Olallieberry

Is it Spring Yet?

Mr Mylo has a new little friend. She is a 4 month old Himalayan Siamese cross, and she has just about the sweetest disposition we have ever seen. 

Mylo agrees. Hard as he tried to resist her charms, within  one week he has become completely besotted with her, as are we all. Sukhi (that's her name) is a rescue kitten and we knew immediately she was meant to be with us. We were right.

Apart from fawning over our new "baby", we have all been busy preparing for Easter. Baking, shopping, egg colouring, and cleaning. Sunday is our "meal day" and we will be hosting my parents who just returned home from their annual winter trip to Arizona. The Arizona weather has not followed them home and is still full blown yucky. We received our most recent snowfall yesterday which has not been a nice welcome for them. At this point we are making our own Spring, and Sukhi has certainly helped to raise the spirits around here. In any event, the sun is shining today. Fingers crossed.

Remember this post? Well, this year I broke down and spent a good part of yesterday boiling numerous pots of eggs with various things found around my kitchen. Onion skins, black beans, and turmeric with a bit of vinegar thrown into the pots right along with the eggs gave a nice range of earthy tones. Once dry I rubbed the eggs with a teeny tiny bit of vegetable oil to bring out the depth of the colours. I would definitely consider the project for future years; however, the traditional food colouring method gives a beautiful result as well, is a little brighter, and is much much faster.

Back to Easter weekend preparations--we've been enjoying this oat bran muffin recipe as a staple breakfast around here lately. Quick, easy, healthy and delicious, a great-to-have-on-hand larder item for overnight company. 

Wishing you all a warm, snow-free, and wonderful Easter weekend!

xox

Nourishment

Just a few images I've collected over the past week showing where my focus has been.

I have a surprise to share... we have a sweet addition to our little family.

Soon, very soon, I will introduce her.

Still Waiting

Not a day above -8C this past week, and we still had more snow. Certainly manageable compared to what some have been experiencing mind you--spring blizzards on the east coast and painfully frigid temperatures on the eastern prairies that just won't let up. Still, we plunge forward with the certainty that even if fleeting, spring just has to arrive at some point.

At least we've had the sun, and my tomato seedlings are doing really great as a result. That is I think they are; I've never grown tomatoes from seed before and everyone assures me that I'll be disappointed with the result, especially since I'm determined to use only natural sunlight-- no complicated grow lights for this cat. Just as an experiment mind you, I do things like that. So anyway, I folded little pots out of newspaper, filled them with potting soil and planted three seeds in each. To my surprise every single seed sprouted, so now it's time to transplant them all into their own individual little pots after which they will take up most if not all of the shelf space at the window. I planted two short season heirloom varieties: Early Anne and Latah. The plants smell great, that hot summer green gardeny smell right inside my kitchen... Love! I just may be giving away tomato plants to a few deserving homes this year.

We've been having majorly frustrating internet troubles recently. A couple of weeks ago the internet stopped working properly right out of the blue one day. Our provider was honest and said our community is growing so fast that the service is topped out and they need to do upgrades in order to keep up with the demand. In the meantime, service during the peak usage times between 4pm and midnight is basically non-existent due to saturation. They say they're on it and gave us a significant discount which helps ease the frustration. Meanwhile our time spent on-line has reduced considerably, which has not been a bad thing at all. Remember those pre-internet days when you spent all your time actually doing stuff and being productive rather than surfing the net looking at all the cool things you would like to do? Good times. I miss them. I think we really have to be more conscious about how we spend our free time now, which always have been, but it just seems to creep up on you, you know?

Wishes

We celebrated a birthday this past week, the Mr is another year older. I whipped up a scratch strawberry shortcake and a version of his favourite soup as the meal of the day. Now normally I make this soup with leeks, but in keeping with my  current experimental spirit and what ultimately resulted in a barely mentionable shift in the end result, I substituted onions.

....Onions you say??

Well... I needed onion skins you see... I have after all, a Very Important Dying Experiment going on here. And go on it did. Pulling the contents out of the numerous jars that have been sitting on my counter over the past couple of weeks was exciting to say the least. And I was not disappointed.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I feared globs of greyish brownish goop, each indiscernible from the other, to plop from the jars into a massive colourless wad gathered at the bottom of my sink. Okay, I admit the Experiment did posess a very slight but fleeting resemblance to this at first. But after a quick rinse, cotton flosses in the softest of pinks and purples began to emerge, and further transformed before my very eyes by a quick dip in an iron bath causing my heart to skip a beat. Very very cool. I'm hooked. Even the Mr commented on the softness and beauty of the colours: "You did that? Wow!"

Now to practice my stitches and actually think of something practical to make. In the meantime I'll be popping by for bloggy visits; however, my commenting ability on blogger seems to be compromised for the time being, so those of you affected please know I am there until the problem is rectified.

Have a fantabulous week!! xox

Early

I am up and at 'em long before dawn every single morning: rain or shine, work or play. I try to be quiet for everyone, but it's tough to tippy toe around for hours before the rest of the house starts to stir.

It's not that I can't sleep... it's that I can't sleep in. No matter how late or early I go to bed, my circadian rhythm takes over, too deeply entrenched for me to fight. So, I find myself quietly baking, knitting, painting, sewing... long before daylight hits the Canadian winter sky.

But never cleaning for some reason... no, never that ;)

New Beginnings

Hello?

Is this thing still on? And if it is, is there anyone left out there listening? Nevertheless, I am happy to announce that I, along with the rest of the Olallieberry clan, am here, happy, and well. 

We are starting off the New Year this morning with a painted boule for breakfast, which will be followed by an outing with extended family for the remainder of the day. The recipe for the bread is here, the inspiration for the decoration from Chef Tess, who does absolutely amazing things with bread. Take a peek, you absolutely will not be disappointed!

Those of you who have been around for awhile know that I never make New Year's resolutions. But this year I have. I resolve to spend more time in this space... I've missed it so much! Even in my shameful absence I have been thinking of you all, hoping you had the most wonderful Christmas season filled with family, good food and cheer, and wishing you all a 2014 filled with nothing but more of the very best things!

xoxoxoxo

Sweet Relief

Man oh man, are we enjoying this air conditioning! I've been wallowing in all the activities I love to do that in the past had to be set aside for more appropriate weather. Things like seeking relief inside after a hot workout in the garden (see the lemon thyme I planted from seed), knitting to my heart's content (kitty slippers, more on this later), and baking.

Imagine baking in the dead of summer! What a life changing concept, I'm completely ruined. Anyway, as promised here is the recipe for the scratch cinnamon buns from the last post. I really like these buns because they are not too sweet but rather exactly right for my taste. This is a mixed blessing because although they do taste terrific, you never really get sick of them so you end up eating a whole lot more than you probably should...

 

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Scratch Cinnamon Buns

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 Yield: 12 buns

Total time: 1.5 hrs

 

Ingredients

2 cups white flour, plus 1 cup

2 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp oil

1 1/4 cups warm water

 

Filling 

3 tbsp soft butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

 

Let's Bake!

In a medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Add water and oil, and stir well. Dough should be wet. Add more flour, a little at a time, until dough is just barely dry but very soft. Heavily flour a board and turn out dough. Knead for a few minutes while adding flour if needed. The dough should be very soft, but dry. Oil the bowl and place the dough inside. Squish the dough down and turn it over. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F. Punch down the dough and press it out into a rectangle onto a your board, approximately 14" x 11". Spread with 2 - 3 tablespoons of soft butter to within 1" of the edge. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, and spread evenly over the dough. Roll the dough up tightly and cut evenly into 12 buns with a serrated knife. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper ensuring good spacing. Bake at 375F for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan while still warm. Serve with cream cheese icing or extra butter.

xoxox