FauxPas

Wow! You must have started with a LOT of books if this is after a major cull. 😄 We have moved quite a few times over the years and each time I get rid of a bunch of books, but they still manage to start accumulating with each new address. Nothing like your collection though! 🙂

I think you should consider Vancouver Island! 🙂 I don't have a picture of the dinner we had last night, but it was basically this recipe for Black Bean & Squash Chili. I used a Carnival squash and red pepper from a local farm along with Cherimoya chili powder that I order from a little place in New Mexico. And Rancho Gordo beans. The spicy chili really brought out the sweetness of the squash. I didn't care about being vegan so used some of my frozen chicken stock. Gratuitous photo of another local farm's squash/onion/garlic offerings. I did buy a different sale squash here, but I just love checking out their barn decor when they open things up for their Autumn/Hallowe'en displays. Their prices have gone a bit crazy, but some of the stuff is more reasonable.

Still picking the odd strawberry from my plants, a pear from a friend's tree and some Danish blue. Shorter days make me feel a bit blue, but I do love the colour in the trees, the crisp mornings but warm afternoons, etc.

I just love everything about your home - the warmth and charm of the wood, the decor and the food! Surprised that neither of the real cats did a photo-bomb, though. 🙂

This made me laugh out loud. 🙂

I never got around to actually making it, but I was going to try tomato marmalade as someone I knew raved about it - can't remember who now of course. 🙂 There's a recipe at US National Center for Home Food Preservation. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/tomato_marmalade.html I also have a recipe in one of my small-batch preserving books (by Ellie Topp & Margaret Howard) (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) which uses about 2.5 lbs (5 cups) of coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes, 2 oranges and 1 lemon (halved, seeded and finely chopped in blender or food processor) and 4 cups of sugar. All boiled until it forms a gel (about an hour), stirred frequently. Makes about 6 cups and can be processed for 10 mins to preserve in jars. A variation uses 3 Tbsp of finely chopped peeled ginger and is recommended as an accompaniment to chicken, pork or fish. Not sure if that appeals to you, though, @blue_dolphin 🙂

Maybe these are stupid questions but these purple beans turn green when cooked, right? Do they stay purple when lacto-fermented? 🙂

Is that deep-fried? That would make it closer to a what is called a chimichanga (at least in Arizona) than a regular burrito/burro. I've never seen three (or even two) meats combined. Often the cooking style of the meat is defining - carne seca or carne asada, for example. it's not just meat wrapped in a tortilla - how the meat is prepared, what is added to it before wrapping and what sides/sauces are served alongside are all important elements. Edited to add: Here's a video on El Charro Cafe in Tucson where they claim to have invented the chimichanga. 🙂 They make carne seca by drying the beef in the sun.

I have everbearing strawberries in my little garden and just like the local commercial growers, they produce in June and early July and then a second crop in August-September. They just take a brief rest in between. It's not that unusual here to see the second crop extend into early October. I still have blossoms on my plants as well as ripe fruit.

The best Calabacitas I ever had was a few years ago at a little place called The Velvet Elvis in Patagonia, Arizona. It was their lunch/dinner special one day and it was a revelation. It's such a humble dish and I almost passed on it, but it was amazing. The veggies were perfect, the sauce was seasoned and flavoured with precision and the rice was perfect. It was one of the best meals I had in a while. So surprising. Do you make it often? I managed to find the photo!

Nasturtium vinegar is beautiful and might be useful in some of your cooking? https://www.growforagecookferment.com/nasturtium-flower-infused-vinegar/

I'm pretty sure there is a lot of variation across the country. Here in BC, it does depend on region and size of hospital. Vancouver General (as of a couple of years ago) gives a menu each morning so patients can order the next day's meals. Many BC hospitals were contracting food services out but are switching back to in-house workers. That began here on the Island and I am pretty sure our local hospital and the one at Campbell River both have in-house staff for meals now. I have been told that increased quality and choice of meals, but haven't had to try it out myself. 🙂 Edited to add: This, from St. Paul's Hospital, also in Vancouver: MEALS Patient meals are served at these times: Breakfast: 7.45 a.m. to 9.15 a.m. Lunch: 12 noon to 1.15 p.m. Dinner: 4.45 p.m. to 6.15 p.m. Each day breakfast menus are provided for patients to select the following day’s meals. This menu is based on the diet prescribed by your doctor. If your doctor has prescribed a special diet for you, a dietitian will visit you as soon as possible. The dietitian will talk to you about the food you should be eating while in hospital and when you go home. Family members are allowed to bring favourite foods from home for their relatives. There is a patient fridge on most wards. Before bringing food from home, please check with the dietitian about any dietary restrictions you may have. Each ward stocks apple and orange drinks that are available from your nurse.

These look very cool! Exactly! (though better than not having the second appliances at all, ha)

My ideal would be to have a full-size refrigerator-only unit and a decent sized upright freezer and have them both in the kitchen. Much as I love having the small upright freezer and the extra fridge (with freezer) in the garage, I tend to hate having to go through the doors and past the car and all the other garage stuff to get to them. 🙂

Good to hear that you have a replacement! Were you able to fit everything into this smaller one? And did they take the old fridge away? It does sound like it will be tricky to find one the right size to fit into that gap. I feel for you guys! The misery of fridge replacements, ugh. Our last fridge trauma was about three years ago, just as the pandemic closures were well underway and our newish LG died on us. It had done something similar about a year earlier but we were able to revive it then by unplugging it and leaving it overnight. No such luck this time. We couldn't book an appliance repair person to come and look at it for weeks so we just accepted we needed a new one. Shopping options were extremely limited and shipping times were already crazy long so we knew we had to find something in stock. We lucked out with one local store that had a few choices and I ended up loving the GE one we picked. We sold that house a year or so later, I wonder how the newer fridge holds up! 🙂 In this house, I wanted a different fridge but we kept the old one in the garage. We don't really need a second fridge, but I don't want to risk being caught an extra on hand anymore! How sad is that? 😄

As @blue_dolphinsaid, it's a safe choice. Just the usual caveats when freezing - leave a bit of room in the jars for freezer expansion, let it cool and set up/gel before freezing, thaw and store in fridge, and you may get a bit more 'weeping' or separation once thawed than with water-bath canned jelly.

Today is National sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch day. Hope all you zuke growers did the right thing, ha. https://www.kxan.com/news/august-8-is-national-sneak-some-zucchini-onto-your-neighbors-porch-day-but-why/

Happy Birthday! The ice looks beautiful. Was it an enjoyable beverage? 🙂

I currently have one on my countertop and two new ones in boxes in the garage. I also left one in the house we recently sold because the new owner REALLY wanted it. 🙂

I like to use a mix of pork belly and pork shoulder when I make Filipino Pork Adobo, but the pork is cooked for quite a long time in that cooking style. Similar to this. I prefer my bacon somewhat bendable. Too crisp and it loses taste, I think. 🙂 In fact, I would say overcooked bacon is a food that I just don't like, ha.

It's been a very good year for tomatoes. Terrible for snap peas though, I hardly got any of those. 😞 I hope yours are plentiful, once they really get underway! You too, @chromedome!

Like this one, @Shelby. What do you think? 😄 From Etsy listing here.

You are a very wise woman! Smart of you to give it a go. And so happy for you that it worked! 😄 That tiny dent is at perfect cat height, just begging for a magnet or sticker just for them! A little mouse sticker would be funny. 😆

I'm so pleased with tomatoes! Picked more today and more green beans also.

Today's tomato pick and a few more serrano peppers. I also picked some green beans. Yum. 🙂