The Weekend Homemaker

I didn't cook much this weekend.  It was a three day weekend for me and I was trying to keep things as low-key and relaxing as possible.  I did do a lot of Christmas window shopping and also discovered the TV show, True Blood.  I had been avoiding it despite the rave reviews.  It just didn't sound like my kind of show.

It is.

I can't wait to watch more.

I also didn't do a lot of cooking because my budget has come it it's end and I will have to wait a week before I can go grocery shopping, leaving me in a bit of a pinch.  I had to do a bit of scavenging in my own cupboard and, along with a loaf of bread and some fruit, all will be A-OK.

I did a little harvest from my winter garden, which is growing away very slowly.

And I made one of my favourite ginger salad dressings, which requires very few ingredients.  Along with some smoked salmon and cucumber, several delicious salads were had.

I also made pumpkin muffins with some frozen pumpkin I had stashed in my freezer.  I forgot to take pictures, but they are bound to be yummy.  I don't care for squash in it's natural state, but in bread, muffins or waffles?  Take me there.

Today, I tried a new recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup, which required little more than carrots, ginger and onion.  It turned out very well.

At the moment, my yogurt maker is humming away.  It will provide me with breakfast for 7-days.  Along with some leftover casserole in my freezer and some dinners of toast and eggs, my grocery-less week won't be too challenging at all.

The Weekend Homemaker

The chilly, wet days and long, dark nights are calling me back into the kitchen.  Although I have a small winter garden, my desire for crisp salads has been replaced by a hankering for all things warm and savoury.

Last Saturday was the last full-day farmer's market of the season and next Saturday will be the final market of the year.  With my looming lack of access to local veggies, I am debating on reinstating my weekly, mostly-local, food box delivery.  I have a love-hate relationship with the lack of choice involved with food box programs.  I'm forced to try new things, which is good, but I also have a low turnip tolerance.  

In any case, my last trip to the market resulted in a batch of goodies:

Apples, more apples, carrots, almond brioche,
 Red Pepper Jelly and Zucchini Pickles.  

Which resulted in a chicken casserole:

And a huge amount of applesauce:

I also made parmesan coated yam fries, which had no relationship to my market buys, but were delicious nonetheless!

To Market, To Market

Saturday means market day!  The market has been dwindling for the past month and today is the last "full-day" market of 2011.  There will be a few "half-day" markets in November and a Christmas market in December but, after that, my groceries will be a little less local until spring.

Here are a few of the things I will miss:

Apples (oh, the apples are delicious right now!),
onions, pain au chocolat from my favourite baker,
grapes, carrots, fresh fig jam and lettuce.  

There are many things I love about the fall and winter, but the closure of my neighbourhood farmer's market is not one of them!

The Weekend Homemaker

It's fall.  And that means it's time for . . .

Chicken 

Noodle

Soup

The Weekend Homemaker

OK, so September kicked my butt in pretty much every way possible.  I would say that weekends saved my sanity, but I am not so sure it was saved.  Only time will tell.  In any case, knowing that a little cooking is good for my soul, I went all out last weekend.  I especially went all out on the protein.  I needed some extra umph!  

On Saturday, there were steak sandwiches with salad.  Yum!

I even made enough of my favourite creamy ginger dressing (no dairy or eggs involved!) to last the week.

I also baked muffins for weekday snacks.  

10 Grain Pumpkin Muffins

On Sunday, I made a big chicken dinner.  

Veggies for roasting

Perfect Roast Chicken

In addition to chicken and veggies, I made baked sweet potato slices with raisins, pecans and feta.  

The food was good, the week that followed was not.  October WILL BE better!    

The Weekend Homemaker

The arrival of fall has been very sudden this year on the west coast.  Last Sunday (September 11th) was  a lovely warm summer day.  On Monday, the 12th, it was fall.  Victoria weather usually consists of one season, spring, with a pinch of summer and a bit of fall tossed in for a little bit of variety.  The transitions are usually long, slow and awkward (what should I wear?) and I am desperate for a change by the time it arrives.  But, not this summer.  It came late, left early and was was rather noncommittal, even on the hottest days.  I wanted more!

In any case, the cooling weather has put me into a cooking and baking mode.  I haven't quite gotten back into my weekends of weekly food preparation (in true Weekend Homemaker style), but I am heading in that direction. Over the past few weeks, I have turned to oven on several times!

I've made:

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Rosemary Focaccia

Wicked Thai Chicken Soup
(I omitted the dairy and replaced rice with rice noodles)

I even baked bread!  Yum!

Of course, I can't let the last few weeks of summer go by without a few final simple summer eats.

Tomatoes from my balcony garden.

Tomatoes, freshly baked bread with local cracked pepper
cheese, chicken and homemade honey mustard sauce.  

Although I am not yet accepting of the arrival of fall, the knowledge that there is baking, soup making and roaring fires to look forward to makes the change a little easier to handle!

Container Garden Update

My tomatoes are finally ripening! 

As I wrote up my last container garden update, I realized I wasn't quite ready to give up gardening for the year. I've enjoyed watching things grow and, even more than that, I have loved eating my uber fresh carrots, spinach, tomatoes, lettuce and herbs.  It's been fun to experiment with container gardening and learn that I can grow food on my balcony!  So, given that I wasn't quite ready to let go, I decided to take things a step further and plant a little fall garden.

Around the 20th of August, I cleaned out two more stainless steel storage tubs (that hadn't been doing much of anything) and planted them with carrots, beets, swiss chard, spinach and two types of lettuce.  And, unlike my previous plantings, I mixed the items within each tub in the style of square foot gardening.  Square foot gardens are planted quite intensively and I thought this method would work will on my balcony as you don't need wide spaces between plantings in containers (although I did use mini rows).

My two newly planted tubs (the third tub, at
the back, contains carrots I planted in May).

Two Weeks after planting - the spinach and lettuce are speedy!

Four weeks after planting - spinach in front,
chard or beets in the middle (I'm not sure
which) and carrots at the back.

I have also planted a pot with just lettuce and spinach and, now that my first planting of carrots has been eaten, I plan to reseed that container as well.  I've tried to space my plantings in order to have plenty of lettuce and spinach available throughout the fall.  My first batch should be ready in the next week or two and, if I have planned things right, I think I will have enough for a salad a day for the next 3 months. Vancouver Island has a temperate climate and my container garden should keep growing until some time in December.

A few late summer finds have also allowed me to create a sweet little eating area on my balcony.  I found this table and chair set on sale, marked down from $200 to $70!

And, with the addition of two candle sconces I snagged off of the "freecycle" table in my buidling and the gift of a plant, my balcony garden has become a balcony cafe.

Table for two, anyone?

My very happy impatiens, loving
the cool of late summer.

By the end of September, I am hoping to have my final tub of veggies planted and my geraniums replaced with hardy fall flowers.  I'm looking forward to seeing what my second planting season yields!

Container Gardening

I wasn't going to do anything with my new-to-me balcony this year. The floor needs to be repainted and I was too overwhelmed with indoor renovations to deal with the outside (although I did plant a tomato plant which is presently holding about 100 green tomatoes that I doubt will ever ripen). Despite my plans, my mom came to visit recently and she insisted on buying me some brackets for the planters I already had. I wasn't going to put them up, but then I did.

And, once the planters were up, I couldn't resist planting them! I decided to plant edible plants and went with strawberries, pansies and two types of lettuce. They should all survive the winter on the west coast.

I am very happy with how they turned out! I think they really give my boring balcony some life!

And, in case of an earthquake, I can make a salad!