Surprise!

Not exactly a week, but I've been busy since the last post. I'll have a longer one to follow in the next couple of days with some photos of my new endeavours.

First of all, the Kefir took a few runs to get it right. The first time I let it sit too long; the second time I didn't stir it enough; the third time it seemed just about right and then I went to bed and completely forgot about putting it in the fridge. But finally the fourth time I seemed to find that 7 hours, and hourly stirring after 2 hours is how I like it. I'm not a milk drinker to begin with, so I'm getting my fill with daily morning smoothies.

And last Monday I drove out to Sage Garden Herbs and purchased T5 grow lights, fertilizer, soil, and seeds. I came home, cleared some space on a shelf in the kitchen, drilled the lights on, made some makeshift seedling planters, and set everything up. This is the first time I've ever had a garden on my own so I'm taking it slow. Right now I've just got basil, catnip, oregano, endive, mustard greens, and lettuce. I'll see how those go and I may add more to the mix down the line. About a week after planting the mustard greens and endive are well on their way and sprouting up.

And finally, I was given a slow cooker for my birthday this year and I'd been wanting to try slow cooker pulled pork for ages. So I picked up a 4.5lb pork shoulder roast from Frigs and at 9AM on Saturday I woke up, made the sauce, and put it in for about 10 hours. I wasn't totally crazy about the sauce recipe I used, but either than that, it came out great. Some friends came over to share the food which was nicely capped off with sparkler cones from Sargent Sundae.

Now that Autumn is really in full force here, I'm looking forward to getting cooking with lots of root veggies, and soups, and stews. Time to start keeping warm.

Thanksgiving and Fresh Starts

As usual, months have gone by with feeling guilty for not updating the blog, and thinking about how I need to update the blog, and putting off updating the blog. But as all my travels for the year are complete, including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, UK, and various parts of Europe, and the summer has officially come to a close, I'm finding myself with a bit more free time and the motivation to really get back into the kitchen.

I'll keep it simple for my first post in 6 months. Oct 1st was my 26th birthday and I spent it in Toronto with my three best friends having a great birthday weekend and eating lots of delicious Toronto eats. I arrived home on Friday, and Saturday my parents had the family over for a feast of the usual; turkey, stuffing, veggies, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. We had a break on Sunday but Monday we were out at Ryan's aunts for our 2nd feast; all the usual plus ham that Ryan can never get enough of.

Ryan's aunt is a great cook and a fellow foody - although far more experienced than I. Ages ago she started up a kefir culture that she's kept going and has offered us many times. In my usual procrastin-atory fashion, I kept putting it off until she managed to get it into my hands today.

So, using some of her grains, I've got my own kefir finally on it's way. For those who don't know, kefir is a cultured and microbialrich food that is amazing for our bodies. With beneficial yeast and bacteria, it has antibiotic properties. Using kefir grains and good quality milk, you mix them together, allow it to culture for 12-48 hours, then stick it in your fridge and use it as a type of milk product or to make other dairy products like yogurt, creme freche, cream cheese, or cream. Every time a batch is finished, you strain the grains, put the kefir liquid in a fresh jar in the fridge, and re-culture another batch of milk with the grains in a new jar. You either need to immediately re-use the grains or store them in the fridge or freezer.
*If you plan to start making you're own kefir, please seek out more exact instructions such as http://www.kefir.org/kefir_manual.htm

Aside from just thinking about getting things moving here again in blogland, I've also been slowly collecting new and wonderful kitchen toys - some hand me downs, but I'm not complaining. And finally, I'm hoping that within the week I'll have the majority of my supplies purchased for starting my indoor garden - my birthday present from my folks. This will be the first time I've ever attempted an indoor set-up so I'm expecting a slow start and plan to begin with some easy herbs and hopefully move up to a salsa and salad garden. Hopefully in my next post I can show off my new set up.

And Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians!