A day off!

Woot. What is nicer than waking up in the morning and remembering it's Your Day Off.

                             Yay!


Started off the day nice n easy, with coffee on the couch with the cat. :)
Did some gardening....did some cleaning....the Best Electrician in the world came by to fix the bathroom fan, and we chatted fer a bit....and I made my List of Things to Do Today...which got me all excited cuz I'm gonna make my Tomater Sauce tomoro!
I love to cook and to bake. I love to eat, so that seems to work out well.

I haven't been able to make anything other than short batches of sauce for a coupla years; so I'm looking forward to making this batch.

I had to do some recording this afternoon; a spot for a Scenic Train Ride ...www.Pstr.on.ca if you wanna check out the train..... and on the way home (amidst various other errands) I stopped at a fantastic local market that features locally grown /produced everything. I'm really a fan of supporting local based stuff, the Slow Food movement thing - it's important.

Whilst at Briwood; I ended up picking out more than a few things.....as inspiration struck. I love grocery shopping.

It makes me feel safe and okay, when I can go shopping and buy whatever I want without worrying about the cost....I know I'm doing okay. I loved shopping as a child, sittin' in the cart, in the clean aisles and watching Mom pick out the brightly coloured boxes and packages, and the whole process was magical to me. NO idea why, it was just perfect for me. So now I still love to shop for food. I can spend hours in a big ol' grocery store, just moseying around the aisles lookin' at stuff, thinking about what to cook. (And yes. I am made fun of to no end by my friends for this.)

 So...tonite was a kitchen fiesta. The cats hid and my Mom only ventured out a few times to make disapproving sniffs and noises about how many dishes I was using. (I keep my mess controlled; and I clean up my messes. But I guess to our parents we are perennially 13 years old when in the kitchen.) I also made her favourite, broccoli and cheddar quiche. Except I don't use a crust, so it's more like a frittata, but she calls it Egg Pie so I go with that. I also snuck in some sundried tomatoes that I soaked in some water & sherry and used the liquor from that too in the pie. Yum. Next!

So I have this awesome cookbook; called "White Trash Gatherings" and it's got down-home country-cookin' recipes that I absolutely adore. It's old timey cooking and don't you DARE use low fat anything or margarine when using these recipes!! It was a gift to me ages ago - found in a artist's enclave shop thing off the interstate in West Virginia.
Tonite I made the biscuits, the coleslaw and tomoro...the FRIED CHICKEN!!! The stories in this book are hysterical, too. We've all got relatives like that.....

And while out gatherin' all my stuffs today, when at the Bulk Barn gettin' extra spices ( I didn't have any dry mustard or celery seed, gasp) I was SHOCKED and APPALLED that they were SOLD OUT of caramel corn. WHAT?!?!? That's my go to of guilty snack food pleasures.....

So I decided to make my own! Here's the recipe I used:  Caramel Corn recipe and it is okay. Very few ingredients, easy, but I like a lighter tasting caramel so maybe next time I might use some white sugar....hmmm.... but still, very tasty. It's pretty yummy when still warm, in fact, I may or may not be stuffing my face as I type right now....

So let's see:

Chicken pieces for tomoro marinating in buttermilk - Check.
Coleslaw 'coming together' overnight in fridge - Check.
"Egg Pie" (what my mom calls quiche) made & ready to eat - Check
Corn muffins made - Check
Biscuits made - Check
Caramel Corn - Check
Peppers, Onions, Garlic, sliced and diced and ready for saucing tomoro - Check

I still have to bring in some more tomaters from the garden; and pull some of my onions and pick the basil.

I'll keep everyone posted and see how this turns out!