Ok…let’s try again

Wow, I realize what a downer I sounded like in that brief and depressing post.

 

I remembered some excitement to discuss actually!
Since I have been slacking on the health and fitness side of things, yesterday John, the pups and I went to Coombs Market and loaded up on all things fruit and vegetables. We have been eating a lot of fish lately…but that’s about it. So we filled our bags with tons of goodness which has kickstarted my desire to fuel my body with goodness. So, in contrast to my Negative Nancy sounding post below, I have found some inspiration to get going.

Also, in an effort to recruit more ladies to play roller derby, John became my unofficial Hype-Boy. He put up posters and spread the gospel of derby to the staff at the market! Go John!
So, there was something good to chat about.

Perhaps now I’ll do some reading for school 🙂

survived another holiday season

It’s all over now, the stress, the cooking, the music, the drinking, Christmas has come and gone at my house. To my most delighted surprise, it went really great this year. My parents came to spend a few days with us, and they were kind enough to provide the Turkey – which we tracked down from a Island Natural Market that supplied a free range, organic Turkey from Gabriola Island. T’was a delicious bird indeed, and quite massive. I’m not sure if they were serious or not, but my parents claim to have been “converted” to future turkey’s being from the same circumstances….we shall see.

So now it’s right back to reality. Finish school, working, cleaning, knitting and playing roller derby. I can hardly believe that time is rushing by like it seems to be doing, and I’ve been thinking about what (if any) my New Year’s Resolutions will be. Do you have any?

-SM

Quick local food update

I’ve been frequenting the local Farmer’s Market on Saturdays now. I am still on my ethical-meat-only kick and have located a great local farm that supplies lamb, chickens and pork products….that means BACON. I hadn’t really had bacon since August until this past weekend. I picked up some Whisky Smoked Bacon from Ravenstone Farms and cooked up a Sunday breakfast feast. T’was delicious. Did I mention I also picked up some juicy pork chops that were superb from him too? I did.

I’ve also found a mushroom guy. The same one I got the tasty chanterelles from earlier, hooked me up with some “Pines” which weren’t much to look at but pretty bold little mushrooms. He picked them obviously – which I realized in hindsight that I took a crazy mushroom guy’s word for it that they were in fact edible…but it’s been a few days and I’m alive. They had a strong, earthy and piney flavour to them, and I kept it simple by just sautéing them with garlic and butter. Delish. The mushroom guy seems legit, but not any less freaky, which I think makes him legit.

I’ll have another post coming up in a day or two about other stuff going on. I’ve just been thinking about food a lot lately…

Mmmm food.

Small Town Saturday

Today was by far the most exciting day of the week. After a delicious eggs benny, John and I wandered into town to do some exploring. We parked, unbeknownst to us, right across from the winter farmers market. Perfection. We did a quick circle through the small, charming and busy market and made a mad dash to the cash machine. I was absolutely thrilled to pick up 1lb of fresh picked chanterelle mushrooms for $10! Outstanding price, and a future outstanding meal in my near future! We also scored some pasture-raised pork(chops), pasture-raised chicken legs and some fantastic rustic sourdough. Oh yes, coffee beans!

The morning was off to an outstanding start….We did a wander down the main street and located what we consider to be an important building – the liquor store 😉 We continued our exploration by taking a two-minute drive down to the water front, when I heard John say “What the?!”….I slowed down….”I think I see something out in the water”. Turns out we witnessed a plethora of Stellar Sea Lions AND some porpoises jumping in and out of the water, in a fish catching frenzy! Unreal! Unfortunately we didn’t have a camera with us (or a proper lens to capture the sight/distance) but it was amazing.

Homeward we went. Since the weather has been beautiful (but chilly) here all week, we thought it’d be fun to do some raking out in the front of the property. Piles and piles and piles of leaves. But it can’t be all work and no play…..

So we raked and raked and raked some more, with intermittent ball tossings for Benji. Fun times. So I haven’t mentioned that we live very near to a small aircraft airport, so we get small planes overhead during the day. No biggie. Today we watched either a novice pilot, or a guy having trouble with the wind try to land his plane a minimum of 6 times. We captured a few photos while he went overhead (many times).

 

 

 

All in all, a decent day so far. I have a feeling we will enjoy this new small town stuff just fine 🙂

Happy Saturday

 

Dinner update

We started with some steamed artichokes with homemade lemon and garlic aioli. An experiment of sorts, having never cooked artichokes in my life. They were good, but labour-intensive to eat. Aioli was delish and will keep vampires at bay for at least a week.

 

 

 

The roasted chicken turned out pretty damn good. My mom gave me a nifty chicken roasting pan for Christmas last year that works like a charm. It has a cylindrical tube that you place the chicken on top of so that the bird steams from the inside – kind of like a beer can chicken only safer. Keeps your birdie moist and juicy inside and nice and crisp on the outside…yum.

Used a whack of the peppers from today and used up some potatoes from our last market expedition. All in all, we are satisfied customers currently undergoing the meat and hearty food coma. mmmmmm…..meatsweats!

It was pretty damn good!

Windy Sunday Farmer’s Market & my first official “ethical feast”! (coming up…)

So today John and I woke to some crazy sounding winds outside….(nope not from the behinds of our dogs or ourselves). After taking Walter and Benji for a windy walk, and a hot cup of “Mellow” Ethical Bean coffee, we decided to head up to the White Rock Farmer’s Market.

We were met with some unruly winds that kept most booths from erecting their tents, since they were just blowing down anyhow. We treated ourselves to some cheese sticks, which in reality were delicious hunks of half loaves smothered in melted cheese…delicious. We came ready (John has really embraced my ethical meat eating plan which is SO COOL) so we stocked up on some turkey sausage $11.30 from Ladybug Manor pasture-raised organic birds ( www.ladybugmanor.com ). Next to LBM we met a very local pasture-beef farmin’ lady so we picked up some rib steak and eye of round steaks for $20.00. Later, we drove by her farm (just to be sure) and were both pleasantly surprised at how close the farm was and how happy the cattle looked 🙂

We then loaded up on a plethora of seasonal veggies; artichokes, squash, and peppers. After we left the market, we went cruising towards Langley/Surrey and hit up another farm stand. We really lucked out here, since it was their last day for the season. We picked up 2 dozen free range eggs (from yesterday) at $3/dozen. They were so fresh that there were a few feathers on some of them – talk about the real deal! Also, they were all random sizes and variations of colour. Neat.

We scored on some more corn from Chilliwack, apples, concord grapes, nectarines and a few more different squash.

So now that it feels officially like fall has fallen, today is the day I will cook up the free range chicken I picked up a few weeks ago on my last farm marketing endeavours. This will be the first meat other than seafood I’ll have had in about 5 weeks. Exciting! My theme tonight will be seasonal goods and all from a farm and pasture-raised and local. I’ll provide an update on how successful (or un) once the feast is finished! Happy wind-day!