No guests for Easter dinner?

Here's the good thing about not having any guests for Easter dinner.You each get 1/4 of the plum pie. ;-)

WSS warning

There I was innocently sitting down the other night to watch an episode of North and South, purely for my own educational improvement in certain areas of historical importance (wink, wink), when what should appear before my eyes but a White Shirt. A fine white shirt! Well...what's a WSS sufferer to do? Surely I couldn't turn it off, after all, we are in the middle of studies on the Industrial Revolution. As a mom to homelearning boys I consider it my duty to know all manner of Industrial Revolution type things...such as the inner workings of cotton mills, the class system of mill towns, what handsome young mill owners are wearing, etc. (turns out that they are wearing white shirts, who knew?) This particular mill owner could give Mr.Darcy a run for his money in the "best scowl" category...if there ever were such a category. (and oh how I wish there were) ;-) So...it turns out, that in the interest of thorough research, the only thing to do is to watch All Four Episodes of North and South in one sitting...and to stay up quite late to do so. That way, I can watch it all over again before it is due back at the library. You see what a dedicated mom to homelearners I am? :-)

The Future of Food and Seedy Saturday

We watched this film a few weeks ago and I keep thinking about it. We already grow most of our veg from heirloom seeds and we also save a lot of our own seeds but after watching this I feel compelled to do more...grow more, save more, share more, do more and talk more.

I want to be sure that more people know what is going on with our food and I want people to see how easy (and enjoyable) it is to grow more of our own. I want to share more seeds and encourage more excitement about growing, preserving and, most of all, eating fresh homegrown vegetables.

This film is full of lots of information on genetically-modified seeds, corporate control and seed patents. It also contains some information about some simple things that we can do - support local agriculture, save seeds, grow your own, etc. The second disc has some special features including an interview with Michael Pollan and a short film called How to Save Seeds from Vegetables by Underwood Gardens.

Just in case you want to get yourself some interesting seed varieties to get started for this year.


Seedy Saturday

Certified organic seeds, plants, many rare and heirloom varieties, especially tomatoes. There will also be music, food, planting kits, artwork, honey, lavender, speakers and more. Kelowna's Seedy Saturday will be at the Rutland Centennial Hall 180 Rutland Road North) again this year from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Remember to bring your saved seed to the seed swap table ~ a chance to perpetuate those family treasures, and acquire some new ones! Admission is by donation at the door to the Central Okanagan Community Gardens.

Many communities have Seedy Saturdays coming up in the next few weeks. They are a great place to meet people, find out more about gardening and get some great seeds or plants.

A fun book

E is really enjoying reading this book aloud to me. It is full of lots of silliness and has really fun illustrations. It is the story of a young wolf going out on a sort of coming-of-age journey; it is filled with all sorts of mishaps (aka - growth opportunities) ;-), adventure and challenges. I enjoy hearing him read Little Wolf's adventures to me but I most especially enjoy hearing the way Little Wolf signs off on his letters - Yours fedduply; Yours tiredoutly; Yours having a good think or Yours chinupply. I think I might start signing my letters that way too. ;-) I also like his little brother's name - Smellybreff. A very fun book.

Clear out your fridge (and freezer) chili

With the Spring sale from Rancho Vignola coming up, I wanted to be sure I had ample space to store my goodies.  I had chili at Heather's not too long ago, and although I ate my fair share, with so much good food to sample from, I didn't get quite enough to quench my cravings, so for this fridge clear out, chili won over soup.  Start with a crock pot and throw in whatever is taking up valuable date storage space is my recipe for this ;-)

In this particular batch, the base ingredient was a few containers of crushed, then frozen tomatoes from last years garden.  Next I threw in some chickpeas, navy beans, green peppers, onion, garlic and lots of chili powder.  Oh, and kidney beans from a can.  Then I left it to sit on low for hours.  In the last couple of hours of cooking, I added some cooked rice and grated carrots.  A yummy, simple meal ready at dinnertime and more room in your fridge and freezer. What a bonus ;-) 

Does size matter?

Well...if you like chocolate it does. :-)
Have you ever seen anything so amazing? Me neither. I didn't know there even was such a thing as a chocolate bar this big. Thankfully I have a friend who is very smart about such things. Dark chocolate with almonds and local cherries. It's so pretty I can hardly bear to open it. (wha ha ha ha) Thank you lovely friend. ;-)

Popcorn!

Here's a fun book to read if you are a popcorn fan. The boys and I read it and then, strangely enough, we started to feel a bit peckish...we needed a snack.

It seemed only sensible to have popcorn. E decided to try his "Almanzo style" with some milk and a bit of sugar over it. W said it tasted like "soggy popcorn" - surprise, surprise. ;-) E liked it.

I had mine with butter and Herbamare (have I ever said how hooked I am on Herbamare?).

For years we've eaten our popcorn with a seasoning mix that I mix up. We pop the corn and then drizzle it with some oil (usually olive or grapeseed with a bit of flax) and then sprinkle on the seasoning mix. The mix includes nutritional yeast (very yummy!), oregano, chili powder and sea salt. Speaking of which I totally forgot to make it on the last movie night. I can't believe you didn't remind me - especially you, Samantha. ;-) I guess we need another movie night to make up for it.