My Resolutions for 2016

So I have raised my anxiety level this morning thinking of New Year's resolutions...Why do we have to make resolutions, is this a healthy practise for intelligent people?  After looking back on last year's resolutions which I have to say I failed, except the top three.....after that it all went down hill fast.

2015 New Year's Resolutions:

1. Get out of bed each morning or afternoon at a reasonable time
2. Brush your teeth
3. Turn on your social media device

4. Read something each day that has some intellectual content, cereal boxes count for this one.
First off.... I don't eat cereal out a box so my daily readable content came from social media mainly Facebook...and we all know the intellectual content of Facebook.  I am thinking perhaps I should make it a New Years resolution to start reading cereal boxes.

5. Drink a glass of water, rinsing your mouth out with water after brushing teeth counts for a quarter cup.
 As for rinsing my mouth out with water after brushing came to a measly 1/4 cup...I found mixing it with a little scotch or whiskey I was getting up to a litre a day.

6. Eat a serving of veggies or fruit...last time I checked a glass of red wine, cup of coffee and chocolate all fall under fruit or veggies category.
The doctor informed me that "NO!!! Jennifer.... coffee, red wine, chocolate are not considered fruit or veggies..." He's such a damn know it all. 

7. Do one kind thing a day even if it's only being kind to yourself.
Being kind to myself was easy until I it becomes self indulgent, hedonistic personality disorder, my shrink and I are working on it.

8. Walk in nature and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you, if you put a plant between you and your car.
I did have a plant between house and the car...however the cat started using it as a toilet and one day I accidentally ran it over....and that is a whole other story.

9. Do some thing that raises your heart rate, I am sure opening your credit card bill after the holidays will do it.
Running and climbing over fences screaming my fool head off  while I was chasing Carson nearly caused a heart attack. The ER doctor informed me that perhaps if I wanted to raise my heart rate I should try treadmill at the local gym. 

10. Once in a blue moon volunteer to make the world a better place.
I am starting to believe the moon is BLUE!!!!!
  
So this year my resolution is to learn some moderation, what colour the moon is and find a doctor that believes coffee, chocolate and red wine are fruit and vegetables. 

However at the end of the day....the most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters.

 

Grow, Harvest, Cook, Eat....be happy!!!!

 

Jenn

Tis the Season for Fun and Folly....

Tis the Season for fun and folly fa la la la la la la la la.....
It's that time of year where I put the red bow on Carson and hide the elf on the shelf, however since his demise last year we have not found a suitable replacement.  Carson is quite content not having the pesky little bastard around this year....he has been snuggled up on the bed sleeping and dreaming the cold winter afternoons away. 

I on the other hand have not found a new pair of shoes, so I am where you last found me....in my kitchen.  This time of year it's heaven on earth for a foodie...Homemade Marshmallows, Chai Spiced Hot Chocolate and endless versions of shortbread are being made. I have been planning dinner parties the last few months and I see the sparkling lights at the end of the tunnel.....

 

Bruce and I are looking forward to some good old fashion holiday fun and folly this season....we both wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season.

 

 

 

Grow, Harvest, Cook, Eat

Jenn 

Where did the time go....

The last thing I remember is that delicious Strawberry Buttermilk Shake....hyper warp speed to September 5 2015, that was one split second summer.  Wow, where does the time go????  Yesterday I went to get my hair cut, I finally did something just for me, it was like a mini vacation.

My summer was filled with people who inspired me with their personal triumphs, made me laugh with tales of misguided adventures, taught me patience as I learnt to cook something outside my comfort zone.  My dinner table became a quasi united nations, travellers from all over the world came to break bread.  We had scientists, actors, city managers, decorators, buyers, river guides, chocolatiers, tree planters, fire fighters, herbal healers and even a Princess.  It was an exciting summer to say the least...you might be wondering why I am say WAS, it seems summer has taken a leave of absences and the those warm days of lounging around the pool drinking prosecco cocktails...sorry was day dreaming there a second. Those days where I looked out the kitchen window wishing I was outside weeding my gardens instead of canning hundreds of pounds of fruit, Yes, those days are gone.  Seems the leaves are turning and I am finding more time in my day...or perhaps I am getting up earlier. 

So my hero this summer was Zaap, he was a chocolatier who spent a morning with me learning to can compote.  He had many talents, but his first love was chocolate...and together we discovered how to blend our talents and create Petty Catwater Edibles Starry Night Apricot & Blueberry Compote.  We chatted about chocolate and what is the best chocolate and how to infuse flavours into the darkest of chocolate.  The world of chocolate is changing and here's why:
Chuao is a small village located in the northern coastal range of Venezuela. It was founded in the 16th century. The village is famous for its cacao plantations, where some of the finest cocoa beans in the world are produced. The village is surrounded by mountains and dense rainforests to the south Caribbean Sea near the Henri Pittier National Park the oldest national park in Venezuela created in 1937. There is no road access and visitors must come by boat from the town of Puerto Colombia along the coast, or by foot, crossing the mountains and the luxurious cloud forest from Turmero near Maracay.
In the Chuao plantation there are currently pure Criollo and hybrid varieties of cacao being grown. Criollo beans from Chuao are of very high quality, and are considered Venezuela's finest beans together with Porcelana Blanca beans from Lake Maracaibo (another genetically pure variety of Criollo). Amedei, an Italian chocolate maker, and Chocolate NAIVE, a Lithuanian bean-to-bar chocolate maker, offer chocolate bars made with Chuao cacao. Naive was the winner of the European gold medal at the International Chocolate Awards 2014.^[1][2]
In November 2000, the cacao beans coming from Chuao region were awarded an appellation of origin under the title "Cacao de Chuao" (from Spanish Cacao de Chuao)^[3] effectively making this one of the most expensive and sought after types of cacao.

French pâtissier Pierre Hermé and the visionary Spanish chef Ferran Adrià have said that Chuao might, in fact, be the world’s greatest chocolate. 

I'll be dreaming of my first bite....Chocosphere is my new friend. 

Grow, Harvest, Cook and Eat Chocolate

Jenn

Strawberry Buttermilk Shake

At the Farmer’s Market on the weekend they were selling the first of the seasons strawberries and I was humming and hawing about buying a few flats for jams for jam…Banana Split Jam lead me to ice cream which lead me to a malt and all of a sudden I am diving off the deep end into a butter milk recipe.  A Roasted Strawberry and Butter Milk Milk Shake!!!

I can never figure out the right time for a milkshake. Are they meant to be treated like a beverage? A dessert? I considered getting one at breakfast a while back, because I was at a place where you could get fries with your eggs and that kind of beautiful chaos in meal order struck me as good a time as any to suck down a pint of liquefied ice cream.

I would never choose a milkshake over a bowl of ice cream. I like to eat my food, not drink it. Milkshakes are just lazy ice cream, and worse: They take something beautiful and sacred and return it to its pre-beautiful, pre-sacred state. Why even churn it if you’re going to melt it back down?
However I can’t resist the pleasure of indulging in butter milk…Butter milk Mashed Potatoes, Butter Milk Biscuits, Butter Milk Scones, Butter Milk Ricotta Cheese, Butter Milk Pancakes.  So here I go making lazy ice cream with delicious butter milk with roasted strawberries for dessert. 

Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Shake
For the roasted strawberries:
1pound strawberries (from the market if you can get them), hulled and halved
3 to 4tablespoons turbinado sugar, depending on sweetness of berries
Pinch salt
4 to 5thin lemon slices
Heat oven to 375° F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat (the rim is important: the berries will release a lot of juice!), and toss the berries with the sugar right on the baking sheet. Sprinkle them with a pinch of salt, and lay the lemon slices evenly over the top.
Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the fruit is soft, has released its juice, and the juice has started to thicken just slightly. Remove the lemon slices and let cool completely. These can be made a day ahead.
For the milkshake:
1pint good vanilla ice cream
1/4cup good-quality buttermilk
Leaves from 3 healthy mint sprigs
Roasted strawberries
Pile everything in a blender and blend! Feel free to add a little more buttermilk if you like a thinner consistency. Pour into glasses and serve.

Grow, Harvest, Cook, Eat...and shake it

Jenn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pesto Rosso alla Puttanesca

Pesto Rosso alla Puttanesca...
There is many translations of puttanesca sauce and where it came.... Some believe that it was a sauce created by a restaurant owner who had many guests come to his restaurant to eat late one night as he was about to close. He didn't have enough of any one ingredient to make a meal for them all so he took everything out of his kitchen and put it together to make this legendary Italian pasta sauce.
Another not so endearing tale is puttana in Italian means whore. As told by my dear friend Carlo, it was a quick and easy pasta sauce for the puttanas to make in between customers, hence the name puttanesca sauce.
I was also told that puttanesca sauce was named after the term whore because it had everything in it. Because Italians are so frugal they would not throw away any food. They would just make it into this amazing tomato sauce recipe.
And finally one theory is that decent married women would see the ladies of the evening walking on the streets and they would through sauce made of left overs onto them from the balconies of their homes screaming PUTTANA, PUTTANA!
My inspiration for the Pesto Rosso alla Puttanesca comes from my general LOVE of spicy tomato sauce and basil pesto. Today I have made a spicy fresh dried tomato basil pesto with a fiery heat that accumulates until your addiction rages out of control...as they say "Hot as a whore house on dollar night."

Here is one of many versions of this famous pesto:
Pesto Rosso alla Puttanesca (yields about a 125ml glass):
* 140 g Sun-dried tomatoes
* 50 g pine nuts
* 1 garlic clove
* 1 shallot
* 15ml olive oil
* 30 g Parmesan cheese
* Some fresh oregano
* 2 tsp capers
* 1-2 anchovy fillets (according to taste, very salty!)
* 6-8 black olives
* 1 red chilli (if you like)
* Black pepper
Preparation:
1 coarsely chop the shallot and garlic. Together with the anchovy fillets in some olive oil Sauté until the anchovies break up.
2 golden brown toast the pine nuts in a pan without any fat.
3 may pit the olives. Coarsely grate the Parmesan. Chili and the sun-dried tomatoes coarsely chop the. All the ingredients in a high container and process with the hand blender pesto. Season with pepper, salt if necessary (caution! The anchovies are very salty!)


Grow, Harvest, Cook, Eat

Jenn

Wanderlust

You know you have made a delicious jam when it inspires you to daydream...Wanderlust Jam took me back to the day I was playing on the beach in Northern Spain.  The day was perfect, it was warm enough to wander down the beach...and play in the water.

 

I have many passions and one of them is travelling...it opens my eyes and my mind to all different kinds of possibilities in life.  As Jane Austen once wrote "I assure you it is very refreshing after sitting so long in one attitude.'' I have to agree with Miss Austen.

 

Bruce and I spent a few weeks in Northern Spain in a the region of Asturias, we found ourselves lost in transit. You see when one copies down goggle map instructions one must do it thoroughly.  All those turn left in 34 miles actually mean something, I found out.  It's also important to have a few phrases in the language of the country you are travelling in under your belt.  Here's a good one " How do you get to Pintueles?" would have come in handy...or "Is there a travel map in town of the area?"   Unfortunately I learnt the phrase "where is the bath tub?" ...laughing.  Which later I found out was not how one asks to use the restroom in Spain. Ones ability to recognise a building from a picture is all hunky dory, but is rendered useless when everything looks much the same!!! We came to the conclusion if you make enough wrong turns somewhere along the way you make a right one...which landed us at a auto repair shop with not a sole speaking English. This is where one has to step outside the box of communication, I found charades was a great tool in breaking down the language barrier. We eventually found our way...and checked off another box on our bucket list..."Get lost in a foreign country unable to speak the language!!!". 

 

Once we found our vacation rental everything was great...we stayed in a small gathering of houses in Carbayon, Spain.  Resident population  2 humans, one dog and one very large bull which we named Horhay.  I played mayor for a day...and made the stray dog and Horhay honorary citizens.  Other than the odd sports car roaring through we were basically on our own...in Carbayon.

 

 

 

 Asturias holds many beautiful beaches, small local fishing ports, museums, and religious wonders

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not all who wander are LOST!!!

 

Grow, Harvest, Cook, Eat....and Wanderlust

 

Jenn

It's a clothes line affair...

My clothes line love affair...there is nothing more sensual than feeling the crisp line dried sheets against your skin.  The smell alone sends me off on some daydream of wandering thru wild flower fields...sitting on the edge of a bubbling brook and have the water tickle my toes...standing under the shower with the cool water washing over me.  “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” Oscar Wilde.

Time is a luxury today and one must spend there time wisely...I spend my time doing what makes me happy and gives me eminence pleasure.

The luxury of line dried sheets has it's serious side and I am also a pragmatist when it comes to the results...clean, fresh smelling, beautiful sheets to place upon my bed.  Just a note to think about...good quality sheets are a starting point.  I have two kinds of sheets Fall and Winter sheets are a heavy thread count of long fiber Egyptian 100% cotton, or a 100% Dutch linen and in Spring and Summer 100% cotton percale.  I have a few sources of delicious sheets, for the person who loves extravagance you can drool over the sheets from Julia B Linens & Frette... or if you are looking for something more eclectic, you can check out Jonathan Adler, Dwell Studio or Castle which has some fun trendy printed sheets.

 

Line Drying Secrets for your sheets…

 • Always line dry colors and bright fabrics in partial shade or in the afternoon in order to prevent fading.

• Let whites take in a bit of sun in the early morning, it might surprise you how strong a natural bleaching effect solar rays can have on your sheets.

• Dirty clotheslines make for spotty sheets. Once a month, use a rag to go over your outdoor clotheslines with warm water and pine oil cleaner. 

  Whether you’re washing by machine or hand, vinegar is a must-have in any laundry room. A cup of vinegar is an effective fabric softener in the rinse cycle, and adding a little bit to a hand wash will keeps anything from staying sudsy.

  Adding a quarter cup of baking soda to a wash will take care of stale, musty odors common during the summer months and give your machine a fragrant boost to boot.

  Bleached-out whites sheets can develop a dingy, discolored look over time. Prevent this by adding one-half to one cup of hydrogen peroxide to a load once the washing machine is filled with water. Allow it to soak for half an hour and add about one-third less laundry detergent than usual and wash as usual.

  Line drying is an easy and effective way to cut costs at home. Standard dryers account for 50 to 65 percent of the average household’s electric bill. Not only that, but you can scratch dryer sheets off your shopping list. Clothes that hang dry don’t develop static cling.

How to Hang anything on a clothes line…

  It’s worth taking the time to do it right. First shake each item to release wrinkles, then straighten and smooth each sheet as it’s hung.  

  Give your sheets some breathing room if you have the space. Leaving a foot or two between each item on a clothesline reduces drying time. 

  Choose a day that’s sunny and at the very least, breezy to dry clothes outside. The motion of the wind prevents clothes from stiffening and if left for a few extra hours, can help make your sheets noticeably softer.  

  For all its pluses, asthma and allergy sufferers should steer clear of line drying anything. Airborne pollen will easily stick to clothing, sheets and towels and will remain on items long after they were washed. 

  It’s important to take proper care of your clothespins and keep them clean. Place them in a mesh bag, swish in a bucket of warm, soapy water, rinse thoroughly and hang the entire bag on the line to dry.

 

Grow, Harvest, Cook, Eat...
Like I have always said with a small amount of work comes a tremendous amount of pleasure...

 Jenn