Backyard Berries

It is blackberry harvest time, and I am lucky enough to live close to many public deposits of them.  The trails near our place are lined with berries, and even the side of the road has some wild patches growing.  We went berry picking yesterday, and even though someone beat us to it, we still came home with four cups of berries.  We could have gotten more, but I didn't really understand the consequences of berry picking, and I was completely under dressed for the excursion.  Turns out that blackberry bushes have lots of thorns on them and if you are wearing shorts (like I was) your legs get scratched all to hell.  Bad timing too, as I am wearing a dress on Saturday for a friend's wedding.  Whoops!  It's all good though - the scratches join bike riding bruises and mosquito bites, and on Saturday my legs will be a testament to a summer spent outdoors in the country.

Side of the road blackberries # 1

Side of the road blackberries #2

Close up blackberry.  Note the thorns!  They are ouchy!

Forest blackberry patch # 1

Forest blackberry patch #2
  In a few days these will be ripe and we can head back for more!

Blackberry art shot.

Our blackberry score.  Soon to be smoothies!!

Summer Surf...and Turf

Armed with gift cards from Christmas, Mom, the Bro, and I headed to the Keg in Barrie for an atmospheric meal of champions.  We went a few Wednesday's ago, and it was absolutely packed!  We were only there because we had gift cards (one person spending $50+ on dinner is easy) - not sure where everyone else came from.  Isn't there supposed to be an economic downturn right now?  Definitely not evident at the Barrie Keg on a Wednesday night.

Here are some illustrated highlights from the evening:

Appetizer: tempura snap peas and asparagus.  Tasty!

I ordered a half lobster - this is my "dipping butter" tea light!

Half lobster, sirloin steak, sweet potato fries.  I ate it all - no problem!

The aftermath of my fight with the Lobster.

Summer Reading List

There have been many books on my coffee table this summer - most of which I actually got around to reading.  Thought I would share some titles with you.  What have you been reading lately?


Fiction

Storm Front, Fool Moon, and Grave Peril, all from Jim's Butcher's Dresden Files. Love, love, love, this series so far!  It's the little details about this Wizard detective and his adventures that are so much fun.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I have the next two books in the series on hold at the library and I can't wait for them. It was a long book for me (500 pages) but I read it in no time. I also watched the European movie based on the book and it was a pretty good interpretation. Plus I love sub-titles - they make movies more fun for me.

Bitten by Kelly Armstrong. I haven't started this one yet, but I Googled "urban fantasy" and she was one of the people who came up. The series has 11 titles, so if her first book is good, I'll have tonnes more to read. Also she is a Canadian from Ontario, so I already like that about her.

Non-Fiction

On Writing by Stephen King.  I've only finished the first third of this book, which is the autobiography part, and I have to say Stephen King is an awesome dude and a helluva writer.  I have to pick up this book again to see his thoughts on writing - I am sure it will informative.  I have also been catching King's articles in Entertainment Weekly - I am a sucker for Uncle Stevie's commentary.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  It's an autobiography and I only got through the first three chapters before I was too disturbed by the horrors of her childhood to continue reading.  She's a good writer, though, so I will try to get back into it sometime soon.

What's been on your coffee table this summer?

Home Style Turkey Soup

When it comes to a big sit down meal, my vote is always for Turkey.  My Mom raised me right in this regard, not hesitating to put a turkey in the oven at moments notice for any reason or no reason.  A turkey dinner makes the house smell great all day, you get to eat a ginormous meal with as many side dishes as desired, and there are leftovers for days.  DAYS!  I love everything about it.

I freeze all the turkey bones so that even months later I can still enjoy the leftovers in the form of turkey soup.  I made some on the weekend and it was yummy as always.

Step one: make a turkey, eat lots, then freeze the bones.

Step two: make turkey soup!  I'll show you what I did in photos:

Place the turkey bones into a pot of water.  Sometimes there are A LOT of bones, so I spread it over two pots.  It makes more stock and if we are talking about turkey soup, more stock = the better.  Add some chopped onion, garlic, and turmeric to give the stock some flavour/colour.

Let boil for an hour and a half.  The house will start to smell like turkey and that is amazing.  Drain the stock into a new pot, and keep the bones - we aren't done with them yet.

The two pots have boiled down to one pot of glorious stock.  It has a definite taste all on it's own, but it is time now to spice it up and add veggies!

Spice it up: salt and pepper, garlic salt, sage, spicy chili mix, turmeric (for colour).  Add whatever spices are to your taste!

Add veggies:  I add what is on hand.  This soup has broccoli, carrots, onions, spinach, lentils, tofu, rice, and garden green beans.  Add all your favourite veggies!

Now it is time to revisit the boiled bones.  In this pile of bones are tasty chunks of turkey meat - you just have to sort through and find them.  It is a little messy, but I actually like this part.  It feels good to use all of the turkey that I can.  Waste not, want not, right?

And then you find yourself with a cup or so of turkey meat.  Add it to the soup for an authentic blast of turkey in every bite!

Making turkey soup is a fantastic opportunity to make dinner rolls.  There is nothing like a fresh baked roll dipped into this mouth watering soup!  For me this is absolute food bliss.

Time to enjoy!!!

Scrapbooking Origins

My adventures in scrapbooking started about eight years ago when my sister-in-law Jeanette made me go to a scrapbooking party.  I had fun while I was there, but didn’t really get into it.  Regardless of my lack of enthusiasm, I purchased an 8.5 x 11 album and started a “Family Wedding Album” which would feature my sibling’s weddings.  I did most of my scrapbooking at Jeanette’s house as she had all the awesome tools from Creative Memories.  I scrapbooked all the photos for my sister’s wedding - and then I was just done with it.  Sure it had been fun, but I didn’t have any cutting tools of my own and I wasn’t excited enough about it to buy any.   

I forgot about scrapbooking until about three years ago, when I noticed Dollarama had an amazing amount of scrapbooking supplies and stickers.  Maybe I did like it after all, I just needed the proper tools.  With John’s encouragement, I spent about twenty dollars on neat scissors, stickers, and assorted papers; enough stuff to get me going on a few pages.  I even went to a department store and picked up a 12 x 12 album.  I was ready to roll.

I did a few pages for my “Family Wedding Album”, this time working on my brother’s wedding.  Something clicked and I was having a lot of fun with it.  I also did a few pages for my 12 x 12 album, and fell more and more in love.  I realized that scrapbooking combines four things I love: photos, organization, creativity, and (usually) TV on DVD.  It is a winning combination for hours of creative fun!

So for the past three years I have been thoroughly obsessed with scrapbooking. Beyond the initial supplies I picked up at the dollar store, I have since collected Creative Memories cutting tools (ovals and circles), three paper trimmers (two with strait lines and one with squiggly), a photo corner rounder, square punch, star punch, and countless other tools, papers, and card stock.  Scrapbooking can be expensive when you are first starting out (as are most hobbies), but I now have an adequate amount of tools and materials, that all I need to maintain my hobby are photos and accents. To keep costs low, I always purchase my photos during a photo sale, never wanting to pay more than .10¢ per photo. In May I printed 130 photos during a .10¢ sale, and I currently have 101 more photos waiting to be printed for when the next sale comes around.  I love photos as much as I love photo deals!

I have a pretty good sticker/embellishment collection, but I’m always looking for new accents at the dollar store, or the department store if there is a deal.  They don’t always make stickers for every page idea, so I sometimes make my own embellishments, either out of card stock, or other crafty materials.  I recently used a glue gun and some felt to make accents for a page I couldn’t find the right stickers for.  I got to be extra creative and using a glue gun is one of my favourite things to do.  Hot glue rules! 

I’ve come a long way from thinking I didn’t like scrapbooking.  I completed my “Family Wedding Album” last winter, which is good because the most recently married sibling got married over five years ago, so it was about time.  I also finished my first 12 x 12 album, which gave me an amazing sense of satisfaction.  Forty-two pages of cutting, cropping, positioning, accenting, titling, journaling...it really is a lot of work when you think about it.  I’ve also completed a baby book for a friend, discovered card making, and started three new albums.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out!