Long weekends,

are pretty much the best thing ever. Late summer ones are even better. You get to do things like process all the beans! This year I planted green beans (my favourite) and red runner beans. After a tough start due to cold weather and very hungry slugs, I am finally seeing some results.

Left to right we have Frenched blanched green beans, pre-blanched red runner beans, and larger (older) green beans just chopped & blanched. It was all I could do to not leap in and steam up the entire lot of Frenched beans and eat them with butter and salt. Soooo good that way.

I decided I was going to blanch the red runner beans and freeze them for use in soups/stews/etc later in the winter. See how pretty they are? All bright red and purple. Look at them after blanching:

They went all dusky purple. Nature is so weird!

Today I grated and froze between 8 and 10 pounds of zucchini for winter use. Also probably in soups & stews but possibly in muffins & breads. This week we’ll be buying canning jars and starting to process all the beets. Oh my, do we have beets. LOL

Finally, the most fun this weekend was had making tubey scarves on a friend’s circular sock knitting machine. This this is soooo cool! I took a couple videos:

and

Oh wait. And finally finally, I finished a pair of socks:

These poor things have been on the go forever. I’ve knit and ripped them 3 times before finally being reasonably content with this pattern. They will be nice and warm when winter comes again. Which seems so far away when I’m still having to put on sunscreen before I go out and work in the yard.

 

And we’re all a little older. Wiser, not so much really

So, it’s official. I am no longer the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Which is a fancy-ish way of saying I turned 43 yesterday. I think that officially puts me past my ‘early’ forties and directly into my ‘middle’ forties. Ah well, what can you do, yeah?

In other far more interesting news, I did some stuff. First, husband and I went to a barbecue competition out in Chilliwack. Had a lovely time. Weather was amazing, barbecue was **amazing**!

These guys? Truly, the best brisket I’ve ever tasted in my life. Oh yeah!

It was a lot of fun. Mind you, Mr. B and I both overindulged and then had tummy aches all night. And we would and will do so again.

Spring is officially making itself known around here.

Everything smells so very alive suddenly. The yard is just exploding with growing things. And, a lot of birds doing what birds do in the spring time. If you know what I mean.

One day last week I saw this from the bus. The next day I went back and got off a stop early just so I could take a picture. It kind of makes me feel a bit like crying, but I really love it too.

Isn’t it wonderful and sort of poignant? I think we all feel like Mr. Cardigan, up there some times. Just moving through life but forgetting what it’s like to be alive. It’s nice to know that there are people and things around us that force us to remember the other, more enjoyable parts of life. My google-fu led me to the artist Matt Bowen.

Last, but not least, okay – two things actually. But they are both in one picture.

1. For my birthday bestest husband in the world got me a new teeny tiny notebook computer to replace my slowly dying netbook. I’ll miss you Alice, but WOW is Florence ever a lot faster!*
2. My book club this month is reading a book that is near and dear to me. When I went to pull my copy off the shelf I realized I must have lent it out and not gotten it back because it ain’t there. Thankfully Pulp Fiction had a copy. Unfortunately it’s part of a trilogy and they only had the omnibus edition. I now have a book big enough that I could conceivably beat someone to death with it.

See, twofer! Tiny computer, HUGE book. Carrying this on the bus is going to suck! LOL

Happy Tuesday.

*What? You don’t name your electronic devices? How odd.

So much to see & do

The commute for my new job is pretty long, like almost 3 hours a day long. So, I’ve been trying to find new (read quicker) ways of getting to and from. And if not quicker, at least more interesting things to look at. So far, 41st Avenue is probably the quickest, by about 5 minutes. But it is painfully boring and the bus is painfully full. If I’m going to be uncomfortable I at least want to be kept amused. So, on Friday I tried going down Cambie then taking the Broadway bus over to the train. Saw some very cool things. Like this sculpture by Magdalena Abakanowicz called Walking Figures at the corner of Broadway and Cambie:

For scale here is my rather large size 10 foot:

Very cool. They feel like they are marching off to downtown Vancouver.

There was also a man in a cowboy hat busking with a banjo:

Infinitely more interesting than taking the bus along 41st.

Then, since it was Friday, I took myself out for a little dinner followed by a wee study party at the library. Where did I go for dinner you ask? Don’t be silly! I was at Broadway & Commercial, how could I not go to Buddha’s Orient Express for ridiculously bad for me food?

And while I was there I had a moment of perfect contentment. End of a long week, hot yummy dinner, watching the people going about their lives outside, listening to snatches of conversations every time the door was opened. It was really quite perfect.

Look, even the top of my food box was smiling. I wish I could have distilled that feeling and put it in a bottle.

Waiting for the bus, now with moral complications

My new commute is quite a bit longer than the old one. A bus, then the train, then another bus, then a wee walk. It takes a little over an hour all together. This past Friday first bus was late. 15 minutes late. While waiting this gentleman struck up a conversation with me. Let’s keep in mind that it was 6:05 a.m. His name was Joe, he was very polite, nicely dressed, and a lovely voice with this sort of round African accent. And he really wanted to talk to me about Jesus. Sigh. After we had exchanged names and apparently enough chit-chat that we could move right on to everlasting life talk, things went kind of like this:

J: So Tammy, do you believe in Jesus?
M: No. I believe in science and humans taking care of each other and themselves.
J: But what about everlasting life? Don’t you want to believe in that?
M: No. No I don’t.One life is quite long enough.
J: Are you married? Do you have children? Don’t you believe that god is looking down on them and taking care of them?
M: No. No I don’t. And I don’t want to and I’m not interested in religion. At all.

Keep in mind, I was being super polite, because he was being super polite. He wasn’t all up in my face and challengey, ’cause then I wouldn’t have been polite. I was starting to thing, where the hell is the bloody bus!!!!?!@?!?! though.

J: Don’t you want to have more success in your career? Promotion?
M: No. I’m fine.
J: Don’t you want to make more money?
M: No. I’m fine.
J: What about a better retirement more financial freedom?
M: No. That’s my responsibility and I will take care of that.
J: I will pray for you.

Sigh.

Now, at this point I’m thinking, surely, if there is a god, they have much more important things to worry about than me getting a promotion and not eating cat food when I retire. Don’t they? If not, they are simply not using their time in a very proactive way.

Finally, the bus shows up. Ironically enough I’m thinking ‘SAVED!’. But no. Of course Joe sits with me, because of course we’re not done yet. Then he hands me a pamphlet and asks me to read it so we can talk more on Monday.

Are you freaking kidding me? At this point I’m just sliding into full on Canadian mode and trying as hard as I can not to engage. Plenty of nod & smile, which probably didn’t do me any favours.  I don’t want to offend, but I’m really feeling trapped by this ridiculously polite man. We finally arrive at the train, then it’s on to my second bus which drops me off near my office. As I’m getting off the bus, boom, I hear, ‘Oh, hello, Tammy!’ OFFS, it’s Joe. He’s going to Richmond dontcha know, so he takes almost the exact same commute as me.

The passive aggressive in me just wants to find another route for my commute. But, I’m not going to do that. Nope, I’m not. I’m going to explain to him that while Joe has freedom of religion I also have freedom of non-religion. And that I’m happy to chat with him in the morning, however; I will not be discussing religion and the possibility of me becoming religions.

And, if that doesn’t work, I’m totally falling back on vaguely passive aggressive technique of changing my commute route.

In other news, spring is definitely coming as evidenced by two spastic dogs hurling themselves around the back yard this morning.

I also realized that buying a scone or a muffin at a coffee shop in the morning is ridiculous and expensive and fattening. Therefore it was bake all the things this morning. All the things seemed to include cheese, ham, and onions, BTW. Oh, and multi grain flour. ‘Cause fibre…totally undoes what cheese and ham have wrought? Yeah, prolly not.

And, for the ever curious Damselfly, here are my new shoes. One pair of Dansko’s (in the back) and one pair of Clarks. Both eminently qualified for walking to and from buses and trains on week days.

And hopefully good for running from people trying to convert me. Oh, and zombies. Always good to be able to out run the zombies.

This, that, *and* the other thing!

This = yummy food that helps deal with the overload of late summer zucchini & tomatoes:

Want the recipe? It’s super easy and it looks kind of impressive. It’s also vegetarian! Yay!

That = I’ve actually been getting some knitting done. Case in point, one Dancette shawl in Plucky Knitter Primo.

Holly Carp is this stuff nice to knit with! Dancette is also a lovely pattern. I didn’t change a single thing when I was knitting it. Not my normal modus operandi.

The other thing? Hmm, well…oh, okay. I’m back to being a part-time student again. So that’s exciting. Sociology this semester. Need to see which theory I side with, sociological or psychological explanations for criminal and deviant behaviour. I have a feeling it’s both, but don’t ruin the surprise! I had a little study date with myself last Friday night. First off, over to have some sketchy pho in downtown Whalley. Mmmmm, Bun Cha. ZOMG, amazing.

Insanely good. Then, walk over to the lovely new library. Wait, what’s this? Hmmm, graffiti or something deeper?

I like to think it has a deeper meaning than a binner trying to keep track of which manhole covers he has investigated under. I’m probably wrong though. Then, once all settled in the library what should my wandering eye espy outside?

Why yes, that is four locals smoking crack beside the rec centre. Sigh. Then I went back to my books.

This Friday? Lather, rinse, repeat. Hopefully there won’t be anyone smoking crack outside the library this time, but I’m willing to take the chance.

Phew, made it!

The months of January, February, March can feel a bit long and dark. Especially when there are no long weekends in them. This weekend was the cure for that, thank you Easter! I’m extra lucky as I had Good Friday and Easter Monday off. Four days of no work. Magic.

Okay, I say no work, but that’s not really true. There was weeding, planting, and prepping veggie beds:

Bad cell phone picis of sock knitting in the passport office lineup:

I’m truly almost an adult now. I have applied for my passport. Soon I shall be allowed to wander the earth. Okay, actually I got the passport so I could go to Sock Summit. What? Portland is part of the earth!

Figured out my next quilt top:

And had some carb crazy friends over for dinner, cupcakes, and a little television watching. Oh, and the cupcakes? Chocolate with a mini Easter Creme egg baked into each one, and topped with vanilla butter cream icing. Mmmmmm.

We were all very distressed that Vancouver lost to Chicago last night. To make ourselves feel better we watched Zombieland afterwards. Double tap!

What says Christmas Eve?

Exactly!  Getting to leave work at 12:00 and then a lunch of McNuggets.  Mmmmmmm.  So bad, but so good!

Might I strongly suggest you avoid the holiday cranberry dipping sauce though.  Blech!

The other best part of today?  A co-worker got a new pup two days ago and decided she’d bring him in to the office for the 1/2 day.  Boston Terrier, 5 months old, beyond placid, puppy breath, and such a cuddler.  So cute!  He spent a good part of the morning chewing his toy and sleeping on my desk.

Later, we may have played a bit of dress-up with him.

I’m not proud, but gosh he was cute!

This evening will be spent cuddled up with my dogs and knitting and books.  Just like the perfect Christmas Eve should be.  For some reason A Christmas Carol, (the Alastair Sim version), was on TV last night so we’re watching The Mummy.  Not really sure how that factors into festivus, but at least it’s an amusing movie.

Happy Christmas to all and I wish you a most excellent 2011! 

Can you roast a fattie, as opposed to smoking one

A couple of you asked if it was possible to roast a fattie in the oven if you didn’t have a smoker.  Mr. B says you sure can.  It’s basically a bacon wrapped meatloaf.  A relatively cool oven (300 – 325 degrees – so you don’t immolate the bacon), cook it on a rack (that bacon fat needs to drain), and I’d also suggest a meat thermometer.  Just so you know when its internal temperature is safe.

It won’t be quite the same as smoked, but still pretty darn tasty.

I’m thinking I want to do a beef one stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon.  Basically a bacon double cheese burger fattie.  Hello!

Not a vegetarian friendly day

Mr. B is really getting into this whole smoking meat thing.  Today’s project was something called ‘smoking a fattie.”  Smoking a fattie means something very different from smoked meat in our neighbourhood, but I was willing to follow along.  What you do is take some sausage meat, flatten it out into a square about 1/2 inch thick.

Cover it in whatever sorts of yummies you like.  This is two kinds of cheese, red & green pepper sticks, and finely chopped jalapeño peppers.  You then take a pound of bacon and create a bacon weave.  Yes really, a bacon weave.

Now, roll up your sausage meat into a tube and place on the bacon weave.  Roll the sausage tube up in the bacon and you’ll have something that looks like this:

Coke can for scale.  So, you have a pound of bacon, a pound of sausage, close to a pound of cheese & such for filling.  Burp.

Now, into the smoker.  1.5 hours with hickory smoke, .75 hours with apple smoke.  Then you get this:

Then this:

Pretty darn tasty, I tell you what.  In addition to crazy experiments in meat, I also finished a nice new scarf.

Winter is coming and it’s supposed to be a beast.  I shall be prepared!  Next, a new pair of mitts.  Perhaps a new hat.  I’m going to be the ant and not the grasshopper this winter.

Hello Autumn

Today’s harvest:

During:

After:

The house smells pretty good.  Next weekend some of this roasted pumpkin will become pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner.  Yummo.

Last weekend we had a tonne of green tomatoes so Mr. B thought we should try to make some fried green tomatoes.

We had some oxheart tomatoes that just weren’t ripening.  Bit of a cool down in the weather and they just seemed to stall on the vine.

1/2 inch slices of tomato, salt & let sit on a rack for 15 minutes to draw out some of the liquid.  Finally, pat dry with paper towels and dredge in a flour/spice mixture.  You can also do a flour/spice/corn meal mixture for a more textured crunch.

Then of course we had to try numerous things to dip those hot crispy tomato slices into.  I liked plain old sour cream the best.

These were awesome.  What a terrific way to use up those tomatoes that just aren’t going to ripen up.  Mmmmmmmmm.