I’m a little obsessed. I love growing garlic. I love eating it too of course. I love the smell of it. I love the earthy goodness of it. I love roasting it and using it in salad dressings, or marinating with it. Back at the end of July I harvested my garlic crop, which I…
Toronto’s Garlic Festival
A couple weeks ago we hit up the incredibly popular Toronto Garlic Festival, held at the Brickworks, which is right around the corner from my house. We went last year as well — and it was just as busy. Last year I was looking to beef up my garlic seed. I have been growing garlic…
Roasted Acorn Squash
My last post was about roasting a whole chicken. This here is a quick and easy recipe for making a comforting side dish that can roast right alongside that chicken so that all you have to do to complete the ensemble is toss together a quick salad. This is a “throw it in the oven and forget it”…
I butchered this chicken
OK I didn’t actually do “the deed” myself, my Mom did. My Mom gets all the credit for the husbandry too, given that I live in Toronto and keeping chickens is [ridiculously] illegal. But I did pluck, eviscerate and prep this bird for the freezer, along with about 40 others. I grew up on a…
Back to school
Last week I started a continuing education course at the University of Toronto, the foundations course and first of three required to obtain a certificate in Digital Strategy & Communications Management. As it turns out, one of the two major projects of the course is to start a blog. I wasn’t feeling too excited about…
Hello deer
Friday night I was doing a bit of plant clean up on my deck, the only real garden I’ve had in two years, when I noticed someone was staring back at me. I watched him for a while, as the squirrels dropped acorn bombs all around him. He was utterly unconcerned about the assault hailing down…
No longer a mud pit
Last night I came home from work to discover I have lawn. Lawn! No more mud, but a beautiful new front and back yard! Not to mention gardens waiting for plants. After nearly 9 months of living in, walking through and picking my way around mud. Finally! Despite the fact that we’re nearing the end…
Summertime and the weather is…?
Holy smokes. It’s been well over a month since I last posted. Bad Sarah. Boo. Sorry. We got our deck put in late June and then I just got down to enjoying summer. We’ve been on the road virtually every weekend since mid-June! I’m very excited that after a very long wait, our landscaping has…
Taking shape
Guys! It’s happening!! We finally got our permit for our deck and porch and holy crap they are under construction!! In probably less than a week I will be able to sit out and enjoy a cold beer on my brand new deck! And by late July our entire outdoor space, front and back, should…
Baby Boom
There’s been a veritable baby boom among our friends lately, so I’ve put together a couple quilts as gifts. I don’t feel these are my best work — I’m not totally thrilled with the colour and print choices, but I was trying to make due with the fabric I had on hand to try to work…