Here and gone!

Hi there, sorry for the absence! I got sick (bleh!) this weekend and now I am headed up North for a little mini-holiday. I promise to be back next week with lots of posts and lots of pictures of the Northern part of this beautiful province!
Until then I am off the internet and down to 1 or zero bars on the cell phone...my kind of holiday!
See you next week!

How to Eat a Whole Bunch of Kale in less than 30 minutes.

Yesterday for an 'after school snack' (no, I'm not in school but still like a little snack around 4:00pm) I made up a pan of kale chips. Maybe some of you have seen this at health food stores or maybe you make them already, but they are super easy to do at home and so delicious!

Crispy Kale Chips

First go to the nearest market and buy a bunch of kale. Or the grocery store. But it's really the season for markets.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Tear the kale into pieces in a bowl. Drizzle with a few teaspoons of olive oil. Gently massage the oil into the kale.
Place the kale in a single layer on a baking sheet (or two sheets, depending on the size of your bunch) and sprinkle with salt.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating half way through.
Let cool briefly and consume.

Zoe and I ate a whole panful.

Canning Success!

Canning day was a success...and continues on as there are still two boxes of tomatoes in the kitchen. We have over 70 jars and counting, it feels awesome.
 The canning team was great...six straight hours in the kitchen surrounded by boxes (upon boxes) of tomatoes can be stressful!

In jars we have (so far):

Green Tomato Salsa

Heirloom Tomato Salsa

Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce

Passata (Italian Tomato Puree)

Ketchup (so excited about this one!!)

Whole Tomatoes

Some of the bounty

Canning Day

Good morning!
Check out our dining room table...

We are canning this morning and by the looks of things we will definitely be ready for a MB winter!
I'll let you know how it goes!

I'm baaaaa-ck

I drove back to the city yesterday...it's been a month! I was sad to leave the country but it's good to be back.
Stay tuned for more posts soon!

The last dirt road I was on before entering the city. Definitely not a short-cut, but totally worth the detour. 

Good Morning!

 A few mornings every week I make sure I get up extra early so I can walk down the road and see the sunrise. I pass few cars and no other walkers. It is quite possibly the most perfect way to start the day. With absolutely no one else around it feels like you are the only person in the world witness to such magic...and then you realize that this phenomenon is happening all around the earth. That you are not the only one, and that hopefully someone else is feeling the same gratitude and peace too.

Wishing you all a beautiful day!

Mmm, green beans!

Whenever I start to prepare vegetables for eatin' I will usually say out loud, "This is my favorite vegetable. I just love...(fill in the blank with pretty much any and every vegetable)". Then I stop and realize this statement may start to lose meaning because of how often I say it. But tonight I'm serious. Green beans are one of my favorite vegetables. Nate brought us a huge bag of them last weekend and I have been enjoying them immensely. Up until tonight I've just been steaming them and then tossing them with butter and salt and pepper. Which is heavenly, but tonight I shook it up a bit by roasting them with walnuts and rosemary. It hit the spot. 

If you're a bean lover, try this recipe! It's all I ate for supper tonight, but not in a "beans are so healthy, I'm watching my waistline" way but in a "OMG these beans are so good, I must eat a heapful" way. 

The proof. 

Roasted Green Beans with Walnuts

courtesy of Vegetarian Times

Serves 6...or 3, depending on your bean love :)

1lb green beans, trimmed 

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

4 sprigs rosemary, broken up (the original recipe calls for the rosemary to be chopped, but it's much more fun to just break the sprigs in half and squish them up a bit. It's very technical.)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 475F.

Toss all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper.

Spread the beans out on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 10-15 minutes. 

A Sunday Drive

Yesterday, for the first time in 3 weeks (!!!) my Granny got out of the house for a drive. It was pretty exciting for us all. She was able to get into the van with just a bit of manoeuvring and it was so good to see her out!

 Even if she did squish one of Grampie's precious tomatoes...oops.

I was driving the van, and driving too quickly I guess, because part way through I heard this from Gramps: "Slow down turkey. We're touring! This isn't the Indy 500."
Oh my, the things that man says!

Harvest Visits

We went out to see Gramp's and the harvest team a few nights ago. It was windy, hot and just the right color of blue sky.

We are pretty proud of our Grandfatha'

Seriously big tires!

Annie Rose taking a combine ride

And Zoe!! She was there too :)