Hmm.. what's this? I bet it tastes good!

I know, I know. Where have I been?? I've been here. I've just been quiet. I'm having a trying time and I guess I haven't been chatty. I did attempt to post a blog the other day but my wonderful, all hands and feet, baby decided to delete it. I'm sure she was trying to be helpful.:) Well, I'm here now and have something to say. lol

Today was grocery day. I don't like attempting groceries by myself during the week. Have you ever tried managing a herd of monkeys in a grocery store? I have! My 4 monkeys. Even though they have all been there many, many times every time is like a new adventure to them. It's bright. It's colourful. There's stuff at eye level everywhere! And the people. There are always new people. Needless to say a trip to the grocery store almost always puts new gray in my hair. Sometime you just have to venture out, monkeys and all. Today was that day.Mother Hubbard's cupboards were bare.

We started our trip with the usual warnings. " Stay with mommy. If you won't stay with mommy you *will* sit in the cart. Don't touch anything!!" Even with the warnings the monkeys were immediately captivated with he wonder that is the grocery store.

I don't think I have ever said my kids' names so much in their entire lives. Even random customers knew all their names in the first 30 seconds. Making my way through the produce, where I start my shopping always, was looking grim. That was until I wander across this vision of beauty. This beautiful piece of fruit with hot pink skin and leaves curling from it's soft body. What was that? My son noticed it at the same time. " What is that?" "I think it's a dragon fruit. I think.."

My son took the fruit out of my hand and went over the the lady stocking the produce to ask her what it was. I walked over too and asked a boatload of questions. Surprisingly I was the only one who asked about this fruit. She told us that you peel away the pink skin and the flesh is white with a ton of little black seeds, like a kiwi. We were all intrigued. I decided today was the day we were trying dragon fruit.

My son also found a passion fruit and although I have no idea how we would eat that I threw one in the cart any how.

The rest of the trip was actually pretty manageable. I think the kids were really excited to try this mysterious fruit. So was I really. I love trying new things.

At this point I need to apologize to anyone reading this post. I am not a good foodie. :( I didn't even think to take pictures. Can you believe that? Guess I'll have to buy another one. :)

When we got home I cut up some veggies and cheese for lunch and while the kids were eating I sat down to my pretty dragon fruit. Peeling it was very easy. Underneath the thin pink peel was a bright white flesh peppered with little black seeds. I sliced it up and gave everyone a piece. It was glorious! A very mild, sweet flavour. It was actually pretty similar to kiwi. It was also a huge hit. I will be buying more.

Let me just tell you that is pretty big in the teeny tiny place I live in. Very rarely can you find truly exotic fruit in the local grocery store. The produce lady told me if I wanted to see more things like that then I should talk to the manager. She also told me I need to buy them. Makes sense. lol I can imagine there are very few people around here who would try something they had no idea how to eat. I am game for trying most anything though. Apparently, so are my kids.

In the spirit of trying new things and keeping these new things coming to my grocery store I'm going to try to pick up new produce every grocery trip. If I'm buying they will keep supplying. This is my hope.

In the meantime, I think I'm going to stop in again tonight and buy another dragon fruit. This time I promise to take pictures. :)

What new thing have you tried recently?

What Did You Have For Supper?

I had pure yummy in a bowl with biscuits on the side! Cream of Cauliflower soup with cheese biscuits. Oh my gosh it was yummy! Winter is definately soup season and I've been having a great time playing with recipes.



The soup:

So thick and creamy! And so easy to make. Onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots and cauliflower all boiled in stock then pureed. Add some milk, nutmeg, a splash of sherry and voila! Soup!

The biscuits were your basic biscuits with cheese and garlic added.

I brushed them with melted butter and garlic powder when they were done.

I'm really trying to eat a real food diet. I think we were exsisting on so much processed that we were starting the think that's what food is supposed to taste like. No, dear tastebuds, THIS is what food is supposed to taste like.

What did you have for supper ?

Wordless Wednesday

I've decided to follow other bloggers and have Wordless Wednesday every week. I'll post pictures that have some meaning to me. Hopefully they amuse you.

Thinking About The Future

So, the price of dairy has gone up. Apparently so has the price of eggs and meat. The reason? Grain. A poor growing season has made it very expensive. This is just one more thing for me to think about when planning the future.

I have been thinking of ways that my family can be more self sustaining. We put in a vegetable garden every year but I have to admit I'm so bad at actually taking care of said garden. We rarely get much out of it with the exception of tomatoes. Tons and tons of tomatoes. Even though I have been so lazy when it comes to tending to my garden I have learned so much about what we can grow, what will actually grow here. This year I'm going to use those lessons and get serious about my past time. I want to be able to feed my family with my garden. I want to be able to can food for the winter. This year we WILL build the potato box.

This spring I will be getting chickens too. We go through quite a lot of eggs and it feels like every week the cost of eggs is just a little bit higher. I think raising chickens with also be a great learning experience for the kids. The responsibility of chickens will be a good thing.

Richard has been plotting out our freedom from hydro as well. He would like us to be off the grid and I agree. He's coming up with plans for solar and wind power. He is a total nerd for this kind of technical stuff so he's been running with it. It feels really good to see him so excited and committed to a plan. We won't be going with solar or wind power in this house since we hope to sell this year so he has lots of time to come with a solid plan. We need to be less reliant on commercial hydro. The bills have been insanely high and they will only get higher, unfortunately.

There are so many changes I want to make for the benefit of my family's future. Changes that need to happen. I just need to remember to take it one step at a time. I get so overwhelmed just thinking about everything all at once. One step at a time, Erikka. One step at a time.

Mug Rug. What Every Coffee Cup Needs!

I am a Craftster swap addict! I love joining swaps that challenge me. Joining different swaps gives me the excuse to try a new craft. Recently, I joined 2 swaps. Keep Me Warm Swap and Mug Rug Swap. The Keep Me Warm swap is all about the hot drinks we consume to keep our bones warm and toasty so the mission is to send your partner hot yummies, something cozy to wear and an accessory for said hot yummies. The Mug Rug Swap is just that, a swap of mug rugs. Never seen a mug rug? Here's a pretty one. Basically, they are a small place mat for your mug. They are usually quilted. I have never quilted. I have always wanted to quilt. Perfect! An excuse to learn quilting.

I've already mentioned the Keep Me Warm Swap. Hey! An ideal situation to practice said mug rug! So I sat down with some fabric scraps that were sent to me with a fabric I purchased on Ebay and this tutorial on Stash Manicure , this tutorial for binding from That Girl...That Quilt and this binding tutorial from Oh, Fransson!

I would like to tell you it was so easy I had it done in 15 minutes.. but I can't. I can say, though, that is was very straightforward and once I figured each step out it was much easier. I really need to learn to measure, measure, measure!

The binding was a bit tricky but after making a royal mess out of the first try with a binding I made too narrow the second try was much better. I think with practice it will only get better though.

Overall, I really enjoyed making this and I really hope my Keep Me Warm Partner loves it just as much as I do. I'm darn proud of that mug rug!!

Oh! Wanna see it?

Tada!

*I'm not sure what's going on with the colours in this picture but the purples are much nicer and all the orange you see is actually pink. Odd camera I guess.*