Dog days of summer

Can't say I'm impressed with Blogger app on my iPad.. There is no feature for draft copy or editing!

These pictures taken on my iPad, are too large and you only see one dog.. You need to click on picture to get both dogs in..

The weather continues to be mild and beautiful!

Hawaiian Marshmallow Dessert

I have been on a search for two recipes that one of my Aunt's used to make, but sadly not give out her recipes! This I don't understand as I find I love making someone's recipe and thinking about them. What a wonderful way to remember someone!

I think I have found the recipe although there are different versions, some use marshmallow, other's lemon jello or cream cheese along with either dream whip or whipped cream.

This recipe was found in a Robin Hood booklet, 10th anniversary 1992 and referred to as a home style 50's classic wonderful dessert

Canadian Thanksgiving!

The weather is perfect!  The trees are in their splendor, in beautiful fall colours! Love it!

 Cold and rainy day at the market for those selling fresh turkeys

Pot stickers made with pork, chestnuts and cabbage fillings.  Yes, I like the chunky filling! When fresh and not frozen , the dumplings fry up easily in a little bit of Olive oil.  So tender and delicious!

Pumpkin Pie from scratch

Canadian Back Bacon and Cheddar Cheese Scones!

Quail, Pear and Pork Pate from Quebec, spicy marinated chickpeas and Dilled Salmon Pate.

Roasted Vegetables;  fennel, peppers, potatoes, zucchini,  baby carrots, mushrooms, green beans, onions

Alais, the turkey was photo shy!

To wash down all the food was

Sunflower

Every fall I look forward to magnificent show of sunflowers with their faces turned to the sun!  They are unusually tall this year and when I saw them leaning over , I thought they had been blown over by the wind. To my surprise, I saw a squirrel hanging on the stem and eating around the stem to cut the head off!  The squirrels had run on the fence and jumped on the sunflower.  You can see one of the critters on the right side of the fence in the picture below. 

Good example of Fibonacci sequence

Planting Garlic

Wisconsin site on Garlic 

Last fall, while travelling through the Okanagan and finding the cost of fresh apples costly, I purchased two bulbs of garlic from an elderly man at the Penticton Farmer's Market.  Yes, these bulbs were very costly, but I had plans to plant the bulbs which I did.  This was my first time and I was successful. The two varieties were Yugoslavian white and Persian Star.

Yugoslavian  (Rocambole hardneck) Copper veined and purple blotched bulbs.   Deep green and vigorous plants.   Matures a few days after Roja.   Cloves are dark brown and doubles are common.   It has a strong garlic aroma, initially hot and spicy garlic, but not overwhelming and then mellowing to a warm pleasant, sweet aftertaste.    Averages 9 to 14 cloves per bulb

Persian Star  (Standard Purple Stripe)  This one has some vivid clove colors.  The outer bulb wrapper is sometimes smooth white but the inner wrappers are purple streaked.  It has red-tipped cloves with marbled streaks on a whitish or yellow-brown back ground.   It has a very pleasant flavor with a mild spicy zing.   Originally from a  Samarkand, Uzbekistan bazaar in the late 1980's.  Averages 7 cloves per bulb.

The Long History of Garlic

 In talking to growers of garlic in my home town, I learned that you need to cut the flowers of the stems as it draws away from the production of the bulb.  The tiny bulbils that are seen in the flower can be dried and used to propagate more garlic.  Just leave it on the stem until harvest.  Or you can steam the bulbils and serve as a yummy side dish.  


I think my arrangement is quite pretty!  

Harvest of garlic bulbs! Oct 4th 

Gift giving of Garlic

I returned from my home town with garlic given to me from my high school classmate, a cousin and an elderly woman who also shared a recipe for high bush cranberry jelly.

My classmate gave me  a box of apples and pears from her garden and she laughing handed me a garlic bulb from her garden!   

Now I am a sucker for bargins , these wonderful large pots were originally 25 dollars.  They were now selling for 5 bucks. I had seen tomatoes and peppers in these pots but they were all gone by the time I bought these.. One Squash plant was unnamed, turned out  to be a cantaloupe. The plant was in a cage which I plan to use next year!  Disappointingly, this plant only produced 3 fruits the size of oranges!  

The large eggplant plants were not  a big seller.. 

But I enjoyed the beauty of this plant.. Not to mention that the small eggplants were delicious and plentiful.   

It was produce one very large eggplant and  about 9 small to tiny eggplants 

The stems are very tough and required a knife to cut the eggplant off the stem. 

 

It is Oct 5th and we are enjoying beautiful warm weather and the plant still has many eggplants on it