To Bee’s Wrap or not to Bee’s Wrap

Using the Bee's wrap bread wrap for my homemade sourdough

Hey friends! And strangers! And how has the first week of May treated you? Wonderfully I hope! I committed myself to having a mellow week and so far so good. Last weekend I got a little out of control making all things dandelion. Things such as dandelion honey butter, dandelion shortbread, dandelion and cranberry sourdough, dandelion pesto! Along with helping a friend start her own batch of dandelion wine. And let’s not forget the rhubarb soda, a huge shepherds pie and sourdough pizza dough! It was fun and interesting! But it was a lot of time in the kitchen. A lot of time with my hands in soapy water. So to give my hands a break I have kept the culinary experiments to a minimum, letting my fella take over some.

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How to Make a Ginger Bug for Traditional Sodas

Making a ginger bug for traditional soda making

Can you believe that tomorrow is May? May! The fifth month of 2017. That is one month away from halfway! I sometimes have to take a minute, have a breath, and swallow the anxiety that the year is passing right on by and I’m not making the most of it. I have a tendency to mentally get ahead and find I have to reign myself in. Remind myself to live in the moment and enjoy the right now. That tomorrows chores, plans, desires will arrive and I will make the most out of them at that time. It can be hard! But breathing helps. Let’s breathe…

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Homemade Dandelion Wine

Making homemade dandelion wine

A little over a year ago, early April weather was like summer and everything seemed to be a little ahead of schedule. The yard was covered with those lovely yellow flowers that most home owners grumble about, buying some toxic chemical to spray them with, hoping to never see their little yellow blossoms again. I can remember as a child, begrudgingly sitting in the gravel with a screwdriver pulling them out. Trying desperately to get the root, hearing my mothers voice “they’ll just come back if you don’t get the root”. My mom loves her yard and she has always had one that’s a pleasure to look at.

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The Chicken or The Easter Egg

Collecting the chicken eggs

Good Easter morning! If you celebrate that sort of thing. If not, Good regular morning! I hope you have a full mug of coffee (or tea!) and a comfortable place to cozy up in. I hope that this Sunday finds you relaxed and content. Maybe you have a large family feast to put together for tonight. Or perhaps it’s just like any other Sunday, with the added benefit of a long weekend. However you find yourself, you’re reading this and I hope you enjoy.

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Not Your Grandma’s Sourdough

Homemade sourdough no knead bread

Hello readers! Here I am again, putting pen to …..uh… well making words you can read! If you read my last post you know that I was finding dilemmas about posting here but I am resolved to make this a place I can share without the pressures of “is it good enough?” or a nagging self doubt.

Have any of you watched the Netflix series called Cooked? It’s a four part series about food with each episode focusing on foods/methods linked to earth, air, fire and water. I won’t get too into it but I highly recommend you check them out. The episode that really blew me away, and in a way changed my life, was the “air” episode. I learned so much about bread! Things that had never even occurred to me. Like what exactly is bread? When you break it down to basics. And what is sourdough really? And why do you need a starter? Does grandma have to give said starter to you?

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Hello Strangers

Hello Strangers!

Exploring in the snow with the beast

It’s been a near impossible thing for me to be regular on this blog! I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. Seeing as my last post was months ago and the one before that, quite some time as well. As sporadic as I am with it though I can’t bare to give it up. I keep it, and look at it, and tell myself I should be writing on it. But what to write?

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Dairy Free Cranberry Rosemary Crisps

Homemade dairy free cranberry rosemary crisps

Not long ago I made my first batch of cranberry rosemary crisps and when I shared a photo of my finished product there was quite a bit of interest. So I thought I’d make them again and share it here for anyone with a desire to try! It all started with boxing day lunch. My fella had given me some delicious unpasteurized goat cheese, imported from France, and Raincoast Crisps crackers as part of my Christmas gift. So we were enjoying a fruit and cheese arrangement for lunch. I was looking at the crisps thinking how uncomplicated they were. “I can make these!” I decided.

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Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

A while back, when fall still felt like fall, and there was no snow on the ground, I was staring at a bag of apples from the yard, debating what to do with them. The idea of hard cider crossed my mind but I  wasn’t interested in taking on that kind of commitment. Then I thought vinegar! It’s a natural progression for apples anyways, making me more of a supervisor then a real participant in the process. I use quite a lot of apple cider vinegar in my cooking already. I have a simple salad dressing recipe, (I’ll share that later), that is my go to and the main ingredient is apple cider vinegar. Off to the beautiful internet to find some information.

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Overnight Hike on the Heather Trail

Overnight hike on the Heather Trail

It seems like for years now my cousin Sarah and I have been discussing an overnight hike together. It’s always “yeah! We have to do that soon!”, and then life gets busy and we forget about it. So when she threw out a date to me, August 6, I checked my calendar and said “yeah, that works for me!”. But I wasn’t totally confident it would happen. Then I got another message, “how about the heather trail in Manning Park?”. She meant business and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass.

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Sugar Free Applesauce

Picking apples to make sugar free applesauce

A few months back my fella and I decided to give cohabitation a go. Of course there was packing, listing and selling my condo, donating a large amount of things I owned to charity, cleaning, organizing, you know how it goes… Combining two adult lives into a cute, little farm house takes time and energy. Trying to change a “bachelor pad” into a cozy home can be a job in itself. But I’m happy to say that the effort has paid off and I’ve reached a level of great comfort with my companion in my new dwelling.

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