Brain Fart Friday

Here’s what’s flying around my head on this Friday…

My iPhone won’t stop autocorrecting in to I’n. I don’t get this. I’n isn’t even close to being a real word. No matter how many times I change I’n back to in, it keeps happening. Frustration.

Something pretty spectacular is going down in two sleeps. I won’t say what. Just trust me. It’s pretty amazing.

Less than a week until I go back to work. The thought of this is starting to make me a little twitchy. Prayers would be mucho appreciated.

I cannot believe summer is coming to a close. This is the last “official” weekend. We’re heading to my parent’s new cottage and I’m crossing my fingers for great weather.

I’m counting down the days until Eva’s birthday party. It’s going to be so fun. I’m so excited to celebrate the first year of her life with those closest to us.

Speaking of her birthday, she’s going to be one in less than three weeks. Say what?!

I plan on getting my autumn decorations out next week. Too soon? I don’t care. Once labour day passes, all is fair.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in canning and preserving stuff from my garden. I’ve done salsa (twice), peaches (twice), hot peppers, BBQ sauce, peach salsa and pasta sauce. That’s it for a while. After the birthday, I’ll do apple sauce and pears but for now, I’m taking a break.

That’s about all there is to say today. Happy Friday!

Tuesday Tidbits

You may have noticed that aside from Eva’s monthly update, I haven’t posted in over a week. No? You didn’t notice? Well, let’s pretend that you did so that I feel popular. Mkay? Anyhow… I just thought I’d stop in with a totally random post to let you know what I’ve been up to that has been keeping me away from blogland.

Last week, canning fest 2011 began when I spent the day with two of my girlfriends canning close to 40 pints of peaches. This was the same day that Eva decided that sitting on the door of the dishwasher and carrying a Coach purse on her shoulder were her favourite pastimes.

On the weekend, we zipped over to the states to pick up a parcel (yay, birthday party stuff) and do some shopping. I’m on the hunt for a new handbag and wallet for my birthday. Since I’m going back to work, I figured it was time. I haven’t really carried a purse other than a few hours here and there since Eva was born and I started toting my mom bag around. I found one that I loved at JC Penny but it was the first one I saw in the first store I looked so I figured I shouldn’t jump the gun. Then, Eva got tired and we decided we needed to hurry up and head back home, so we left. And I didn’t look in anymore stores. More on the purse fiasco in a bit.

On Sunday, my Mom was here when we got home from church. This was the first time that Eva, mom and I have had a chance to spend a few days together in nearly 6 months. It was well overdue. It was almost exactly a year ago that I wrote this post about spending time with my mom. Looking back, I remember those feelings so well. But now, spending time together is even more fun because I get to see how much Eva loves her Nana and vice versa. They acted crazy together and spent the last few days laughing non stop. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that I got a little teary saying goodbye.

While Mom was here, we did a bunch of canning. Hot peppers, BBQ onion sauce, salsa and more peaches. We also left E and E at home and went shopping and out for Sushi. You know how when you’re window shopping with no money you always find a billion and seven things to buy but when you are shopping with a purpose (like, you know, to buy a new purse for your birthday) you CANNOT FIND ANYTHING? It was that kind of night. I looked in every.single.store that carries handbags but all I could think every time I picked one up? Not as good as that first one I saw in Penny’s. Rip snort. Why didn’t I buy it? I guess my love will just have to take me on another US shopping spree.

We were eating breakfast on Monday morning and I asked Eva if she wanted to watch Mickey Mouse Hot Dog song. She looked at me and clear as day, said, “Haa Dog”. My mom and I about died. And, of course, because we laughed, Eva thought it was the best thing ever. So she laughed. And said it again. And again. And again. And has basically been saying Hot Dog ever since. I must admit. I am less than proud that one of my daughter’s first words is hot dog. Ah well. Mickey Mouse wins.

That basically sums up what’s been going on around these parts. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, so I’ll be elbow deep in canning for the next few weeks, for sure. Grab your Tostitos and head on over because we’ll have salsa coming out our ears.

Oh yeah, one last thing. My baby walks now. A lot.

Her Garden Grows

Due to the prolific amount of baby-related posts, you may think that I’ve completely forgotten how to think, say, or do anything that doesn’t have to do with my kid. And, I mostly have. But, thanks to my dear husband, we’re back into the swing of gardening. Our garden has been planted for about a month, but it’s taken me this long to finally snap some pics and get a post together. Forgive the quality of these photos, all I had with me was hubby’s iPhone.

Due to the extremely rainy and cold spring (if you can even call it spring), we were pretty late getting things planted. Most years things are quite a bit ahead of where they are now and we’re usually already eating lettuce. But, such is the way with gardening. Things will catch up. I’m already astounded at how quickly everything’s growing.

So, here you have it. Our 2011 garden. The garden itself is no bigger than it was last year, but we ended up planting the zucchini, squash and cucumber - crawling plants that take a ton of room – in a different area to leave more space the main garden.

That sexy, shirtless garden boy that you can just barely see in the corner? He comes with the garden.

First up we’ve got potted herbs (oregano, chives and basil), radish, beets, onions, lettuce, carrots, turnips, leeks, and strawberries. And holy – talk about strawberries. So far, we’ve picked upwards of 25 qts of berries. We’ve been eating them like crazy, C and I made a ton of jam, I’ve made/eaten/frozen strawberry pies, and also frozen a bunch of bags of whole berries. I’m actually kind of getting sick of them. Gasp.

Below we have …. Top left: potatoes. Bottom left: green beans. Center/top right: tomatoes (many varieties). Middle right: red and green pepper. Bottom right: okra. We were given a bunch of starter tomato plants and weren’t sure of all the labels so also bought a few plants to ensure we had what we’ll need for salsa and canning. And, um, we now have like 30 tomato plants. So, locals, prepare yourself for tomato-palooza 2011 when they get ripe. I’ll be forcing them down your throats. Heck, maybe even the non locals should get prepared. Tomatoes would hold up well in the mail, wouldn’t they?

We planted enough for 70-80 lbs of potatoes, so get ready for those, too. This is the first year we’ve planted okra from seeds because I couldn’t find any starter plants so my fingers are crossed. Me needs fried okra all summer long!

Like I said, we planted our crawlers in a different area. The first row of orchard by the garden (um, hello, cherry farm!) has had a number of trees taken out, so there are a few strips of open ground. This year Evan turned up some of that area to do some more planting. Two rows of sweet corn, acorn, butternut, buttercup and spaghetti squash, zucchini, and cucumber. These plants are doing amazingly well so far.

And of course, I can’t leave my first garden post of the year without showcasing the cherries. Of course, they aren’t in the garden, and they don’t even belong to us, but we love them nonetheless. They aren’t quite ripe but if you look closely you may find a couple on a tree that are ready. Last night, I enjoyed my first two the season.

As always, I’m looking forward to a season chalk full of fresh produce, baking, canning and preserving. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to ship Evalyn off and devote the entire month of August to taking care of all of this.

Bring on the salsa!

August Review and September Goals

August's goals and plans were pretty narrow in focus. We spent the better part of our month getting the last of the preparations in order for baby to arrive. Here's the recap:

1. Finish getting baby's room ready.

Check out the two part nursery reveal here and here.

2. Buy, wash, and organize baby's cloth diapers.

Everything about our cloth diapering plans can be found here.

3. Finish gathering and organizing birth supplies for home birth.

There are three boxes and a bag that have been sitting in our bedroom for a number of weeks. Two of the boxes contain sheets, towels, and blankets. One is holding all of the baby's things. And the bag is from the midwife clinic that contains all of the supplies they will need when they are here. We are all set!

4. Pack mine and baby's hospital bag so we are prepared to transfer to hospital if necessary.

Bags are packed - aside from my toiletries which will just be added at the last minute.

5. Finish stocking the freezer with food for post baby days.

I don't think I will have to cook until Christmas!

6. Celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary.

We celebrated our anniversary with a yummy dinner out at Red Lobster.

7. Can pickled beets with my mom.

We did beets, peaches and bbq onion sauce! Also, the Fabulous Dude and I got really eager near the end of the month and ended up canning 26 pints of homemade salsa and 14 quarts of diced tomatoes, too!

8. Celebrate my mom's birthday (which, yes, was way back in June - but this will be the first time she's been able to come visit since then).

My mom was here for 4 days and we had a great visit together. It was so wonderful to spend that time with her before the baby arrives.

9. Attend my second baby shower.

What a wonderful evening! Read about it here.

10. Put my feet up, relax, rest and enjoy the last few weeks of my pregnancy!

I have been napping when I can and trying to do all of the things that I won't be able to do quite so easily once I have an infant in my arms. I have a feeling the next few weeks will involve a lot more relaxing and resting!

September Goals

1. Birth a baby.

The end.

July Review and August Plans aka THE LAST MONTH BEFORE I HAVE A BABY

First things first, be sure to enter my giveaway! You have until Friday.

Ladies (and gents??), I cannot believe that we have entered August - the last full month before I become a Mama!!

Let's check out what took place in July ...

1. Visit with our friend's from Ohio.

They came up to visit during the first weekend in July. We had a blast with them and had a lovely get together with a bunch of our friends. Click here to read about it.

2. Visit the in-laws.

We just went this past weekend.

3. Replace carpet in baby's room (um, this is actually not on my list. Hint, hint, FD).

Yay! Carpet was replaced last Thursday night - it looks great! Thanks Dad and FD!

4. Set up baby's room - arrange furniture and start adding all the finishing touches.

The furniture is in there but not fully assembled and arranged. We decided to paint one wall after all, so that should get done tonight and tomorrow night and then I can get moving with the rest of the stuff.

5. Condense and purge scrapbooking/crafting/board game cabinet. This is going to be a daunting task. I keep thinking about doing it and finding a reason why I should wait just a bit longer. Yesterday I opened it, took a look at it for about 5 minutes, closed it, and walked away. IT.MUST.GET.DONE.

Yay! Done.

6. Send FD away on a boy's fishing trip and spend some girl time with my mom and sisters.

We all had a great week together. While the boys fished, the girls cooked, ate, shopped, played, and celebrated Little H's birthday.

7. Attend my baby shower.

Thanks so much to my Mom and Sisters for hosting such a great shower for me!

8. Get a hair cut (can't tell you how badly I need this one).

Got my hair cut the same weekend as my shower. Just a little freshening up pre-babe.

9. Organize freezers and freeze cherries for the winter.

The freezers got somewhat organized but I totally dropped the ball on freezing cherries. I literally blinked and missed cherry season. Other than eating them fresh, a few batches of muffins and some delicious ice cream, I didn't do anything with them this year. Sadness.

10. Begin harvesting and preserving veggies from the garden.

I have been picking veggies like crazy but nothing that's been preserved so far. My MIL and I canned peaches and BBQ Onion sauce this weekend, but that wasn't with stuff from my garden.

Even though it wasn't on my original list - I can't forget to mention one of the most exciting things that happened this month - Shaina and Jenny came to visit!

August Goals

I'm sorry to say but this month's goals are a wee bit narrow in focus. I'll trust that you can all understand why :)

1. Finish getting baby's room ready.

2. Buy, wash, and organize baby's cloth diapers.

3. Finish gathering and organizing birth supplies for home birth.

4. Pack mine and baby's hospital bag so we are prepared to transfer to hospital if necessary.

5. Finish stocking the freezer with food for post baby days.

6. Celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary.

7. Can pickled beets with my mom.

8. Celebrate my mom's birthday (which, yes, was way back in June - but this will be the first time she's been able to come visit since then).

9. Attend my second baby shower.

10. Put my feet up, relax, rest and enjoy the last few weeks of my pregnancy!

An Apple a Day

On Sunday, my sister in law, Logi, our friend, Briar, and I all set to work on doing some preserving with the bushel and a half of apples that I had waiting for us in my cold room.

We set out to make applesauce and apple butter.

We chopped.

We peeled.

We stirred.

We boiled.

We spiced.

We mashed.

We food-milled.

We made a mess.

We canned.

We enjoyed.

And then we sat down on the couch, ate pizza and wings and vowed to never move again.

In all, we ended up with 28 pints of unsweetened (or, I should say, just very very slightly sweetened) applesauce and 18 half pints of apple butter, which is actually more reminiscent of deliciously spiced applesauce because it didn't really thicken up the way apple butter is supposed to.

Either way, it was a successful and enjoyable day. More than once during the day, I realized how blessed I am to have other women in my life who enjoy doing these kinds of things with me. I don't get to see Briar very often, but there were so many times this weekend that I was reminded how similar we are and how much of an encouragement she is to me. And, Logi, well, I see her all the time but she continuously rocks my world!

Tomatoes, and Onions and Zucs, Oh My!

Yesterday's canning adventure was a sure success. It was a full day's worth of work, but totally worth it. I will post about the process here, but the actual recipes are posted on Lucy's Kitchen. I started the day by getting all my jars organized and ready. Some were very dirty and old, so I soaked them in hot soapy water overnight in the laundry room. Then, I washed all the jars in the dishwasher and washed the rings and snaps in hot soapy water in the sink.

We set up our canning station something like this. On the right, the very large pot is the water canner. On the front the left, the jars are placed upside in hot water as they need to be hot when being filled. On the back left burner, the snap lids are in a pot of water, also to be hot when being filled. In the large pot on the counter is the pot with the "stuff" in it. The stuff needs to be hot when being filled as well, so I only took it off the burner at the last minute before filling the jars, and put it back on if there were any pauses in filling the jars. Although this is how we originally set up the station, we ended up switching it around and doing it backwards because it worked better considering I am left handed (seriously - it gets in the way). The last picture in this section shows our final set up.

The fabulous dude has neoprene gloves that he uses for hunting. Finally, something about his hunting hobby has come in handy (just kidding). This is a thick, waterproof material, which allows him to put his hands right into the hot water and handle the hot jars, lids and so on. They are much more heat resistant than oven mitts and clearly, a little less awkward. And since they are camo, no one could even see his hands.

The dude would reach into the pot and get a hot jar, he would set it on a cutting board on the counter where I would use a glass measuring cup to pour the recipe into the jar. I filled them to the bottom of the neck, in order to leave enough head space. Then, I wiped the rims with a clean, damp cloth in case any of the food got on the ring (this is important as food on the rim will inhibit sealing and can cause rust). FD then would get a snap lip from the pot of hot water, and twist a ring on it. In the pictures, it's actually my hands in those wicked awesome camo gloves, since I did the onions while he was gone. You will notice that, aside from my hands, I am in zero of the photos from our canning day. There is a reason. :D Sorry the photos are a mishmash of different foods, I just snapped photos when I could.


Then, when the jars were filled and closed, he placed them in the water canner, which was filled with water that had been heating on the stove (almost to a boil). The canner we have is big enough to fit 7 quart sized jars, but can also accommodate smaller jars, like the ones we were working with. When the canner was full, we lowered the rack into the pot, so that all jars were immersed at least 2-3 inches in water. If necessary, we added more hot water to the pot. We placed the lid on the canner and waited for it to boil. Once boiling, we set the timer for the amount of time specified in the recipe (usually 5 or 10 minutes). Once that time was up, he reached in this his magic gloves, pulled the rack out and carried the jars, one by one, over to the card table that was covered in towels to cool. As they cooled, we celebrated each POP we heard as each and every single jar sealed!

As the jars cool, press down on the lids to test for a seal. If they do not move or make a sound, they are sealed but if they still flex up and down, they have not sealed. If, by chance, any of your jars do not seal, you should put them in the fridge and use the contents immediately. Otherwise, sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for a year or two (perhaps even more?) At the end of the day, we ended up with 42 jars of yummy goodness!

12 pints of zucchini marmalade
4.5 pints of red pepper relish
7 pints of BBQ onions
14 pints of salsa

If you are interested in canning, I hope that this post helped. If there is anything that still remains unclear, that I forget to explain or describe, please tell me and I'll be sure to update the post!

It starts NOW

I am embarking on a major canning/preserving mission this weekend.

1. Zucchini Marmalade (interesting, no?)

2. Red pepper relish

3. Salsa

Next week, my mom is coming and we'll be making pickled beets, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, roasted tomatoes and perhaps some more salsa.

Later in the harvest I'll be doing diced chilies, applesauce and apple butter.

I've already done pickles, peaches and peach plum marmalade.

For seasoned canners, this may not seem like a lot. But, I have never really done any of this (especially by myself). We'll see how it goes. I have this vision of a neatly stocked shelf in the cold room.

Pictures will follow.

Happy Saturday, loves.