Fresh peas! They add so much colour to a meal and you can create a simple dinner plate with just peas & pasta. I added butter, black pepper and little bit of parmesan cheese and had a perfect light dinner. Yum!
Sweet Red Pepper Jelly & Sweet Pickles!
Today I started my new hobby — canning! I am so excited to say that it was fun, pretty darn easy, and also going to be delicious!!! First I made sweet red pepper jelly, especially for my Mom because I know she loves it so much. I only made 3 1/2 pint jars but I can see myself making some more batches of this in the near future. What a great holiday gift for friends in family!
Look at how juicy, luscious, and red these peppers are!
The finished product, 2/3 jars. Pretty tasty looking!
I had a little break after the red pepper jelly and we went out for a drive and ended up picking up a bunch of produce and more jars. For my second venture I decided to try pickles. Mmm, I love pickles. These were pretty simple to make as well and I actually ended up making a lot more than I thought I would. I made 7 – 1/2 pint jars of the sweet pickles. 3 of them were not sealed properly so they are in the fridge for use but the other 4 will go in the pantry for parties and burgers!
I love those tiny cucumbers. They are so tasty and fresh.
Check out my finished product of the pickles. Looks pretty authentic to me! I tasted a hot one real quick to make sure I was on the right track and it tasted EXACTLY like store-bought pickles — but better. I am so excited to share these with everyone. My next projects will involve apples, blueberries, cranberries, and tea. Yes, tea. One of the canning books I have has a great recipe for tea jelly and you can use pretty much any tea you want. They suggest Earl Grey but I have a ton of the Starbucks PASSION tea which I think would be so tasty on buttered toast. I will have to update on that later! Have a great Halloween weekend! xo
Preservation: Yes You Can!
Last weekend when we went to Canmore, we visited this cute bookstore that had a great cookbook section. I stumbled across a great book all about Canning & Preserving. It is called Canning For A New Generation. This has been something I have been thinking about learning how to do for a long time now so I took a snapshot of the book and when I got home I ordered it online (anything to save a couple dollars — or more like $18).
The next day Byron was doing some grocery shopping and came across another book all about canning and brought it home for me. Now I have two great books to start my new hobby. I started reading them last night and there is so much great information! What inspiring creations. I can’t wait to start.
We went to Canadian Tire yesterday and managed to pick up all of the supplies for only $75 including a case of new jars. I am going to start next weekend by making my Mom’s favourite kind of preserve, red pepper jelly! Just in time for beautiful late autumn meals and giftgiving. I expect to move onto a jam by the next weekend and slowly go from there. I can’t wait to have a pantry stocked with beautifully coloured jars full of delicious things to eat and share with my friends and family. xo
Thanksgiving Part 2: Calgary Edition
Since we missed Thanksgiving with my family last weekend, we had to rectify that immediately and they hosted a dinner last night. It was a such a beautiful sunny day, Byron and I decided to drive out to Canmore through the mountains to look at the shops and have a coffee.
We hurried back to Calgary in time for the dinner at my parents! Two homemade pecan pies in tow and as well as our excitement for Mad Men!
i love my Mom’s dining room! so gorgeous! don’t you love the pale blue pumpkin? its real!
gorgeous floral design.
My Mom is an amazing cook and she made a spectacular feast for us all this Sunday evening! Cornish game hens, jalapeno & havarti stuffed baked potatoes, classic stuffing (that I also made last weekend!) and a beautiful fresh Greek salad. I made Pecan Pie for dessert and we watched the Season Finale of Mad Men.
What a perfect meal! xoxo
yummy things we made this weekend
I made a delicious veggie lasagna, complete with artichokes & spinach.
these are the most amazing little veggies ever. mini summer squash. roast em up all nice and they are just like butter in your mouth. i hope i can track some more of these down before winter hits. so yum.
byron made me breakfast in bed this saturday! glutenfree waffles, fresh peaches, and homemade strawberry syrup. thanks honey!
off to my parents for thanksgiving feast #2 tonight. yum yum!
Thanksgiving Part 1: Trail Edition
This past weekend was heavenly. Byron and I were so happy to get out of the city and visit our friends Jen & John and their two adorable daughters Regan & Caleigh in Trail, B.C. And it was all in the name of Thanksgiving! One of my favourite holidays of all. Blair & Lauren also joined us along with our friend Lucky. They arrived a day before us so they were nice and settled in once we arrived.
The drive to Trail was beautiful. Alberta is incredibly gorgeous when the sun is just coming over the horizon. The autumn colours were breathtaking. And of course, British Columbia is breathtaking on its own. So lush and green, I love it!
Alberta Highways
Beautiful Sunrise approaching the Rocky Mountains
A wall of fog greeting us to Trail
When we arrived, delicious quesadillas were being prepared by Blair & Lauren as well as some amazing cheesy nachos. What a wonderful way to be greeted! I also met their friend Spencer and his two sons who would be joining us for the Smoke-Eaters Hockey Game that night. And what a game that was! It was Penticton versus Trail. I was secretly cheering for Penticton because I kind of want to move there someday. The wine! The fruit! Anyways, I went and bought a Smokies baseball hat to prove my support, but apparently it wasn’t enough. Penticton Vees ended up winning and then it was time for Karaoke!
Lucky & Jen cheering the team on!
Karaoke was so much fun, of course I didn’t sing. I need practice before I delve into the karaoke land! But Mr. Honey sang “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones which was awesome. I will have to post the video on here once I get it uploaded. Such a cute song. love! We were pretty exhausted after the long day of driving so we headed back to the house a bit early and hit the hay.
Thanksgiving! Have I mentioned how much I love Thanksgiving? We all went out for breakfast after drinking copious amounts of coffee and Baileys all morning, but I didn’t end up eating much in order to save myself for the epic meal later this day. And I mean epic. More than four people cooking this yummy meal! So exciting!
I started off by making butternut acorn squash soup. Roasting the squashes, and also the yams and stuffing I made.
Mmm! Nothing better than a hearty soup!
Delicious fresh salad Jen made.
My Mama’s famous stuffing that I made! My favourite thing to make and eat!
the spread!
The pumpkin ice cream pie that John made! Amazing!
A few of the lovelies I hung out with this weekend:
mr. honey of course
miss caleigh! i didnt get a snapshot of her darling older sister, regan! they are so cute!
Blair!
John with his magnificent pie!
Jen!
Crokinole tournament! John and I were runners-up but Blair and Byron won.
The beautiful little house we stayed at all weekend! <3 Thanks Miller Family!!!
present-wrapping love
Off to BC first thing in the morning. I had so much fun wrapping these gifts for our two special little friends we will be seeing tomorrow afternoon! See ya’ll when we get back! xoxo
Favourite Fall Things
I haven’t updated in awhile! Work has been hectic and we had a medical emergency in the office yesterday so I’ve been trying to destress by working out and movie watching. We cancelled our cable the other day and are now addicted to Netflix.ca — they don’t have a huge selection yet but we have found some real indie gems. So good.
We are both getting really excited about going away this weekend to visit The Millers in Trail! It will be so nice to get out of the city and have our first road trip in our little car. I am so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with some special friends and family. It is one of my favourite holidays and the weather has been so perfect lately, it got me thinking about my favourite fall things.
magical forest hikes
good food, good wine
everything pumpkin related. the pumpkin spice soy candle we have is burning so deliciously.
getting out my toy cameras. fall is captured so beautifully.
being cozy and drinking warm drinks
all images from here.
Fort Christmas
Jeremy Larson/Fort Christmas is the partner-in-crime of Elsie Flannigan of Red Velvet Boutique and A Beautiful Mess. His new album Feathers is coming out later this month and I can’t wait to get a copy of it. He writes really great heartfelt tunes about real life and love. I think you will enjoy it too!
one womans treasure becomes anothers
You likely saw my post about selling my beautiful 1950s sectional sofa. And you probably were all crossing your fingers that I wouldn’t sell it so that you could come over at least one more time and lounge on its deliciousness. Right? Well, I sold it! And I sold it to the most perfect person ever! She is another vintage lover, even more so than me!
Isn’t she the cutest thing ever?!?
Her name is Jennea Frischke and she is a local vintage collector and vendor. You can often find her booth at the Market Collective that runs bi-monthly in Calgary. You can also read this article from Kitschykoo! (when I was still doing it) by Harvey Hinton. I can’t wait to see how she fits the sofa into her place and decorates! I think I might have to do a home invasion photoshoot once she’s got her new friend, Couch, all settled in! So excited for it to be going to a great home! xo