Pancakes.

Did everyone have pancakes today for Shrove Tuesday?  We had yummy vegan pancakes here at the the LC.  I got the recipe from Janet over at The Gardner's Cottage.  She has the best vegan recipes.

here

My favourite pancake came for a visit today.

He was wearing your typical Canadian Boy attire.  Flannel shirt and khakis. For chopping wood.

Today's Blessings.

Mr LC made some applesauce today from apples grown on our property.

Then, we had an unexpected visitor.

Baby Boy's first visit!  He slept through the whole thing.  Are we boring or what?

Cooking 101.

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away I loved to cook.  I love cook books, I read'em like novels but I seldom make anything out of them beyond my tried and true recipes.  Since the advent of fussy children turning up their noses at mealtimes, I kind of lost my mojo.

He's still cute.

Enter Jamie Oliver. (I wish he would enter my house.)  I love watching him on the food network.  I especially love the British shows: the ones on school lunches- That had a far reaching effect.  Once Jamie started on the rampage all the junk food was removed from the schools here.  I also like the Food Revolution.  He tried to get a whole English town to cook.  He is so earnest, as one of my commenters said.

Daughter #1 gave us the above cookbook a couple of years ago.  All I managed to make out of it was Spaghetti Bolognese and I must say it hit the spot.  My husband dug this cookbook out a couple of weeks ago and we have been endeavouring to liven up our veggies Jamie style.

We tried broccoli with Asian dressing and it was good.

I made a leek and potato soup that was lovely.

We were doing so well and then Mr LC decided to try Jamie's Light and Fluffy rice.  EPIC FAIL!!!!  I think the cooking times were off in the recipe because it sure tasted raw to us.

Undaunted, we decided to go for the Buttered Spinach.

Delicious!  We had a do over because it was so good.  I cooked the broccoli and spinach for the same meal and Mr LC said ' Perfect.  Now all we need is a slab of steak to go with this.'  FAIL Mr LC! FAIL!

p.s. Do you think that Julie and Julia idea would work in this case???  Probably not.  I'd have to change my name to Olive.

All photos are from Jamie Oliver.com.

Another Post in Which I Have Nothing to Say.

Yesterday I took Daughter #2 for a prenatal assessment.  All is well and the baby is due on our Thanksgiving weekend.  I hope to get out of cooking dinner for this one.  Why do all the holiday celebrations fall on the wife/mother?  I digress.

Yesterday the weather was warmer than it had been all summer.  Today we are huddled around the woodburner in the kitchen.

I saw another bear on Saturday.  I sure hope it was the same one we saw before as it was much farther away from our house.

Not funny.

It was Mr LC's turn to cook dinner last night and his sister called and invited us over for dinner at her place.  I hope this means he's cooking tonight.

Can anyone tell from this post that I don't like to cook?

I did make a potato and leek soup the other day for the first time and I must say it was awesome.  Thanks to Jamie Oliver.

He's so cute.

I still don't like to cook though.

Over and out.  Carry on.

Lunch.

This is what I had for lunch today:

Don't laugh.  It was delicious.

Seriously.

A customer reader asked for the recipe so here it is:

  I played with it a little bit.

Sweet Parsley Smoothie  2 quarts

2 cups fresh parsley
1 Fujii apple. (I used a Cripps apple) Hey there really are Cripps apples FYI.
1 Banana
2 Medjoool dates. (I don't know what kind mine were)  I would add a couple more next time maybe.
2oz fresh lemon juice. (I used bottled)

That's the recipe but I added maybe 1/2 cup water and four or five ice cubes because I like mine really cold.  This will keep covered in fridge for a day so you don't have to drink it all at once. Let me know whether you like it or not.

What's for Dinner?

This summer we became customers of  Dave's Produce Packs.  Dave went to school with my girls and worked with #2 for a few summers at a local fresh vegetable market nearby.  Now Dave has graduated from university, bought the market from its retiring owners and started his own organic gardening business with a few of his buddies. Don't you just love young entrepreneurs who are aware of the importance of local, fresh, quality food?

So every spring he takes on about 250 customers who agree to spend 40-50 dollars/week to buy his organic produce.  Here's what we got this week:


Raspberries
Beets
Carrots
Beans
Potatoes
Cilantro or Dill
Celery
Kale or Lettuce or Swiss Chard
Onions
Scapes or Grape Leaves
Red Onions or Spanish Onions or Green Onions
Potatoes
Free Run Eggs
Cranberry and Raisin Bread (The dried fruit is organic as well, of course)

$50 Customers:
Sugar Snap Peas or Cauliflower or Peas
Cabbage
Parsley

So, this was our bounty for supper:

I've never had purple potatoes before.  They were so delicious and had a creamy consistancy.  I think I mentioned before how every night Mr LC asks 'what kind of pie are we having for dessert?'  Then I just laugh?  Well, he hit the jackpot tonight.

Raspberry baby, all the way.  I'm stuffed.

I'm Beet(s).

Long ago I used to make pickles prodigiously.   Now, not so much.  However, this week I had lots of wonderful organic beets to consume so I decided to pickle some.

I forgot how long it takes to make pickles.

I did them all by myself whilst Mr LC dozed in his cozy chair.

If anyone doesn't believe I did these up myself, I now have a pink kitchen to prove it.

I Had to Do It.

When you have fresh organic raspberries,

And some free range eggs,

What's a gal to do?

Make pavlova.

Apologies to my vegan friends but it was delicious!

International Cuisine Take Two

This boy is International.  He is sweet enough to eat.


I have no international food inspiration photo today.

But, I do have a good loaf of bread.

I wasn't going to let that silly old bread maker ruin my reputation.  My baking skillz were at stake.

International Cuisine

She is international.  She is not cuisine.  But I could eat her.

I digress.  I journeyed through the snow and the wind tonight on an errand of mercy for my husband.  I needed to pick up a prescription for him at the local drugstore.  More importantly,  look at what I found when I arrived:

Tim Tams!  To the uninitiated, these are cookies from Australia.  My good friend MMMC mentioned these once in a blog post and being the observant gal that I am I remembered!  Why can I not remember important things like doctor's appointments and regular showers?  I like to support my friends so I felt it was important to purchase them.  The Official Taste Tester of the Loyalist Cottage deemed them Yummy!

In local news:

I don't know if any of you folks use a bread maker to make your bread.  I do.  It's pretty hard to mess up a loaf of bread made this way.  However:

This is what I got today.  It's not even browned.  What a mess!  It doesn't taste too badly though.  The Official Taste Tester declared it edible.  Of course, he'd eat almost anything.