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

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

Lavender Tea Bead

Today was a cold, gloomy day. We've been having rain all week, and it just was not letting up!
It was definitely a home-cozy kinda day.
I tried out two new recipes: Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Bake, and

Lavender Tea Cake.

I had never made a dish that included lavender before, so I was a little hesitant.
I had some dried lavender, so I went for it. It didn't call for much - just 3 Tbs. fresh or 1 Tbs. dried.
I did however, make some adjustments to the recipe, instead of adding the whole 1 Tbs of flowers, I ground 1/2 of it, so it would be able to mix into the batter more evenly; then mixed the other half in.

Next, you had to simmer it in milk, to really get the flavouring out. I also had some dried spearmint in my stash, so a couple pinches of that went in too!


I baked it in a loaf pan, and finished it with a citrus glaze of lemon and orange. Finally a few flowers sprinkled on top for presentation.
I quite liked and the smell in my kitchen was wonderful!
It's edible aromatherapy!!

Jeremie also put together some shelving for me to go in my craft room! Yay! I can't wait to get that room organized. Thanks hunny!

A little while ago I brought my drum over to my folks' place to play a few songs for Henry. Jeremie's a great guitarist, and I like to join him every so often on my own little instrument.

Henry's only 2 and a half but that little guy sure has a gift for music!

He would beat in time with me as we sung: "Octopus' Garden" Of course, instead of being in the octopus' garden in the shade, we're "In an Octopus' garden with Henry!"

And here's a picture of P.J. attacking her new enemy in the apartment.

The printer.

She hates it for some reason, and any time it makes even a beep, she's right there to pounce on any moving paper.

P.J. The Defender!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I know I did!

Peace,

- Jenny