BBQ northern style

Toques, headlamps and steak - works for me

Christmas

🎼🎶🎵 Deck the halls with boughs of holly, 

fa la la la la, la la la la 🎼🎶🎵

With the first snowfall, and especially with the first cold snap, my brain starts to shift. I tend to semi-hibernate in the cold months. This year we went directly from a warm and sunny autumn to the dead of winter in just a few days! Fortunately we were ready with all the winter prep complete, but are we ever mentally prepared for that first snow? I was already suffering from the sudden absence of a catalyst to get me off my… to get me going. It’s hard to overcome inertia when the things that need doing are uninteresting and can be put off for another day. With nothing pushing me - no tomatoes calling to be salsa, no garden cleanup, no tools to stow away before the snow hides them - well I was spending a lot of time curling up with a book (Kindle - I love my reader). But now, suddenly, Christmas tradition is calling. 

Women are the keepers of Christmas traditions (mostly). If it were up to men, well it would not be quite the same, would it? Many of our traditions are carried forward from nostalgic memories of our youth and others are formed by the unique circumstances of our own families, when the kids were young, when we are old. We lock ourselves, willingly, into carrying on the traditions we have established over the years. We do what is expected by our friends, our families, and ourselves. As long as it’s enjoyable we may as well continue on. But we do need to remember they’re traditions, not mandates. If your Christmas celebrations become too much, lose their joy, you can make changes! We could become snowbirds, we could have Christmas dinner at a restaurant, get a pre-decorated tree…

One of my favourite memories from youth - the whole family would sit around the Christmas tree “guessing”, with a smile, what my mom’s gift from her sister back east would be. “I wonder,” my mom would say, “what can it be?” She’d open the parcel and exclaim, “I never would have guessed!” And we’d all join in with a good laugh. Without fail my aunt followed her giving tradition - a new apron every year.

Another family tradition was having a village under the tree. My dad built a cathedral, a log cabin, a crèche, and we had a blue mirror lake for wee skaters. As kids we spent hours playing in that village. My sister, Karen, carried this tradition on in her home with her own village, and when she passed in the first Covid wave I inherited it, replacing my tiny one. I’ve other reminders of my sister throughout my home - she was a watercolour artist and her beautiful paintings adorn my walls.

My traditional Christmas gift is caramel corn. When I stop making it my friends and family, and myself, will have to accept that I’m old. Until then the popcorn kernels will keep getting a sugary winter coat.

Christmas shopping has changed a lot for me over the years. It was more fun when I was looking for toys for little ones. Big “kids” seem to prefer gift cards or cash so they can get what they really want. The older folks mostly have what they need and buying useless junk doesn’t sit well with me. I like to give gifts that get used up, like boxes of chocolates, gifts of shared experience, handmade goodies. Having said that I do have to say I admire people, like my daughter-in-law, who have an uncanny ability to spot the perfect gift you had no idea you would need or love. Such gifts hold as much love as handmade and, in today’s busy world, are more possible. Then of course, for some, there’s the practical gifts, things people need and simply won’t or can’t get for themselves. Times are getting hard for many. Food banks are overwhelmed. More people are reduced to living on the streets. Santa’s anonymous has an unprecedented sign up list. Sadly, there’s no shortage of people in need of a merrier Christmas. 

My sister’s Christmas village

Test on blog not making it to subscribers

Yum, yum!

Out Beyond the Corn

There is a world out there, beyond our garden. It doesn’t always dip into our everyday lives, but sometimes we are affected by it. The war in Ukraine is one of these instances. Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has slowly become the dominant story in our mainstream newscasts, replacing the constant coverage of the pandemic. NATO and governments all over the world, including Canada, have not remained neutral in the conflict between these two nations. The enemy was easy for the western world to define. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, ordered his army to invade Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting for its life! It’s citizens had little choice but to retaliate. Who wouldn’t defend themselves from an aggressor if directly threatened?

News media on all sides of the conflict are supplying their people with inflammatory censored one-sided newscasts to keep them engaged and enraged, to convince the masses to rally behind the need for austerity, the need to provide support - positioning them to be prepared for what might yet come. The banners of righteousness and nationalism have been raised.  

Few North Americans know anything about the history of this conflict, but no war occurs in a vacuum. Broken agreements, civil unrest, insincere or bogged down negotiations, policy changes, territorial disputes, sabre rattling, and inaction brought this situation to a head. I’m not in any way justifying Putin’s aggression, but he apparently decided negotiation was no longer possible. (Not all of Russia’s citizens agree as seen by demonstrations taking place.) The insanity of it all boggles my mind. The people who have been thrust into this war, who never had a choice (both Ukrainian and Russian), are dying/suffering. Billions of dollars worth of infrastructure is being destroyed. The spin off, due to the imposition of sanctions, is hurting neighbouring countries who are facing a winter without Russian natural gas to heat their homes. Nuclear weapons are being considered, on both sides. Nuclear power plants could be compromised. And fighting climate change? That goes on the back burner, the weapons of war negate any and all measures aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The ripple effects of this war are compounding. There has been talk of a Third World War.

But terrible losses endured by some can result in profit for others. There’s nothing like war to stimulate some sectors of the economy. Those who gain from war - the military industrial complex, arms dealers, arms/equipment manufacturers, oil companies, companies that provide materials/labour to rebuild, raw material suppliers, stockholders, the big players - do so on the backs of those who suffer its ravages. There is little benefit for the people whose homes/livelihoods are destroyed, the soldiers/civilians who die or are wounded, the country with broken infrastructure and massive environmental damage, the traumatized children, the dead domestic and wild animals, the war vets suffering from PTSD…

Ordinary people bear the brunt of war. They are expendable. 

Check out YouTube, Bob Dylan, Masters of War

Spaghetti Sauce Extraordinaire!

Ahh, I said to myself, this recipe uses 25 pounds of tomatoes - 5 bags of frozen beauties out of the freezer and into the canning pot! Twenty minutes prep it says, sounds good, and once this is done I’ll be down to a mere 60 pounds or so to deal with. There could be an end in sight! I steeled myself to tackle the spaghetti sauce recipe I found on the internet.

First the ingredients - amazing, I had them all! Tomatoes, onions, green and red peppers, tomato paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt, garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, lemon juice. I wouldn’t have to run to the store for a thing! I’d read on the net that frozen tomatoes, when plunged into hot water, peel easily if you pinch them on the blossom end. This sounded good to me as I’ve never been one to go through the drop the fresh tomato into boiling water then into cold water to peel method. Too much work, too time consuming, so “not me” that I usually leave the peels on when canning tomatoes, or pears and peaches for that matter. On first try, with the first 5 pound frozen bag, I found this peeling method to be so easy it was worth doing. But 25 pounds of tomatoes is a lot of tomatoes! Then of course they needed the little bit at the stem end removed and had to be cut up. They were still mostly frozen so this was cold but easy. That 20 minutes prep time was long gone though, well over an hour ago.

Then there was all the other ingredients. I do have a simple food chopper that cuts stuff up quite tiny, only the one setting, so I made fast work of the peppers. I decided to use the onion rejects (odd shapes, the ones that looked like they weren’t going to keep very well) so there was extra peeling and slicing to get the needed 8 cups. By now my compost bin was overflowing and had to be dumped. My basil was dry but still in leaf shape so I got out my mortar and pestle to grind it small. In hindsight I guess I could have used my chopper thingy for that too.

I thought it was going to be a cool day, it was downright chilly when I got up. When I got the kitchen wood stove going it felt good. I enjoy cooking on a wood stove, such an even heat, less chance of scorching. It’s like an old fashioned slow cooker. But after hour 2 of prepping next to the wood stove the windows were open and I was ready to peel down to my underwear. I didn’t, heaven forbid if someone should happen to drop by! 

The recipe says it should make 9 quarts of sauce. By about 3:00 I’m fighting off that negative thinking that tends to sneak in when I’m working hard and long on a canning project. “I could buy that much good quality spaghetti sauce for about $20, less if I caught a sale…why am I doing this…home grown, organic…self sufficiency is an important skill…living off the land as much as I’m able has been my mantra for 50 years, why stop now…yada yada…”

I’m finally nearing the end of the ingredient list and ready to add the garlic. Darn! Dried up. Should I use granulated? Hmmmm. I was tempted but no, after all these other fresh ingredients that would just not do. Maybe I should make a quick trip to town? A better idea yet, I’ll call a neighbour. Sure they said, come on over.

It was now 4:00 pm and my sauce, sans garlic, was beginning to bubble away on the stove at the beginning of its 6 hour cook down. I was exhausted and oh so happy when my garlic rescue friends invited us for supper (and wine). Had we stayed home I would have had a hard time making a grilled cheese sandwich. I got my husband to remove the heavy pot of sauce from the stove and off we went.

Next morning I peeled a dozen cloves of garlic, chopped them in my chopper thing and added it to the sauce. What beautiful garlic! Wow, I guess I’ve never had garlic fresh from the garden before, big cloves, easy to peel. Maybe I should grow some… maybe not, perhaps trade for some instead. 

There was a bit of a catch on this 20 minute prep, 6 hour simmer recipe - a need to stir every 15 minutes to prevent sticking and scorching! That’s 24 stirrings and 6 hours near a hot stove! I set a timer so I wouldn’t get mentally lost doing something else (according to my husband I always have my nose in a book). I went out to fetch jars from the shed. Should I use pints or quarts? Hard to decide in a 2 person family. Has anyone else ever wished they would make a 3 cup jar? I decided on pints. If I used a quart of sauce to make spaghetti we’d be eating it for days. I couldn’t quite handle the full 6 hours of simmering, but I did reduce the liquid down to 9 litres. 

The spaghetti sauce - delicious! The work - rewarding, the tomato bonanza - overwhelming. Tomorrow - salsa.

First Frost, September 21st

And I thought this garden year would be a bit of a bust, what with the slow, cold start. But then came the hot summer days and the remarkably frost free end to the season - no frost until today, September 21st. Wow! I’ve gardened here for over 40 years and have never experience such a late 1st frost. My 8 full sized tomato plants outdid themselves and I confess that I did not treat them kindly. I didn’t prune them, my cages fell over, they were planted too close together and were sprawled all over - but indifference didn’t seem to make a difference! Now to deal with them all as they ripen!

Bumble Bug

Almost stepped on this bumble bee look alike as he slowly wandered through the grass. I guided him to this leaf whereupon he played dead until I snapped a pic of him, took him back outside and turned him loose. Then he reactivated and crawled off. Never saw a caterpillar quite like this one before.