what a glorious day filled with such a sense of accomplishment!

oh what a glorious day! we are starting to see dirt again after more snow several times this past week!

it was +2C but quite windy! not on our windowed-in porch with the plastic roof! it was about +22C out there. cats were out on the porch all day with little trips outside every now and again.

it's looking like spring is really on it's way. out in the greenhouse this morning it was just under +20C and kept rising all day.

we planted more seeds in the greenhouse in the house - it is now completely full for a month or so depending on the weather.

we planted 7 Scotia tomotatoes - known for being a strong Maritime tomatoe. and we planted 7 cobra tomatoes which we just love. this will be the year for saving seed from our tomatoes so that we never need order tomatoe seeds again!

out in the greenhouse in plastic flats that jambaloney got out of the garbage - we planted a bunch of lettuces.

we also planted spinach, kale, swiss chard and endive.

here are the flats all laid out in our step-dad's seeding tray that he gave to us 10yrs ago. thanks Ted! we love having this thing!

we have it wrapped in plastic front, sides and back. during the day we open the front and we let the greenhouse and sun do it's thing and then at about 5 o'clock we go out and cover the front in plastic. this traps the day heat inside to extend heat during the nights. we are looking at a 2 week range forecast with normal highs and lows - fingers crossed!

oh and did you notice the blue bottles on the ground in the back of the pic? they contain comfrey tea that has been cooking since last fall - woohoo! stinky as crap but such a good fertilizer. of course all plants and seeds were given comfrey tea.

here are a pile of plants that we overwintered in the greenhouse that are starting to come back gangbusters.

and some more.

we'll be out re-arranging the greenhouse and tidying it up all week. we feel very accomplished with what we have started and are looking forward to the 2017 garden!

remember those hamburger buns we made the other day? let's just say that we had a bit of a pig-out.

one burger was your classic BLT, the second was a standard lettuce, tomatoe, pickle burger and then a mushroom and onion burger. there was a fourth burger not pictured that jambaloney took to work the next day.

so far, neither of us feel worse for the wear for adding wheat flour into our diet - but we used unbleached organic white flour. we have not had any other gluten products except for the buns and a piece of homemade bread that we made at the same time. we won't eat bread every day - just once or twice a week and see if our digestions can handle that amount. we'll let you know.

Rain did a post about "breakfast for dinner" and a lot of commenters said they liked breakfast for dinner too. breakfast for breakfast, dinner or supper, or snack, is a big hit around here! we love all kinds of breakfasts! here's today's late dinner/early supper after working out in the greenhouse all day:

a mushroom, spinach and aged cheddar omelette - it was divine!

sorry i haven't been keeping up with my comments here on our blog and your blogs - i'm off to correct that now.

we had a fantastic day and we are really looking forward to that snow melting! sending love!

seeds are started - a nice day - comfort food and more!

yesterday we finally saw the sun and sky! it was a joy!

here is jambaloney's ugly crazy contraption on the front of the house:

behind the plastic and leaning up against the house are black garbage bags filled with bottles of water. that contraption saves us a lot in terms of heating the house during the winter.

these windows on the other half of the house also help with heating. jambaloney is planning to build this a little better and dig into the ground in order for us to use this as another greenhouse. speaking of the greenhouse....oh how i love thee!



can you believe that he built that greenhouse and the window part of our house using windows that people were throwing out? he collected those windows for over 3 yrs!

and let's not forget our porch which was wrapped in plastic for 2 yrs until jambaloney built all of the walls with thrown in the garbage windows. he's pretty resourceful!



so being that yesterday was such a sunny day - we planted our seeds - woohoo!

this year we are doing 10 types of peppers (plus our overwintered peppers) and we planted 4 kinds of tomatoes. i have a few more tomatoe seeds coming from vessey's in the next day or two.

then we had a simple salad of romaine and oranges with the usual dressing: EVOO, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, turmeric, cumin, cayenne and fresh lemon juice.

deelish! another deelish thing that we love is cabbage roll soup. we looooove cabbage roll soup.

the base for this soup can be found here (at our sadly-hasn't-been-updated-in-a-dawg's-age recipe blog). after you make the base you just add how much beef broth and tomatoe juice that you like.

we added some spinach the next day.

and the last of it was finished the next day for breakfast. i told you we loved this stuff!!!

we also love stirfries and have veggie stirfries several times a week, sometimes just plain and sometimes with a soya sauce.

today marks 6 weeks that jambaloney has been gluten free. i have cheated quite a bit. so we decided to make some amish whitebread.

and some hamburger buns.

jambaloney is dying for a hamburger on the bbq so that's what's for supper: homemade buns, just-so spiced hamburger patties, avocado, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, tomatoe and lettuce with a schlew of grilled veggie skewers, and a variety of condiments - yummeh!

hey kids! you want an excellent afternoon snack? how about some cereal with almond milk, frozen blackberries from your own land and some maple syrup.

pure yum.

getting ready for seeds 2017...and a bunch of other stuff!

we have finally had a couple of clear, sunny days but the snow is still on the ground!

what is snow good for? cooling off things quickly!

in this case, a pot of vermicelli for a shrimp/vermicelli salad with avocado, carrot, green onions and cilantro.

and the second pot contained macaroni for a chicken/macaroni salad with apple, celery and pecans.

here's a delicious supper from the other night - veg stirfry.

well, it finally has come to pass that we can no longer leave this cedar at the front of the house.

the previous owner probably bought a little bush, planted it here and didn't realize how big it would get. it's roots are destroying our foundation and it bangs against the house when it is windy, which is pretty much always. neither of us wanted to cut this beautiful guy down, but he is actually dying on the backside. jambaloney used his trusty ryobi saw.

and quickly cut him down. we will make use of our beautiful cedar - jambaloney will use the bigger tree parts to make handles for hand tools, while the smaller limbs and leaves will be run throught the chipper to make some wonderful mulch.

on to seed starting - woohoo! this is our set-up for starting seeds indoors. pay no mind to the bowl of cat snacks.

we bought the greenhouse thingy and plastic cover about 6 yrs ago for about $40. it takes up a huge area in our kitchen, which is already too small, but it is really worth it! we put it in front of our second kitchen door so that the seeds have natural light all day. but if you notice the big wood thing on the outside was built by jambaloney. on each side are 2 fluorescent lights. here they are turned on.

we find that the natural light and fluorescent light makes for strong plants which don't get too leggy before they are brought out to the greenhouse or transplanted into the ground. i have been using the same styrofoam cups and plastic containers for years. i fill them up with a combination of our compost and horse manure that we get from a guy. with a little peat moss mixed in. the seeds love that combination! i haven't started any seeds yet - i will wait a few days. we have another snow storm coming tomorrow and thursday - so maybe friday. there are currently 73 cups that will be planted with tomatoes and peppers. as you can see, there is room for more so i will start some other things as well next week.

brussel sprouts are out and there is nothing i love more than brussel sprouts! here's some fried in butter with some spinach - a great way to start the day!

we love veggie stirfries around here!

and here is all of the ingredients needed to make a wicked shrimp pasanda.

i like to make all of my curries or spice mixes myself. kinda looks tiny in the picture - teehee.

but we enjoyed shrimp pasanda and jambaloney's delicious sticky rice.

jambaloney makes the most awesome rice in the world whether it's sticky rice, basmati, brown or white. his trick? he uses our 10yr old rice maker, rinses the rice several times, fills the bowl with rice and water to the appropriate amount and then adds a good dollop of almond oil to it. the almond oil makes all of the difference!

he is at work today and tomorrow for 2 long days - crab season starts next week and everyone at Lobsters 'R Us are in full swing getting ready for it. lobster season will start on april 20 and it looks like a promising year!

i am here with 4 lazy, depressed cats and i totally understand. it's grey out again today and if we don't start seeing something resembling spring soon - i'm gonna lose it!

i hope you all are keeping busy and having a wonderful day!

a great party - but it's still winter!!!!

we went to a fantastic St. Patrick's Day/Surprise Birthday party on saturday night - we had a hoot! but it's still winter....

we made sure to be well-fed the day of the party because we knew we needed our strength and we did!

 the casear salad on the left is jambaloney's...he doesn't eat croutons and didn't want shrimp. that's my caesar on the right...both had home-made caesar dressing on them using real anchovies. oh yes kids, we stockpile anchovies. you want to make the best roast or stew, chop up a couple of anchovies and chuck them in - the anchovies really bring out the flavour of beef.

anyway - at the party - supposed to be a St. Patrick's Day Party - and it was - the hall was beautifully decorated for Patty's Day! but a few days prior, my bestie C1 found out that our friend S's birthday was coming up and so C1 wanted to take care of all of the catering herself but asked that i bring my dip. of course i said yes!

so we all met up a little early, got the bar ready, got the food put out and then proceeded to party. S had absolutely no idea that we were going to acknowledge her birthday because we told her it was our other friend D's birthday. C1 got S a birthday card and had everyone, including S and her husband, sign the card for D - bahahahahah!

at about 10:30pm we turned the lights on and C1 got up and did a beautiful speech. S was blown away! i was sitting at the table with her husband, H, and H said "holy sh*t! i didn't see that coming" - bahahahah! C1 brought out the cake and S blew out her candles while we all sang happy birthday and then S gave a beautiful speech. it was lovely to surprise our friend like that.

then the lights went back down, the music was cranked and we all just started dancing like fools! much alcohol was consumed, people were giddy and happy moving around from table to table and talking to everyone, much more dancing and then the night ended. it was a fantastic time!

the next day, hurting like we were, we knew we needed to eat some good healthy RAW food.

that's fresh-made guacamole, salsa and parsley salad. the parsley and salsa are made with a base dressing of lemon, EVOO, ACV, a ton of garlic, cumin, cayenne and a ton of turmeric. the base dressing for the guacamole is exactly the same except i use a ton of cumin in it and the juice of a lime.

we opted for a supper of leftover kaftas, dill sauce, salsa and hummus.

the next day though dinner was a tuna pasta salad - heavy on the tuna. with parsley and olives.

we needed to fill jambaloney with some carbs as we were expecting another snow storm on monday. this has been the snow-stormiest, grayest, long lasting snow winter we have experienced here - it's awful! we got another foot- foot and a half of snow and jambaloney went out on tuesday and started up the tractor. over the past 2 days he has got us almost ploughed out....just about 10ft left at the bottom of the driveway but the city plow went by and dumped a pile right at the end of the driveway. so he's leaving that for tomorrow. except that it's snowing - AGAIN! arghghghggh!

oh well, ya just got to grin and bear it. i am looking so forward to april!

a most awesome party on the weekend, more snow, and a very hungry couch!

we had the most awesome party on friday night - it was our friend D's 50th birthday party and we had a blast! the hall was beautifully-decorated, there was tons of food, and our friend D didn't know anything about it until he came into the hall with us all there saying "Surprise! Happy Birthday!"! he's shy so he kind of tried to sluff it off.

we all sat at 3 tables but everyone was moving among the tables and exchanging chairs so that we all got the chance to speak to each other. the most howling came from the back of the middle table where my best friend C was giving herself a night of fun and drinking her face off - bahahahahah! she was claiming to anyone who would listen that she never drank until she came to Framboise - and i believe her because i never drank like this until we came here!!!! what can i say - it's the atmosphere of feeling comfortable and confident among your friends, knowing that they won't judge you if you get a little tipsy and/or ridiculous, they all love chatting and then the lights go down, the music gets turned up and you find yourself dancing until you actually CAN'T dance anymore.

our other bestie, C's husband G, was a hoot and a half himself and he doesn't even drink. jambaloney says that one day he is giving G 5 shots of whiskey - bahahahahah! our other besties E and D were on their best behaviour - and that's a big NOT!!!!! then our other besties C and B from Fourchu came out for just a bit - me and C (she's my regular dancing partner) danced a little but then they had to leave because she had to get stuff ready for the cribbage party the next day. D, the birthday boy and his wife S, our other besties, were also great fun to be with. and can we just say that all these people here HAVE to be our besties - because we rely on them so heavily for showing up to parties, dances and events and being ensured that we will have a great time! and there was a right amount of mayhem when my friend I told me about waiting for a baby giraffe to be born in the NY zoo. i had never heard of it - nor had jambaloney - but everybody else in the hall knew all about it so we laughed quite a bit about that! our friends S and H, who we haven't seen in forever, had us in stitches all night! our other besties from Fourchu, R and D, came out and we hadn't seen them in forever, either, but it doesn't matter - you just pick up where you left off. R had me and her in stitches because she said "i hear you guys got a new rig, eh?" and i said "ya, it's a kubota and it has a backhoe...." - she almost fell off her chair! she said "no. i meant your new truck!" and we laughed and laughed.

our other Fourchu friends K and A were there - we had fun chatting with them. our friend A from Fourchu was there and we got to have fun with him, too. oh man - we had such a good time and there is nothing in the world than only going down your driveway when you know you will see your friends and have a wonderful time.

my bestie G said when i first went and hugged him - he said "glad you came down the driveway". well, i'm glad that we came down the driveway too!

saturday looked like this:

my poor hottub. it was too cold and snowy to get in for the past 2 days. and after all that dancing - i really need it!

the man likes to have a steak once a week and after he had been dancing all night with everyone - he needed to put the protein back in him.

snow or no snow - we love the bbq! he loves grilled on the barbie sweet potatoes and our own potatoes. this year we are growing sweet potatoes, along with all of our other potatoes - woohoo!

here's a pretty frost design on the window from yesterday:

here's some shredded left-over chicken with avocado, mayo and green onion with bean sprouts, tomatoe, grapes and kiwi:

if that's not dinner (lunch) - i don't know what is. and an afternoon snack of our own smoked trout that jambaloney caught last year, some wasabi-dill-tofutti cream cheese, lemon slices and extra dill on top. dill that we grew ourselves, dehydrated and have been using all winter.

followed up with some parsley, red onion and strawberry salad with a dressing of EVOO, ACV, lime, the usual 3: turmeric, cayenne, and cumin, as well as fresh-crushed ginger and garlic - deeevine! some pineapple and grapes and a green onion. the bowl in front is for the himalayan sea salt - the absolute best way to eat green onions is to lick the bottom of them and dip them in salt - oh! to die for! do it after every bite! lick and dip!

remember a few weeks ago i told you about meeting up with our besties C and G and E and D? remember how i told you that we were killing ourselves laughing and no one knew why? it's because we had had such a good meal because C knows how to make delicious food! and it was so nice to get together.

well - at one point in the evening, me, D and E were sitting on the couch. and apparently the couch started to eat me....

i guess the cushion kept slipping and i kept sinking. C said that by the end of the evening all she could see were my pink socks sticking out of the couch - bahahahah! oh we killed ourselves laughing about that at the party. as you can see in the above picture - i am actually crying because all of us were laughing so hard!!!! it was so awesome!

kids - part of your preps should always include finding people that you enjoy spending time with...people who will help you, people you can rely on....people that make you happy!

my goodness this march has sucked bad - but we spent time with friends a few weeks ago (C,B,E,D) and then went to this most awesome party on friday night! laughing with friends makes you feel good and it is some of the best spiritual, physical and mental medicine out there. i love not going down the driveway for weeks at a time - it's awesome! but i have a knack for knowing when it's a good idea to head on down the driveway! and i'm heading down the driveway next saturday for a St. Patrick's Day Dance at our hall and it is sure to be a humdinger of a party - cannot wait!

hoping you all had a great weekend and sending love!