Domestic Goddess? I wish!

Well after the frost, I decided to make the most of the sunshine and picked over 40 pumpkins! I have decorated the steps outside and they look great. My neighbour has offered to take any spares we have to her stall at the local Farmer's Market.
The green tomatoes that were sheltering under the towel were still firm and frost-free so I quickly gathered them up and will magic them in to chutney this weekend.
The leaves are dropping like confetti from our ash trees but the oaks are still looking very green and summer-like. I mowed the leaves with the bagger and had a huge bonfire on the veggie patch. The smell of leaf and wood smoke is very comforting somehow. I love it!
Last weekend I dug out a kid's cook book and decided to try a delicious looking recipe. I think they were called cheese and tomato tarts. So simple to make! A sheet of puff pastry chopped in to squares, coated in milk around the edges, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, olives, fried onions, halved cherry tomatoes, basically anything you like and cook until browned, about 10 minutes. Voila!

Cheese & tomato tarts

Feeling like a Domestic Goddess, I threw together some homegrown veg with shop-bought in to the slow cooker and after the mouth-watering smell wafted through the house all day, I finally had some for supper - delicious!

Ready for cooking

What is soup without bread? I've discovered that if I load up my bread maker with a french bread recipe from Robin Hood flour on the dough setting, I can pull out the dough and shape it before baking it in the oven. The bread is the best we've ever tasted, light and fluffy and doesn't last long!

Delicious loaves

It may not look pretty, but it melts in your mouth!
Today in between more leaf gathering and burning I will be painting my daughter's bedroom. She's decided that the large colourful polka dots I lovingly painted on her wall to match her bed cover some years ago are now embarrassing. Between us we chose an off white called 'Antique White' to neutralise it all. Yesterday I scraped the twenty or so smaller sticky mirrored circles off and filled numerous pin holes so it should look great. I really should book an appointment with the physiotherapist now in anticipation of the pain my shoulder will be in once I've finished painting, but as I'm pushed for time, I'll dose myself up with an anti-inflammatory tablet before bed and make sure the ice pack is in the freezer.
Wish me luck!

First Fall Frost

For my birthday, I asked the family if they would accompany me to the 20th Anniversary show of Riverdance. Surprisingly they both agreed and after waiting for months, the day finally arrived yesterday.
Bear in mind that we live in the country, over an hour from the City and that I normally need other things while visiting civilisation eg. DIY supplies, groceries etc. I formulated a cunning plan to pick up my daughter from school at 3.30, drive to the city, have a gallon of paint mixed at Home Depot, run in to Superstore for a homemade wine kit, drive across the very busy road to exchange a faulty iPod case and squeeze in any other task during the rush hour traffic.
I had packed some smart clothes for us to change in to as I really didn't want to teeter in to the DIY store in heels and a dress.
As we completed our last chore, my daughter spotted a Hallowe'en store that had popped up near the mall. She and a group of friends have decided to go trick or treating this year as Alice in Wonderland characters and presumably my daughter was either absent on the day they decided on their characters, or she drew the short straw. My daughter was to be the Cheshire Cat! I suppose I should be glad that she didn't draw Tweedledum, as luck would have it, we found some colourful accessories to send her off with pride.
Anyway, we arrived at the restaurant by the river and we scrambled up some stairs to a public washroom so we could get changed before our meal. I felt like Wonderwoman, walking in wearing t-shirt and capris and coming out wearing a little black dress, heels and a glittery cardigan!
During the meal, my husband mentioned in passing that there was going to be a frost. What?! How had I missed that on the local news? I still have cabbages, tomatoes, sprouts, pumpkins and watermelons - or rather I had.
The show was fantastic and though my daughter was suffering terribly with a cold, bad throat and cough, we all enjoyed it.

I drove home in the dark and decided to stop the car half way up the drive. It was 11.30 and I shone the headlights on the veggie patch and jumped out to retrieve an old towel out of the back. In my heels and dress I picked my way across the wet grass with the towel and decided to try and salvage at least one tomato plant. As I carefully draped the towel over the tomato-laden plant, I could almost hear the wildlife laughing at me from the darkness.
This morning it was zero C and I have yet to go outside to see my poor frozen veg. At least the pumpkins can still be used for decoration before they turn to a soggy mush. As for the tomatoes and cabbages, if you have any recipes for them, perhaps you can let me know!

Super Moon? - not so super camera!

Well last night I made sure we stayed up to watch the eclipse of the 'Super Moon'. This picture was the best I could do from the safety of our dual-pane kitchen window at 9pm.
I did debate whether to nip outside in my shorts to snap a phenomenal picture, but the thought of black bears grazing happily on our acorns near the house and/or a swarm of late season mosquitoes made me rapidly decide to forego the trip!
Anyway, at least we saw it and made a wish. I was lucky enough to have double wishes when I saw a shooting star whizz through the night sky! I'll let you know if they come true......
Being superstitious as I am, I decided that this moment was as good a time as any to check my 3 lottery tickets I bought for Friday's jackpot of $60 million. Lady luck was with me on this 'once every 30 years' astronomical sight..... I won a free play!
This morning's sighting of the Harvest Moon was better and much bigger. As we waited for the school bus, I snapped merrily in the chill of 9C and offer the following,

Perhaps not quite as spectacular as the sunrise that was taking place behind me!

Enjoy!

Beautiful autumn weekend

This chipmunk is one of the lucky ones - it has a tail. Today we saw a number of them chasing each other around the back yard; one with half a tail we named 'Stumpy' and one with no tail at all, we named 'Dock'. I can only think that these two have managed to escape the clutches of either a hungry hawk or the neighbour's cat. Far better to have no tail than no life eh? We named this one 'Chippette' as we think it may be a female, very cute and very tame!