Preparing For the Zombie Apocalypse (I Mean Winter)

 Fresh veggies straight from the garden or farm are one of the best things about summer. Many times our snow peas don't even make it into the house (I need a Scare Hubby and Scare Teen, not a scare crow!)! Hubby brought home yesterday's CSA goodies and boy was it a great week! Rainbow carrots, cukes, zucchini, gold beets, green pepper, beans of every colour.....sooooo good.

We munched on a plate of fresh carrots, cukes, and green pepper paired with a homemade ranch style dip. I am proud to say the herbs for this one came from the garden!!

Ranch style dip

¼ cup mayo

2 tbsp sour cream

lemon juice (From one wedge)

2 – 4 tbsp buttermilk (enough to thin it to whatever consistency you want)

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tbsp chives, chopped

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tbsp dill, chopped

salt and pepper

Mix everything together. Taste and adjust seasonings or herbs as needed. If using as a salad dressing, add more buttermilk to thin out the dip.

Now onto preparing for the zombie apocalypse winter.  I started pickling today. (no,  I don't mean drinking, but sometimes it is tempting.) I mean pickling some of the fresh veggies for later use. Prairie living does require some prep and saving our summer bounty, especially back in the days of yore when people didn't have grocery stores full of produce. Canning your own garden or farmers' market buys is one way to ensure local food is an option all year round.

My mother in law and I made pickles once or twice. We bought a bunch of jars and went all out.  The we got out of the pickling game and those jars sat in the basement. Eventually I gave the jars to a friend who needed them.

I have bought some new jars and have even cleaned out all my old spices and dried herbs that I bought in mass quantities from a Mom's Pantry fundraiser years ago and placed in mason jars of varying sizes. I knew the herbs and spices were way to old to use but just never got around to tossing them.  I have jars a plenty, for now.

These old herbs are gone!!!

If you read my post from the other day, I have been reading my way through The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Walker which has inspired me to do some more traditional type of cooking, including pickling. I have quite a few beets in the garden and will soon be overrun with zucchini so why not give the pickling a go?

The on going joke around the Little Kitchen is I am really just learning skills to survive the zombie apocalypse when it occurs...The Boy tells me he never really thought about that side of it, just the killing the zombies part....he's so pretty.
I managed to get 4 jars of beets and 3 jars of zuchinni spears pickled today.  I'm not going to post the recipes today but I will. I want to take more pictures of the process, and this post is rambling on.

Plenty of room in the Little Kitchen for a canning setup!

Until next time, stay warm (avoid zombies) and eat well!

CSA Update: Our Farm Share

How's the heat treating you? I'm never going to complain about the heat because we get sooo much cold, this is glorious!! We've been busy here in the Little Kitchen.  The Boy had 4 wisdom teeth removed and is on the mend. A few giant pots of home made mac 'n cheese helped, so did the T3s....

Yesterday We got our 3rd week of goodies from the CSA program and we are knee deep in leafy greens! One of the things people said to us we we started talking about joining a CSA was "I hope you like kale".  We actually got a little bit of kale for the first time in this box but have been enjoying the gorgeous salads we've been able to make with the greens we've been getting.

This time we got some pea shoots!

Beets and salad turnips.

Lots of greens!

A couple of cucumbers, a few baby squash, garlic scapes, and peas.

The first peas of the season!!

 Today for lunch, I had a tasty salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, and hard boiled egg along with a bowl of Perogy soup from Frozen Comfort.

 Again, I used no dressing. The goat cheese and some salt and pepper was all that it needed! (Oh, I think some walnuts would go perfectly here too....I will add walnuts to the list!)

It was a perfect lunch, especially since I am planning on going to the ball park later to annoy the Boy at work!!! (Mmmmmm, ballpark goodies!!!)





Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

A Simply Pretty Salad

This week in our CSA pick up we got some more lovely greens 'n things so tonight we made one of the prettiest salads ever with some of the contents.

Roasted beets, goat cheese, greens, flowers, tomatoes, and a few bean sprouts....

It didn't need any dressing.

It was just that tasty and lovely.

It was the perfect meal before family movie night!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

May The Weekend Be Long: Little Cabin in the Woods

"And just where have you been young lady?"

" Out"

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Ummmmm....well...."

"Well? What to you have to say for yourself?"

Okay, okay, I am so sorry I have been somewhat MIA lately.  Baseball season has officially started and it keeps us busy. I have been cooking and baking but just no time to write. When I am at the cabin I still like to cook and bake but with no Internet (just the data on my blackberry), I don't post while out in the woods.  Now add the demon cold from hell on the top of the pile and well, I am sick so I needed to sleep more.  Without further ado, I give  you:

Little Cabin in The Woods Part I: May Long Weekend

We just had a glorious long weekend here yet I am not posting anything until Thursday...I developed one heck of a  demon cold while at the cabin this weekend.  This cold has completely knocked me on my butt....but enough about the cold and back to the long weekend.  We decided last minute to make the trek out to the cabin.  The weather wasn't supposed to be all that nice and our thought on the matter was that we would rather be rained in at the cabin than rained in in the city worrying about the yard work we weren't doing.

We packed up and left Friday after work, that way we were there already in the morning when we woke up! 

Friday night, I made popcorn the old fashioned way, on the stop top! We watched a movie and chillaxed.

To make popcorn on the stove:

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pot...make sure to heat it first!  Now add enough kernels of popping corn  to cover the bottom.  Once it starts popping, slam a lid on and start shaking the pot around.  Shaking the pot around keeps the kernels moving so they don't burn.

You can add melted butter if you wish but with oil from the popping, you may find you just want to add some salt





Yes, it did rain on Saturday but that left me with plenty of time to start reading Cleo Coyle's "The Decaffeinated Corpse".  The boys played card games, read and even went for their run in the rain.
Hubby and I drove into a small town not too far away to pick up groceries.   Despite the higher cost I think it was worth it for our sanity to do this.  I wouldn't want to stop at the Superstore on the Friday before the long weekend, that would have been nuts!

Our first official cabin supper on Saturday was burgers and dogs with salad, corn on the cob, and potatoes. It really was a meal fit for everyone!

The spread!

Yes, R2-D2 travels with us...he carries the pepper!

The roasted beets! Peel, wrap in foil with some oil, salt, pepper, toss of grill until done!!

Sunday the weather warmed up and the sun came out. We put the dock back in the water, went for a short hike to see the petroforms, and sat on the dock and read our books. (The Boy also fished off the dock for a while).

The boy dons the chest waders with his Mets shirt!

The frame is in and the water is COLD!!

Getting the frame attached to the platform

Apparently I don't take enough photos of the Boy!

Weighing down the frame so it matches the end piece for easy attaching!

Ahhhh....an nice evening shot...reading chairs still in place!

It really was a relaxing weekend, even with the demon cold from hell.

A quick hike at the Bannock Point Petroforms proved interesting. It is always neat to go see the ancient rock formations, the cloth offerings, and the scenery is nice as well.

Turtle formation

 It really was our lucky day...we spotted this guy walking around and then sitting in the woods as tough he was keeping an eye on these ancient grounds!

Hello Mr. Fox, so glad to came by to say hi!

Sunday evening I baked some brownies....S'mores brownies to be exact. I took them over next door as it was Kerri's (from Kerri on the Prairies birthday on Saturday...a bit late but better late than never!

Happy birthday Kerri!

 The neat thing about baking at the cabin is that either I have to improvise or I get to use tools I don't have at home!

S'mores Brownies

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees F.


Butter a 9inch square baking pan.  Line with parchment.  (The parchment helps for easy removal to cut the brownies later.) At the cabin I had no parchment so I made sure to oil up the cast iron skillet I used!

Line the pan with graham crackers, breaking them up as you go to make sure they fit.

In a pot (or in a bowl in the microwave) melt:

• 1/2 cup butter and stir until smooth with;
• 1/4 cup of your very best cocoa powder

See?  I only use this beater at the cabin!!

Put this mixture aside to cool slightly

In a bowl beat:

• 2 eggs until frothy

Add to the bowl, but do not mix yet:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• a pinch of salt

Pour the butter/cocoa mixture into the bowl and mix until all the ingredients are well combined.

• add a teaspoon or so of vanilla

Pour the batter, scraping out the bowl into the prepared pan.

Shake the pan or use a knife to even the batter out in the pan.

Slice large mallows in half and chop up the chocolate!

Allow the brownies to cool slightly before arranging some halved marshmallows and a chopped up chocolate bar on top.

Place under the broiler until the marshmallows have puffed up and are golden brown....remember to watch closely!!

You really do have to wait and allow these to cool completely before cutting.  Otherwise they will be an ooey, gooey mess and will not cut smoothly at all!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well...and kick any demon colds that may have come your way out the door!

Buns, Borscht, Beer, and Friendly Neighbourhood Snow Clearing

Everyone deserves friends and neighbours like ours!! Our friends look out for us (and vice versa).  These particular friends have all the tools you could ever need to borrow (and they know how to use them).  They also fix the lawn mower when it is broken, look after the house and the cats when we are out of town, and help us out with their snow blower after a big snowfall!  Wow!  I just made it sound like they do everything for us.  We do our best to return the favours and look after their house and their adorable dogs.  We also buy the occasional case of beer for them, but I also like to bake for them every now and then...I do like to bake occasionally you know.  I know at least one of them likes the honey seeded buns I make so I can make those, but these lovely Oatmeal Ale Roles I found over on the Flour Dusted site just might do the trick!  They do have beer in them after all! (If you haven't been over to the Flour Dusted site, you really are missing out!

I decided to also make some borscht today, since it was so cold and soup always helps to warm people up.  I like to use the recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite book.

Love the colour of those beets!

Borscht
From Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite
Printable recipe

• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and minced
• 2 celery stalks, trimmed and minced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 thyme sprig, leaves stripped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lb raw beet, peeled and chopped
• ½ red cabbage, about 8 oz minced
• 3 ½ cups vegetable stock or water
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• Handful of dill, chopped
• 4 tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt, for serving

Heat a large pot and add the 2 tbsp olive oil.

Saute the onion, carrot, and celery, thyme, and some salt and pepper for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

Add the beets and the cabbage along with about 1 cup water.  Let the veggies cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes.

Add the veggie stock (or water) to the pot.  Cover the pot with a lid and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the veggies are tender.

When the veggies are tender, transfer the soup in batches to the blender and blend.  I like to leave my borscht a little chunky so I don't blend it too much.  You can also use a stick/immersion blender as well.

If the soup is too thick, add some water of stock to thin it out.  Server warm with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and some chopped dill on top.

So sad, I didn't have any dill....but it still tasted wonderful!

Remember to send some soup and buns over to the nice neighbours who used their snow blower to clear the snow from you walk and drive way!!

The adorable dogs, from left: Kobe, Bella, and Cinqo...they are so cute!

So the plows finally came and did a thorough job and scrapped the built up snow off the roads.  Then it got piled up on the sides of the roads...fun...this means we have to shovel a path through these piles to make the side walks accessible!  Just to show how much snow is piled up, I took a few pictures.  Currently we are over the average amount of snowfall for the year and the winter isn't over yet..Oh well.  We will just have to wait and see how much more we will get.

This one on the corner is about 5 feet high!

This one is as tall as that SUV parked there!!!

The one is almost as high as the garage!

 Stay warm and eat well!


Borscht