market supper

After a drizzly start, yesterday turned out to be a stellar day. We went to the market and found, among other goodies, local strawberries and a big bag of mixed mushrooms. So after running some errands we came home to spend the afternoon in the back yard. Lunch was bagette and cheese followed by sun warmed strawberries. T played in the dirt, making roads with his trucks and then climbed one of the trees. We kept having to go rescue him - he still has to learn the rule, if you go up, you need to make sure you can come down. Auntie Kerry came over and took T to the beach so D and I got a quiet hour in the garden with tea and the remaining strawberries. T came home covered in chocolate ice cream, soaking wet and sandy from running in the water - pure boy joy!

For supper I made French Tomato Tart from the recipe here,

I sauteed the mixed mushrooms in butter and garlic, balsamic vinegar, splash of cream and parmesan cheese

 and made a new nugget potato salad made with diced onion, grainy mustard, dill, sour cream, mayonaise, salt and pepper.

Lots of food so there are lots of leftovers for lunch today - always a bonus for me!

tooth fairy mousie

I fell in love with some felt rabbits a while ago when I read this. The idea was so lovely, I ordered Kata Golda's book. Once I got the book, I devoured it. I love so many of the projects and can't wait to make some. And after reading about wool felt, I've been trying to find some. I'm now waiting for my first order to arrive from here. I laughed when the woman (Natalie?) said, "I have to warn you, once you start with wool felt, you can't go back". But until my order comes, hopefully next week, I've been making do with ecofelt, made from recycled beverage bottles (to ease my conscience).

I made a pin cushion

to start with and it made sense to start with something small and that would help me in future projects! So I guess that means I'll also need to make the tool kit, something D would appreciate to help me keep my things organized. My left brain organizing my craft stuff is driving his right brain self crazy!

Then I made a proto-type mouse with a tooth pocket on the front. D thinks the mouse has a sneer and consequently looks grumpy and didn't think that T would want it. I didn't agree. And when I showed it to T this morning, he loved it right away and wanted it put in his bedroom right away (his highest honour!).

I had intended this mouse to be a gift for a new baby so I'll be making more mouses soon!

Today is a drizzly day, perfect for doing felt projects. Although, yesterday was a lovely sunny day and we were able to spend most of the afternoon outside in the garden. After tending to my plants, I was able to bring my sewing outside and sit in the sunshine with my tea, creating the tooth fairy mouse.

strawberry!

We ate the first strawberry out of our garden yesterday - well, our boy ate most of it and I had a little nibble. Yummy. T was so excited and wanted more strawberries. But when I gave him some of the not so local ones he wasn't impressed. (He usually loves them but they really don't compare...) Then last night I got an email from our local fruit stand to say they were going to open either on Saturday or Monday (well actually the email was from the guy running the fruit stand - I don't think the stand itself actually has email access!) So they are expecting local strawb's to be ready on the weekend - yippee!

I went to check on the progress of some other strawberries in our pot today only to discover that we have a garden thief - one half eaten green fruit lay on the paving stones and bare stalks indicate that the couple of berries that were close to ripe yesterday have been stolen. Slug? Squirrel? Cat? Racoon? Small boy? All are possibilities...I will have to monitor.

As a side note, we had roasted yam pierogi for supper tonight. They are so tender they fell apart in the bowl but they were pretty good served with carmelized onions and sour cream.

So what is ready in your garden? What are you waiting for from the market?

lovely saturday supper

Inspiration comes from lovely places. I've been thinking of the lovely honeymoon week we spent in Provence and was inspired by several blogs to create a french inspired menu last night. I served sliced radishes because I loved this post, cooked this chicken recipe using green onion instead of shallots (what was in the fridge), served with roast pesto potatoes - these potatoes tossed with sundried tomato and arugula pesto from the market and zuccini moons, zuccini slices sauted with a bit of butter, water, salt and pepper with parmesan cheese added just before serving, the recipe is in this book. And for dessert I made grape sorbet from our grape concentrate inspired by this. It was delicious.

stuffed eggplant

A couple of weekends ago, our boy and I went on a little hike and talk on the "edible forest" given by our local ecology center. We woke up to pouring rain that day, which I remember being very surprised at, considering the forecast had called for sunshine. But after a quick trip to the market, off we set for the ecology center. T was quite certain we couldn't hike in the rain (he's such a fairweather boy!). But after a few minutes looking around the center (T fell in love with a large diorama of the forest which depicted many trucks (in farming, logging and quarry applications) and after pressing all the buttons, setting off bear noises and the like on the wildlife display, off we went with our group for a walk and talk in the rain. Along the way through the canyon we learned about the salmonberry and thimbleberry, the western hemlock and red cedar, the oregon grape and the licorice fern. T was being his annoying 4 year old self, humming loudly and saying " my legs are too tired, I want to go home", in between "I'm bored". But we completed the walk and afterwards went for tea and apple juice and then went on to Auntie Kerry's. She had asked D to come over and see her lawnmower and possibly fix it. T and I went along to play and afterwards we were all going out for a greek dinner at the restaurant just up the street. D managed to fix the lawnmower and while Auntie K took our boy to the park to play ball, we cut the grass in their small back yard. And then we all trooped up the hill for an early greek dinner. We were the only diners in the restaurant for a while and T did some kind of crazy Greek/Kung Fu style dancing while we were waiting for our food. Kerry choose a dish from the vegetarian options that I'd never heard of before - on the menu as Imam Balti - stuffed eggplant. It looked delicious so I googled it a few days later with an idea to try it at home.

I discovered it had many different names - usually Imam Bayildi or fainting cleric, with some stories of a holy man fainting because the dish tasted so good or alternatively, because so much olive oil was used in making the dish.

So I bought 4 small eggplants from the local farm market and gave it a try. First I roasted the eggplants, then I cut them in half, scraped out the flesh and diced it. I sauted the eggplant with 1/4 of a large diced onion,  plus three chopped tomatoes, 1 diced red pepper and ~ 1/4 cup of crumbled feta. I added some quartered green olives, oregano, lemon juice and zest to the mix once the vegetables were soft. Then I added the filling into the eggplant shells and baked for 30 minutes at 350 deg F.

I served it alongside some roasted red potatoes, with garlic and lemon.

The filling was delicious but I found the eggplant shells tough so next time I think I would soften them a bit by rubbing a bit of olive oil on them before roasting them.

bear house

D and I have a collection of bears that live above our bed. Actually D gave me the bears over a period of about 18 months or so - there is Minky (my engagement bear), Jordy ( a Christmas bear), Cuddles ( a valentine's bear), Francis (my wedding bear) and Keighley (my honeymoon bear).

Cuddles, Jordy, Francis, & Minky

Last Saturday, our boy decided that the bears needed a new house. So we constructed a bear house using chairs and blankets. In the dining room. Over the morning the bears moved in along with chick, and then all the trucks that chick could drive until there were so many things in the house, the bears couldn't move. And the house position meant we couldn't get to the dining table. So the house came down.

Our boy still wanted the bears to have their house. So Sunday after a visit to the market (with Cuddles dressed in one of the boy's hoodies), some time at the beach climbing huge logs and finding shells,

and some time at another park playing tag in the grass and sliding down big, red slides, we came home and made a new bear house, in the dining room but off to the side, using chairs and blankets. This time chick did not join the bears in the house so there was lots of room and the house even had a monster truck ramp (aka one of my cutting boards). The shells moved into the house as well, but they have their own room

(or box).

easy(ish) polenta fries

Since I discovered a make at home polenta, I've not been so keen on polenta in tubes. I had a tube of organic sundried tomato polenta sitting in my fridge and came across a recipe for polenta fries. It was certainly an easy recipe to do.

Cut the polenta tube in half and cut each half into eight wedges. Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil onto a baking sheet and coat each wedge in the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper

and bake for about 40 minutes at 375 deg F (my oven runs hot) until brown and crispy on the edges.

The recipe called for a sprinkle of oregano prior to serving which I skipped because of the sundried tomato in the polenta. I served ours for supper with sausages. D liked them, I was a bit iffy. I've seen other recipes for polenta fries and might try this one another time.