Cooked

Last night, I had the pleasure of spending some time with one of my favourite people, Amy, who's one half of this fabulous blog.

We went to the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto to see Michael Pollan speak. Yes...that's right, MICHAEL POLLAN! THE Michael Pollan. He has written another book, Cooked. I haven't yet cracked it open (except to stare at the autograph!) so I can't tell you anything about the book itself, but from what he described, it's a an exploration of cooking, from the first BBQ to a raw food diet.

He was exactly how I thought he would be. Approachable, not soapbox-y, full of great ideas and insights and had a great sense of humour. Overall...awesome.

Plus, to top off a great evening (besides an ultimate parking fail and crappy misty/rainy weather), sushi and girl talk.

Garden

Planted:
- 10 strawberries
- Cilantro
- Basil
- Dill
- Horseradish
- Parsley
- Garlic chives
- Red cabbage
- Carrots (LOTS!)
- Lettuce
- Kale
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Jalapeno pepper
- Tomatillo
- Runner beans
- Raspberries
- Watermelon

Put in a raised bed to try out using a cold frame this fall. I'll have to start scouring for supplies.

Started edging the fence line with cinder blocks. This will allow our neighbour to trim around her fence without hurting any of our stuff. AND, hopefully it will slow down weed growth in that hard to reach area.

It is HARD to decide where to put everything. Companion planting, plants hating other plants, planning walking paths, etc. Tricky, tricky I tell ya. There are already a TON of weeds. It's crazy how prolific they are. Look at the ground around the trellis...covered in weeds. I have a new found love of a good hoe. The best garden tool ever!

Strawberries, tomatoes/peppers, red cabbage/herb section and a garden view

Bean trellis, raspberry plants, cheery tree, red cabbage. Oh, and that sunspot (?) on the cherry tree picture, don't people say that it's a ghost or something? Whatever it is, I hope it's nice to the cherry tree.

5-in-1 Pear tree

The Garden Is Happening

The garden this year is going through a major overhaul. Not quite what I had planned/dreamed, but due to some reasons that I will explain at a later date, we've revamped our imaginations and garden design.
With the help of several friends who are garden savvy, we have decided on a 20' x 60' space dedicated solely to garden - mostly veggies but eventually, I can see some room for ornamental perennials. A few feet at the beginning of the garden is going to be an herb garden with some fruit trees. Don't yet know if the apple trees will be going in this year, but they have a space saved for them for next year (or the year after....).

Super exciting.
In the meantime, I thought I'd capture what the yard looks like now so you can bear witness to the change as well. I just have to remember to take photos during the process! As a wise woman once said "Always remember the blog!".

(NOTE: I never did take any 'before' shots of the garden. Ha! I wrote this post, headed out with the camera and then was sidetracked with other duties - child rearing, laundry hanging, etc. So, I've linked to previously posted photos of the garden that will give you an idea of how it looked and how it has changed. My apologies).

The garden is a whopping 20' x 70'. It starts around the clothes line post (that you see in the winter shot) and ends just at the little hill in the back of the property (middle shot). It's a big garden. So big in fact that I'm quite intimidated by it at the moment. The potential is unlimited.

What I know for sure right now is:

1. The area surrounding the clothes line post is going to be dedicated as the 'herb garden' with some perennials, like rhubarb. 
2. After the herb garden, we are planting three fruit bearing trees. I really wanted to plant heritage apples and pears, but am having a hard time sourcing them. Any of you know a good place?
3. None of this could have been done as fast as it has without the help from our community. Our neighbours not only lent their time and backs, but also an excavator and heavy duty tiller. We really do live on a great street with great people and have some amazing friends. 

As for the rest of the garden...well, we'll just have to figure it out as we go. 

A New Favourite

When I was pregnant with Gage, I craved and ate Captain Crunch cereal and nectarines (not together) like they were going out of style. With this pregnancy, in the earlier months it was anything citrus and as cliche as it sounds, pickles. During the last 2 months however, I've been craving carbonated, sugary, beverages, with COKE being at the top of the list. I've always been a Coke drinker, as that is my drink of choice during social outings (I'm not one for alcohol) but my desire for it has increased ten fold. The problem with this, is that drinking a lot of Coke, as I'm sure you're aware, is consuming quite a bit of sugar and caffeine. Plus, it was giving me heartburn. BUT, my craving was (is) still here so I needed to come up with a different solution.
Hence my new favourite carbonated beverage (okay, it's not really my favourite as nothing will ever top Coke, but it's good enough).
Vanilla Soda.

It's so simple yet so delicious, and the best part is that you can control the amount of vanilla syrup you put in so it can be as sweet or not so sweet - whatever floats your boat.

You need:
Can of club soda
Ice Cubes (don't get me started on my craving for crushed ice)
1/3 cup (or less, or more) of vanilla syrup

Mix all together and enjoy!

Vanilla Syrup:

1. Add 2 cups of granulated sugar to 2 cups of water in a saucepan
2. While constantly stirring, heat mixture over medium/low heat until sugar is dissolved and liquid is clear
3. Remove from heat and add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, give it a quick stir to incorporate the vanilla
4. Pour into the container of your choice (I use mason jars), let cool and then enjoy!

Homemade 'OREO' type cookies

This is the second recipe that I've tried out of The Homemade Pantry. The cookies were easy to make and the filling is nice. Not too sweet, like the store bought kind, but nice.
I'll be making more of these in the near future as they won't last long here. Mmmmmmmmm.

Brownie recipe

10 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup sugar (I used 1 cup regular sugar and 1/4 cup vanilla infused sugar. To make this, save a vanilla bean pod where you scraped the seeds out of for another recipe and put it in a jar full of sugar. You'll have to wait maybe a couple of weeks before the sugar tastes like vanilla)
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cold eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325*F. Ensure rack is positioned just below the middle of the oven.
Line an 8"x8" baking pan with parchment paper, letting the paper overhang

1. Combine butter, salt, cocoa powder and sugar in a heatproof bowl and set over a pot of simmering water
2. Stir occasionally until butter is melted and mixture is hot and smooth
3. Remove bowl and let mixture return to a 'warm' temperature. Mixture will look gritty
4. Stir in vanilla
5. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure to incorporate each well
6. Add flour and stir until incorporated. Mix vigorously
7. Pour mixture into baking pan
8. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out clean
9. Let cool on a wire rack
10. Remove brownies by lifting parchment paper out of baking dish
11. Cut into desired square sizes (some people do bite size...I go for humungous).

Mommy & Son Brownies

Me and the boy are on our own for the weekend as daddy is taking a much deserved break and spending some time away "with the boys". I think that means they are playing poker and eating meat while consuming a lot of alcohol...?
One of the activities that was on Gage's list of 'to-do's was baking. I've had this recipe bookmarked for awhile now so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to give it a go.
Cocoa Powder Brownies:
(adapted from smitten kitchen - I'll post the link when I'm on my 'real' computer and not the iPod)

This was Gage crying after he tried to crack an egg into the brownie mix and it missed - catching the sleeved of his 'lucky shirt' before splattering on the floor.

A Trip to Toronto

This weekend I had the pleasure to spend time in Toronto with some of my favourite people. Shockingly (not really if you know me...) I didn't take any pictures. None. Zilch. Nada. I was in the presence of a beautiful baby boy (who totally said my name at the age of 10 months!), a great couple and a city that just screams "Capture me!" and I didn't even bring my camera.
Amy and I lunched at Wanda's Pie in the Sky. It was delicious. But best of all, they had pies. A whole selection of amazing pies.
There was this lemon meringue pie that whispered to me while ordering my lunch. I swear! It was telling me to take it home. And if you saw the meringue peaks that this pie was sporting, you wouldn't abandon it either.

Wondering where those peaks are? They disappeared when I dropped the box on the floor...
Oops.

Potatoes

Our last harvest of the season was our garbage can potatoes. To be honest I had kinda forgotten about them. I walk by them several times a day - they've just become part of the outside decor. That is until, I started walking on the vines because they had died and we're all over the patio...
My dear husband and father-in-law carried the heavy can to the garden and dumped it. Then, G-man and I went out to get our hands dirty; and it was F-U-N. Getting our hands dirty, digging around trying to find our treasures. I had initially planted 5 seedling potatoes and yielded 22. For the life of me I can't remember what the name of the potato is or where the piece of paper that I wrote it on is currently hiding, but they are blue potatoes. They look more purple - like eggplant purple (aubergine?).
Their first use was a delicious potato and leek soup. I think we'll try frying some next.

Freezing Eggs

Man...I wish I had found this information sooner. I truly had no idea that you can freeze eggs. Hence...the naive homesteader status.
I'll be giving this a go during my last few days/weeks as a chicken keeper. I'll keep you posted.

Vanilla Update

Just over a month now...

Played around with some photo software to really emphasize the "Canadian Mason..." on this one.  Thought it was kinda cool.

Seems like there's still a long way to go before this will be flavouring anything...
Patience is a virtue, right?

Fruit Leather: the results show

Well, after 11 hours and 40 minutes in the oven (turned on) and all night in the oven (turned off), we got ourselves some 7 year old strawberry fruit leather. And it's goooooood.
However, although I was using food that probably would have eventually been thrown out, I had to keep my oven on for 12 hours! 12 hours!! Yes it was on a very low temp but this food saving method couldn't be any further from carbon neutral. I have no idea how much energy was used, all I know is that I used 12 hours of it for six fruit leather cigars, when it would have cost me mere calories walking those old berries to the compost (or the chickens). Hardly seems worth it...despite it's delicious taste (and a very happy three year old who was bragging about his fruit leather making mom at school today).
The worst part about this is I have a food dehydrator in the basement that I just don't know how to use. Again, I'm no expert but I would think that a food dehydrator would use and waste less energy than an entire oven. So this huge waste of energy was my fault...making the fruit leather kinda taste like the wasted fossil fuels...
Next time, I'll figure out the dehydrator.

Fruit Leather: An Attempt

Our freezer is packed. I could barely fit in all the goodies from the Harvest Kitchen Sisters' first annual canning bee!!
I decided it was time to make some room and purge some food that has been in there too long or that I know we'll never eat again (like that meatloaf that I can't remember making let alone the freezing date...).
I found a couple bags of strawberries buried deep in the back. I remember exactly when I received said strawberries...oh....about 3 years ago? (Amy, you'll have to verify as they were the strawberries that you gave me from your freezer when you moved out of Peterborough....that sad, sad, day). Since I still had a bag of last year's strawberries plus the bags I froze from this years harvest, I figured I could sacrifice these old berries in my attempt at making fruit leather. I've been wanting to try fruit leather for a few years now but with my 'not wanting to waste' syndrome and my 'it will probably fail' attitude, I was too chicken to do it (no offence Pecker, Choke and Nonny).
I found a recipe at Simply Recipes that looked pretty darn easy. I put this in the oven at 10:20 this morning and the leather is still in the oven. I know, I know...the author says that they typically put it in the oven overnight (it's a really low temperature) but I really thought that it would be done by now. The lowest temp. I get on my oven is 170 degrees and the recipe says to heat it at 140 degrees. That's why I thought it would be done by now.
Here are some pics. The berries are deliciously red!

Pre-boil

Post-boil

Puree the snot out of it

Pour into pan. But be careful 'cause...

the processor blade will fall into it if you neglect to hold it

Ready for the oven.


Stay tuned for the results!!


Putting Up Tomatoes

Like so many other small gardeners out there, my crop of tomatoes didn't ripen all at once. I really want to make tomato paste and some tomato sauce this year but can never get enough tomatoes from the garden at one time to make a batch.
The book 'The Encylcopedia of Country Living' suggests freezing your tomatoes until you have enough to can. Freezing tomatoes also makes the skins come off much easier. Apparently, they just slip right off while they are defrosting.
I'm looking forward to cooking these into jars of deliciousness to use throughout the winter.

My first batch of frozen tomatoes. These went straight into a freezer bag and are now awaiting their peers.

Garden Bounty

The little garden that could is producing a great crop of tomatoes, snow peas, beans and cucumbers. Our untamed grapevine is also starting to give us some delicious, sweet grapes. Gage calls them 'crunchy grapes' because they have seeds in them. Luckily you have to really dig into the grapevine to get them or the chickens would be all over it.
I love how excited Gage gets when I ask him if he wants to come to the garden with me. I hope he remains as excited over growing ones own food in the years to come.

Another Checked Off The 'To Do' List

There's nothing like the impending start of the school year to make you think of all those items on your summer 'to do' list. With school starting on Tuesday, there were a couple things that I wanted to get done before then. One being making my own vanilla extract.
I saw this on The Prairie Homestead. She made a list of five food items she would never buy again. I had no idea you could make your own vanilla extract and I'm curious as to how it will turn out.
I bought 6 vanilla beans from the bulk store and a 1.14L bottle of vodka. The beans aren't cheap but considering you pay $12 for a 235ml bottle of pure vanilla extract, I think it's worth it.
The Process:
1. Split the skin of the vanilla beans open lengthwise. This exposes the vanilla seeds inside to the vodka.

2. Cut the beans into 3" pieces

3. Put beans into a clean, 1L sized Mason jar.

4. Fill jar with vodka.

5. Steep for atleast 3 months (longer if you can wait!)

I really should have made this at the beginning of summer so I can give some away as Christmas gifts. Oh the gift of hindesight.

Chai Tea Concentrate (Take 1)

While creeping other blogs, I came across this recipe and stopped dead in my tracks. They have a point. Why pay $4 and change for cold chai tea concentrate to be heated with frothed milk when you can make it yourself for less than $2.80 (that's the exact price I paid, excluding the milk, for all the spices with plenty leftover to make more)?  I do have some trepadation as I am a bit of a tea snob when it comes to Chai and really only prefer one brand, but trying new things never hurt anyone right?
Here's the recipe (From A Crafty Lass): Note: This isn't the recipe I eluded to in my previous post. For whatever reason my browser wouldn't open that page when I wanted to make it so I went with this one instead.

For about 3 cups of concentrate:

• 3½ cups water
• ½ cup agave nectar or honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 star anise
• ¼ teaspoon anise seeds
• 8 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 8 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, sliced (there's no need to peel it)
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 4 bags Darjeeling tea

Combine all the ingredients except the tea in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and allow to strongly simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and allow to steep for 20 minutes. Add the teabags, cover the pan again, and steep for 20 minutes more.
Strain the concentrate into a sealable container and store in the refrigerator for about a week.

It was super easy to make and did smell amazing. If you're not a huge anise fan, you may want to cut back on it as the anise scent was quite strong. The yield was about 2 cups but that was probably my fault. I was simmering it a little harder than I was supposed to (I blame the Dexter episode I was watching at the same time - oops).
As for the taste test? I just filled a mug a third of the way with the concentrate, topped off the rest with milk and threw it in the microwave for 2 minutes. I don't know why I'm so surprised, but it tastes pretty good. A little too anise-y for my liking but not so powerful that I won't finish it (I'll just know for next time) and it's pretty sweet, which isn't all bad but I won't add as much concentrate to my next mug full (and possibly reduce the amount of honey in the next batch).
I think I may just be converted...

My weekend (rather, Monday) project

This is what I plan to do on Monday at nap time. I'm super excited!
Spiced Chai Concentrate: http://awoodennest.blogspot.com/2011/08/spiced-chai-concentrate.html
Anyone with me?

Strawberries in August

Okay, okay...I don't actually have fresh strawberries. I'm just late posting our 2011 strawberry picking, strawberry jam making experience.
This was the first year I took Gage with me picking. I wish you were there to see just how excited he was. I told him before we left that we weren't allowed to eat any of the strawberries until after we paid for them ( I know, I'm a cruel mother) - but in my defence, if I didn't say that he would have eaten all of them.

It was an overcast day which was perfect for picking. Especially with a young child. He was very proud to have picked the "most humongous strawberries" in the whole field.

This was our lot for the day. Plus Gage's bucket that he refused to let go of. All of these strawberries in the picture above went into making jam. We now have enough jam to last us until next winter I think, though that won't stop me from picking more next season and making more jam.

Local dinner for one

Just realized that outside of the bread and butter, my dinner tonight is quite local. 100 feet or less, local.
Cucumber and tomato (both from the garden) sandwich + a hard-boiled egg (The egg was laid by Pecker...incase you were wondering).
Delicious.
Sorry no pictures. One camera broken and the other is with my better half.

What's your favorite local meal?