(Few) Words

Hi everyone!

Wow, it certainly has been a long time since I've posted anything on this blog. That being said, I'm going to make this short and sweet.

1) My excuse for not blogging is that I simply needed to take a break. The last 4 months have been extremely busy. I graduated from Teachers College, went through 3 mediocre full time jobs, spent a lot of time on the road, and tried to make the best of whatever was left of the summer. 

2) I recently started a full time teaching job. Those of you who teach know how exhausting this can be. 

3) My goal is to start blogging again, since I've now realized you need hobbies outside of work or else you will drive yourself crazy. That being said (and this is for my mom) I am not going to go blog-happy since I need to spend my time on lesson plans, marking, etc. etc. etc...

Please stop in again soon! I am hoping to have a more regular posting routine established soon. 

PS - This blog is officially over a year old. Can you believe it?? 

A Couple of Soups for Summer Evenings

Boring title, I know, but this pretty much sums up the post. I'm a big a fan of soup! I'm sure I've expressed those feelings on the blog before, but there's something so great about making dinner once on Sunday, then having enough food to feed you until Friday. Awesome! Not that soups ever last that long around here. I tend to make smaller batches these days since I don't usually follow recipes anymore, and Adam isn't the biggest fan of soup (although he eats whatever I put in front of him), so I'd rather make less instead of potentially waste good food.


Making soup summer friendly is easy! I stick to fresh and local ingredients, and the intermingling of tastes do the work for you. I am a fan of lighter soups in spring and summer, but when I'm super hungry I won't shy away from hearty ones, either. Usually I will toss in some potatoes or serve it with a chunk of bread if that is the case -- or both!

Asparagus, Potato, and Pea Soup (all ingredients locally sourced -- except the olive oil and black pepper...salt was actually from my hometown, haha!)

Another way I decide if I soup is "summery" or not is based on where it originates from. I feel like soups from warm-weather places fall under this category, so I throw caution to the wind and whip up a big pot. 

Harira -- Moroccan Bean Soup (not quite as local, but made with a bunch of pantry staples! This recipe is from Global Vegetarian Cooking by Troth Wells and is pretty fantastic)

As soon as my tomatoes ripen I would love to make some gazpacho...gotta love those dog days of summer!

Garden Update: 8 Weeks

My little garden is blossoming (no pun intended) into quite the producer, lately! It's been 8 weeks since the plants have been tucked into the earth, and so far they are coming along quite nicely (with a few disappointments here and there). Here is the official update:

• The red bugs are (mostly) gone! I credit cayenne pepper and hand squishing (I was wearing gloves). Thankfully, my basil has almost made a full recovery!
• The herbs are crazy producers! As far as I'm concerned, they've paid for themselves already. I harvest a large bag of herbs each week.
• My purple ruffles basil is turning green.
• I have one little zucchini growing away! Hopefully it will be ready for harvest soon.
• The tumbling tom tomatoes have already been coming in; we've harvested about 10 already!
• I've gotten a couple handfuls of green and yellow beans, but nothing too outstanding yet. To be honest with you, I'm surprised they're not as prolific as I expected them to be.
• Speaking of prolific, my pickling cukes are INSANE. There's a few ready every day for harvest. I enjoy eating them raw, although I would like to try to pickle some of them before summer's end.
• The larger variety tomatoes are beginning to ripen (although a racoon stole some of the green ones before they made it to that stage).
• About 6 san marzano tomatoes developed rot on the bottom and had to be tossed. It's been so humid, I'm honestly surprised it's not a larger number.
• My zucchini and squash plants have some bizarre looking greyish-white mold on the leaves. Does anyone know what this is from?
• The kale is growing very well in a planter, and I think next year I might keep it in the same place.
• Does ANYONE know what to do with turkish eggplant???

I will leave you with some photos!

Summer Survival

Some of you might know I've been going through a bit of a funk lately. You can call it whatever fancy name you want, but to be honest with you, I'm going to refer to it as post-graduate depression. Finishing school (finally, once and for all) was a huge relief. I'm 26. I don't want to be a full time student anymore, and I want to just move on with my life. School can be such a huge part of your identity; it defined my life during my high school years, undergraduate years, and then through teachers college. Now I'm faced with the huge task of having to reinvent myself. Yes, I am a teacher. No, I don't have a teaching job, or any prospects of one. I've applied to every teaching and teaching related job that crosses my path that's within a realistic vicinity. The tanking economy has affected millions of people, and I am just one of them. I realize my problems are small compared to those who are truly struggling.


I've resigned myself to going back into retail. It's not terrible, but if it's not what you want to do in life, then what's the point? Quite frankly, I don't want my potential students to be my coworkers. I've done that for three years, and I'm ready to move on. While it's easy to be pessimistic (I admittedly fall into this trap) I'm striving to see the silver lining. I'm still young and have my whole life ahead of me, yet I'm stuck with student loans that need to be repaid and a job that doesn't pay what my education reflects. I want to teach; I want to do something I love; and I want to start making up for the cost of my post secondary education. 


I know I will eventually be able to achieve this, but right now it's really hard to wait. I'm not the most patient individual, and at the current moment I feel like I'm taking a step backwards in my life. Or that I'm sort of stuck in a rut. I can volunteer and take all of the extra courses I want, but ultimately I just have to keep waiting and keep being proactive. It is certainly not the greatest tragedy in life. I am fortunate to at least have career options and I can still put food on the table. I don't have a mortgage to pay or children to rear. I am extremely thankful to have a loving and supportive partner. Nonetheless, my life feels incomplete somehow.


Not exactly sure what the true meaning of happiness is or where it lies for me. I take pleasure in not defining myself by my career when the going gets tough -- I am a learner, a gardener, a cook, a crazy cat lady. I enjoy my hobbies and this gets me through my days. I take time to enjoy the little things when I can. I have made peace with my finances, as I now realize money doesn't buy happiness. I prefer to help others, read books, bask in the sun, and eat delicious things. I am content with living with much less than I have for the last 25 years.


I'm not entirely sure where the path lies for me, but I want to document my thoughts now so I can look back on this in a year or two and feel grateful for where I've ended up. Whether it's in Canada or somewhere else, I am open to accepting whatever personal challenges life throws at me.

Summer...Where Are You Going?

Hello dear friends and family! I've managed to crawl out of hole to put up another blog post. Life has been too busy lately (what else is new?) with things I'd prefer to not spend time doing. Like work. My return to working has me on my feet for 8 hours and more, so by the time I get home I'm just too tired to do anything. Clean, cook, do laundry, buy groceries...my place is a mess! Or it was. I finally managed to get a grip on reality this week and get my life together. After 3 consecutive days of buying lunch and coffee, I'm ready to add cooking and baking back into my routine. Even though it means spending an extra hour or two standing in the kitchen, the outcome is worth the effort. There's nothing quite like a home cooked meal that's full of fresh farmers market produce. I still try to make time to venture down there on the weekends, so at least I have some healthy things in the fridge, and so I have options for tossing together a quick weeknight (or weekend) meal. 


I have a huge backlog of pictures I've never managed to put up, up I might as well get them out of the way now. Hopefully these might inspire me to set some time aside for good food again:

Banana Carob Chip Muffins

Penne with Roasted Beets, Asparagus, Feta, and Sauteed Beet Tops

Tomato Basil Sandwich with Vegenaise and Garlic Scape Pesto

This is a Jae Steele recipe from Ripe From Around Here. Can'r remember the exact title of the recipe, but it might contain the words "spring," "sesame," and "noodles." Hmm.

Bean and Rice Wrap

Local Potato Salad (my herbs, my beans, farmers market potatoes)

Cucumber Tomato Salad and Corn, Dill , and Chickpea Potato Salad (anyone see the St. Ambroise Raspberry Ale in the background?? The perfect summer beer!)

Moroccan Feast! Cous Cous (from Color Me Vegan, with a few modifications), salad with a cumin and lemon vinagrette, and Dreena Burton's falafels [baked] (from Let Them Eat Vegan...can't recall the recipe title, sorry!) with homemade Harissa

All of these recipes can be prepared in under an hour, and most of that time is spent just waiting for things to bake or marinate. These pictures are from a few weeks ago -- I wish I was eating this well now! Anyone else have any ideas for some quickie meals?

Garden Update: Roughly 5-6 Weeks In

I think it's about time for a garden update!


There are so many things I've learned since embarking upon this little (or big, depending on who you ask) journey of growing my own herbs and vegetables this summer. I recently read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and she puts forth some really good suggestions for gardeners that I wish I would've done, had I read the book sooner. One of the things Kingsolver recommends is to keep a garden diary or journal. I was depending on photographing the entire process of the garden, but all I ended up with was a few hastily taken and rather blurry cell phone shots, devoid of any detail. After I've been working outside all day, taking pictures is not really another task I'm up to completing. Regardless, I've been attempting to make mental notes and take photos here and there of what was worked and what has not. A brief summary of our progress so far:

• We only got about 4 pea pods! The plant became infested with bugs and soon became dried up and dead. I wonder if it didn't get enough water? Today I ripped out the dead part (I bought 3 pea plants; one died and two are still living) hoping that the rest might produce something else by the end of the summer. I think the real problem with the peas was the fact that they needed to be put in the ground earlier, and the excessive heat may have been too much for the poor things to handle.
• Arugula is indestructible! I started mine from seed, and it got messed with twice -- once by a squirrel who buried nuts under it, and once by a raccoon who tipped over the entire planter, forcing Adam's mom to painstakingly replant it. I suppose there's two lessons to be learned here: 1) arugula lives on, and 2) squirrel and raccoon proof whatever you can! For us, that meant fastening the planter securely to the railing so next time it won't topple.
• Trimming the suckers off your tomato plants and the dead matter off your other plants is a good idea. I'm shocked at how much our tomatoes appear to be thriving, and it's still early July!
• Bugs don't like kale. It's one of the few plants I haven't had to worry about in terms of pest infestation.
• Humidity = BUGS. Lots of bugs! Specifically, what I believe to be asiatic lily beetles. Killing them by hand is disgusting, but so far I'm not entirely sure how to get rid of them. I have made a garlic pepper spray in hopes that it will maintain the integrity of our organic operation without killing too many good bugs. I will be sure to report the results of this newly concocted death elixir as soon as I try it out.
• If you are serious about growing and eating your own grub, make sure you grow things you can enjoy in the spring, or else you will go hungry. Next year, I plan on planting veggies that can be harvested in spring (like rhubarb, asparagus, etc.) so I can buy fewer things from the grocery store.
• If you like lettuce, have an arsenal of plants on hand. I have two, and it's not nearly enough! Next year I will plant several lettuce plants, since I love to eat salad in the spring and summer.
• Beans come relatively early, and they appear to be untouched by the bugs, although the leaves indicate otherwise (which was a great surprise!). I got a nice big handful of yellow and green beans today that I made into a perfectly summery salad. Recipe coming soon!
• Planting herbs is an invaluable investment. I can't tell you the number of times I've harvested fresh herbs so far, and it's still the beginning of summer. As far as I'm concerned, the plants have already paid for themselves!

That's about it for now...I'll post more info when the garden grows a bit more! I will leave you with some photos of our little slice of dirt.

This curious visitor was just watching me tend to the plants and wasn't shy at all!

Tomatoes, Fennel, and Rainbow Chard

Growing Ultra Pink Tomatoes

Fennel, Rainbow Chard, Green and Yellow Beans

Half-dead Peas :(

Acorn Squash in the Middle

More Tomatoes

Sugar Baby Melons

Pepper Plants

Arugula climbing towards the sky!

Herbs are still flourishing...

Pickling Cukes

Kale

Tumbling Tom Red

Herbs among flowers...these herbs are getting demolished by the beetles! Any tips??

3 Birthdays

Hi friends! Life has been good but busy here on my end, which explains my lack of posting. The last week of June and first week of July always seem to be a crazy time in my life, with lots of stuff going on! This is what I've been up to lately:

• Taking an additional qualifications course to teach ESL
• Making jam
• Celebrating 3 birthdays (Canada Day, Vanessa Day -- has a nice ring to it, no?, and Independence Day)
• Reading like my life depends on it
• GTL, minus the G, with a little bit of T and a whole lot of L

Raspberry Freezer Jam (Strawberry not pictured). I used this recipe!

Canada Day fireworks...the view from our condo was pretty spectacular!

26th birthday present to myself: necklace from India and earrings from Nepal! Source of the bracelet is unknown.

A little soy latte love. Say 'hi' to Adam's hairy arms!

Oakville's waterfront is gorgeous! This was taken about 5 minutes before that huge cloud on the right drenched us, haha! My face clearly shows my discomfort. 

Part of Adam's birthday gift to me was dinner at Coriander Green in downtown Oakville. These are the Vegetable Pakoras. 

Adam's Chicken Korma

Jira Rice

Garlic Naan

I ordered the Coriander Green Bhartha.

Adam also got me some beautiful flowers and this book, which I am very excited to read and use!

Lastly, happy Fourth of July to all of my American friends! If I was home right now I'd be celebrating right there with you! Instead, I might make some of these pizzas which look CRAZY DELICIOUS (minus the bacon, of course).