That time again II

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our local strawberry farm opened last week, and you better believe I was there during the opening hour on opening day. I picked two baskets before heading in to work, and the next morning went back to pick some more.

So far, we’ve been eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Still on the menu for this week: waffles with strawberry maple syrup.

I love this time of year.

Have you had many strawberries yet this year? How do you like to eat them? Does anyone else have a bowl of whip cream in the fridge? Who else has gone picking? Are you growing your own berries?

Medium rare with a side of blue air

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The result of writing a post showing your barbecue bursting into flames is that your in-laws send flyers full of barbecue sales home with your husband. As a result of those flyers, you arrive home later that week to find a very large box sitting in your foyer.

That very large box leads to a very big mess all over your living room as your husband assembles the new barbecue. It also results with you being kicked out of the house so that your husband can curse in private.

Readmission to the house is conditional on your participation in carrying the new barbecue outside, which results shortly thereafter in dinner–cooked by your husband.

So he took care of the shopping, the swearing, the constructing and the cooking. I’d say I got the better end of this deal.

Having a blast

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I suspect that the universe is trying to tell me that it’s not yet barbecue season. When I fired up the grill for the first time this year, I had a bit more fire than I expected.

Further investigation revealed additional flames around the pipe fittings on the underside.

Fortunately, the combustion was confined to fire and nothing actually exploded. Unfortunately, barbecue was not to be on the menu, and we had to rely on indoor appliances to salvage dinner.

Our barbecue is an old hand-me-down, so it may be time to replace it. However, I don’t like to give in that easily. Do you think it can be fixed? Tightening the fittings or maybe adding some teflon tape is a lot easier and cheaper than buying a new barbecue. Has anyone else had a problem like this? I’m open to advice for repairing barbecues or for grilling steaks. Any suggestions?

‘Twas a month before Christmas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

‘Twas a month before Christmas and all through the house, there was scrubbing and dusting and vacuuming the couch.

(Not a perfect rhyme, I know).

Despite my earlier anxieties about hosting a big Christmas dinner before we were finished with renovations, everything came together–new carpet included–and the house was pretty presentable by the time Matt’s family arrived for the party last Saturday.

My main focus was on just having everything clean, so decor was mostly limited to the tables (and with 17 people for dinner, we needed two tables and lots of extra chairs).

I kept things simple with my go-to cream table cloths, a burlap runner down the middle, khaki napkins, a single candle centrepiece, some greenery, pine cones and our wedding china and crystal

The inspiration for the theme came from Mrs. Limestone’s woodsy place cards. Stefanie’s engravings are beautiful, and the animals were perfect for our rural setting.

I adjusted them slightly for our party, eliminating the tag portion and adding people’s names in George Gibson, a cool handwriting font I found via The Art of Doing Stuff. Then I tucked them into pine cones I picked up from behind the house and slipped them between the cutlery on everyone’s napkins.

I love the attitude this porcupine has!

The other adjustment I made was on the back of the cards, where I printed little bits of trivia about each person’s animal.

It might be a little cheesy, but people did enjoy reading about their animals. Little known fact: the porcupine with the largest quills (nearly a foot long) lives in Africa.

Of course, the decor is only one small part of a successful dinner party. The most important part–the food!–was a hit as well. While I was running around in the freshly fallen snow, gathering tree boughs and searching for similarly-sized pine cones, Matt took charge of our 20 pound turkey.

The best part of this shot is he’s not mugging for the camera. This was his actual facial expression as he was getting intimate with the turkey.

The fruits of Matt’s labour: a perfectly cooked turkey, a pile of dirty dishes, a bowl of stuffing and a sink full of vegetable peelings. (And yes, he did the clean-up as well as the cooking).

Before, during and after at the Christmas party.

According to the camera’s memory card, I spent the party doing things other than taking pictures, so I don’t have much documentation from the rest of the day. By all reports a good time was had by all. To return to where we started:

“We heard them exclaim ‘ere they drove out of sight, happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Do you have a Christmas party to attend or host? A major meal to cook? A big cleaning blitz to complete? What’s your go-to decor for a dinner party? Anyone have any interesting porcupine facts or experiences to share?

The 20lb creature in my fridge

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

While my American readers are celebrating Thanksgiving, we have moved onto Christmas already up here in the north.

Tomorrow we’re hosting Matt’s Mom’s side of the family for an early Christmas dinner, and in between vacuuming up drywall dust and supervising the carpet installers who arrive this morning–giving new meaning to last minute party prep–we’ve added a new animal sighting to our list.

Although our Butterball is not exactly a wild animal

Thanks to Matt’s parents for venturing south of the border and braving American grocery shoppers to bring us this turkey. In addition to the obvious Thanksgiving date conflict between Canada and the U.S. I think we may have inadvertently undermined 200 years of peace when my MIL’s friend Marg grabbed the last three turkeys in the store so that we could have the pick of the poultry.

Matt’s pick is for the biggest turkey he can find. At 20 pounds, I think this guy fits the bill.

I’ll post a full party wrap-up next week. Until then, I’m setting aside all cultural differences to wish everyone a good weekend and all of my American readers a very happy Thanksgiving.

Taste is more than skin deep

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our beautiful spring blossoms have become slightly gnarly apples.

Nothing personal, but they’re just not that pretty

The tree appears to be pretty ancient and wild, so I didn’t have high hopes for its fruit. Especially when they turned out all lumpy and dimpled.

However, being the selfless individual that I am, I did pick one for a taste test to satisfy your curiosity.

First bite of my gnarly apple fresh off the tree

Surprisingly, it was really good. Nice and crisp and sweet. The dimples were just dimples and despite the apple’s appearance the taste did not suffer.

The expression on my face is not reflective of the taste of the apple. I think I was still giving photography instructions to Matt at this point. I’m starting to realize why there aren’t more photos of me on this blog. And yes, I did cut my hair, and yes, I am looking exhausted. I think this drywall blitz is starting to wear me out.

Has anyone else gone apple picking yet this fall? What’s your favourite kind?