October 2017

corn field in fall
Jim

It’s Autumn. Summer chores are slowing, and will soon reach an end. All the hay has been hauled and stacked. You can literally watch the farm change from one day to the next. Each morning is new and different and exciting. The colours dance from every tree and every shrub. You can’t look down a fence line and see the same thing you saw yesterday. The leaves are a brighter red, the rose hips look richer, the grass and wild grains have become more golden. It’s always new, almost by the glance there’s something there that was not the day before.

Yellows, oranges, reds, browns and left-over greens sprinkled in. And if all that colour wasn’t enough, take a deep gulp of that air. You’ll never breathe anything like it any other time of year. It’s cool and quiet and crisp and full of scents from every grass every leaf, every pond, and every field. You will feel full to the brim just breathing all this in. There is no other time of year when your senses become so heightened and aware of everything that surrounds you as they do now.

This is autumn, and I can’t imagine a soul who wouldn’t fall in love with her.

Even better, it’s the start of the visiting season. It’s that time of year when the gentler days allow you to take that oft-delayed visit. It’s tough to do in the summer, but not so now. There’s no need to worry about rain or drought or pasture fences or water supplies or, or, or. It’s the season that has the two best holidays. You get to celebrate with an oven roasted stuffed turkey on one holiday and have the bejesus scared out of you on the other. Honestly, you can’t beat Thanksgiving AND Halloween! I love when it’s not too cold out, there’s no place to be, and no chores for me to tackle.

All you need to do, is take your time and use it to have coffee with a neighbour, enjoy some time with your family and find someone to scare the daylights out of!

Start with the visiting. Twyla and I have a number of ‘must sees’ on our list and beginning this weekend we will get on the phone, make some calls and try to figure out whom we get to see first. I confess, Twyla is much more of a social butterfly than I am, so she’ll be making most of these arrangements.

 

Of course we won’t be off to anyone’s house this weekend for coffee.

We can’t. We already have plans to attend the Spooktacular at Fort Edmonton. It promises to be a lot of fun. We’ve done this before and so know a little of what to expect. I can’t wait for it all to begin! We promise to tell you all about it and include pictures of our costumes when we get back home.

Come to think of, you could say that this weekend we will be combining a little of our visiting time with a little of our spine-tingling entertainment since there is a group of six of us going together. Fort Edmonton is beautiful all year round, and is the absolute best in autumn. And best of all, we’ll be costumed up!

On a side note, I also have some scary stuff planned soon. After all it is Halloween.

Someone has to get good and spooked, don’t you think? Now I’m not going to name names but we have one particular neighbour that is deathly afraid of Ouija boards. Who knows why? It’s not logical. We have a decorative Ouija couch throw pillow. You can literally chase her with it. I’m guessing she thinks if it touches her skin she’ll have a curse placed upon her. Maybe, something that changes her into a black crow with one wing, and a broken beak and that continually flies into the same pain of glass for all eternity. That’s just a guess folks…I don’t actually know anything about curses.  😉

So anyway, this autumn I was able to find a very old wooden chipped and worn Ouija board at a pawnshop. It’s seen some crazy hard miles from it’s planchette, just judging from the missing letter paint.  Much of the surface and finish has been scraped completely off.  Well I bought that Ouija board and have it tucked safe and sound somewhere inside her house.  When it’s dark and cold and windy and spooky and when the time is just right she’s going to ‘stumble’ onto that old antique. I’m hoping I have the good fortune of having my phone ready to record it when it happens. Something tells me that video will be worth loading onto the blog!

Happy Halloween everyone!

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girl cutting apples
Brenna

Last night, I had the time of my life cooking with two wonderful women.

Living across the country from my family is not always easy. It has been exciting and challenging and difficult, although I would not trade it for anything in the world. I have learned some hard lessons and things about myself: one of those things being the absolute necessity of female friendships.

I have a lot to thank the women in my family for.

They taught me how to bake, the importance of patience, and the value of knowing your own strength. They taught me to trust myself, how to be there for others, and all the best swear words (thanks Margret 😉). Not all the lessons I learned from them were spoken, most often they were from a look or a smile, and I think the majority of them were learned toiling over food. I’ve said before that I love how cooking brings people together and while that is certainly true of eating, it’s true of all the time put into the food as well.

I love the silent camaraderie of working on a project alongside someone. And I love this even more when the project involves food.

It has been a long time since I have had a traditional Thanksgiving feast! Being a few provinces away from my family leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to family holidays. My first year in Ottawa my mom (and aunt, and cousins, much to my surprise) made the journey out to see me! It was a wonderful surprise and memorable weekend with my family. I’ve been lucky enough to be embraced by my beau’s family for the past four Thanksgivings, so all in all I have nothing to complain about. However, I can’t help but miss home this time of year.

This year, my roommate and I are hosting a belated Thanksgiving for our friends, or “Friendsgiving”.

I think the event will be a blast, and I am so excited for the food! It is rare we all get a chance to take a break from our busy schedules to visit and feast. And if it is half as fun as the prep work it will be a guaranteed blast.

I think the fellowship of cooking is heightened when preparing for an event, as a task that might usually be boring can become a work of art. After all, you are no longer just making something for yourself. Regular tasks become festive, and the anticipation is palpable. I am so glad I got to work alongside two friends who have become much more like family. (Real talk though, Hannah uses Tenderflake in her pie crust, so I think my family might just adopt her).

Here I would like to extend my most sincere thank you to two wonderful friends.

I won’t lie, I was very daunted at the thought of co-hosting a Thanksgiving celebration. My Mom, and aunts, and grandma produce the most amazing of Thanksgiving feasts. I couldn’t help but wonder how it would be possible to pull off a feat like this without them. But with the help of you two, I think we did it! Also because Meaghan is my soul sister when it comes to love of all things pumpkin ( PUMPKIN GNOCCHI HERE WE COME!).

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I loved getting flour all over the kitchen, and organizing spray painted gourds on the table. I enjoyed the peeling, and chopping, and rolling, and boiling, and mixing and cleaning that we powered through last night. But most of all, I love you guys. Thank you for reminding me how powerful the quiet bond of cooking is. You reminded me the importance of having women in your life that you can dance around the kitchen and sing Fleetwood Mac with. You make my heart happy, and I am thankful.

 

 

 

 

 

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Twyla

Each year, the second Monday of October, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. A counterpart celebration to a Thursday in late November for our neighours South of the 49th parallel. A time for gratitude and family, and to switch to colder weather clothing. Our seasons are more pronounced here in the prairie provinces. Especially Summer and Winter. Some years it feels as though we glaze past Spring and Fall in far too big a hurry. Our days are already noticeably shorter! Beautiful autumnal foliage abounds, brought on by dropping temperatures and a few brief dalliances with snow. Warm toned leaves holding on for dear life as brisk winds sweep over our landscapes.

Yes, it’s sweater season. Add a toque. A scarf. Maybe even wool socks. Boots.

But we don’t mind, us hearty Canucks are happy for anything above -40°C! Our thankfulness and appreciation worn on our shirtsleeves this time of year, as we celebrated our Thanksgiving this last weekend.

This is a time for family, reflection, appreciation and great food.

When we gather for a family meal, it is a feast! Generations of stuffing and gravy making skills have culminated in our kin. We produce fantastic fares for the holidays. Tips and tricks passed on through the lineage, create pleasing experiences for the eye, palate and stomach. While we tend to stick to the tried and true, every once in a while a new recipe joins the fold.

I could go on and on about my pride in family and family gatherings. I love them so dearly. But today I’m stuck on one aspect of the get-together: dessert!

Talk about blessings, I was born into a long line of very gifted women in the kitchen.

Pies are the Thanksgiving dessert of choice in our clan. All sorts of fruit pies, made from scratch, with love. My earliest pie memories; Grandma Nellie made the best apple pies. For many years, Mom took on the endeavour. She claims that she never cared for making pies. But obviously enough to make them great. Her lemon meringue pie cannot be beat!

I believe I was about 12 years old when I learned to bake pies. I quickly garnered it’s much more involved than muffins, breads or cakes; there is an art to it. And for some reason, just like my Mom, to this day, I’ve never baked just one. If I’m committing to bake a pie, a minimum of 6 are created. I laugh to myself, while skimming a magazine or Pinterest, when I encounter a recipe for a single piecrust, I immediately dismiss it. If the first ingredient listed doesn’t ask for 4 or more cups of flour, this recipe is not for me. It simply seems disrespectful to the craft!

I’ve made my fair share of pies over the years.

For family meals, special events, and just because. I take great joy in the process and the end products. As a young girl, Brenna took to these pastries!  A natural, if not a little messy, in the kitchen. After a few years of refining her skills, I think she was  about 14 when she made them the first time for the family Thanksgiving meal. They were amazing! Pies quickly became her specialty. She soon tweaked and reinvented and expanded her repertoire. We gladly sampled her fares.

This year, while Brenna remains clear across the country. Her cousin Kenny stepped up to the task!  True to teenager form, she even experimented with a new found piecrust recipe! Dangerous territory.  The results were tantalizing. Sitting there that evening, slicing through the flaky layers on my way through a gorgeous slice of peach pie. I knew exactly what I was most thankful for. Each beautiful bakers’ rendition of a classic recipe. Pie. Good old fashioned, home made pie, created and eaten with love. Pie. Tradition.

 

 

 

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