really well! I don't think I'll do so many carvings this year...but I'm hoping they'll be my own homegrown pumpkins!

The fifth pumpkin was for my Grim Hollow scarecrow. I just noticed the snow on the ground...Eeek...too soon...I don't remember it snowing last year on Halloween...I probably repressed that memory lol!

I'm going to do something different this year though...maybe a Grim Reaper or some kind of zombie...

I made little coffins for treats for me and Alex.

And shrunken heads made of apples.

Lunch was a prosciutto head with coffin-shaped sandwiches and little egg men...actually it looked nice and creepy but Alex and I couldn't stomach the prosciutto lol...I went overboard on the yikes-factor lol!

Here's a close-up, pretty grosse huh?

Dinner was easier to stomach! I made "Boo-ritos" with cheese and chicken...and a cheese dip.

I even decorated our wine bottle!

Dessert was a double layer Jack Skellington cake. We had too much cake! The top layer was coloured with carrot juice since we can't handle food colouring.

I think we went through THREE of these last year, oh my....can I get away with saying we were fattening up for the winter lol???

I have so many good ideas for this year, but I don't know how I'll outdo last year's efforts! I still have Canadian Thanksgiving next month so I'm going to try to focus on that first! Do you decorate for holidays and make special dinners? I'd love to see pictures from my friends!

Scribble Picnic: Black and White and Poutine Night!

This week's theme for Michael's "Scibble Picnic" (follow the link for more wonderful art!), is Black and White. I'm fascinated with fairy tales - not the "happily ever after Disney" kind though - the real cautionary tales for children that were written in the 1600's and didn't usually end well! This is my Red Riding Hood. I did a big acrylic on canvas years ago with this theme but I wanted to recreate it with watercolour. I did use watercolour paint, but no water lol...so it's more of an acrylic style! It's hard to see, but I did add a wee bit of red to Red's hood and cape! This was really fun to do!

I got some curd cheese made this week so that we could have a poutine night. Still not squeaky though (more details on Rainy Day Cheese Making)...I have another recipe to try next time!

I made this poutine with breaded chicken bites and we made a homemade red wine gravy. It was really good! But we still have to perfect our poutine gravy! More tests will be needed, oh too bad huh? :) My cheese making has slowed down a bit as I wait for my new bacteria order. I'm waiting a little impatiently! It may only arrive in another week. One of the cultures I ordered is Penicillium Candidum. I find all of this bacteria stuff really interesting, that one is for the Camembert so that it'll form it's white coat!

By the way, I'm a Turophile. That is, by definition, a "fancier of cheese". Oh yes, I fancy the stuff alright! Are you a turophile too? :)

We are in a mini heat wave this week, so nice! The highs are in the 30's (high 80's) but the nights are cool enough to sleep well. The leaves are starting to turn too, it's a wonderful time of year! This is the river near our house. I pass this every day when I walk the dogs.

I mentioned that a lot of my tomatoes have been falling off the vine before ripening. I read a trick that you just put them in a window and they'll eventually turn red, well, they did! I picked some lettuce too so tonight will be some kind of salad. We also have a nice yellow lemon! I LOVE my garden! I'm just so sad it's nearly done for the season!