Mid August 2023... a nice big family meal... This occasion was the mid summer visit from my sister Gail and her hubby, along with our brother in law.. James.. from Ottawa. We took the opportunity to wish our cousins.. Grace and Sandra who were celebrating birthdays!!

 Happy Birthday Terry

Christmas 2022... that's a wrap!

Christmas seem to be different every year.  Gone are those traditional early hours- scramble to the tree -Christmas mornings.  Kids are grown up and moved into their own lives, with their own Christmas traditions!

I am sooo blessed to have my family all around me, and this year was especially special to have James here from Ontario as well.

Stephanie & John, Grace & Nate, and Kim all arrived from Halifax for a Dec 27th Turkey Dinner.  Michelle, Patrick and the kids arrived just on time from their Christmas spent in Ottawa and Luxemburg,  for supper and gifts.   James flew in for a week from Ottawa and that made 13 for supper.!!  

The Simplest things that have changed because of COVID

I work in an office that is fairly business casual for office wear.  Nice jeans on Fridays but the rest of the week... comfortable, clean and appropriate is the dress code. 

For that past 20 years, the LAST thing I put on when I was getting ready for work was a nice pair of earrings that complimented my outfit.  I had two little dishes of loved earrings.. one on my dresser, and one on my nightstand, because the last thing I would do before falling asleep was to take those earrings out.

Every morning, I would finger through the mess of earrings, searching for what I needed that day! Sometimes I would search for one pair and find something that I hadn't worn in ages, which make me so happy to pop them into my ears!

Sadly, with the daily wearing of masks, my earrings (most of which are dangly or loops, or hooks), would get tangled up in the elastic loops.  I fought it for a while, but after losing a couple of earrings... I finally decided that masks were more important than the earrings and they became my morning accessory!!!

Therefore, the last thing I do before I head to work, is pick out a nice mask that compliments my outfit or at least my mood!!!

 

Spring Garden Fun in Nova Scotia

 

Spring in the Annapolis Valley.  We have a small back yard, and we love gardening, both veg and flowers!!  Our little garden oasis suits our needs perfectly.  We have garlic coming up just perfectly, and asparagus is peaking up.  This is year 3 for the asparagus, and this means this spring we will be hacking off our little sprouts as they come up.. we may only get to eat 2 or 3 at a time.. but thats ok.. we look forward to different ways to cook them!!

 The Rhubarb is pouring out of the ground in two spots.. We have a GIANT rhubarb I inherited from a neighbour more than 30 years ago, as well as a smaller strawberry rhubarb that is about 10 years old. They produce beautiful stocks of both green and red flavourful rhubarb.. great for muffins and cakes! Gonna try a Rhubarb Curd this year too..  

Hostas, sedum, iris and forget me knots are all peaking up in the shade of the back of the veg garden.  During the summer, they get only about 2 hours of sunlight a day, but that is enough to keep them lush and green all summer long.

For Mothers day, Terry made these beautiful veggie garden tags from copper scraps.  I love them and have now requested a few more, like "Cucumbers" and "asparagus" 

My Copper obelisk stands proudly in the garden where it will host a couple of Thunbergia plants on it. This climbing vine is not super thick on the posts so the shiny copper leaves still are visible, but the flowers hug and compliment this beautiful structure.  

This was a labour of love from my hubby last spring, and it was gorgeous all last summer and fall.  We left it out for the winter and the storms and wind broke most of the copper vines off the frame but Terry got it all up to perfection again, and we have learned a valuable lesson...  winter storage for it this coming winter!!

I have missed you Blogspot!!!

Waiting on the parts

So many times in the past few years, I have said to someone... I miss blogging.  I don't really remember why it became so hard to blog, but it did.  

On more than one occasion is the past year, friends have commented that they miss my blogs, and I always tell them I miss them too.. 

So..  why not try again.  Quietly...  just for me...  I am gonna try it!!

Today I have been preparing for a visit from family coming from the city..   for all of us... COVID took that privilege away from us and although there are no longer restrictions, it seems harder to relax and venture out of that solitary comfort that we have all grown into.

Charcuterie Boards are such a fun way to host a few friends or family!!  Stephanie and John gifted me with a wonderful bespoke canoe paddle Charcuterie board, for Xmas, for this very purpose.  It came with Scallop Shell dishes for extra places to put drippy or gooey things! (Made by Drift Works, Michael LeBlanc, Broad Cove)

The parts!!

I had so much fun shopping for this paddle board today and I had no idea how I was going to place everything, but i know that in the past when I have made plain ole rectangle Charcuterie displays... you just keeping putting stuff on...  and eventually.. it looks great!!!

I cut, chopped and sliced.. rolled, stabbed and piled.

Cheeses, meats, cream cheeses, nuts, fruit, veggies and pickles.  Crackers, bread and pretzel thingies.... 

It was hard to know how much to make, and I squeezed as much as I could on the board, and in the sweet little dishes around.

Then after just like 15 minutes of arranging, it was finally ready for visitors!  

Suddenly, at the last minute.. plans and locations changed.  So, we scooped up all the food items off the paddle board and piled it onto a platter that was easier to transport!!! 

It was hilarious how fast I could pile the items high onto a platter and snuggle up  the cream cheeses and Bourins amongst the various items.

Now I know just how much to buy for the paddle board at the next gathering!!! 

YUP, the platter below is holding all the items that were carefully placed on the paddle!!         

                         Hard to believe!!

 

 

Bran Muffins Aplenty

I have an old cookbook... you know the kind.  The one where you write your favorite tried and true recipes in it.  I received my book as a gift about 25 years ago.  When I received it, I made a pact with myself that I would only write in the recipes that I know are good and useful recipes... ones that were family favourites.
All in all, I did just as I planned and only took the time to hand write those recipes that were worth it.  As I go back though the recipe book now, some recipes bring back memories of family meals, parties with friends, pickling weekends and there are even smatterings of other peoples handwriting in there.

Now, in the high tech world I live in, I have converted to a electronic recipe book called "Paprika" which is an app that you can have on all your devices (iPhone, iPad and computer).  I have all three apps, and they are linked so that when I take the time to type or copy a recipe into the program on my computer, it is now on my phone (for sharing with friends, or grocery shopping) and on my iPad for using in the kitchen as a recipe book.





That being said, I look back on my handwritten cookbook and marvel at the historic value in that book.  Jack and I make our muffins from that old handwritten cookbook.  He reminds me every time to get the book and he turns the pages until he finds a "MESSY" page and then he knows he has found either the muffin page or some other "favorite" page.  That is something you won't find when you use an electronic cookbook... the faded marks of vanilla, sticky edges of sugar or egg splatters.   My banana muffin recipe is particularly identifiable by the tear in the page where a blob of batter dried on the page and stuff to the next page for a few weeks.  It had to be torn open.. leaving a small hole in the page, which Jack uses to narrow his search for the RIGHT muffin recipe. I would like to add that the pie crust recipe page in my book is pristine clean. (I hate making pie crust).

Well, that was long winded to tell you that in my peruse though that old book.. I found an old favorite I haven't made in years.  It was given to me by an old friend, Dianna.  We both made this recipe for our families and we also shared muffins with those around the neighbourhood or office.   This is a recipe that you make in a very large bowl (sometimes its an issue to find a bowl large enough), you let it age in the fridge for 3 days and then... you can bake fresh muffins ... a few at a time.  It makes around 40 large muffins.
Last week I made 6-8 muffins every morning before I came to work.  One day I added Chocolate Chips, another day it was raisins, and I have also add Blueberries in the past.. and fresh Cranberries ina batch I made before Christmas.  You can't imagine how awesome they are with dark chocolate chips AND fresh cranberries!

If you pull out 2 cups of batter... add your goodies... and scoop using a 1/3 to 1/2 cup scoop.. you will get 6 to 8 large muffins.

Bran Muffins
2 cups natural bran

I apologize for my poor photography. 

2 cups hot water
pour hot water over natural bran in a VERY large bowl.  In another bowl, cream together
1.5 cups of sugar
1 cup shortening
then add to the creamed mixture
5 beaten eggs
-then, pour this mixture in with the natural bran mixture and then add:
5 cups flour
3 tablespoons baking soda 
1.5 tsp salt
4 cups of bran flakes
1 litre of buttermilk 

**let this mixture age for three (yup 3) days in the fridge.

Bake at 375 for almost 25 minutes (depending on how big a muffin you make)

I think this batter will last as long as your buttermilk is dated, so buy the freshest buttermilk you can.