6.28.2010

oh canada, the plains stretch out for you

crab in tofino!

crab cakes!

crab cakes!

on saturday we went to tofino for good times and to eat copious amounts of crab. despite our numbers (8 of us?) we couldn't get through the 5 crab so stewart and i ended up bringing 2 home. and after he spent the better part of an hour pulling out their flesh i put together these crab cakes (which we ate with left over green salad from saturday, we'll have that salad all week). the recipe kinda sucked. i used mesa sunrise cereal instead of the crackers, red instead of yellow pepper, didn't have celery. i used cumin, pepper, and red pepper flakes instead of the called for spices and should've mixed it with the egg before i added the mayo because it was way too soft and gooey. i ended up putting a total of 2 cups of crushed cereal in them. and then coating them with a crushed cereal, oatmeal, flour mixture. which saved them and they didn't fall apart as bad. we ate them with sour cream and OMG they were SO delicious and SO rich. there's a few left in the fridge which i'll have to eat tomorrow before the crab goes bad.

here's the copy and pasted recipe from the Oprah magazine website, but with my modifications. xo

ingredients:

Corn Crab Cakes with Cilantro Sauce (we had them with sour cream instead)

* 1 pound lump crabmeat (meat of 2 crabs)
* 3/4 cup minced onion
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 cup frozen corn , cooked
* 1/2 cup finely diced yellow bell pepper
* 1 cup mayonnaise (i would reduce this to half if i made it again)
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
* 1 egg , lightly beaten
* 4 cups saltine or water cracker crumbs (i used mesa sunrise cereal crumbs)
* 1/2 cup flour
* 1/2 cup steel cut oats

Directions:

In a bowl, combine all ingredients until the crumbs. put 2 cups of crumbs in with this mix. Form mixture into patties.

In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high flame. Coat each patty with remaining crumbs mixed with flour and oats and cook until golden brown on each side, about 3-4 minutes per side. Add more olive oil as needed.

Serve crab cakes immediately with sour cream

6.21.2010

we'e gonna share more of our goods with you

jaywalker yoga socks



local strawberries!!!! yum!

my indoor basil

yay for one handed blogging! it's only noon and i'm ready to call this day a good'un. i have been up since six, though. we usually go to sleep again after the 5:30-6am feeding, but not this morning! well, i didn't go to sleep. i elected to watch True Blood, make a yummy breakfast, internet and knit! seth and i then ventured out to get manure, potato seedlings (which were hard to find! so late in the season.), and coffee. on our adventure i found local strawberries, potatoes, and carrots grown 3 km from our house! and the strawberries are so good!!! i'm excited for raspberries so i can make jam! okay, one handed typing is tiring and annoying! xoxo

6.20.2010

baby i got your money


this weekend my sis came up from victoria and i really should've taken more pictures. can't believe i only took one picture. but it's a good'un. stewart dug out our raised beds this weekend and i'm going to be planting tomatoes in one of them (i've decided to get more cages, break down and make the investment, and then replant my tomatoes) and then plant potatoes in the other. just need to shovel some compost in there, buy the seedlings, and then throw some hay on top. oh, google, thank you for helping me be a farmer!

eden's heading back to victoria here in short order and we'll continue about our day/lives. keeping on top of house work, finishing this mei tai (dear god, so close), and trying to get food in our bellies. oh, the life! xo

6.18.2010

"im singing the same song every day"

heirloom sweater for helvetica
so i finally got my shit together and planted my enormous heirloom tomato plants that i grew from seed in the window sill, outside in the ground. now, being all on EI and stuff that i am, i really only had enough $$ to buy 2 cages. so i split the plants in half and put each in a cage. so there's a gazillion plants per cage (more like 8?) which is about 7 too many. but, what's a girl to do? really. i have enough plants to fill an entire raised bed, but only had enough good soil in about 10% of one of them. so not only did i not have enough cage i also don't have enough land. we'll have to see how this one goes! it's an urban farming experiment. that's what i'll say!

i've also transplanted my basil into larger containers and they're growing strong and big. i'll probably have to transplant the two smaller ones out of their zebra containers (still carrying them around from our wedding) and into bigger planters for the window sill. i love gardens. i love fresh produce!

two days ago i finished helvetica's sweater. it's a little big, but i like the short sleeves. i'm going to pair it with a chocolate brown hoodie for winter wear.

6.10.2010

i know your name, i got your number

egg on toast

in between in every extra second i have (not many) i've been slowly reading through Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle. it is one of the better "food revolution"/"the sky is falling!" books i've read to date. it's so beautifully written, the descriptions of their family farm are full of beauty rather than of stoicism/high-fiving for sticking it to the man, etc. give it a read if you haven't already.

i have been on a local food kick. local everything kick, really. BE local. my sister and i fantasize about owning a farm (even though i'd settle for enough garden in town and an old house with walking distance to local businesses, etc) and i'm dreaming of bike riding, picking berries, canning, cooking up a storm. etc. which, in all honesty, could be enough of a response to having infecta-tit and a newborn baby hanging around (though we've gotten to know each other so well i feel like he's been here forever!)

anyway, i somehow managed to tank him up enough to get him to sleep. which meant i got to eat my first real meal of the day (chocolate oatmeal cookies, granola bar, and grapes do not a meal make): toast with Camembert, spinach, and egg fried in butter. the best way to fry anything, really. i have definitely come to LOVE butter. i want it on everything all the time.

k will be here soon and i'm underslept. so i'm going to snatch up my lil' typeface and snooze! xo

6.09.2010

oh boy!


so totally don't have time ever to post anything of worthy except for pictures of my child and facebook based bitching about my current bout of mastitis (my tit hates me! hates me!). to boot i have the "mars slim can" jingle in my head and a small layer of skin has come off my tit around my nipple so despite the 1000mg of tylenol consistently coursing through my veins i feel like i skinned my tit on the sidewalk after doing some freaky skateboarding move that ruled in the 1980s.

6.01.2010

"love hurts when you do it right, you can cry when you get older"

our trinket shelf

helvetica is sleeping! yay! on his own, well with the cat. and for the last hour! WOOP! which means i was able to do some housework, paint our shelf, and get this blog a post (and download robyn tracks from youtube. omg, this ep is going to be great!).

two days ago the door between upstairs and our suite finally got put in. which means the cats are downstairs with us. they no longer have the enormous picture windows to look out of, or the fancy and fluffy wingback chairs to curl up in, or my mom to pester for soft cat food. and they're pissed. well, rupert's pissed (and he keeps trying to angry piss on our rugs), and pickle's just melancholy. i'm happy she's settled down enough to cuddle with seth, but she still hasn't figured out that she can't spoon with us in the bed like she used to. that's seth's spot now. so she just takes off. and meows like she's dying. and rupert just fucking glares at us and refuses to cuddle. i'm not sure which he's more pissed about: the baby or being confined to the basement.

okay, i'm off to make something to eat and maybe paint a second coat on that shelf. xo