There’s No Place Like Home

Tags

actor's life, daily prompt, Home

Preface:

Being the lazy blogger/writer that I am, my posts have been quite sporadic lately.  No schedule, no three times a week, not even once a week.  Maybe once a month.  Basically, I have been posting when I felt inspired.  But alas, as I have learned over the years, one does not learn a craft by only practicing when inspired.  If that were the case, I would probably step on stage about 10% of the time during the run of the show.  No, I have learned that one learns a craft by showing up every day, regardless of inspiration, to just bloody do it.  You learn a craft through discipline.  So I am now going to apply discipline to my blogging.  I will be blogging every day.  WordPress will provide a daily prompt (see the badge in the sidebar!), and I will spend at least twenty minutes of my day writing a post on the topic of the daily prompt.  So . . . on with it then.

Prompt:

Silver Screen – Take a quote from your favourite movie – there’s the title of your post.  Now write!

Post:

I am not a movie buff.  Never have been.  Some actors are total movie buffs – they can rattle off names of movie stars, directors, Oscar winners, etc.  I don’t have the brain power to carry that kind of information with me every day (especially not now since I always have a program open and running in the background of my brain called ‘foster baby’).  So when I read this prompt, I thought, “Oh bloody hell.  Sure enough the first prompt would be about something I don’t have anything to say about.  Favourite movie?  I don’t have one!”  I was tempted to start with another prompt tomorrow, but that wouldn’t be a great start to a disciplined practice, would it?

The first quote that popped into my mind was “There’s no place like home.” Dorothy, Wizard of Oz.  I’m sure you all know it.  Like I said, I don’t think I actually have a favourite movie, but I really enjoy this one, and I watched it more times than I can remember over the years.  I even saw it in a movie theatre once.  It played at one of those indie movie theatres when I was living in Toronto.  I think it was the 60th anniversary, so it was enjoying a limited run on the big screen.

I went with my (so wrong for me) boyfriend at the time.  I really should have broken up with him before I left Saskatoon, but what can I say?  I was young (20 years old), scared (moving from Saskatoon to Toronto ALL ON MY OWN), and stupid (I had just chosen to major in theatre.  In Canada).  It was a lot of change for a little person, and breaking up with a boyfriend was just too damn difficult.  So we had a “long-distance relationship.”

It was actually okay at first because I was really busy with theatre school, and, you know, out of sight, out of mind.  I didn’t think about him that much. My acting prof was absolutely mystified when she found out that not only I, but also my classmate from Newfoundland, had a boyfriend back home. “I just don’t understand,” she kept repeating in her thick, Croatian accent (her acting teacher was a student of Stanislavski’s.  When I heard that, I so wanted to have trained as an actor in communist Croatia!)  “You girls are so young.  Why do you want to tie yourself down like that?” I didn’t really feel tied down, to be honest.  We were living 2000 km apart.  I hardly thought about him.  But then he insisted on visiting.  He only stayed for four days, but the second I saw him get off the plane, I knew I had to break up with him.

Unfortunately, it took me another six months to do it.  Like I said, out of sight, out of mind. Also unfortunately, it took him about SIX FUCKING WEEKS to get over it.  He kept phoning me and showing up on my doorstep and  I’d have to pretend I wasn’t home (this was while I was back home for the summer).  When I think back on it all now, I’m so embarrassed that I didn’t end it sooner.  We were so obviously wrong for each other. I guess I sort of thought I could just leave and not have to deal with it.

When I left Saskatoon for Toronto, I had no intention of returning ever again.  Other than coming home for visits during the holidays, I had forsaken my prairie home.  Poor Saskatoon.  In my young eyes, it was a redneck rube compared to smart, sophisticated Toronto.  It was blue jeans, and Toronto was black tie.  It was Suzy Shier, and Toronto was The Gap.  It was a Styrofoam cup of shitty coffee, and Toronto was Starbucks.

But no city is perfect.  Toronto was busy, and grey, and full of garbage.  Toronto was tall buildings and concrete, and much like being in a valley surrounded by mountains, it made me very anxious that I couldn’t see the horizon.  Ever.  Toronto was business,  consumerism, and expensive houses.  I began to long for wide, open spaces.  Sunshine.  Clear air.  The river.  When I finished theatre school, I returned home.  For better or for worse, I found myself right back where I started.

Much of my decision to return home was because I longed for the land, and I truly loved my province.  But, if I’m being honest, much of my decision to return home was also based in fear.  Here, I could be a big fish in a small pond.  In Toronto, I was a fucking minnow in a great lake.  What if I’m not good enough to make it?  What if I never get any work?  What if I really am a shitty actor, and they just kept me around because my tuition paid the rent?  By returning home, I never had to find out.  I still don’t know, and probably never will.  It’s not like I plan on moving back to Toronto (although, you really never know where life will take you).

So how does this all fit into “There’s No Place Like Home?”  I’m not really sure.

See?  This is why I need to practice and be disciplined.  I’ve just made you read over 1000 rambling words, and I have no way of tying it all up in the end.  Hopefully, I’ll improve before you lose your patience with me. See you tomorrow!

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Tomatoes and Grapes

Tags

Concord, Cook, Fruit preserves, Grape, Herb, Home, Jams Jellies and Preserves, Sugar

And the food just keeps on coming.  We are so lucky to have such a wonderful harvest this year!

First off, the tomatoes.  I made our first batch of spaghetti sauce.  We use this recipe with a few tweaks:

• Use fresh herbs from the garden instead of dried herbs.  Use double the quantity of fresh herbs;
• Add any hot peppers we have been growing just to give it an extra kick;
• Cook it on the stove top instead of the slow cooker so that the liquid reduces more; otherwise, it’s too runny.

We have a crazy amount of cherry tomatoes this year.  They’re so lovely – sweet and delicious.  Almost like candy.

Second, grapes!  Our grape vines suddenly decided to produce for the first time.  We’re not sure if they’re Concord or Valiant (we got a vine cutting from a friend a few years ago), but I do know they make delicious grape juice and grape jelly.  If you ever make homemade grape jelly, do yourself a favour and use it in a PB & J sandwich.  Yum.

This was my first attempt at making jelly, and it worked!  I always make jams because it really doesn’t matter if a jam doesn’t set – you just end up with a fruity spread or preserve.  But if jelly doesn’t set, you’re kinda screwed, right?  But it worked!  Hurrah!  I’ve been using a no-sugar pectin this year so that I don’t have to overload everything with white sugar, but I’m not so sure about the final result.  It seems to add a flavour.  I think I can taste the pectin.  Has anyone else ever experienced this?  Or am I just crazy?

Anyway, the food keeps on coming, and I keep on preserving.  Back to the canning pot!

Peaches and Onions

Tags

Cook, Farmers' Market, Fruit preserves, Home, Onion, Peach, Peaches, Pinterest

Not together.  That would be gross.  But peaches and onions were the two things I preserved this weekend.

The onions I accidentally dug up as I was trying to weed the poor, neglected onion patch.  The onion patch is neglected because it is right beside the beehive.  Melanie didn’t want to weed there, so when we got back, the onions were indistinguishable from the weeds.  I pulled a few by accident while I tore away at the gigantic weeds.

Found this idea on Pinterest.  Tie them up in nylons and hang them in the cold storage.  I’ll let you know if it works.

I’ve put off buying peaches at the Farmers’ Market for the past two weekends, waiting for the case price to come down.  It hasn’t.  I finally caved and bought a ten pound case for $17.

They claimed to be Freestone Peaches.  Alas, that claim was FALSE.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it until after I had peeled the peaches and tried to cut them in half to pit them.  That’s when I discovered they are actually Clingstone Peaches.  So my plan to make peach preserves turned into a plan to make peach jam, and I ended up with something in between.  I diced the peach slices, but couldn’t bring myself to crush that beautiful, tasty fruit, so instead I made diced peach preserves in vanilla syrup.

In other news, Liesl has made an excellent recovery from being egg bound last week.  She has laid two eggs since with no problems at all.  Ginger has started to molt, so she has stopped laying and is shedding feathers EVERYWHERE.  Scruffy continues to produce like crazy.

Happy Monday!

 

Couples Baby Shower

Tags

co-ed baby shower, co-ed baby shower games, couples baby shower, couples baby shower games, entertaining, family, Home

I am an un-traditional person to say the least.  When it comes to time-honoured traditions like weddings and showers, I’m not the most willing participant (and if I do participate, I like to buy or wear unconventional things, just to rattle everyone a bit).

But when two of your bestest friends in the world are having a baby, you throw them a party.  You celebrate the good times.  So that’s what we did.

I saw no reason to exclude the Dad-to-be from all the fun, so *gasp* we had a CO-ED BABY SHOWER!

There’s not much out there on the interweb about how to throw a couples baby shower.  Most of the advice just says things like, “Don’t piss off or scare off the men.”  Which is fine with me because (honestly) most baby shower/wedding shower traditions tend to piss me off, too.

I just wanted to celebrate my friends and have a good time, with yummy food, drinks, and a little fun.

The shower was in the evening, starting from 7 p.m., so food was light.  We had a couple of fruit trays, some mini-rhubarb tarts, and caprese salad cups.

I made Strawberry Sangria (from our Gewürztraminer that we bottled the night before), and filled a cooler full of Boylan’s Vintage Sodas for all the Mommies in the crowd (expecting and breastfeeding).  We also had a tub of vanilla ice cream on hand if you wanted to use your soda to make an ice cream float.  Those were a hit.

(It was Will’s “Pinterest-worthy” idea to cut out the names of the sodas from the cartons and stick them to the cooler)

The first game we played was “Mom or Dad?”  A few days before, I had emailed Angela and Josh and asked them to answer a bunch of questions.  I printed up the questions (e.g.  Whose middle name starts with D?), and the guests had to choose whether it was Mom or Dad.  While everyone was filling out their paper, we went around the room and introduced ourselves, saying how we met Josh and Ange.  The second game we played was “Celebrity Baby Names” in which you had to match the baby name with the famous Mom or Dad.  I gave out tiny succulent plants as prizes (very gender-neutral – two men won the games, and neither seemed pissed off to go home with a tiny plant – success!)

Josh and Angela took turns opening presents, and as they opened, I wrote down all the things Angela said about the presents, as well as who gave them to her (makes it easier to send out Thank-You cards).  When they were done opening, I said, “It’s a little-known fact that the things a woman says while opening her baby shower gifts are they exact same things said at the time the baby was conceived.”  This is bloody hilarious.  Things like, “Ooh, it’s covered in sparkles!” or “Oh, that’s a little bag!”  take on a whole new, hilarious meaning.

Overall, I think it was an awesome party.  The best part was seeing how happy it made my friends.

(If you want to check out my inspiration for food, drinks, and decor, head on over to my Pinterest board, Couples Baby Shower Ideas).

Only Amateurs Wait Until June

Tags

chives, Fruit and Vegetable, garden, Home, Onion, Potato, Produce, Saskatchewan

Ask anyone in Saskatchewan, “When do you plant your garden?” and the answer will be, “Potatoes on May long weekend, and the rest during the first week of June.”

Not us.  As soon as you can work the soil, we say.  We’ve already got spinach sprouting in one of the raised beds.  Apparently, peas like the cooler weather, too.  We’ve also planted garlic, onions, potatoes and cabbage.  The chives are well on their way, as are the winter onions.  We’ll be eating fresh garden produce in a few weeks.

Yes, it’s possible some of the peas may not sprout, or the potatoes will refuse to grow, but so what?  Then we go buy another $2 package of seeds and try again.  It well worth the financial risk to be eating garden fresh veggies three or four weeks earlier, especially when you live in climate that has such a short growing season.

Plus, the sooner things grow, the sooner I get to start canning again!

Liesl supervised all the activity. She’s dying to get out and eat those spinach sprouts.

This Week on the Homestead – We’re Dying for Spring

Tags

backyard chickens, dogs, Home, pets, spring, weird eggs

Oh, this has been a long, grey, cold, dry winter, and everyone is just dying for it to be over.  The girls are tired of being cooped up.  They pace back and forth in the run, and squawk until we let them roam in the yard.  The boys go absolutely nuts if they don’t get their daily 20-minute walk.  And the humans?  We just can’t wait til we can play in the dirt.

A few photos from our week:

Ziggy and his Frog.  The Frog is on its last legs (you can see he’s already missing a foot), but Ziggy drags this thing everywhere with him.  It’s his latest “baby.  He’s had a few “babies” over the years, and they all end up in the trash eventually.  He loves them to death.

Someday, I’m going to do a photo series called, “Eggs You’ll Never See in a Grocery Store.”  I had no idea these weird things could happen to eggs.  Before I had chickens, I only ate grocery store eggs.  Clean, white, sanitized eggs.  I had no idea that chickens could produce such abnormalities.  Take this weirdo of an egg.  It’s Liesl’s.  I think she may have consumed too much calcium last week.  Weird, right?

Oh, dirt.  Glorious dirt.  Will covered one of our raised beds with plastic a couple weeks ago, so the ground was thawed enough to actually work the soil this past weekend!  It felt so good to put a shovel in the ground.  Ginger was happy to be back to work in the dirt, as well.  She had a great time scratching it up!

And now, as I’m writing this, it’s snowing outside.  April 23rd, and it’s snowing.  A few weeks ago, I was joking when I said maybe Winter will never end.  Like somehow our world turned into Westeros (from Game of Thrones), and Winter may last for years.  But as I watch the blizzard outside my window, I really am starting to doubt if this Winter will ever end.  At this point, we are going to have snow on the ground well into May.  MAY.  The only way Mother Nature could make up for this awfulness is to skip Spring entirely and go straight into Summer. Okay?  Okay.

Happy Thanksgiving

Tags

Canada, Home, Thanksgiving, Turkey

Thanksgiving Turkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, we in Canada, eat turkey and celebrate the harvest.  Actually, since we are having a small gathering today, we won’t be having turkey; we’re having roast organic, free-range, grain-fed chicken, but I’m sure it’ll be just as tasty.

Today (and always), I am thankful for my husband, my family, my little, cozy house and garden, my dogs, my chickens, all the food I was able to preserve from the summer, my life in the theatre, my friends, my city, my province, and my country, and especially, all the blogger friends I’ve met since starting this blog.

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

Just Peachy

Tags

canning, Cooking, Fruits and Vegetables, Home, jam, Peach, Peaches, preserving

Yum, yum, yum.  Freestone peaches are in season.  Time to preserve.

Will made a batch of peach wine, and I used the mushy peaches to make Vanilla Peach Jam (I adapted the recipe for Classic Peach Jam from my canning bible, Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry).

I’m also going to make some peach preserves – I LOVE canned peaches.  Peach preserves on hot buttered toast – nothing better on a winter morning.

Saturday morning.  Farmers’ market.  Watch out fruit truck – I’m a comin’ for you!

Pesto Party

Tags

Basil, Cooking, Home, Olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pesto, Pine nut, preserving

 

 

It’s that time of year – the basil is ready!  It was a good basil year.  I ended up with enough to make four batches, and there’s still some left in the garden (to use with spaghetti sauce when the tomatoes are ready).  My friend Anita came over to help.  I find it’s important to use quality ingredients, even if they are expensive.  One year, I cheaped out and used walnuts and fake Parmesan, and it was awful.  What a waste of delicious basil!  Now I only use the best (even if that means spending $22 on a bag of pine nuts – yowza).

(I was ridiculously excited when Anita pulled an apron out of her bag.  I wanted to wear mine, too – it has chickens and roosters on it.)

Pesto making day is the best – the house smells like fresh basil for hours after.  Yum.

 

 

Apples Baby, Yeah!

Tags

Apple, Apple butter, Apple sauce, canning, Cooking, Fruit, Home, preserving, Saskatchewan

We came into some apples this week.  Carol, who works at Persephone Theatre with Will, has an apple tree in her yard that grows three different kinds of apples – they were grafted onto one tree, so that you only need to plant one apple tree in your yard.  Apples are on my list of things you should never have to buy in Saskatchewan because so many people grow them and have tons to give away.  (One day I’ll do a post on my entire list – it’s amazing how abundant some foods are here)

Will juiced them and put on a batch of cider (yum), and I used the pulp to make apple sauce and apple butter. (For some great recipes and ideas on what to do with apple butter, check out this website)

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