presto, pesto

the final garden harvest saw us toting home a great deal of kale, and owing to the hardy nature of this veggie, I have procrastinated on 'putting it by'.  i had every intention of freezing, canning, drying, chipping and otherwise preparing vast amounts of kale for the winter.  instead, i have been giving it away, (a pleasure of the gardener) or eating it outright, cooked and in salads.  this morning, however, I tackled the last stalks of kale by whizzing together a pesto.   this reduced my huge pile of greens into five small vacpacs, destined for the freezer.

kale pesto:

Into the bowl of food processor, place lots of washed kale, 

torn from its ribs.

Whirr it down to fine confettii, then dump contents into a large bowl.

Repeat with more kale, but also add 2-3 cloves of garlic,
and about 1/2 cup natural almonds.

Whizz until there are no weird chunks remaining.
 Dump this into the mixing bowl.

Shred up one more batch of kale, this time adding the oil and flavourings

(I used cilantro olive oil and homemade pepper vinegar, but any acid/oil and flavour booster would work well, I think.  Some fresh basil and lemon would be nice,
or cilantro and lime, or maybe simply balsamic vinegar and olive oil.)
Whirr the kale, herb (if using),  about 1/3 C vinegar and a spoon of salt,
then add the oil while the processor is running.
( enough oil to make a good saucy mix.)

dump this into the bowl also.
mix well, take a few nibbles, adjust oil and seasonings.
 i like the bitterness of kale, but a hint of something sweet could be added at this time if desired.
~
cook up your favourite pasta, dollop on some pesto,
 top with fresh pepper and grated parmesan or peccorino to taste!

Potions and toast

A rainy day brings out the sorcerer in some people...

 

 

 so i opened up the pantry, and brought out the eye of newt, toe of toad, and powdered zombie teeth.

(as well as several plates of cinnamon toast!)

 

 

 

 the apprentices went wild,

mixing, grinding, and smelling until each concoction was perfected.

 

The resulting delights were labeled and admired:

parfum

turns you into a werewolf

zombie potion

good potion

frog potion

and one simply marked with a

skull and crossbones.

 

(overheard during the production: 'this one turns anything into a frog...'

'anything?  even santa claus?  even a FROG?')

 

very powerful stuff.

toi et moi, malgre tous.

 

a couple of months ago, david was approached by a 'locations' guy,

asking if he would be interested in renting out his studio for taping a few scenes of

an upcoming Quebec prime-time romantic comedy.

why ever not!!?

day one of taping saw 40 men and women sporting earpiece communication devices swarm our backyard, filling the space with flight-cases, tables, lights, cameras and action!

 

the editing van was parked right outside of, and butted right up to, our front/side window. 

 (with a metre between us, the techie and I politely ignored each other through the two panes of glass the entire evening.)

 

 

esther was up to the excitement, though. days before she had devised a plan that would keep her right in the soup of things;  the tried and true Lemonade Stand! 
we have done a few lemonade based activities in the past,  so right after school she took to the kitchen, and with total confidence proceeded to direct the citrus squeezing.
I was in charge of simple syrup and ice.

she was unphased by the hustle, set up her station right outside of the studio entrance,

 served ice cold, fresh squeezed lemonade to any comer,

and got a good gander at the proceedings. 
at one point I glanced out of the window to see her pink hoodied self loping in step behind a tall thin grey hoodied gaffer, like she'd rented the place.

 

she proved to be a very dedicated entrepreneur, and even placed a 'back in 10 minutes' sign on the

table when I called her in to dinner.

and although she made a few $$$,

 her real reward was jotted upon the corner of her shingle at the end of the evening. 

 the whole gang comes back to tape another episode in November...

perhaps a hot cocoa shack next time.

go fly a kite

 



the wind was windy.

 

 

what can I say?

 

 



sometimes a little thing can seem miraculous.



 





bursting with fun

I spy with my little eye:

 

 

 

trouble!!!

 

there are times when I LOVE the children's conspiracies.

this? 

 one of those times.

 

 



because after all...

summer is for ambushes.

fire pit passion

the cottage is the perfect place to try out less conventional cooking methods:

 

 

 

the manly art of digging a fire pit.

there was much debate on how deep, how wide, how much fire, depth of coals...

but it doesn't seem to be an exact science in any case.

 

fire pretty.

 





 we eventually threw in the foil/newspaper/foil wrapped chickens,

laid down some lovely sweet fern for additional protection, and buried the lot.



six hours later, we dug for our supper.

 

proud cave man bringing home the chickens, trailer park boys' style.

the-non exact science outcome?

the poultry still had to finish on the bbq...but it was very fun endeavour.

 

next time, deeper pit, more coals, longer time cookin'.

'cause the WILL be a next time.

 



Garden file, #2

A small haul from my morning garden visit.