Shelves!

Kevin and I started working on these shelves about a week ago but we have been talking about them for months. We are so happy with them. They are totally level and not wobbly at all. And we think they look quite nice. We bought the big laminated boards for the shelves, that was the main expense. All the rest of the pieces are just made from standard 2x4s that I put through the table saw and the router.

We made the shelves in this little enclave that we created when we boxed in a duct that was put in when we got a new furnace. That was our project that we did at the beginning of September.

Christmas Cake and Pudding

I made a Christmas Pudding and 2 Christmas Cakes this past week giving them plenty of time to mature before Christmas time.

This is the pudding ready to be steamed
This is the cake batter and the 2 cakes out of the oven

Pepper and Squash Final Harvest

With all this frost I thought I better get in the peppers and squash. We got quite a few bell peppers and loads of cayenne peppers. The cayenne peppers are all still green but they must still taste like hot peppers I figure. And we got 30 squash but only about 10 big ones. I think the small ones will still taste good. And we've been enjoying eating our individual servings with dinner out of the tiny delicata squash so we think the small ones are good.

Hat done

I finally made something for myself. It is getting cold here and I couldn't find my hat that fits under my bike helmet so I had to quickly get to work on this one. (Of course I found the old one yesterday when I was almost done the new hat.) I used some yarn I bought from the thrift store for a dollar that I really like and the hat turned out perfect.

Oktoberfest Party

We had Kevin's extended family round for an Oktoberfest Party on Sunday. It went very well. Kevin and I made beer nuts and pretzels and other people brought sausages and sauerkraut and german desserts. Everyone was impressed with our baking but we just used these easy recipes.
http://www.recipezaar.com/My-Beer-Nuts-253351
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/03/fresh-pretzels.html

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I did my first turkey which turned out perfect. I made my own stuffing for the first time too and it was as good as my usual paxo brand. And all the veg was local and very tasty including the potatoes and carrots from the backyard. We are still waiting for our squash to loose their last bit of green lines but we had our first frost today so I guess I better bring them in.

Final Potato Harvest

We've been eating potatoes out of the garden since June so a lot of them have been harvested already but I pulled up the remaining. I got a whole five of the 3 litre basket full. Now I just have to find a good place to store them.

Summer Baby Shoes

I made these yesterday and I love them. I used this pattern and I think they turned out very professional.
http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/blog/cloth_shoe.pdf

Quince Jelly

Our quince bush was full of quinces so we harvested them to make some jelly. We got a little over 5 pounds of quince. We used the instructions here
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/quince_jelly/

Last year we made apple and quince jelly which was good - nice and sour. This year's should be even more sour without the apples. We had to throw away most of last year's because of mold but that was the first thing we had ever ever canned and we didn't have a proper rack or jar lifter or lid lifter so I'm sure they won't get moldy this time.

Huge Compost Bin

I finally got a staple gun that was tough enough and finished my big compost bin. It is 10' x 2', fitting perfectly at the side of the house - the compost bin. I am hoping with this new addition along with saving bigger sticks to burn in the firepit I won't have to put any leaves or garden waste at the curb.


At the same time, I finally made the second cold frame. Here is some mache sprouting inside the old cold frame (they are both just filled with mache for this year). It has gotten so cold so suddenly though, I just hope it has time to grow.

Portugese Corn Bread

I tried a new recipe from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day book for Portugese corn bread. It was good, not as cornmeal-y as I would have liked, tasted just a bit different than regular white crusty bread. The crust was really really good though so I definitely will make it again.

We ate it with a soup of squash, carrots, the very last of the garden green beans, potatoes, and black eyed peas. And later that evening we roasted and ate the squash seeds.

Cottage Pie with Cabbage

Out of the cabbage patch we only got one nice big cabbage and it's been a good size for a few weeks now but I was leaving it in the garden until I was ready to eat it. And of course after it's survived all these months and turned into a beautiful full grown head of cabbage, now the slugs become interested in it. All of a sudden it got attacked and I lost about half of it.


But after cutting it up, I still got quite a lot - so much that I think I will try cutting into some of the smaller cabbage heads, probably enough in there to make it worthwhile.


The only thing I know that I like with cabbage is sweet and sour cabbage and because this is the combination I always had when I was growing up I only think it goes with cottage pie. So that is what we had for dinner tonight. It was good and used up some potatoes and carrots (including that curly carrot!) from the garden plus oregano and some mushrooms from our basement
mushroom garden.

First Ultrasound at 18 Weeks

The baby is growing. Here is the first ultrasound at 18 weeks. I don't know if I am biased because it is my baby but I honestly believe that it is the cutest ultrasound picture I have ever seen in my whole life.
I am almost 19 weeks now. Just a few days ago I started being able to feel the baby move around a bit if I am in the right position but am still waiting till I get to feel it more.