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It was windy and chilly today so Camille and I set out to make a Fairy House. No rhyme or reason there, just coincidence. Nothing too elaborate, just something cozy for them to slip into during the winter if needed! It was fun and easy (with Dan's structural help, of course!). If you decide to make a Fairy house please make sure you use only natural items. We made our own glue, non-toxic and edible, out of flour, sugar, water and vinegar. We left honey in an acorn top and a bed of leaves inside. We can see it from the kitchen window and will make sure we keep it up during the winter months with minor repairs if needed. Once the Spring comes, a different home may pop up elsewhere in our garden.... Enjoy and let us know if you have your own Fairy house somewhere....!         
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  So the weather for yesterday was supposed to be what's called a Nor'easter, which is pretty much a down-scaled hurricane. We just had Hurricane Sandy and did well with that - lost power only for about 24 hours and no trees down - just a bit of yard debris. This Nor'easter started here around 11:00 am. By the time Camille got home from school at 2:30, with snow in her hair and flushing on her cheeks, there was some sticking going on and that is when it happened...that feeling I get when I know the holidays are coming. All of a sudden I wanted to stay home for the night and bundle up with hot chocolate and a fire playing a game with the family. Of course that did not happen because reality kicked in and I had to drive to work for the night...but, anyway...it continues today with windy, wet rain/snow and even though work is again in my near future tonight, I still have that warm cozy feeling that reminds me of home in the winter.
This is just the beginning of what I feel is the best and the worst time of all. This kind of weather can be devastating and gorgeous at the same time . The holidays are meant to be joyous, but are often stressful. This is just a quick note to remind you to take care of yourselves during this time - enjoy it and take it easy. This is a season of giving but that is not just material items like the new iPhone 57 or iPad 262. Giving of your time and good thoughts towards others is what it boils down to. Oh, and don't forget that now is the time to put your deck furniture away...it does not look so good in the snow (see above)! I went outside into the garden today. The sun was shining way high up and the air had that crisp, windy Autumn scent to it. I need to take in the Rosemary soon... it does not survive outside in the cold. That is when I saw it...the last Lavender standing. I had trimmed down the Lavender a few weeks ago and since then there have been no new blooms of course. But out here today, feeling that it is definitely Fall, this one little Lavender stood. I picked it. I knew it wouldn't mind; I think it was asking to come inside. Today feels like the middle of Fall and it is a perfect day. I took the following pictures around the land, remembering that Fall is not the end of the good weather, but it is just the Earth getting ready for it's Winter hibernation; nature's nap time. Don't forget to go outside this time of year...the sun still feels warm on your skin and the air is very clean so take some deep breaths! Enjoy the photos!         October is the month that starts the canning season (in my house anyway...)! The garden is winding down, the freezer is full of stuff waiting to be canned. I have put together a good sized list of things I will be canning this month; one of those items is our pasta sauce made from our tomatoes, our herbs, our onions and peppers. You saw how we processed the tomatoes for freezing a while back so now I have made the sauce and will be canning it soon! Here is how I made my sauce: I thawed the beauties in a pot and dumped out any excess water. I then pushed them through the chinoise strainer to remove the harder core pieces and seeds. I take the pot and add olive oil, onions, garlic, green pepper and herbs and saute until cooked through. I add the strained tomatoes back in and cook it for about 3-4 hours to blend all the flavors together and to reduce it to a great thickness. Oh, boy...love that smell! I added extra boxwood basil, oregano and parsley from the garden for a little extra oomph! Stay tuned for the canning process!       Camille and I found some grapes in the fridge that were a little "borderline" - you know the ones, a little soft but you hate to throw them out because they cost you an arm and a leg??? Yeah, those. So we made raisins! These were just organic red seedless grapes, not a dark variety so they look more like a golden raisin but when I tasted it I loved it! Different flavor but very fresh! Can easily be worked into baked goods or just eaten plain. Here's how! We blanched the grapes in boiling water for 30 seconds and dropped them into an ice bath, just to soften the skins. We lay them out to dry and patted them with a paper towel. You can use a very low oven or a dehydrator - my oven goes no lower than 170* so I opted for the dehydrator. Timing will vary - just keep watch over them. Ours took about 18-19 hours. I ran the dehydrator with herbs as well on other shelves so as to multi-task! Once dry, they will feel slightly sticky but definitely dried, let them cool off and the keep them in a covered container in your pantry! Enjoy!         Now is the time of year that you want to give your body an extra boost to help stave off any germ-y germs that will make you sick with cold and/or flu. A great way to do that is with a hot drink of lemon juice, honey and ginger in water. This will soothe a sore, scratchy throat and help calm coughs. Add a little cayenne powder and apple cider vinegar and it will also help with a stuffy nose and phlegm build-up. Honey has wonderful qualities - it is a natural energy booster, immune system supporter and antibacterial among others but we will concentrate on these for our purpose today. Ginger is a warming agent for your lungs and throat and will help with sinus congestion and pain, sore throat and upset tummy. Lemon is high in vitamin C, is an antioxidant, antiviral and antibacterial and tastes great! Here is a great way to get all of those in one easy to use jar! Gather your ingredients together, slice up the lemon and the peeled ginger into good size slices. Add these to an old sterilized jar (this is why we keep old jars - canning season is coming up and I need my masons!) Pour your LOCAL honey over it to cover, label and keep in the fridge. I cannot stress local honey enough. Making sure you and your family have local honey helps alleviate, and often eliminate, allergy symptoms. This should be used up no problem but if not, it should keep for a few months stored in your fridge. To use you just take a teaspoon to a tablespoon and add it to hot water and make a tea of it. Drink often throughout the day. You can drink this once a day as a preventative or if you already have a cold/flu then drink 3-4 times per day and make sure you get your fluids to help flush the sickness out of you! Enjoy!      We have had such great luck with tomatoes so far this year. Although I know we are not done yet, we already have quite enough for a sauce; but that comes later.... For now we need to process these babies so that we can make and can the sauce later. Tomatoes go bad quite fast so what we do is peel and freeze them. There is a very easy way to do this and it is a great job for two people - Camille and I have a system that makes it quick work! You will need a pot of water (close to boiling), a bowl for ice water, another for the peels and final one for the tomatoes and a slotted spoon. Once your water is ready you can start plopping your beauties in a few at a time; you are waiting for the skin to "pop" or "crack" open. Once that happens you immediately remove it from the water and drop it into the ice bath to cool off. Once cooled then you can easily peel the skin right off! Place all of your naked tomatoes in freezer bags and into the big chill until you are ready to use them! Stay tuned...canning season is right around the corner!    The other night for dinner I made chicken seasoned with Turmeric and a side of brown rice. Yum. It was really good and I had it with a salad. Of course, there were leftovers... The next day I went to Whole Foods for some stuff and found cute-little-broccoli-type-thingy's in the produce department. They were labeled as Broccolette. According to Earthboud Farm Organic, who grows these Broccolettes, they are a hybrid between broccoli and gai lan,which apparently is Chinese kale. They did not look too complicated and they kind of called out to me so I picked them up and off we went. Just now, I took the Broccolettes and cut them up small and sauteed them in olive oil and garlic. Once they were tender I added the leftover rice and the chicken which I had cut up and heated it all through. The garlic gave the leftover turmeric chicken a whole different flavor and the Broccolettes were amazing. So if you find something you are not familiar with in the store, go ahead - pick it up and take it home. You may just thank yourself for it!   My niece Ashleigh wanted homemade marshmallows for the annual trip to Maine. Ask and ye shall receive, Ashleigh! Camille and I made marshmallows which is very fun and very messy and clean up is a blast! Boil granulated sugar, water and corn syrup to 240*. In your mixer's bowl dissolve unflavored gelatin with water. Drizzle the sugar mixture into the mixer bowl of gelatin while using the whisk attachment. Whip until it looks like marshmallow fluff and add vanilla towards the end. Pour into a prepared pan (coated with oil and powdered sugar and corn starch). Let it sit until it sets and enjoy! Feel free to add natural food coloring or flavored extracts to whatever makes you smile!       We had quite a few blackberries from our bush this year with more to come. But, so far I took what we froze and made jelly and BBQ sauce. First the jelly, it actually turned out to be a Black and Blue Berry because I added some local blueberries to it. We took our thawed out berries and strained out the seeds and made pulp. Once we had about 6 cups of pulp we added sugar, lemon juice and zest and also cinnamon and boiled it. Added the pectin and boiled a little more. Once it started to get to the point of setting we canned them and processed them in their water bath for 10 minutes. We ended up with approximately 3 pints that we had poured in various sized jars. YUMMY!      The next night we grabbed more blackberries and made a BBQ sauce that really rocks! We took the blackberries and added ketchup, brown sugar, hot sauce, honey, minced ginger, black pepper and white vinegar and mashed it up in the blender. Then we worked that through the strainer as well and boiled it down so it reduced to a consistency that I liked and jarred it up. DOUBLE YUMMY! Be creative with the recipes that you find and don't be afraid to adjust them! I do that all the time, with (mostly) great results!! I did it with these and they came out perfect! If not, make notes and try again!   |
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