Monday, September 22, 2014

It Finally Dawned Upon Me

And it was really time that dime fell ! I live in Quebec....At one point the temperature will fall and vegs will stop growing.

I've had a veggie garden for 10 years plus and I always try to wait until the last possible minute until I dig everything out...Crazy!

So last Saturday I decided to rip all the tomatoes out, because they won't grow anymore...Tomatoes do not like the cold...

So I kept all the big tomatoes (I will monitor them everyday) and all the cherry tomatoes that showed some sign of ripenning...




 So with h etomatoes gone I am able to let the kale grow a bit longeras well as the arugula

And I was really happy to see that the spicy yellow pepper was showing signs of re-growth!


So I might get  acouple of peppers before the frost!

Next year I will plant less tomatoes and more beans!

Sleep tight :)

Monday, September 15, 2014

So Soon

I can't believe how fast summer flew by!

It seems that just weeks ago I was planting tomatoes....

Yesterday was downright cold...7 Celsius (44 F)....BRRRR and cloudy. We worked all day outside, closing the veggie garden, mowing the lawn, cleaning the shed....

Here's some of the last harvest

 
So not too bad for a 6 by 3 box.
 
We actually got about 7 cukes and the cheery tomatoes will be plentiful.
I will need to bring all the other tomatoes inside to ripen because all are green.
 
Next year I will plant less tomatoes and more beans....
 
And now for some sight from the Morrisburg, Ont flea market....
 
 
 
A large doll head in a rain barrell
This is a must have for Halloween!


                                                   This was strange....

                                                    A garden lamp with fake flowers added on

                                                     I think it is meant to put near a grave...
                                                     The really freaky one .....to tell you the truth I was not confortable
                                                      taking pics,,,,,It is a swag with a light meant to sit on top of the
                                                      tombstone.....with fake flowers of course....

                                                      (Me NO like) 

                                                      Right now we are debating to start the furnase or not...

                                                      The NO side won so right now we will be wearing an extra
                                                       layer!

                                                       Back to DWTS.....who did you like? who you didn't?

                                                      Lert's chat!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Seen Around

 
Okay I can deal with Halloween stuff because it is in a month and a half...

But Xmas elves?  Way too early for me!
 
Now in the same drugstore I spotted a total blast from the past!
 

                               In my late teens/early 20s I lived on this stuff! French formula hair spray
                               Remember it was the 80's!!! I would use a can every 2 weeks, it was the stiffest
                               hair spray around! I put so much on I could walk in the rain and my hair would
                               stay dry! Good times!

                               Besides seeing these awesome things, what am I up to ? I have new responsabilities at the office and I am running like a hamster in the little wheel...and I am really tired at night....The fence is still not stained completely and I am praying for nice weather so we can finish it before the frost. And I started to close the veggie garden...

I am also hoping for some warm days so I can take a wee swim when I come back from work....

I kept the last pic for last because it really cracked me up,,,




   This is how you can tell the night has been heavy duty in downtown Montreal!

                              A forgotten pump in a planter. Is the woman looking for it?
                              I don't know. I always wonder how their owners lost the one shoe....

I guess we will NEVER know!

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Mexi what?

When I was 9 or 10 when had a cleaning lady that would come over on Thursdays...Her name was Maria and she came from the Accores. I guess part of the deal was that my mom was to feed her...and I don't really know how this happened but next thing we knew... The MEXICAN was born!!!

Did this concoction come from the Goodhousekeeping magazine that my mother enjoyed so? or McCall's ? I have no idea. What I know for sure is that my mom made it for Maria on Thursdays and then we were stuck with the leftovers....

In my family (really Dad, Dan and me) the word Mexican is a source of jokes and overall eeewww.

The Mexican was a casserole made of green bell pepper, cooked rice, canned tomatoes, ground beef and tomatoes. And it was cooked in a big orange Le Creuset casserole...the leftovers were left in the Le Creuset and shoved in the fridge.

Next day the Le Creuset was taken out of the fridge and soved in the oven and reheated for our eating pleasure (NOT)....the leftovers were re-shoved in the fridge and the next day reheated (in the same goddammed Le Creuset) and so on and so on....until Thursday when the circle started again!

I wished my mother had learned about freezing half of it and not reheating things endless times!!! Then again my mother thought food lasted forever in the fridge and if mold was present you could just cut it off and eat it and be happy!

When I inherited my mom's cookbooks, I don't remember seeing a recipe for THE MEXICAN, but looking back I probably just threw it out. Now 16 years later in the Kraft magazine...What do I see???

A mexican unstuffed pepper casserole! The ingredients were very similar but there was salsa instead of canned tomatoes and cheese!

You know what? It was really tasty and Dan loved it!
 
I added srirracha for some kick, switched white rice for brown rice and mild mexican cheese for habanero schredded cheese.
 
Here is the link just in case...
 
 
It is a great meal to stretch a buck!