Hiatus

In case you had not noticed, this blog is on Hiatus. I kept thinking that next week I would have more energy surely and next week I would blog more. Next week keeps not coming. The truth is that between the fact that the baby is sucking the life out of me (adorable, right?) and I'm working full time from 1-9 most weekdays I just don't have it in me to run two blogs right now. I can barely handle one. Also, if I manage to have the energy to cook a fun meal, it has run out before I can blog about it. So here's a summer recap, and after that you should wander over to my other blog if you want updates. I'll try and make it back here...sometime.

The good:
- I froze lots of fruit this year, 25 lbs of strawberries, 30 lbs of blackberries, 3 lbs of huckleberries (although 2 of them were a gift) and about 30 lbs of peaches. I somehow missed raspberries, which is tragic.
- I canned 6 jars of peaches, 24 jars of asparagus pickles and 18 jars of asparagus broth.
- I also froze maybe 10 lbs of asparagus, 5 lbs of green beans and 10 or so lbs of summer squash.
- I made apricot jam (which turned super solid...apparently the pectin was overkill) and am going to make blackberry and strawberry.
- Next week I am going to can soup and tomato sauce with my mom.

Okay I actually feel better after typing that. I didn't do as much as I had hoped, but that's not too bad.

The bad:
- I have been eating way more processed food then I like to admit. Although I think I am past the frozen burrito stage. There has been a lot of triskets and breakfast cereal and some instant thai noodle lunches. This makes me sad but between having zero energry and needing to eat constantly to avoid puking or passing out, well...that's how it goes. I have been trying to aim for mostly healthy/whole grain. Also I have been buying bread, which makes me super sad (and also means I eat a lot less sandwiches). Not much for sweets though, I don't really crave them (apart from icecream...and chocolate milk) and store bought cake and cookies actually makes me throw up.

The ugly:
- My garden is the ugly. It has gone back to the wild. Plus the land lady doesn't water much...and not all her water hits my whole garden. I have been eating some peppers and tomatoes and zuchinni. Oh and the rosemary bush is pretty good. The rest is either dead or just so scrawny as to not yet be edible. This fills me with sadness. Maybe next year I will be able to do something once the baby is not on the inside anymore. But I didn't know I would be pregnant when I planted and I never guessed that I would be so sick and drained so...I try not to feel too guilty. Craig does sometimes still catch me staring at the planters crying "I'm a bad garden mommy!" and he tells me to stop it and come inside.

Ah well, I am not a perfect person, such is life! And that's my summer. Hope yours was full of fun in the sun and yummy in the tummy :)

Gardening | Tastes like sunshine

These are the tiny little low acid tomatoes from my Tumble Tim plant. They are sooo sweet and yummy. However they still give me heartburn...booo!

Links | Cake Wrecks

I have spent about two hours today laughing at Cake Wrecks (wow...it's my day off, okay!). She posts brutal cakes all week and then really cool ones on Sundays. It is a comedic masterpiece. My tummy hurts from the laughing (also the baby...it is aaaangry today...I keep hoping the cakes will cheer it up as well)

So when I have the baby...please no one make me this cake:


And a few more of my favourites:

Happy Mothers Day...


Cupcake Hello Kitty (which reminds me...I haven't been to Hello Kitty Hell in aaages)


Everyone's favourite literary masterpiece


A happy birthday horse head


And for the win, construction worker mermaid!

Recipe | Huckleberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

Hey all, sorry about the absence. I've mostly been eating crackers and trying not to vomit (and only sometimes succeeding). Doesn't make for great food blogging. But I made this cake last week to take camping and it turned out great so I had to share!

This is based on a great Raspberry cake recipe which I will include below. I had huckleberries however. Huckleberries grow wild around here and are easily my favourite berry. They a related to blueberries but smaller and more flavourful. Tarter and darker. So very yummy. In fact I'm not really a fan of blueberries as they mostly taste like obese bland huckleberries to me. I changed the original recipe quite a bit with what I had on hand. It was my first full cake done with whole wheat pastry flour and I was very pleased with the result. It had an excellent light texture and didn't feel in the slightest with like a health food compromise. You could also make this with blackberries I think, it has to be a tart berry to work.

Huckleberry Chocolate Coffee Cake Ingredients
2 Cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 bar dark chocolate
1 cup huckleberries (fresh or frozen)

Streusel:
1/3 quarter cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds toasted
1/4 cup coconut toasted



Directions
1. Combine ingredients for the streusel and cut up the chocolate bar into little bits.

2. Combine all batter ingredients in a bowl, beat on low for 30 seconds then on high for two minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

3. Grease a 9x9 pan and set the oven to 350.

4. In pan layer 1/2 the batter, then half the chocolate, half the berries and half the struesel. Repeat.

5) Bake for 50 minutes.

Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Streusel Topping:
1/3 c flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1/3 cup slivered almonds

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup whole raspberries

And just follow the directions as above!

I'm growing more than vegetables here...

For those of you who don't know (or haven't guessed) we are pregnant over here! I just got back from my first ultrasound and all looks well so I thought I'd let you guys in on it. I think it's about the size of that baby tomato at the moment (second tomato from my garden by the way, and first zuchinni).

Why have I been crap at posting? A) I mostly just sleep when I am home. B) Baby still hasn't caught on to this whole food thing. I can't remember the last time I was so uninterested in food. It's wierd. I don't like it. But hopefully I will be back to my foodie self in a month or so. In the meantime, bear with me please! Growing people is hard work!

My Kitchen | Updates

I am the worst food blogger ever these days, I knoooow. I do have a reason, I'll tell you guys later. But in the meantime here's some updates:

- I went to Creston last weekend to pick strawberries and picked 25 lbs! They are only 1.60 a pound at the U-pick place and you can make sure that every berry is fully ripe and not moldy. I'm definitely doing it again next year. It took me about an hour to fill a big bucket and I did it two days. One day with my cousin and her friends in the pouring rain and the next day with my gramma. They are all frozen now for shakes and fun. And jam. I meant to save some to eat fresh but I went to work and Craig misheard my directions. Thus there is a casserole dish full of the very nicest strawberries...in the freezer. Ah well.

I had been home one day and my parents raspberries started. Seriously, there were no raspberries the day before. Where is the justice!?

- My garden is healthy but not huge, I suspect this is because my upstairs neighbours care more about keeping the new grass alive then the garden. Ah well. I have one almost ripe tomato! Maybe I will eat it tomorrow.

And that is all. Exciting, eh?

Gardening | Update

Hmm...I wonder when I can eat these...I think they have to turn yellow

Lettuce! So pretty! Who needs flowers?

updated container garden (please note parsley and basil have replaced the spinach)

And apparently the basil in the garden isn't dead. Maybe I will eat some tomorrow...

Also, this plant had no leaves left. Now it has about five tiny leaves and this little pepper grows more every day. Weird. I guess cayenne likes the abuse.

Summer Squash! Coming soon! Maybe I will eat blossoms? But there only seems to ever be one at a time, and that's not really exciting.

my parsley is a bush. So of course I planted more? They came with the basil, I couldn't help it!

The healthiest pepper plant.

carrots!

swiss chard! Or beets...I can't honestly remember. (I mean the picture, I know in the garden)

Weed much? But there are so many and they are sooooo tiny. I can't be bothered at the moment.