Weekend Get-Away

The Witch, her Hubby and her broom (okay, it was Big Red) went flying off Witch's Island this weekend for some shopping and some fun in the far-off city and we had a great time! Hubby suggested that we should go away on Friday afternoon and spend the night rather than just dashing over for the day on Saturday. He left it up to me to decide but it didn’t take much convincing to get the Witch to fly!

While he was still at work I checked the ‘net for places to stay, found one I liked and booked a room. Hubby got home nice and early and before he could even get the truck in the garage I came out the door and said "Leave ‘er out there. We’re going!" He was a little shocked but away he went to get ready. I had everything I needed packed and waiting at the door.

The afternoon was beautiful, weather-wise and we had a quick and comfy cruise to the motel where we signed in and dumped our bags. Then it was off to Costco! My sweet little brother gave us a membership voucher and gift cards for Christmas knowing that we are too cheap to buy into a membership ourselves. He is our Costco evangelist and routinely informs us of the amazing deals he finds there. We have been looking forward since December to becoming converts.

In the past we have snuck into the store just to see what the excitement was all about but we knew that we weren’t going to be able to buy anything. Not this time, though. We got our membership cards (and we even got a refund of $5.00 because of where we live) and then headed off into the store to inspect the goods. I loved it!

Oh yeah, we purchased quite a few things. I scored big on some new heavy duty baking sheets. They weigh a ton so these suckers aren't going to twist in the oven. The old ones will go in to our flea market box with the old pots. Hubby got some new windshield wiper blades. We saw lots of interesting grocery items, too but we left them for the next day. So, were there lots of bargains to be had? Well, not as many as I expected but there was a great variety of brands and products that we just don’t see on the Witch’s Island.

After shopping we went back to the motel and parked the truck and then it was off to our favourite Chinese restaurant where we had a great meal and a nice bottle of wine. The evening was so warm that we were able to walk a mile to a pool hall to play a few games. I love billiards but Hubby was hot and I was no match for his superior playing that night.

The next morning we were up early and off to the Farmer’s Market. Every other time we have been to this one it has been later in the morning and it is so crowded that it is hard to get up and down the aisles. This time there were very few customers and we just breezed through! We bought three loaves of bread and a big bag of Honey Crisp apples.

After that we toured around some furniture stores looking for new tables for the TV room but we didn’t find anything we liked. We went to a few other stores including a big building supply chain where Hubby got to look at the power tools (gotta keep your man happy) but the only thing we bought was a planter for the kitchen windowsill and some new plants. Then, we went shopping again at Costco! This time I actually bought quite a bit of food, mostly baking supplies (nuts, vanilla, and SunMaid raisins), oranges and a big bottle of whole cashews. Next we cruised through the mall and bought nothing though Danier Leather had a fitted red jacket that I would have died for but I'm glad I managed to pry myself away. Okay, Hubby, you can stop slapping my fingers now! The thrift stores were next. I bought jeans, one top, a brand new white ball cap, and a flower pot.



By this time it was getting late in the day and we were getting hungry so it was back to Lam’s for dinner (we ordered extra to take home, too) and then we loaded up the broom to fly back home. It was a great little unplanned get-away and I'm still loving it.

Some thoughts For Saturday

I'm having a lazy Saturday and I'm really enjoying the downtime. I'm using the time to look around at a few new blog sites. Boy, there are some talented people out there in the blogsphere. Sometime soon I'm going to update my side bars to show some new sites, maybe later this week.

I got up nice and early this morning so I did some laundry and then we ran into the little city to visit my Granny and do some shopping. Of course, we went to the farmer's market and bought some salmon for supper tonight. I think that it will be great with some oven-fries and a light salad. I even had time to bake an apple pie for dessert. Easy.

Tomorrow we're going to make a nice beef stew and while the oven is on I will also bake some beans. This kind of comfort food is low effort and will last for a couple of days next week. That'll give us the time to watch some of the Olympics and, yeah, I guess maybe do a little housekeeping, too. It's only Saturday afternoon and I can already see the start of the workweek looming. Why is it the weekends always seem to go so fast?

I've added a joke that I read on "That British Woman"'s blog site. I laughed so hard that I was smiling most of the day over it. Thanks, Gill.

A man was driving along the highway, and saw a rabbit hoping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the rabbit, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of the car and was hit. The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road and got out to see what had become of the rabbit.
Much to his dismay, the rabbit was dead. The driver felt so awful be began to cry.
A woman driving down the highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong.
"I feel terrible," he explained. "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it."
The woman told the man not to worry. She knew what to do. She went to her car trunk and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead rabbit, and sprayed the contents of the can onto the rabbit.
Miraculously, the rabbit came to life, jumped up, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped down the road. Fifty feet away the rabbit stopped, turned around, waved at the two again, hopped down the road another 50 feet, turned, waved, and hoped another 50 feet.
The man was astonished. He couldn't figure out what substance could be in the woman's spray can! He ran over to the woman and demanded, "What was your spray can? What did you spray onto that rabbit?"
The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label. It said: "Hare Spray Restores Life to Dead Hare. Adds Permanent Wave."

Every time I read it it makes me smile. Enjoy the apple pie pictures.

Fondue Night

As you can see from the pictures fondue night was awesome. The meat was so tender it just melted in our mouths. That’s not always the case with this meal. We have had some fondues where the meat came out of the broth very tough and chewy. Last night’s was great whether we cooked it for a short time or a long time. This is probably because of the way it was processed. The butcher is also the farmer who raised the cattle. He actually hangs the meat for 21 days in his cooler and then does the cutting himself. This is the way butchers used to do things but it’s not the way they do it at today’s grocery stores. It’s just one more reason to make the trip to the Farmer’s Market.



We first had this meal at a restaurant in Montreal years and years ago. They called it a Chinese fondue for whatever reason. The meat was sliced into very thin pieces and was brought to the table on a platter. The cooking medium was beef broth and was served with a variety of dipping sauces and bread. It made a big impression with us. Later, at home in Toronto, we found an Austrian restaurant called the Graf Bobby that also offered the same meal. We must have gone there a hundred times and we always had the same thing. It became quite a tradition for us; they even kept our favourite table reserved for us on Friday nights. Unfortunately, the Graf Bobby went out of business so we had to learn how to make fondue for ourselves. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to do.



We make all the sauces ourselves. We start with a mix of plain yogurt and sour cream as the base then we add our own blend of spices. Hubby loves the curry sauce so I usually make two. I love the onion sauce. It’s made with a bit of onion soup mix. We tried two new dips this time. We used the chipotle chili spice and the hot paprika we wrote about a couple of weeks ago to make them and they turned out great. They are definitely keepers. If you are going try this yourself make the dips a couple of hours ahead of meal time to let the flavor spread into the base.
The veggies are great cooked this way, too. They always add an extra welcome to the broth in the pot. We use the broth a day or two later over some ramen noodles for a quick dinner. We always put out a selection of different cheeses, too. A couple of different breads just make this meal perfect.







Hubby got a very nice surprise for Valentine’s Day this morning. This is the second year I have made these cookies for him. They’re fun to make and are delicious, too. I think he was pretty happy to get them. I think the Snowman is also happy. Hubby made me a great breakfast this morning and now I'm stuffed. I also got a beautiful card and the wine we had with dinner last night was also my Valentine’s gift. I didn't want any flowers this year.





Oh, and I just had to include one more picture. I purchased this beautiful poinsettia tree after Christmas for $5.00 and the colour is such a bright red that I call it my Valentine's tree.



Hope you enjoy.

Saturday Shopping in the Little City

Wow, what did you think of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games? I thought they were short and sweet and of course, our athletes were the best dressed. Brian Adams and Nellie Fertado sang well together. It was awfully late though. By the time we went to bed I was so beat that I slept in really late this morning.

We went to the farmers market in the little city just before lunch. We bought a nice looking eye-of-round roast for our fondue tonight. The only one that was on display was three times what we needed so we asked if the butcher would cut off a portion for us. He said he would but if we took the whole thing he would reduce the price by $4. I guess that he really didn’t want to take it home with him. It was a great deal for us, too. We just cut the roast into three portions when we got home and we’re set for another two fondues. While we were there we also bought some bacon, haddock filets, lobster meat and eggs. We are planning to make seafood chowder for our Valentine’s Day supper so we’ll be using most of this tomorrow. Mmm… seafood chowder.

Next up was a trip to the grocery store where we bought the rest of our supplies for the week. This was a much better experience than in the big city last week. The store was almost empty and we found an open cashier when we were ready to check out. Hubby actually made it out of the store in a good humour.



We found some good deals on produce. We got 4 red peppers and 4 green peppers for $5 so I guess we will be having some stir fries this week. Maybe some quesadillas again, they’re always great. The grapes and the bananas were also on sale. We won’t have to shop now for another week because I have lots of meat in the freezer and there will be leftovers from fondue tonight. The total damage for groceries at the store was $60.04 and $35.25 at the farmer’s market



Stay tuned for some pictures of our fondue. I’m going to go get it ready now and then watch some of the Olympics.

Pizza Night, Yummy!

Saturday night was pizza night, as you may have already read. It's always a big deal around here because we just don't order takeout any more. Greco? I don't think so! Besides, there is nothing like home-made pizza. We are even back to making our own dough again after our experience with the dough we bought from our local bakery. We used to make the dough at home all the time but we were getting lazy, I guess. There is a time factor, too. It takes quite a while to put the recipe together, let it rise, roll it out and rest. The results are worth the effort and making your own allows you to experiment. This time we added a couple of tablespoons of the farm market honey to the liquid ingredients before we added them to the dry ones. I turned out great, crispy-chewy and tasty.















So here are some pictures of it all going together. When we make pizza we always make extra to freeze for later. I say that just so you don't think that we ate it all at one go. Anyway, we need to have extra just in case someone shows up at suppertime (yeah, right...). By the way, the bacon we mentioned previously was perfect. Not too salty and with a nice little smokey flavour. Our thanks to the happy pigs!

Farmers market.

We got up nice and early this morning so that we could go to our local farmer’s market. I forgot the camera which pissed me off because I was really hoping to post some pictures. I'll have to save that idea for a later time.

The farmer’s market is great source of fresh, locally produced products. There are lots of veggies, meats and eggs, of course, but there are lots of crafts, art pieces and prepared foods as well. We bought some salmon, halibut, organic mushrooms, multigrain bread, bacon and pepperoni. Tonight is pizza night so the bacon and pepperoni won't last long. The fish will be for supper later this week. I'm really interested to see how this bacon cooks up because it is naturally smoked with no sulphites or other preservatives added. This farmer’s animals are all free range, so lots of happy pigs, and he has a huge following of shoppers just lining up every weekend to buy his pork. This industry has really suffered in the last few years, along with beef producers, and I really do want to buy from local farmers because it will be a very sad day to see them close up shop. I don't want my meat products coming from other countries or even other provinces in Canada. So I've been really trying hard to buy products made here on the Witch’s Island as much as we can.



A couple of months ago we bought some really nice liquid honey there. I’ve been raving about it ever since and we bought up almost all the remaining stock to give as Christmas gifts, it was that good. It’s the best and the beekeeper is a super nice, too. She refers to the bees as “my girls”. You just can't get that interaction from buying a jar of honey off the shelf at your super-mega big-box grocery warehouse.



In fact, we’re pretty lucky that there is a second farmer’s market close to home. We were there last weekend and came across a booth selling exotic spices. I know that the spices are probably not grown locally but then they couldn’t have been, could they? The vendor is an independent small businesswoman and that’s what’s important. We bought some smokey Hungarian paprika, some hot chipotle chili powder and some Schezuan peppercorns. We’ve already used the paprika on some chicken nuggets we had for supper this week. We tried the chipotle chili powder on some oven “fries” the same evening. Both spices were excellent and different from others that we have tried, well worth the cost!

I would really recommend the extra time to find a farmers market near you. You will find some tasty foods, maybe make some new friends and help some farmers survive in what might one day be a forgotten trade.

Home-made Seafood Chowder

This is what our New Year's Day supper looked like. It tasted even better than it looks. I wish I could have shared some with you, but I will share our recipe instead, if you are interested. It's very easy to make. We had purchased the lobster meat frozen at our local farmers market for $10.00 and it was all claws and knuckle meat only. We got the scallops there, too.

It was perfect meal to end a perfect first day in 2010.
Bon appetite.


Seafood Chowder

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. scallops, thawed if frozen, chopped if large
• 8 oz. lobster meat, thawed if frozen
• 6 to 8 20/24 size shrimp, cooked, peeled and chopped into 4 pieces each
• 5 slices bacon, chopped into ½ inch pieces
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup diced peeled potatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 3 mushrooms, diced
• 1/4 cup diced carrot
• 1 cup fish, vegetable or chicken stock
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/8 tsp. white pepper
• 1/4 tsp. dried marjoram
• 2 cups skim milk
• ½ cup cream
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup white wine (optional, reduce milk if using)

Preparation:

In large stockpot, cook bacon until crisp; remove from pan, drain on paper towels, and set aside. In drippings, place scallops and cook for 3-4 minutes until opaque. Remove scallops from pot and set aside.

In drippings in pot, add onion, potatoes and celery and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add stock and bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 8-10 minutes until potatoes are tender.

In medium bowl, combine flour, marjoram, pepper, milk, cream and mix with wire whisk until blended. Add to pot along with corn and bacon and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium heat for 12 minutes, stirring often, until soup has thickened and vegetables are tender. Add cooked scallops, lobster and shrimp and simmer for 3-4 minutes until the seafood is thoroughly heated.

4 servings

Adapted from recipe found here.

Busy end to November.

We have a had a very busy weekend,as you are about to see. Yesterday was a beautiful day so we took advantage of the weather and collected some greenery for decorating outside. We also drove into town to do some shopping and to visit the Farmer's Market. I really love going there and I actually spent quite a bit of money yesterday. We bought some fresh salmon portions for dinner last night and some frozen lobster meat for chowder sometime soon. We also got some beautiful small potatoes, all washed so clean that all we had to do for supper was throw them straight into the cooking pot. The homemade bread we bought made great toast for our breakfast this morning. It was even better topped with some locally produced honey. We're also going to try glazing tonight's roast chicken with some of that honey, too.

In the handicraft section I found a beautiful hand made beaded bracelet and earring set for $10.00. No, is was not for me! Hubby would kill me buying things for myself this close to Christmas. I bought this as a secret Santa gift for someone at work.




























Today we cleaned the house and started to put out some of our decorations and crafts around the inside. I was going to start my cookie dough this afternoon but honestly I'm just too tired and not in the mood to start baking today. There's always tomorrow, right?