The Golden Gate City

A wonderful opportunity to visit

San Francisco came to us

via - the farmer's work conference.

What an interesting and beautiful city!

The first day there, after checking in to the incredible Fairmont Hotel,

and a quick trolly car ride

Yes this is a fake picture but we really "did" ride the trolley - smile!

We were privileged to have a group wine tour to the Nappa Valley!

The wine was delicious, the scenery was beautiful, in spite of the devastating and long drought they are experiencing there.

New friends were made ...

First time on a "party bus"!!!!

Our beautiful fearless leader!

While our spouses went to "work"shops, we went on several

city tours - what fun!

The first one was an architectural tour of the city - amazing...
the tour guide was so interesting as he pointed out many, many famous buildings and sites.

Can you spot the famous Painted Ladies?

The next day we ventured over the bridge and spent a few hours in Sausalito.
Sooo pretty!

And then on to hike the Marin Headlands ...

The evenings were spent with incredible conference sponsored dinners with our 

spouses and representatives ....... not the least of these, a dinner cruise to

Alcatraz!!!!

This included a tour of the prison followed by a delicious dinner while cruising back

to Fisherman's Wharf.

The last "bonus" day in San Fran was spent at Fisherman's Wharf where we tasted the famous Ghirardelli chocolate and ice-cream, and browsed through the Boudin bakery where they serve up their famous sourdough bread bowls filled with delicious chowder!!!

And last, but certainly not least, the farmer convinced me that we MUST take 

a Segway tour. After a quick lesson, off we went with a guide zipping through traffic on the 

Streets of San Francisco!!!  I still can't believe we did this.

It was wonderful to be home again ....
the front porch mums were blooming at their peek

And it was time to get back to sensible eating!!!!

Thus, the overnight steel-cut oats for waking us up in the morning ....

This easy recipe is so rewarding to wake up to ...
2 apples diced
1 1/2 Cups Almond Milk (or Cow's milk)
1 1/2 Cups water
1 Cup Steel-Cut Oats
2 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter cut into 5-6 pieces
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. ground flax seed
1/4 tsp. sea salt
handful of dried cranberries

Grease the inside of your crockpot (I used coconut oil)
Place all the ingredients into pot and stir.
Set your timer for 7 hours and cook on low.
Go to bed and wake up to the aroma of delicious oatmeal for breakfast!











Garnish with nuts, maple syrup, and more almond milk.
Definitely worth the bit of effort the night before.

Till next time .......... getting back on track, resting our weary legs from climbing the hills of San Francisco, and enjoying the memories of a fantastic and privileged week.

P.S. If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair lots of layers (it get's unexpectedly cold there sometimes)!

"Rooted" in Family

Me - "I don't think I'll make turnip this year for Thanksgiving.

The Farmer - "What!!! No turnip!!"

I was feeling lazy and remembered how much work it is to

peel and chop those hard rutabaga heads.

But not to disappoint - off I went and thought "I'll just buy the frozen chopped ones".

Not one bag of frozen chopped turnips to be found in any of our local grocery stores.

Green Giant - where are you when I need you?

Sigh - there they were - beautifully waxed and round rutabaga roots in the produce bin ...

O.K. - I can do this.

The best way to peel them is with a vegetable peeler (a paring knife works too but a tad dangerous in my case). 

I like to peel them on some newspaper or paper towel, thus avoiding the wax from getting onto my cutting board.

Why do they wax them so heavily?

Chop, chop - here we go!

Seasoned with some salt and pepper - water added and boiled gently till soft and mashable.

Now I will cool them, refrigerate till Thanksgiving Sunday (tomorrow) and make my Mom's casserole recipe. I love recipes with do-ahead possibilities.

My Mom's Turnip Casserole recipe goes something like this:

Add to one boiled and slightly mashed turnip:

1 beaten egg

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 Cup cream

1/4 Cup unsweetened apple sauce 

Turn into a buttered casserole dish and top with:

1/2 Cup bread crumbs moistened with a few Tbsps. of melted butter

Bake at 350F for 1 hour or till hot.

The other roots that will be appearing on my Thanksgiving Table are these beauties right from my garden:

Rinsed and ready to roast

They have been roasted and diced. Tomorrow I'll simply reheat and butter them before serving.

A medley of yellow, candy cane, and red beets, roasted and ready to be added to the Thanksgiving table.








I'll let you know how it all turned out.
Hope our family likes these roots!

Happiest of Thanksgivings to you and yours on this Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend!

God is Good!

September's Best - 2015

September has been a whirlwind month!

When I glanced over my photo stream and albums on my computer

I realized what a fabulous month it was ...

The "bestest" part was a very sweet baby and her Mommy came for a nice long visit

with some serious cuddle time and lots of visitors.

That darling baby has captured our hearts so completely!

September stayed warm and lovely and there were even some baths outdoors at her other

Gramma's house!

She even got to meet some of her Mommy's dear friends and her future play mates (one that was brand new) ...

These gals have been friends forever!!!

In the meantime, the farmer and I packed in a few other fun things this month.

A warm evening cruise encountering "Goats on the Roof" here in Ontario! Not exactly like the one on Coombs, BC!

We did a wee bit of camping and attended a Fibre Glass RV Rally in Niagara Falls.

All sorts of adorable little campers - I liked the Coca Cola one the best!

Friends invited us to bike some of the gorgeous trails near the Blue Mountain skiing area in Collingwood - it was a beautiful, humid free, fall day and perfect for hours and hours of biking!

Thanks to Ed and Louise for a fun day!

And of course, the annual Apple Butter and Cheese Festival in my home town!

The old homestead, our youth group selling apples with hot English Toffee for the 20th year, my friend's darling granddaughter enjoying a dill pickle on a stick! A fun homecoming day once again!

The trailer, the boat, the old Land Cruiser, etc.

were tucked away in the barn.

Hopefully the RV will reappear sometime this winter!!!

The tractor has a great view!

It is also time to start with some Fall decor ..... 

Now that September has gone - we hold on to the memories and enjoy almost daily pictures from Alberta where snow flakes have touched a baby's nose already!!!

Our little love.

Till next time ...... here's to October!!!!

Simple Apple Crisp!

Apple Crisp has been on my mind

this first week of Fall!!!

Our old farm orchard was loaded with apples this summer.

So much so that some of the branches broke down with

the extra weight.

In years past we used to pick them up (mostly they fall to the ground 

because the trees are so old and tall that picking them off the tree is almost

impossible) and then take them to a local cider mill to be pressed

into apple cider juice.

I gave in to my craving for Apple Crisp with this super simple

recipe that I learned in Home Economics at high school - that's a VERY long time ago!

This recipe is very forgiving ... increase the amount of apples,

throw in a wrinkled peach that's been in the crisper too long,

increase the crumb topping, etc. It always turns out delicious!

Apple Crisp

Preheat oven to 375F.

Arrange 2-3 Cups sliced Apples in a buttered casserole or cake pan.

Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice and ¼ tsp. cinnamon.

In a bowl combine 1/3 Cup Flour, pinch of salt, ¼ Cup Brown Sugar, 1/3 Cup rolled Oats.

Add 3 Tbsp. melted butter and mix until crumbly.  Spread over fruit.

Bake for 40 min.

Serve with ice-cream or thickened fruit juice sauce.

Till next time ...... does the season change make you crave Fall's deliciousness?

Ground Cherry Pie

Have you ever eaten Ground Cherries?

This was our first experience growing them and what fun they've been to eat and experiment with!

The plants were started from seed in March and there were far too many that finally germinated (I used two packages of seed - silly me).

They are low growing plants and the "cherries" literally fall to the ground when ripe. They come in their own individual paper packages and taste sweet with a hint of caramel or pineapple. Super tasty!

Large tomatillos shown here on a dinner plate.

The ground cherries remind me of their much larger and green cousins called Tomatillo that were grown by my friend Jan this summer. These baseball size beauties also come in a paper thin lantern like husk and make a wonderful salsa!

Here is a recipe I used recently for making a Ground Cherry Pie:

Hull and wash the "cherries" and measure 2 1/2 - 3 Cups of them into an unbaked pie crust.
Thankfully I had some pie crusts stashed away in my freezer.

Sprinkle a mixture of 1/2 Cup brown sugar mixed with 1 heaping Tbsp. of flour over the cherries.

Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. of water (or lemon juice) over the brown sugar topping.

Next - mix 6 Tbsp. flour with 3 Tbsp. white sugar. Cut into this mixture 2-3 Tbsp. cold butter. Mix till crumbly.

I also added 2 tsp. of lemon zest to this crumble.

Top the pie with the crumble mixture and bake at 425F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375F for an additional 25-30 minutes.

Ground Cherrie Pie ....... for sharing or eating all by yourself!

Till next time .... reminding myself not to plant quite so many next year and searching for some good ground cherry preserves recipes. Please share if you have any recipe suggestions ....

Rainy Day Twisted Cheese and Herb Bread

It's been so hot and humid these last few days

and today the skies darkened and the rains came down.

A perfect day to bake some bread.

Well, actually I was boiling some potatoes to make a potato salad

and was left with a nice cup of potato water ....

why not bake some potato bread I say??

I found this recipe on line and adapted it a wee bit:

Twisted Cheese and Herb Bread

5 1/2 - 6 1/2 Cups of Unbleached Bread Flour

2 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. white sugar

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 Cup potato water - luke warm

1 Cup buttermilk - luke warm

1 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast

1/4 Cup melted butter

Filling:

4 Cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 Cup minced herbs (I used parsley and chives that are growing in my herb bed in abundance)

Method:

In stand mixer or mixing bowl, combine the flour (keeping one cup aside) with the salt and sugar.

In another bowl or large measuring cup, combine the potato water and butter milk. Whisk in the yeast. Add this and the melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix with the dough hook or by hand till combined - let rest for 5 minutes (oops, I forgot this step).

After the 5 minute rest, add in the remaining flour a bit at a time, until you get a soft smooth and tacky but not sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for several minutes.

Form the dough into a nice smooth ball and place into a lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise till double in bulk (1-2 hours).

Divide the dough in half and form into two balls. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a rectangle of approx. 10 inches by 16 inches.

Sprinkle half of the shredded cheese and half of the chopped herbs onto the rolled out dough. 

Begin rolling it like a jelly roll from the short side.

Pinch the seam together.

With a sharp floured knife cut the loaf in half length wise keeping cut side facing up.

Pinch together the top ends of the loaf and turn the right strip up and over the left strip. Straighten it up and do this again till you reach the bottom.

Now pinch the bottom ends together too.

Carefully move the twisted loaf into a greased loaf pan.

Repeat with the second ball of dough. Cover the pans with a tea towel or waxed paper and let them rise again till they are 1 inch higher than the pan (approx. 35-40 minutes).

Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes, rotating the loaves and covering with foil if getting too browned at the half way point (after approx. 25 min.).

Let them stand in the pans for a few minutes before removing and run a thin knife around the edges if the cheese has caused it to stick to the pan.

Voila - twisted cheese and herb bread made on a dreary rainy afternoon ...

Taste notes - this bread turned out soft and delicious. I like the texture of bread when using potato water!

Till next time ....... tomorrow is tackle the overgrown and weedy garden day (unless it rains again).

                                       What are you up to this first week of September?