Curry Leek Soup and Knitted Lovelies

I tried a new recipe the other day, and both Jeremie and I loved it!

It was amazingly easy and deliciously healthy.

Curry Leek Soup



 3 Medium Leeks, white portion only, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 T. Butter

1 (14.5 ounce) can Chicken broth

3/4 c. Water

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced Carrots

2 Celery ribs, thinly sliced

2 t. chicken bouillon granules

1/2 t. Curry powder

1/8 t. Pepper

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk.

In a 3-qt. saucepan, saute leeks and garlic in butter over medium heat until tender.

Add the broth, water, carrots, celery, bouillon, curry powder and pepper.

Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until veg is tender.

Cool slightly.

Place 1 cup soup in a blender or food processor; cover and process until smooth.

Return to pan.

Add milk; heat through.

Do not boil.

Here is Mum with Eloise, and her new cardigan and bonnet she knit for her.

It's so soft and warm, and looks just adorable on Eloise.

Perfect for those cold Fall days!

Look at those cheeks!!



I love the back of the bonnet almost as much as I do the front!

Thank you so much Mum.

Peace,

Happy Fall

Happy Fall My Friends!

The leaves have all turned here.

They are either bright yellow, red or brown and crunching underfoot. The air is fresh and cool, and I find myself throwing open windows to try and perfume our apartment with the crisp fall scent.

Our little Eloise is getting so large! Here she is in one of her last "warm weather" outfits. She's been living in those fuzzy sleepers mostly and I feel better knowing she is warm and comfortable.

In other Eloise-related news; she has officially moved into the nursery. I shall try to post pictures of it soon, but I admit it presently is quite a disorganized mess.

She is sleeping well in her crib, and I found my eyes a little misty as I packed up her small cradle that has been sitting by my bedside since before her birth.

We have reached another stage in her 'babyhood' and I'm in constant amazement how quickly its flying by.

My darling Husband has hung these hooks for me by the front door.

We didn't really have closet space in our entryway/living area of the house, so these hooks have been wonderfully handy.

I think they look quite pretty!

I've been re-reading through Beatrix Potter's books.

Eloise was gifted the first 11 from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves the illustrations and will happily stare at them and coo. A love we both share; here are some of my sketches of her wonderful characters.

We have also been very much enjoying: "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

She lays on the couch, and I prop up the book so she can see the pictures while I read his poems to her.

The rise and fall of my voice and the repetition of verse keep her very entertained.

I've also been working on some embroidery.
I'm making up the pattern as I go along, and just doing it for my own enjoyment.

I have an interest in crewel work, but am having trouble finding crewel thread, as it's thicker than embroidery (which itself is becoming scarce.)  

I'm afraid that these skills, cross-stitch, embroidery, crewelwork and rug hooking are fading away.

It's becoming more and more difficult and expensive to get supplies, and I don't know anyone else that does embroidery.

I am determined to do my part in keeping some of these traditional crafts alive.



I hope you all are having a lovely week, and have a happy weekend!

Peace,

Staying Warm and Chocolate Chewies

It has been very cold here lately, and all of us have been pulling sweaters, coats and fuzzy socks from our drawers.

The heat has been turned on, and baby Eloise was gifted this lovely sleeper from Grandma and Grandpa.

I adore the colours and I can't help but feel that she enjoys the fuzziness of it.
She's like a fuzzy little doll in her sleeper and I love picking her up and cuddling her.

  

All of the lovely knitted  blankets are coming in very handy during these cold evenings.
Mum made this one for Eloise, and I just adore it.
The colours are so vibrant and beautiful - I'm sure it helps create happy dreams.

 

Eloise is just getting so big, and those "chipmunk cheeks" are really starting to show now.
Here she is hanging out with Daddy, watching a movie.
I'm starting to notice that she really does 'watch' movies - I just the colours and lights are enough to keep her interested at just two months old.

I guess we should start keeping better tabs on what we watch in the evening!

I've also been on a bit of a baking binge.
I've been making lots of cakes and cookies; normally ones with lots of chocolate in them.
Not the healthiest, but certainly delicious!
Pictured below are:
"Mocha Chocolate Chewies"
A delicious soft, cake-like cookie that is horribly addictive!

So here's the recipe - it'll make me feel less guilty if I cause others to fall into the same chocolate temptation I have! :)

Jen's Mocha Chocolate Chewies

• 1 box Devil's Food Cake mix
• 1/3 of a Cup brewed coffee at room temp.
• 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) Butter, melted.
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Cup Milk Chocolate Chips

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350'F.

Grease two cookie sheets, set aside.

Place cake mix, coffee, melted butter, and egg in large mixing bowl.

Blend with electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.

Scrape sides, and beat on Medium for 1 minute more.

The cookie dough will be thick.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop heaping teaspoons two inches apart on cookie sheets.

Bake until they have set, but are still a little soft in the center.

Approx 10-12 minutes.

Remove pans, let cookies rest 1 minute before placing cookies on wire racks.

Enjoy!

Peace,

~ Jenny

Little Victories

Today has been a good day.
A day full of "little victories."
I've learned since having Eloise, that nothing is as easy as it once was.
Even having a shower is more difficult, as I'm listening for cries, have the light in the bathroom off because of the noise of the fan and remembering to actually wash my hair in the 3 minutes I've allotted myself.
Today though, I'm focusing on all the things I have been able to do.
Like: Get the laundry out.

Nothing smells as good as laundry fresh off the line.
Eloise and I had a good night last night.
We were only up twice last night, though didn't quite get to bed until midnight.
Still I count it a victory.
Adorable eh?
It turns out she adores music.
I have it playing constantly in the background, and if not music, talk radio.
Her big hits right now are my "Romantic Classical Music" cd, and my Praise cd's.
It's actually very nice and uplifting playing that soft music in the morning.
It sets the mood for the day.

I finally organized my entertainment unit.
It was stuffed to the brim full of junk.
Now I have just what I need, and love the extra space.
I haven't decided what to put in the empty cubby yet, but I'd like to put something decorative or pretty there.
Something to compliment the typewriter beside it.
I still have to think about it!

My list of to-do's still include tidying the bedroom, cleaning the kitchen and folding/putting away the clothes.
And because it's such a beautiful day, I think Eloise and I will go for a walk to the library!

Have a wonderful Friday!

Cold Day & Home-made Skor Bars

The weather has suddenly decide to turn into Fall!
Trees are changing colour and I'm finding myself bundling up in warm sweaters.
I decided that I wanted to make something in the kitchen; since having the baby I haven't been doing much cooking or baking.

I guess the cold weather inspired me and made me feel all cozy.

I decided to make my homemade Skor bars!
Amazingly easy and totally delicious!

Homemade Skor Bars
In a 9x13 greased pan, place 24 Saltine crackers.
On Stove bring 1/2 c. Butter
1/2 c. Brown Sugar to a boil.
Boil for three minutes.
Remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon Vanilla.
Pour over crackers.
Bake at 350 for 5 minutes.

Put 3/4 c. Chocolate chips over top; when melted carefully spread.
Let harden in fridge.
When cool, use knife to lift corner out then break into pieces.

Enjoy!

Peace,
Jenny

Of Soups, Strudels, Bread and Bears

I have been very bad. It has been over a month since I last posted; but I'm sure you all know how much running around we all do before Christmas.

I will try to give you a quick update on the comings and goings of my household.


P.J. is doing wonderfully on he diet and has noticeably lost several pounds, for the first time since getting her, we actually saw her jump for a toy! All four legs left the ground! Amazing!

I have been trying out a new cookbook: "125 Easy Quick Breads" and made for dessert a cherry-filled coffee cake. It was lovely and crumbly, wonderful to have with tea or coffee.


The only thing about the cookbook I found odd, was that they generally called for a 70-80 minute baking time at 350. That seemed a tad excessive to me, so I would set the time for 45 minutes and check every ten minutes until it was ready.

I also made some homemade Challah, one of my favourite breads. This batch I hand-kneaded for about 15 minutes, I could have used my bread maker, in fact, my mother has an amazing bread machine Challah recipe, but I like kneading, I find it therapeutic.

A couple weeks ago we had a really miserable cold day. Jeremie decided he wanted soup - nice homemade chicken noodle soup. The problem was, we had no cooked chicken.

It turns out my husband is a great improviser, we made a chicken broth and threw in just about every root vegetable we had. Any spice that we thought might taste good, 1/4 cup of pot barley and noodles.

It was delicious! We ate it for two days!

Two weeks ago, we decided to go on a walk at a local park. We bundled up and took off on a Sunday afternoon. We were enjoying ourselves until we came to a big sign at the front of the main trail that read: "Warning, Brown Bears have been seen in this area, proceed with caution." And a big picture of a mean-looking bear underneath it.

I didn't feel like we were in any real danger, and Jeremie felt pretty confident, so we kept walking. Though that didn't mean we didn't jump with every snapped twig!

By the end of our hour walk, we hadn't seen any bears, or really much wildlife at all; but I enjoyed the fresh cool air very much, and the exercise was good for us.

My nature man:

The next few weeks are full of Christmas planning and Volunteer work. My mother every Christmas collects donations for the Salvation Army, she stands normally in a grocery store with her red Salvation Army apron and donation kettle, ringing the little bells happily.

After hearing about how much she loved doing it, I decided to give it a try at my own local grocery store.

I love it! I have a three hour shift and in a small town, you know pretty much everyone, so I get to visit or chit-chat with people coming and going.

Though, unlike my Mum, I decided to dress up like an elf.

I figured, if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it right!

I decked myself out in red and white, wore little elf boots and a Santa hat and just had myself a party!

I was so blessed by seeing how generous people are, how happily they give and how much they enjoy just a smile and a "good morning!"

More than anything else, doing this has really put me in the Christmas spirit!

Peace (on earth! :D )

- Jenny

Apple Sauce, Herbs and Babies

I love how Apple sauce looks. It's so pink and pretty, not to mention delicious! Mum got a great sale on "deer apples" so Saturday morning the girls made apple sauce while the men chopped wood.
It was a gorgeous day; the wind was cool but the sun kept you nice and warm as long as you were moving around.
Even though we've had nights of hard frost my herb garden somehow survived and I was able to collect a good portion of it. I have been so lax in my herb gathering, I could've gotten tons of cuttings off my plants, but was only able to do it a few times.


My Calendula even blossomed again! I was shocked - I missed the first blooms sadly, but I was given another opportunity! I gathered Lemon Balm, Calendula, Applemint and Peppermint - they're hanging upside-down now in my pantry drying out except for another bunch of Lemon Balm that I put in the dehydrator.
From my garden and dried, I have Chamomile, (more) Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Peppermint, Comfry and some others I can't remember at the moment.
They'll be mostly used in teas and baking.

The ladies were also able to finally sit down and pick out days to finish all our projects. We'll be meeting every Wednesday until Christmas to get the candle making, soap making, preserving and organizing done. I can't wait!

I'm now on a big hunt for recipes to use all my lovely herbs in. I know most of them would be lovely in tea and I have recipes for that - but I'd like to make more goods such as the Lavender Bread I made a couple weeks ago. I find them very original and tasty!
Does anyone know of a good website or cookbook they can recommend?

The same apple sauce making Saturday, we also had a bit of a baby party. A friend of ours came over to dinner with her two adorable twins, Issac and Maggie. Sam and Henry had fun playing with them, but Jack the dog was happy to follow them around and be on crumb-control.

And finally a picture of the hard-working men chopping/sawing wood!

This week is fairly quiet - all I have is work, a hair appt, and French lessons, which it turns out, I'm hosting! It'll give me good incentive to clean and get everything tidy!

Have a good week!

Peace,

- Jenny

Seasonal Musings

Today is another gorgeous fall day.
The air smelled beautiful, so I whipped open all my windows and aired out the apartment.
I've started in the mornings to pull back my blankets and sheets, and open the window to give them some freshening up. Then later go back and make my bed.
This keeps the sheets smelling great!

While cleaning, I threw in a Joni Mitchell CD, and found that she's "Autumn" music.
You know how we all have Christmas music? Well, I tend to have seasonal music.
Winter, I tend to listen to more Classical.
Summer I enjoy my 60's Acid Pop, like Strawberry Alarm Clock and Donovan.
Spring is Soft Rock.
Fall is Folk Music.

I don't really know why, but over the last few years, I've started to see a pattern; so Joni really fit the bill!

I gave P.J. a bath today - and I wish I had thought to take a photo! But it was difficult enough trying to keep her in the tub, rub in shampoo and rinse; then put her on the counter to be brushed and hair blow dried!
She was great though, despite a few foiled escape attempts, all she did was mew pitifully and look at me with huge big eyes.
Jeremie and I don't believe in de-clawing, even for an indoor cat; so she could've done some real damage if she wanted to - but we're lucky to have such a chill cat.

(also, I found out it isn't all fur. She really is just fat.)

Ask Mum and she'll tell you that I've been crazy over this book and want to start doing some small-batch canning. I've done canning plenty of times with Mum, but that was big bushel after bushel of tomato canning, and it's quite the operation - so I've always felt a little intimidated by preserving.

This book is gonna help me fix that!

I'm going to grab Mum and my sis, Nessa to come over and help me make some small batches of jellies, jams and preserves.

We'll do it at my place, so I'm comfy and hopefully be able to split some nice preserves later!

My wish list is:

Peach Lavender Jam

Autumn Fruit Jam

Apple Cider Cinnamon Jelly

Spiced Apple Jelly

Blood Orange Port Marmalade

Mango Marmalade

Traditional Rumtopf

I know it's a lot, and I doubt I'll get it all done - but that's what I would love to have in my pantry!

The three of us have a lot of projects that we'll be setting days for this weekend at a family potluck.

Our list of things to accomplish are:

- Soap making

- Candle making

- Freezer meals

and I want to try making Cheese if we have the time for it.

All spring and summer is garden chores, early to late fall is harvesting season, so Winter is when we get to start our fun projects like the ones listed above.
All of this should be done before Christmas as we like to spread it around as gifts.

I'll keep you updated!

Peace,

- Jenny

Fall Is Here!

Where to begin?
This week and past weekend has been crazy - it's been full of visiting, dinners, family and a wedding of a friend of the family.

Sunday morning Jeremie and I decided on a sleep-in with a nice brunch, I meant to buy bacon earlier, but had forgotten.
At around 10:00am, I went to the local butcher in town, sadly, I noticed there was no glowing "open" sign and it looked dark inside. Frowning, I realized that they didn't open 'till noon!
That didn't help much, it wouldn't be a "brunch" at all!

Suddenly I recognized one of the ladies that worked there waving fanatically at me and making "come in" motions. Smiling, I pulled on the door she opened for me.

"I thought you were closed!" I said.

"Well, we are, but I'm ready enough to open for you." She grinned back.

While we're not more that acquaintances, Laurie and I have seen each other all the time, I buy milk, staples and sometimes meat there (I get most from my folks ~ Thanks Mum and Pop!) so we recognize each other pretty easily.
As I walked out with my fresh peameal bacon, or what our American neighbours call "Canadian bacon" - I remembered why I love living in this small town so much.

I'm used to small-town kindness, but have never lived in one long enough to have the butcher call out to me by name and ask about my week, or have the local cafe know my order before I say a word.

It's an amazing blessing - and I love it here.

This previous week I have been visiting with my sister and her family - we had a "girls night" (plus the nephews) while Jeremie, Dad and my brother-in-law, Cory were at my brother, Jonathan's, bachelor party.
They paint-balled most of the day, and at final count, Jon was up to 55 welts. He agreed to "run the gauntlet" and get pelted by a barrage of men with paintball guns.

Nothin' like male bonding eh? :D

The girls and I watched "Lost in Austen" a mini series about a young London woman, obsessed with Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudiced" and somehow finds a door to that world!
It completely drew me in, and I LOVED it.
I sat in front of it with my Christmas gift projects and hardly noticed the work my hands were doing! (Can't go into too much detail, as certain people may be reading this!)

I found this lovely mirrored print at the local used store for 2$! I love it something fierce, and am still deciding where to hang it. (Though it was quite the pain to take a photo of a mirror!!)

A busy week awaits me - more shifts at the Library, and another busy weekend on the horizon. This weeks goals include:
- Getting the eternal housework finished.
- Finishing Christmas project and starting baby project for my sis-in-law out west.
- Pack away summer clothes/air out winter clothes.
- Hang up hooks for winter coats.
- Put together shelves for the craft room (Jeremie!)
- Maybe make some freezer meals.

Wish me luck!

~ Jenny

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

I awoke to a grey, rainy morning today.

The sky was grey, the buildings were grey, and even the people seemed grey.

While I expected a cold drizzle, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was actually quite warm out, even the rain felt warm.

Of course, sitting here now in damp jeans, I can't say I feel particularly comfortable.

I was tired of looking at all the grey so I went to the only colourful place I could think of that's open this early in the morning.

The local cafe.

After a nice hot chai latte and a blueberry muffin, the day has started to look brighter!

I'll be working today at the Library, I still can't believe I was so blessed to get that job. I've never been able to walk to work, especially work in my field.

I have worked in Libraries since '03, and since then have worked in governmental libraries, college libraries, small business, and public.

Public is by far my favourite! The only other place I'd like to work is perhaps in an elementary school library, I think I would really enjoy that as well.

As I'm typing I hear a voice I recognize, its the antique dealer who works down the road, whom I just bought two decorative spoon holders from the past week.

My sister and I want to start collecting spoons - my mother thinks its horrendously tacky, but I want to paint the holder a bright green or yellow and make it more "Kitsh". A lost cause? Maybe, but for three dollars I'm willing to try!

Christmas is almost here and I am starting to prepare all my Christmas gifts - as a family, we generally like to make our gifts to each other.

We have a budget, only about 20-25$ per couple.

It's not a large amount, but I'm always amazed by the ingenuity of my siblings to make that money stretch and give a wonderfully thoughtful gift!

I love Mill St. Its the main street in our town where all the stores, cafes and restaurants are.

You get to know everyone, but I'll make a new post for that later!

Tomorrow's a home day, aka cleaning day.

Friday the girls and I are heading out to Fabricland to take advantage of a huge sale and Saturday, it's more canning of Tomatoes!

Let's hope this warm weather holds so we can get more veg!

~ Jenny