Random Pics

 This time from my pics collections we have some random pics I took two years ago now that I recently got a chance to prepare. 😛

I forgot to include some of these the last time I shared my jam making process which is probably a few blog posts down. Here's a link to my jam post in case any one is curious. There are probably some older posts as well but you can search for them if you like. 

Anyways here are of some Ontario strawberries I got and prepared for making jam.  So yummy and sweet. Not like those plastic things you get off season. Actually jam making season for this year is coming this June. But not sure how much they're going to cost. Hopefully not too expensive? Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. Hoping I can afford the expense. 

Usually we purchase about 4 plastic containers. 

I so wish I had my old strawberry patch I had growing up. I would never need store purchased strawberries.  They were the absolute best, juiciest and sweetest you could ever have. They also left a deep red colour too.

 

 

Some cherries I picked from our tree. I guess I was picking these for my mom. Usually if I end up picking all of the cherries, I normally get a big bucket full and usually one pot full as well. These must have been a sampler. 

 

 

 That white stuff in the back of the fridge behind in the jar, is bacon fat or the fat collected from pork cracklings. Nasty to most but still great for cooking stuff. Just wouldn't use it too often. 😬Also when the stuff has been sitting the fridge for some time, it starts to taste like some kind of wall paper paste. Not so good for flavouring your cooking. 

The pork cracklings really are tasty but like its relative, consume/cook with sparingly. 

PS I hate it when my dad makes his famous cabbage rolls and he adds some of it to his dish. I occasionally find blobs of it in the broth. 😝  Otherwise his CR are really tasty! For him the extra fat is alright since he's old and skin and bones. But not for the rest of us. 😣

BTW the link I provided is very similar to the rolls we or my dad makes, visually. Not sure how this one tastes, but I'm sure its really great. This one does not contain whole tomato sauce. But we do add a bit of tomato paste to the salty broth. 

 

Some mulberries from our tree and probably from the park. I usually add them to my strawberry jam in small amounts. Good for a bit of sweetness and colour.  

 

 

A random bowl (colander) of carrots. One of them has eyes!

Yikes! 🙃

 For the next blog post, some kind of animal in the park. 😃😁

 

Let's say it together PEROGIES!!

 Presenting my pics of perogies.  Just sharing what I made....... a couple of years ago. LOL  I'm that behind with my pics. 😄😛

 Alright I didn't take pics of every stage of prep but you get the picture. 

 

 This is a bowl is of some dough I made for the perogies. For the most part I followed the recipe but at the time since I had some whole wheat available, I put in some of that.  After I kneaded the dough together, I portioned the dough into neat little balls for several batches of perogie skins. 

 

 

 

 I took a ball of dough and rolled it out on the board. I rolled it out to a certain thickness and then cut out skins. I used a drinking cup that was the perfect size for the skins. 

 

 

 Here's some filling I made. Not nearly as full to the top of the bowl as earlier pics since I didn't take pics when I first started making them in this session. It was filled to the brim with filling. To be exact 3 days worth of making the dumplings. 🤪 It consisted of bacon fat, some "farmer's cheese ( actually it was cottage cheese just blended to be smooth) or I could have used ricotta. There was also a bit of cheddar cheese and I think I had 3 large russet potatoes. That is if I remember correctly.  There might have been a few other ingredients but it has been a few years.

 

 

 Filling the perogie skins. I used about a table spoon full of the filling. 

 

 

 Folding over the perogie skins with filling. Then I carefully shaped them closed and crimping the edges closed. I also used water to glue them shut. Before I closed them of course. 

 

 

 Then I carefully dropped each one in boiling water, cooking them until they rose to the surface. 

 

 

 I then placed them on every dry surface I could find and let them dry a bit. 

 

 

 I placed them on a tray before I place some of them in the freezer. I did this so they won't stick together in the storage bag that goes back into a freezer. 

 

 

 Sorry I didn't bother to make a pic of a finished dish on plate. But then everyone has a favorite way of having them for dinner. For the most part we like to have them smothered in sauteed onions, bacon and topped off with some sour cream. But I have eaten them with chill, cheese, tomatoes and sour cream.

Now go and make your own. If you don't have a favorite recipe, there are plenty online for you to try. Or just buy some frozen ones from a factory. I won't tell. 😋🙊😊

Enjoy!

Just add hot cereal

 I know the latest thing uploaded and shared here is related to fall and not spring, but I think its equally cheerful none the less. 

This little collectable, (to me anyways) is something from the last time I got to visit my relatives overseas. I miss them very much btw and sadly I'll never get to see my aunt again in this life. She died recently from complications of covid and cancer. The last time I spent some time with her and other family was in 85. Far too long. 😞

Anyways this little collectable is from the back of a quite popular hot cereal box traditionally eaten by children in Croatia. Apparently its still quite popular there. I had saved a few of the boxes after we came home and enjoyed some of the cereal. Not sure where the other unaltered box is but here is the back one of them. You can see we have featured here playful squirrels made of paper. It was one of the many things you could make and other activities that came with the box. Not uncommon with cereal boxes over here too.

This one also features a cute jingle you can play along as a song with your voice or instrument I guess. 

The cereal is great too. Who wouldn't love a choco hazelnut flavoured cereal to fill you up on a cold morning. Now that's the way to start the day. But not too had to make your own version. Just purchase your favorite hot wheat cereal and choco hazelnut spread and mix it in with your own favorite additives. Then enjoy! 😊

Boston cream pie

Yet another cake. Made a few months ago. Still have a piece of it in the freezer. OK whats wrong with me not finishing the cake? Well can't eat it alone after all. Cake is meant to be shared after all. Nothing wrong with the taste so that's not really the problem. But you can use your imagination for the latter. 
It turned out really well and the custard in the middle is top notch. 
A successful tasty experiment. Yum! 

 

Chocolate cake

Here's a pic of the last year's chocolate cake I made for my mom's birthday. Not bad looking but probably not perfect. It was a bit lopsided. But the sprinkles does make it fun doesn't it? How did it taste? Well it tasted great and chocolatey especially when you add a secret ingredient such as Nutella. OK not so secret but oh so decedent. I usually add a bit to anything relating to chocolate. It is the great enhancer after all. 😉😋

 

Big Poofy Garlic Flowers

Here we have some more of those last years summer pics for your eye's enjoyment. 
Not normally considered pleasant smelling whether the flowers or the flavouring bulbs, but some nice big poofy garlic flowers over looking the junk in our little back yard. But then beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all. Normally these flowers are even more showier if you plant them in a non domestic way. Meaning if you just bury them in some obscure wild patch of your yard, they will grow some lovely purple-ish colour on the poofy blossoms. Down side they will be a little more puny. Must be the wild stuff in the soil. I would imagine that eating the bulbs later on would naturally be healthier for you then being domesticated. Maybe I'm wrong. None the less these are pretty cool looking. 

 

Cheesed off

OK like most Canadians I'm quite disappointed at Old El Paso for deciding to discontinue the powdered nacho cheese mix.  I really didn't eat it as intended though but I absolutely loved it as a topping for my popcorn.  What to do?, what to do? Well you make your own and its not really that difficult. If you have a Balk barn in your area or some kind of bulk store you may be in luck. 
Look for the powdered cheese normally used for pasta to make macaroni and cheese. but there's another way of using that stuff. Make your own powdered nacho cheese mix. First get your self some powered cheese mix that is if the bulk store has the stuff. About a cup or if you prefer two. Then purchase a few packets of taco seasonings. Whatever your favorite is. It could be Old El Paso or what ever you prefer it really doesn't matter. I purchased the Metro brand. Then get an ordinary jar. Glass or plastic or even some other container, what ever so long as it holds your stuff and keeps it dry. Then mix a packet of the taco seasonings with your one cup of powdered cheese and wala! you have your very own nacho cheese mix. Tastes may very so you may wanna use more of the taco seasoning mix or less its up to you. Problem solved and enjoy! 

Home Fries vrs the winter day

Boy for the last days of Dec let alone 2018 it was pretty warm today. You could mistake it for early spring especially seeing some guy walking down the street in shorts. But you know that these kinds of days are usually too good to be true. Tomorrow we are back in reality of this miserable type of weather below 0 celsius. Surprise. 

But there are always home fries. Nice and comforting thing to look at let alone to savor in your mouth. Yum!  Better then looking out the window at the bleak landscape that winter causes. 

BTW I actually made these my self. No store bought crap here. Just some yummy homemade goodness straight out of the oven. These never last long. 😋

Just dilly

Last year when I took these pics, like the cat nip, the dill that grew, really was bountiful. Sadly this year the dill that grew back although looked like it was going to really be bountiful again, was not. The swallow tail butterfly cattapillers made sure of that. Usually they go crazy all over the parsley and the tomato plants but for some reason it was the dill's turn to get pummeled. Oh well there's always next year. 

Cabbage rolls arn't boring.

Well January and most of February was pretty boring. Good in some ways I guess but bad as in boring in other ways. So not much to say about that. But at least there is some light at the end of the bleak tunnel of winter. We do get to enjoy my dad's cabbage rolls made with homemade sour cabbage. He always likes to add in a few quince fruit for flavour in the batch of cabbage with brine to be soured. But he seems to think that the sour cabbage is really not up to pare this time. Me? I think the SC is great as always. So again this weekend we're having you guessed it his famous and tasty cabbage rolls. Included on the plate besides the Crolls will be some baked potatoes or boiled. Personally I think baked is best. Or you could have polenta with it. Not me. Also added to the tasty plate, some sausage pieces and some homemade smoked pork like ribs for example. Those are my favorite but not often served. Got ta take what you can get I guess. 
Oh we don't cover it in tomato sauce. Not part of our eastern European tradition I guess. Very similar to the Polish style.  Not missing it any how. 

 Hope I made you hungry. ;D

Happy ThanksGiving!

Happy ThanksGiving!

Just want to wish every one a peaceful, a bountiful, a full of love and Happy ThanksGiving.

As many of you know its Canadian ThanksGiving. The Americans have it a month behind us but that's Ok. All that matters is that we celebrate the bounty we do have and be thankful even though some of us don't have much. In which case some of you are nice enough and generous enough to share that extra bounty of the harvest with others who maybe have a hard time to make ends meat to put food on the table. I say Thanks a bunch to all the good hearted even if you can't give a whole lot. But there are other ways you can share the bounty how about the stuff from your own body? I don't mean blood and organs although yeah those are good things to share as well, but there's something else that’s just as precious that comes from you that you can share. How about time and a listening ear? There are many people out there who for what ever circumstances, are needy in terms of a little friendship. They have no family, no friends and no other love ones and they dread days such as these. Many time or every day they feel excluded. So consider inviting them to your nice Thank'sGiving feast or at least some coffee time or a movie. You could make their month. Come on, you have so much friendship, some of you are rich with it. Consider sharing a bit with someone who's lonely and has a lack of.

Speaking of sharing, here are some nice pics of some wild red currents I found growing near my mulberry tree during the summer.

This just in. Another reason to be thankful for. A children's book that I illustrated a few years ago is finally out.

Its apparently called The AdventurousSunshine. 

Check it out. :)

Wild flowers and Evil Squirrels

Sorry for the long post.

Time for an update on my summer since I didn't do a whole lot of blogging cause of the craziness of it all. Yup it was crazy and its the end of summer. Boooooooo Hissssssss. But on the upside there are only a few more months till spring. I would rather avoid thinking about the misery months to some. That's what I like to call them.

Lets see, there was my poor kitty Meetso. He got really sick. So sick I thought he was going to kick the bucket. The poor guy got so sick he stopped eating all together. So I brought the poor guy to the vet. He hated it of course but at least he's not a mean cat. He does have great manners after all. So he had a blood test to make sure he didn't have any major diseases. He did not thank goodness. He ended up getting a shot and some antibiotics that I had to orally give him every day twice a day. Also not fun especially when you need two people and the person does not follow instructions well making the situation worse. But then finally he was all better. All up to snuff and a terror of his domain. 

Also did I mention my doves, my sneaky doves pulled another fast one and made two more babies. Didn't expect them and neither did I expect them to be speckled again. One white with peach colouring and the other white with regular colouring. I'll have to take some pics when I can. Probably when they're indoors for the winter. Bright little fellas. Btw they are boy and girl. They always come that way with doves. Also they learned all kinds of things really fast too.

A few weeks later if I remember correctly one night when I when to feed Meetso after taking my bath. About 3am I noised water on the floor in the basement. Not too unusual when its warm outside and cool inside especially downstairs. But then it was coming from underneath a door to the water heater room/ small storage. I go and open the door and there was water spitting out of a pipe onto the ceiling if you would call it that on to the water heater. I was a little worried that it might damage the tank. But I guess it didn't after my dad repaired it the next day. Luckily every thing worked find and the pipe hasn't leaked since.

Then we ended up find out we had a huge wasp colony in our fruit cellar. I first noised something odd when I went in there to get a pop. At first I thought it was another water leak of some kind. So went outside to see if there was a leak outside since we do have a water faucet there. But then I noised lots of yellow jackets coming in and out of a little hole in the wall. Hummmmm Then went back inside and I went closer in a corner of the room to take a so called closer look. I made some noise by knocking on the wall and sure enough realized that we have a very large and angry colony. I also noised that there was a certain spot on the ceiling where the drywall was very thin. I was very concerned about the whole thing but nothing was done about it till it was too late.

A few days latter mom was the unfortunate one to go there and take care of some business but didn't get too far. The wasps apparently finally broke thru that spot of concern and were now flying around the cellar. Luckily she didn't get stung. But unfortunately one family member got stung indirectly and unintentionally. Eventually every thing was brought under control and the whole colony was killed off as a result of a nasty and expensive insecticide spray. It was then after leaving the room to its self for a few days and pulled out a sample of the hive when we realized how large the mass yellow jackets were.

I think they were there for at least 2 years.

But of course as a result we had another problem.

Poor Meetso came home one night, the same night we took care of the big wasp problem. So he came home from one of his kitty adventures only to be licking his tail area profusely and acting strange. He ran straight inside like a cartoon kitty. He wasn't acting any better the next day and then after that stopped going out all together. Forcing him to go out and get some fresh air wasn't any better since I noised he would go nuts when any mosquito or other flying insect would land on his butt. No one believed me and I think no one believes me still that he can act so strange and all of a sudden. Of course I knew that it might be a possibility that a left over angry wasp had stung him at night when he when to explore the bushes at the front as he brushed by. So there fore any flying insect especially mosquitoes would send him in to a tizzy. He would even try to bite them in mid air. It was just crazy.

Well none the less this summer fiasco lasted several weeks. I think it was a month's worth of trouble for Meetso but just a few days ago he finally got out of it. He seems now back to his king of the jungle self. In fact he landed him self a tasty tidbit with wings the other morning. A morning dove. Unfortunately I found the evidence of his messy dinner all over his favorite dinning spot.

Speaking of things to eat did I mention the squirrel invasion? No I don't eat squirrels but I do or rather we as in the family like to eat tomatoes. In recent years they managed to eat all of our peaches but this year there was none. It was the bad winter we had but my dad mentioned that it also might be the age of the tree. So anyways the squirrels decided that they would help them selves to every beef steak tomato growing our vine, ripe or not whether it was too big to carry or not. When it was too big or behind a fence they would just take a bite out of it to claim it as their own. That was the last straw! That and the fact they then tried to eat all the seeds in my doves cage. Some how they little thieves got their little stick paws in there and snatched out every seed. By morning my poor doves had nothing to eat. Oh yeah did I mention they mooched all the wild bird seed I put out for the wild birds too.

So yeah, I decided that it was time to do something about the most annoying creatures ever besides mosquitoes and do something about it. I when to the store and bought a small trap. A nice little humane trap to trap the little buggers. So then I set up the trap which was fairly easy and filled it with extremely tasty things like peanut buttered bread, some peanuts, some acorns, sunflower seeds and a trail of bird seed leading to the trap. I set the trap in a small area next to our garage and under a pile of wood, piled up near a wall and then waited. I didn't wait long till it caught one of the little buggers.

My dad then helped me oust the guy leaving him at a nice wooded area with sparsely populated with people and farms. A really nice place for a bunch of little bushy tailed jerks. Too good for them really but what ever. So far I caught 4 of the little jerks. I'm still aiming for two young trouble makers still hanging around. So you heard me little bushy tailed thieves, I'm coming for you.

Oh and actually I do have one thing that wasn't so crazy that I found. It was another interesting weed that's edible. So I took a few pics of it. It looks a lot like rhubarb only its not.

Apparently its another European import called the Common Burdock.

You can eat the boiled roots in its first year and in the second you can boil and eat the stocks and flowers with some salt and butter. Neat stuff! Sounds way better then rhubarb any day. Yuck!

Oh yeah I heard you can candy the flowers or something. I guess for more uses go look for the info online of course. 

Burdock's just about to bloom. ^

Burdock's blooming. ^

Mud pie in the sky

This is a mud pie you can actually eat, minus the worms and other nasty surprises you find in soil. Unless you're one of those fat-a phoebes or a little sugar sends you in a tizzy. You only live once people. Remember that. 

Anyways its based on a traditional mud pie called Mississippi mud pie.

You can get the traditional recipe here. Its great for parties but a bit much for small families but well worth it if you still decide to make it. 

So I made my own mini version with slight differences. Here's how I made my own version in case you're curious.

You need half a softened or room temperature cream cheese.

One shortbread cookie ready made pie crust. Like the Keebler elf brand pie crusts.

Two packets of Ready whip cream or other brand.

Vanilla extract which will go in to the Ready whip

One package of chocolate pudding.

Nuttella or some other brand of choco-hazelnut spread.

Some walnut meat about ¼ chopped if desired

Some walnut meat for decoration if desired.

Some chocolate syrup or powder or what ever else chocolate you can use for decoration on top if desired.

Prepare one whipped cream packet to the instructions. Whip the product till it has peeks.

Place half of the whip cream in with the half cream cheese and whip until blended.

Place in pie.

Prepare the chocolate pudding. Place the dry mix in to a bowl with a generous tablespoon full of that hazelnut spread. Add some milk. But instead of using the traditional two cups of milk, use only 1 and ½ cup milk. Its going in to a pie after all.

Place the pudding in to the fridge and in the mean time prepare the other whipped topping to the instructions. At this point you can mix that one with the other whipped topping you made earlier. Again till peaks form. Place aside till you are ready for it.

Take those chopped nuts and first sprinkle on top of the cream cheese/ whipped topping mixture. Normally the nuts go in to the pie crust but since this is obviously a pre-made crust, you make a compromise.

On top of that add the chocolate pudding mixture.

On top of that add the whipped topping.

Decorate if desired with walnuts and some kind of chocolate.

Here I used chocolate syrup stripes but traditionally people just sprinkle a bit of powdered chocolate on top normally used for making hot chocolate.

Place the pie in the fridge so it as time to set or wait and serve it after supper.

I made another just a few weeks ago. 

Yum! :D

Figment

Its pretty amazing how such a scrawny little tree in a pot can produce such a giant fruit. In this case a fig. I would trim the poor little neglected tree if I could but its my dads plant and well you know? He still see me as a small child. Sigh.... And yet when I was a little kid growing up playing outside on a lonely hot summers day by my self and looking for something to do, he let me play with things like blow torches and an ax on occasion. Go fig. Makes your head shake sometimes.

As for the fig tree, I wonder if, although scrawny, small and in a pot, my doves might have contributed in some way during the winter in the garage? They were in and out of the pots and you know doves they always like to leave a little gift where ever they go. Who knows......

Tastes garlicky

A few weeks ago I took these nice and tasty pics of of this particular weed.

Weeds? How can weeds be tasty? Well certain kinds can be eaten as wild greens or used as flavorings. In this case both. Its called a Garlic mustard and yes its in the mustard family. Its a nice wild green which I would rather call them that has this nice distinctive garlicky smell and taste in its leaves and flowers when crushed. You can eat the leaves and flowers raw in a salad, use as a cooked green side dish and or flavour your food in-place of garlic. This European wild green is also invasive so if you find them, don't just beat them, eat them. 

I really like the look of these photos. They really turned out well.

The little thieves.

I caught these little thieves as usual stealing from the birds and sometimes from me.

Every time I take care of my birds needs I always leave a little something for the wild birds too. But these little squirrels seem to think I'm also doing it for them. I've even tried to place the birds share of seeds in to a bunch of little piles all over the back yard cobble stone. Thinking that it'll give the birds a chance to eat at one spot while the greedy furry fella or felon as I like to refer to him, pigs out on another spot. But that didn't last long since he invited his friends to the seedy feast. Time for a new strategy. Its no wonder scientists use his rodent brother, the rat in their experiments.

As from stealing from me, they're out of luck this time. Its time to put our poor peach tree out of its misery. Even the little not so old tree bit the bucket. Guess winter was a bit much even for those two. 

To the watering hole

Sunday was a great day for Meetso to take a break from hunting in the great jungle that is our back yard and relax by our busy little watering hole. The water fall babbled while the light from a bright sunny day danced on the water's surface. The koi fish large and small frolicked in the water causing the new addition of water plants to move from their places. A spider's web hung like a shiny chandler just above the water probably constructed last night to catch supper for a spider.

After that I when in to the downstairs kitchen and made my last batch of strawberry jam for the year. I burnt half of my hand from a exploding jam jar. I had freshly boiled strawberry jam poured in to a jar and then when I went to screw the top on tight, it exploded on me and all over. I was burning in pain of course. So luckily I was very close to the sink. So I ran the cold water and placed my hand under the water. I then filled a near by pot with cold water and place my throbbing hand in that. Later my dad came down the stairs to see how my jam was progressing and saw me in my predicament. He handed me a ice pack from the near by freezer and I placed it in to the pot of water and stuck my hand in again. I held it there for at least 15 mins or more till the pain wasn’t that bad. Then next day things were back to normal. Thank God!. This is like the 3d time I had something searing hot fall on my skin. I healed quite quickly with no real residual effects.