Spaghetti Squash worthy of a glass of wine......and a new dress

I had two spaghetti squash left over from last fall, if you read the post "Yes sir, yes sir two bags full" you may have noticed that I store my squash under my spinning chair for the winter. That is my entry room and is very cool in the winter unless the "cheesy fireplace" is on, which it hardly ever is because the gas company just chuckles at the other end of the line every time that switch it flicked, and so that room has become my cold storage and apparently the perfect temperature for squash....my potatoes however...whoooo, like a box of creatures from out of a horror movie, something Steven Spielberg would create....anyway. Today I cooked up my squash, it was so good! Here is my recipe;

First poke holes in the squash all over about 2 inches apart (or else she explodes in your oven), put the whole thing in a roasting pan and bake at 350 F for about an hour.....nothing else in the pan, no water, no butter, no nada. Easy peasy, go have a nap for an hour. (set a timer)

After an hour take it out of the oven and let it cool on your cutting board. Meanwhile to make my special marinara sauce put a good dollop of Olive oil in a deep sided frying pan and dice a few garlic cloves (about 6) and a medium sized onions.....or more or less depending on taste, garlic and onions are so good for you so don't be shy. Then I put some chicken broth....remember the post "let me tell you about soup" you all went out and made a bunch of chicken broth right? Grab some out of the freezer and dump the whole frozen chunk (about 2 cups) in your pan and let it slowly melt. Once it's melted get a can of tomatoes from the freezer that you froze last year (remember I told you how to freeze tomatoes super fast and easy in the post "mary mary quite contrary how does your garden grow") dump that frozen chunk in there too and add some dried oregano and basil and the ever so special Tomato consume, however much you like, add some pepper, I usually stick my hand blender in there as well and puree it so that it is nice and smooth. Let it sit there and simmer while you deal with your squash which is now cool enough to handle.
Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, you know the stuff that looks like the inside of a pumpkin. Now take a fork and scrape out the flesh, it will come out stringy like spaghetti, scoop it into a serving bowl. It looks magical doesn't it.
Now, your sauce is all pretty and red, take a baggie of frozen green beans out of your freezer....you did pick and freeze some green beans from your garden last fall didn't you? Well, if you didn't you can buy some frozen green beans and add to your sauce now, you don't want your beans to be over cooked and all limpy and soggy that is why you leave it to the last. If your sauce is a little runny at this time, which mine was, take a little container and put about 1 heaping tsp of cornstarch in and some water and shake it until it is smooth and no longer lumpy and pour into your sauce and stir over high heat until it thickens. You are done....that is my marinara sauce. Pour on top on your spaghetti and sprinkle some fresh Parmesan cheese on. This is a meal worthy of a glass of red wine, garlic toast and ceasar salad are great with it as well.....then you might even need 2 glasses or wine.

Having homemade chicken broth and frozen tomatoes in the freezer makes making quick meals so much easier and healthier. Freezing tomatoes is so easy. I just wait until I have a a bunch of ripe tomatoes and cut them into quarters and stuff them in a 500 ml canning jar and stick my hand in there and squish them so the juices comes out, leave about 1 inch of head room for expansion and stick in the freezer. Some people peel their tomatoes first and stew them up with all kinds of spices, which is all good but so much work. ( I used to do it like that too) I add the spices when I am making the dish anyway and they get stewed then, so I don't feel there is any need to do all that. This way you can freeze them in small batches and as they ripen and it's not a big messy production. There is so much you can do with frozen tomatoes, don't ever be afraid of having too many jars of tomatoes in the freezer.

By the way, now is a good time to start some tomato plants indoors, mine are already about an inch high

 A few weeks ago I went to see my mom and sisters in La Crete which is about an hour drive East of here, when I am there I like stopping at the second hand store there. I discovered something incredible this time, there is a door that leads to a separate little room that I had never seen before, it's a hidden door. I was invited in this time...oh my. Had I not had my grandma with me I would still be in there. It is a little room full of sewing patterns, every kind of pattern imaginable from every era, yes, old old old patterns....vintage patterns selling for 25 cents each, I know....shocking, exciting and just so incredible, but I didn't want to keep my grandma on her feet for too long, although she was almost as excited as I was, she was a seamstress (still does lots of sewing). If you would have been on the other side of the wall you would have heard this "oh grandma look at this one" "wow, look at the this," "oh, I remember these dresses...oh those sleeves", " this used to be the dress to have", "oh grandma look at this one", "look look look" and so it went......I bought a dress pattern, dropped grandma off and drove to the fabric store as fast as I could in search for some green cotton with white polka dots.....and they didn't have any, I was heart broken, I had an imagine in my head of this dress in green with white polka dots. I had to have this dress, so I bought some other green fabric....I am still on the hunt for the green/white. Then I drove to my moms and she whipped me up a new dress in about 2 hours. It;s always good to come home for a visit. My mom phoned me a few days later and said grandma wanted the same dress....in beige, I have the coolest grandma. Next time I visit I am taking her to "the room" again....without her there I might spend the whole weekend in "the room". We'll bring refreshments and some snacks.....I wonder if I should make a reservation?

I haven't yet figured out how to take a nice picture of myself and the dress hanging empty looked a bit silly. See the brown dress on the right, that's the one my mom made.....it would be amazing in a grass green with white polkas....am I wrong? 

Alleluia He is risen!

This statue of Jesus stands on a hill on the outskirt of Cusco Peru 

"It is Finished"

How did this get in here?

How on earth does a Bougainvillea tree branch end up in Northern Alberta Canada? Well, imagine my surprise when I get to the Edmonton airport and for some unknown reason I decide I need to get something out of my suitcase and I open it up and there nestled in between my damp dirty laundry ....yes I travel with damp dirty laundry, is a little Bougainvillea tree branch, must have fallen out of my hair as I was packing (remember the time I had coconut in my hair?), well there it was still damp (my hair must have been wet)  so I took it out and put it in a bottle of water (which I just happened to have with me)  for the rest of the journey home and it seems to like it here.....it's got little new leaves.

I am hoping I can keep the fact that it is now living in Alberta and not on a beach in Mexico a secret from it by keeping it in my greenhouse and then I will keep it as a houseplant for the winter months....this is my plan, not that I planned this of course, one would never smuggle plants across 2 borders, that would be foolish. Of course it will never be all that it can be confined to a pot, they are most beautiful if left to grow at their own pace. Some of the most beautiful ones are the ones growing on the side of the roads with no one tending to them. I will try to keep it happy and comfortable.
While it is heating up in my greenhouse it still looks like this at the golf course.

Last fall I strategically hung 9 birdhouse throughout the course in areas where they most likely would not get hit by golf balls and possibly may not even be seen by golfers unless they are looking for them. I numbered them all so they is no confusion as to who's house is who's, and of course so they all get their mail :) House #  7 can be seen from my office window and so far no action there. We have many many ravens up here and they are such a nuisance, not only do they steal golf balls by the 1000s from the driving range they steal the eggs right out of bird's nests and kill the babies birds before they even get out of the nests, this is always so sad for me when I see a pillaged nest with broken eggs laying on the ground. I managed to find a guy that built birdhouses and so I bought 10 of them (gave one to my mother) If I see the birds liking these I plan on buying 10 more this fall. I will slowly create my very own little bird sanctuary. Now if I can just find a way of keeping the coyotes from eating the baby ducks, although when we discovered a coyote den with 3 little very fat, furry, tumbling, funny and sooooo cute coyotes pups I thought "how can I deny them food?"  I don;t believe I am interfering with the wildlife food chain by protecting the birds from the Ravens, they have other food sources but for the most part I believe we humans should just admire wildlife from a distance and mind our own business....for the most part, I won't get into hunting because I don't want to get into a debate about that.
Anyway...there you have it, still snow, still cold. Today I am putting on my mittens and toque and heading outside to help a friend build some raised garden beds....maybe, just maybe 2 more for me...what do you think? This is a picture from last summer, I"m thinking of putting 2 square 4x4 beds in front of the two beds on the right. It would mean hauling about 2 more loads of dirt. I don't have access to my back yard by truck so it all has to be hauled by wheelbarrow from the front driveway to the back, each year I think I am done hauling dirt but I can't seem to ever get enough. It's hard being a farmer when you're a townie.

Some itty bitty little ladies

The biggest excitement this week for me think was the arrival of 35000 ladybugs at our local greenhouse, where I go almost everyday (sometimes 3 times a day) to get my green fix. They came all the way from California by plane and then by bus from Edmonton and then by DHL to the greenhouse, quiet a journey for itty bitty little lady bugs. The little ladies were brought in to keep the aphids under control, our greenhouse does not use pesticides of any kind, they bring in different types of bugs to kill other bugs. I did manage to get some shots, not very nice ones, for some reason the last few days I haven't gotten very nice close up shots, not sure what is going on.

All that black stuff is poop, they pooped a lot.....it was a long journey

Aww, here is Grace, the greenhouse rabbits who eats the weeds. There should be baby rabbits for sale here by Easter......Lord help me not to buy a rabbit, I have fantasies of rabbits and chickens in my backyard....and a goat, maybe a sheep..anyway

Then I just meandered a bit with my camera

Sp pretty and green

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The last of the ladies

What else happened this week?

I've been spinning some pretty funny blurry lookin yarn......I know now why they call spinning art but haven't discovered why it is referred to as therapeutic and peaceful.....oh what a tangled mess we spin we at first we set out to...

What the heck is this you ask......why it's art

The pea fence got hung up.....ok so it's just a funny lookin net but you wait until the peas are climbing it. If it looks half as good as it does in my pea fantasy I'll be happy. 

Some leaves got raked and some snow melted

The greenhouse got heat and water today, a trial run tonight and then tomorrow the plants move in

The bird feeder got some action finally

The cucumber are stretching their necks for sun.....and getting a little leggy

My second batch of sprouts got started......I am loving sprouts in my salad. My the way, don't sprout pinto beans......taste terrible

My vegetable bowl art is back to being invaded by fruit......I'm trying to make it look better and maybe it will taste better, which I think is working, I had a great fruit salad for breakfast today

My down time projects, a knitted head band to keep my ears warm and the very lovely Jane Eyre

A batch of fresh home made yogurt....weird picture again. 

So aside from the tax prep (which is running around the house scratching my head saying "I know I saved that somewhere", and "now, where did I put that" ), running back and forth from the golf course, still having internet problems and no phone yet..grrr.......that was my week. I've blown a week away again it seems. Oh....and I made delicious fruit ice creamy/sherbety/creamy dessert which I will share another time, my picture were not nice at all.

A cheesy fire

Two days ago it was windy, cold and even snowing a bit outside so I decided I might as well have a cozy evening beside the fire. Even though I do not like winter, which is why I winter in Mexico, I can appreciate a cozy evening by the fire. So I lit the fire, which is done by flicking a switch.....I know, so cheesy. I have fantasies of one day having a wood burning stove in my home, just like I fantasize of one day of having two chicken in my backyard....these are my dreams people, seriously. Anyway, I flicked on the cheesy fire and made myself a pot of tea and gathered my bags of wool and sat down and drafted the wool into long thin strips as I listened to wind howling outside.....it really was howling I am not making that up. It was nice.

Yup, I still have 2 squash under my chair that survived the winter....right there under my chair, I am saving them for a special dinner. 

The end result was 4 balls of light, fluffy and creamy colored wool, I am still thinking I am not going to dye this batch. 

Yes SIr, Yes Sir two bags full......

It's official, I am an old spinster now, GUESS WHAT I HAVE?

A friend of mine's brother called a few days ago from Value Village in Edmonton and said there was a handmade spinning wheel and would I want it for $89....yes please, yes please yes please. Two days later I became a spinster....well not really, I haven't actually spun anything yet. I have no idea how to use this but I am so willing to learn....because, I've had 2 bags of wool stashed away since last fall. I got 2 bags of wool given to me from a farmer that didn't know what to do with it and just gave it away. I have always wanted to go through the whole process of getting wool right from the sheep to a wearable garment but when I got the bags of dirty, poopy, and oh so smelly wool I was a bit stumped at what to do next, it didn't look at all like the how to videos said it would look so I sent it to a place down south and they washed and carded it and sent it back to me all soft and fluffy and ready to spin. (16 lbs of it) It is so beautiful, so pure wool and so real. The funnest part I always thought would be the dying (I wrote about my dying daydreams last year here) but now when I saw the beautiful pure natural wool I have lost the interest in dying it.... for now. I can see a beautiful oatmeal colored chunky sweater...natural and real. Who knows, the dying bug might come back.....first, I need to learn to spin with this baby. I have found many videos, just need to get started.....but, it''t tax time, yup, I always come back just  in time for tax time, so that must happen first before I can sit down and spin.
No end to the excitement around here...oh and it's snowing.