Monday, May 20, 2013

Garden Time!

Happy Victoria Day, Canada! 

During the month of May I'm usually a single lady since my full-time working husband spends a lot of his free time planting on the farm. Not today! We slept in, lounged around on the deck in our PJ's and had breakfast, hit the beach for lunch and did some much needed yard work this afternoon. My husband has been working his buns off on our new vegetable garden over the last few weeks and it's coming just about done.  We moved here last April and decided to skip planting a garden until we knew exactly where we wanted it and how big to make it.  We quickly realized that our challenge with a new vegetable garden would be the wildlife. Rabbits and squirrels and deer, OH MY!  We put up a chicken wire fence in hopes that will deter them.  Time will tell. We are looking forward to yummy home grown veggies this summer like we used to enjoy at our old place (seen here). Our old garden was so big that it was almost unmanageable (That's what she said).  This time around we are going to do a garden that isn't so overwhelming.  The rhubarb plants were here already so we worked around those.  My husband and I decided on the following crops for this year; sweet corn, spinach, romaine lettuce, green beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, asparagus (which will take a few years to yield anything), red peppers, red onions and tomatoes. Everything except the tomatoes were purchased from a local family owned farm market.  The tomato plants were purchased from a local supplier, 'The Tomato Patch' who caries 30 different types of unique and rare heirloom and open pollinated tomato plants (check them out here). I can't wait to see how the crops turn out -- hopefully the rabbits, squirrels and deer go easy...


Garden is to the right, behind the shed


This was a tiny garden and my hubby tripled the size!


Sunday, May 12, 2013

HMD

Happy Mother's Day
to all of my Mommy friends, my Mother-In-Law
and my beautiful Mother!
 
Life is so much sweeter with all of you in it! 
You deserve to have a restful day filled with a ton of love. Enjoy!
 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

One of those days...

Ever have one of those days where you feel the need to punch everyone between the eyes for no apparent reason? Yeah, me neither.....

I'm determined to get myself in a better mood. My awesome husband is turning another year older tomorrow and I want to try to make his day as special as possible. He is at soccer tonight so I decided to whip up a batch of muffins for him to have for breakfast tomorrow morning. Being in the kitchen is so therapeutic for me (Doing dishes is not!) A while ago I made a list of things that make me feel better. I tried many of these pick-me-ups throughout the day that certainly helped.



  • A Starbucks beverage of any sort    And it was free!!  BOOYA!
  • Snail mail
  • A compliment from a stranger (or student!)
  • My family! Talked with Mama tonight!
  • A pep talk from a good friend Skyped with a far away friend
  • Going out for dinner with my husband
  • Candles Have one lit right now
  • Going on a walk with my pup Done!
  • Will Farrell movies
  • Flowers Picked some from my garden tonight
  • Text messages in the middle of the day text with my brother xo
  • A dirty joke
  • Red wine
  • Music I always have music playing - in the car, shower, kitchen, on walks...
  • cooking Muffins; check!

  • Here is the recipe I used -- it's one I've posted on here before.  Don't eat too many of these since there is a lot of wheat bran in them and, well, you know....


    Yields: 1 dozen

    Chocolate Chip Bran Muffin Ingredients
    1 1/2 cups wheat bran
    1 cup milk
    1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
    1 egg
    2/3 cup brown sugar
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 cup whole wheat flour
    1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1/2 cup raisins/blueberries/chocolate chips (optional)

    Method
    Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin cups. Mix together wheat bran and milk; let stand for 10 minutes. Beat together apple sauce, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to milk/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into milk mixture, until just blended. Fold in raisins/berries/chocolate chips and spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool and enjoy!