to all of my friends who love cooking!

most of you know that i love to cook! one of my very favourite cooking blogs is Ozlem's Turkish Table.  her recipes are authentic and divine...and i wouldn't know about pomegranate molasses or sumac if it weren't for her blog. i have always loved what i called mediterranean food but it turns out that most of that food is actually Turkish.

Ozlem's blog is a joy to read as she truly loves the food of her country and loves to prepare and share her food with anyone - even a backwoods canadian like myself. a lot of the meals that i share here on this blog have come straight from the recipes that she shares on her blog.

but i still can't get around aubergine (eggplant) - i have tried and tried to like it!

she is considering publishing a book and i can't think of a better cookbook to have in my library! being that she is an internationally-renowned cooking instructor, she has set up a survey on her blog to get feedback from friends all over the world as to what her cookbook should contain.

the survey takes only a minute to fill out. i filled out my survey and i hope that any of you serious-minded, food-loving friends will do the same.

it may seem strange that i am posting about Ozlem's survey on a prepping blog...but she creates the most lovely dishes that i would feel bad if i didn't post about it. food is integral to our well-being and food is something i am very passionate about. as is Ozlem.

if you are inclined - the survey is here.

and even if you are not inclined, check out her cooking blog. the food she prepares is very inspiring, healthy and beautiful....the pictures that she takes are worth a million words!

this is beautiful Ozlem:

check out her blog. fill out her survey. you will be glad that you did!

the july snow drift

here is what we have named the july snow-drift.



meaning that it is probably going to be july before it melts. arrrrgh.

needless to say, the back looks just as bad and the cat paths that we shovel and maintain persistently (or doggedly and stupidly as jambaloney likes to say) have fallen to the wayside. it took the man an entire day to dig out the atv shed, shovel most of the top snow and then be able to get the atv here. that's about 75ft from where the truck is parked.

then he got here and atv-dura broke down. not hard to believe as atv-dura can only handle so much snow.

so the man had to shovel the rest of the driveway and roundabout by hand. about 160ft.

by hand.
which took him 4 solid days of 7hrs each day and would have taken him longer if our friend D hadn't driven by, saw him, parked his truck and came and helped. jambaloney said that D saved him a good 5 hrs work!

i fed him real good during this time.

he needed protein, carbohydrates and a ton of fresh veg and fruit.

i made sure that he was fed.

i made 2 different kinds of red cabbage coleslaw and then prepped more red cabbage - 4 bags of red cabbage ready to go to the freezer and we'll eat that stuff for the rest of the winter.

i made certain that his afternoon snacks were full of calories.

and i made sure that his dinners were deelish!

and when you have this much fresh snow, and blackberries that you picked by hand, on your land, frozen and sitting in your freezer in the basemement - it's time for "kymberz fresh snow in a bowl with blackberries"....i knew there was a reason why we liked snow so much!

man that was good!

then we canned up some more chicken/duck broth - that'll get us through the rest of the winter!

and to make sure the man was getting his protein, i roasted a beautiful little organic chicken and stuffed him with a beef liver stuffing - bahahahahah!

in case you haven't noticed, i am a smidge on the the crazy side. served up with mashesd, gravy from the drippings, coleslaw and turnip with butter and maple syrup - that poor man was crying after days of shoveling and all the food!

but he's tough and he can take it!  but as our friend W has been telling us for years - WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER!

thanks for always yelling at us W!!!!! but i think we are cut from the same cloth as W - i would love to share his incredible life with you...and one day he might actually let me - bahahahahah! no, he probably never will. i don't even know W's middle name and i have known him for over five years now. he's sketchy that W!!!

here's some japchae with jidon...soooo delicious hot or cold!

and of course - sushi salad never hurt anyone i ever met - including my friend W! who needs to get his butt up here pronto and teach us everything he knows!

last on the list of food - chicken noodle soup!

with turnip, sweet potatoe, carrot, chicken, liver, homemade bone broth, celery, and a ton of spices. ir'll kick you in the head and make you forget your name!

oh...but after 2 weeks of being kicked in the head by snow....the skies open up and remind you that the world will go on long after you have gone...but until then, you are supposed to live in the moment, in the now.....this was our NOW this morning/afternoon:

yo! and look at july snow drift,

he looked like such a huge pain...;we didn't think he'd melt until july - bahahahahahah! we love you little july snow drift but your time has come and gone.

know what else has come and gone? sending my man out to hand shovel 275ft of snow for the past seven years. we are now getting a tractorthingy.

hey kymber - didn't you guys just buy a new truck? yes. and on credit. something we have NEVER done in the past! and now we are buying a tractor on credit. why? because we need it! and if it all comes falling down.....my man will have a tractor to move crap around the yard, he won't need to shovel any more dirt, or compost or manure, and he will not have to carry gas cans and the motor for our sh*tty boat a mile down our crappy road to the river which needs to be re-graded something fierce....but if you want to talk about re-grading something fierce ---- my man tries every year to make our crappy 275ft driveway better BY HAND...and he has done so for the past 7yrs. not anymore. we are getting a tractor.

and that is the end of THAT!

we may be idiots.....but we're certainly not lightweights!!!!

a lot of our friends back in the city thought we were crazy for moving here. a lot of the people who actually live here think we are crazy for moving here.

we like it just fine! here's the front of the manor.

here's jambaloney in a drift out back - amazingly the deck didn't get too much snow.

i made sure to keep the man fed.

here's the front of caribou-dura.

here's jambaloney in the drift in front of the house.

some pureed butternut squash soup that i made last year - i roast the squash with garlic and onion and a bit of carrot - then add 27 million spices. next i puree the squash,onion, garlic and carrot with a pint of home-made broth. then it gets canned and when i open a can to heat up i add coconut milk. chuck a few fresh cilantro leaves on there, some blood orange, salt and pepper, another dollop of coconut milk and you are talking a very filling and healthy soup for when your man is shovelling all day.

don't get me wrong, i'm usually in charge of sweeping any gathered snow off the porch, and doing the front step/deck and back step/deck. but if it's too deep, it's jambaloney to the rescue. here's the side of caribou-dura. jambaloney has to shovel all of the big drifts by hand as the atv plow only goes so high.

he also has to shovel his way just to get to the atv shed.

some of our own smoked trout on multi-grain crackers with a wasabi/dill mayo, red onion and olives for an afternoon snack.

we're not getting to the greenhouse anytime soon.

check out my beautiful chopping block that jambaloney got me for valentine's day. it's a gift for the house, but it's mostly for me because i do the majority of the cooking and if possible, i cook everything from scratch.

my man has wanted a curry supper for a few days now. and with it being valentine's day, i made him kymberz famous curry and made the curry powder from scratch. the stuff is delicious and so versatile! so we had shrimp/carrot/cauliflower curry and his delicious basmati rice. it was yummeh!

a BIG THANK YOU to PeteForester1 for the comment he left on the last post. jambaloney read your comment and appreciates the tip. he will try it out tomorrow. thanks Pete!

and a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who wished us well during this storm - we appreciated it!

Storm..

jambaloney here!

yes - it HAS been a long time - been busy with work and today getting ready for......

http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/ns-24_metric_e.html

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/nova-scotia/lower-st-esprit

so getting ready today - this will be a big one...

calm before...

all shovels in a secure but handy spot...

except one on the porch to get out with...

traction sand...

and cramp-ons for my boots - these work great - thanks to our friend p who gave them to me...

cuz the driveway and the whole yard is frozen...

 kerosene heater ready and in the house with extra fuel..

interlude - kymber has been feeding us all day - we are stuffing ourselves in anticipation - this salad is full of herb, spices and  delicious veg..

back to the cramp-ons - these work better than i expected WAY better - everyone should get some...

the hot tub cover is split - the wind will be blowing straight at it so it needed repair...

here is the top half of the driveway with sand - i did the bottom section too - 200 feet in total... i need to so the atv will have something to grip underneath when i plow...

 tailgate down so the bed won't collect too much snow....

the atv was idling low then cutting out - after looking it up it was possible that air was entering the carb through leaks (???) so i taped up the loose choke end

and a gap in the air filter connection..  it seems to be working better..

i ran the generator, put a bin of water in the tub, kymber cooked a pile more food, flashlight batteries charged, filled gaps in certain shed cracks - i think we are ready..

lots of you are in the same boat = be safe everyone!

cheers!!