The Last Week of November...

Hello everyone.. 

So happy to finally get back here.. 

It seems to be taking me longer and longer.. 

I am not sure why.. 

Usually I feel like I haven't much to offer on here so just keep putting it off. 

But here I am for tonight anyway.. 

We have had such weird weather here in New Brunswick this month.. 

Getting lots of snow.. 

I do not remember a November quite like this one before.. 

I think we are going to have a long winter but really we are Canadians and we just go with the flow... 

I have been pottering along.. 

\Doing a bit of this and that.. 

Bought some pears and made a cake.. 

It will be prettier next time as I think I would increase the cake recipe but it was different and tasty... 

The kitchen windowsill ....

A few herbs growing and putting the roots of some green onions in water.. 

They grow very well and get more out of them...

We so enjoyed having our grandsons for supper the other night.. 

Made them a loaf of bread.. 

The no knead recipe to the rescue once again!  smile.. 

And a couple of toppings.. 

Olive Tapenade and Herbal Cream Cheese... 

Salad and House Dressing along with Pasta with Broccoli and Lemon.. (sorry I forgot to take a pic) 

And... 

Carrot Cake...

We had a lovely evening... 

One morning we went for a drive out to the farm...

We were wanting to pick some greenery and such.. 

First stop as always was for coffee... 

Charlie usually gets a timbit donut for being such a good dog.. smile.. 

By the time we were almost to the farm the weather had turned .. 

We only got one bunch of branches with cones on them.. 

The roads were so bad that we had to turn around ....

We will go another day.... 

But a bowl of homemade soup was welcome when we got back home.. 

One of our faves... 

Julia Child's Leek and Potato Soup.. 

Christmas is soon going to be here and I am hoping to get a few things made..

  

How are you doing getting ready for Christmas? 

So many people have their trees up and houses all trimmed... 

I guess I need to get at it.. 

Perhaps tomorrow... smile.. 

Well this is not an inspired post for sure but it was nice to touch base with you all again... 

I need to get my act together and get a few pics taken.. 

I do get around to posting a pic on Instagram more often..

You can catch me HERE.. on there... 

Take care dear hearts and have a blessed week.. 

Thanks for dropping by and I look forward to hearing from you all.. 

God bless... 

xo

A Saturday Post..

Good Saturday Evening everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth tonight.. 

It is just after supper here in Maritime Canada and a wet and wonderful day it has been.. 

Every weekend we have wind and rain lately.. 

Not that this windy weather junkie is complaining but I know most folks love a beautiful sunny days at the weeks end.. 

Anyway.. 

Nothing new here on the home front .. 

Get up in the am and start my coffee... 

Have a little time with my Lord, make my lists for the day and call my Mom and a friend and on with the daily tasks.. 

Today... 

It was bread making day.. 

I am sure you know by now all about my lazy no knead recipe that I make for Terry and I.. 

The link is here just in case.. 

HERE..

I also made a soup as it was such a dreary day... 

Made with Leeks that we grew in our garden this summer.. 

I love leeks and this soup is great.. 

It was in a new cook book I bought but Julia Childs has one also that I have made many times.. 

Leek and Potato Soup

For the soup:
4 Tbsp. butter
6 leeks, sliced very thin

1 chopped onion 

4 cups chicken broth
4 cups of  potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups milk
2 tsp. salt
Freshly ground pepper
For the garnish:

chopped chives.. 

Melt the butter in a large pot and add the leeks and onion and 1 tsp. salt. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring often. Stir in  the broth, cover, and cook 10 minutes more.

Add the potatoes and the other tsp of salt and cook for 20 minutes. Stir in the milk  and cook until the potatoes are just tender.. .Add pepper..

When it’s finished, I sometimes puree the soup using an immersion blender or just leave as is ..Keep warm until serving.

Scatter a few chopped chives over top.. 

I forgot to take a pic of the finished product but it looks like leek and potato soup.. grin.. 

Our neighbor's turkeys up by the farm.. 

Aren't they just lovely.. 

I think they look like an old couple just strolling along.. 

Deep in conversation..

"What are you saying, Tilly?"

"Just thinking that missing the roasting pan the other weekend sure  makes a body thankful, eh dear?" 

"Well, they do have another holiday coming up soon!! Let's not count our chickens, shall we !"   

LOL... 

Yes, I have an active imagination.. 

Seems to be the only thing not slowing down on me.. grin.. 

Sorry, let's get on with it... smile.. 

This has been a busy week trying to get the house back in order.. 

Changing from lighter to heavier clothing, cleaning closets and the pantry.. 

Things like that but we still eat and you know me ,,,

Using the no knead bread recipe I made up a few pizzas.. 

Some for Terry with meat and me with just veggies.. 

They freeze well, too.. 

He loves hot dogs on his pizza... ugh... 

Our neighbor's hen... 

I love chickens... 

We only had meat kings this year but Lord willing next year we will get a few laying hens.. 

I purchased a few books lately.. 

Getting ready for my Winter Reading..

I love to read cookbooks, do you? 

The bottom book was lovely.. 

I read it already and loved the first author... 

All about making a home.. 

The middle one is a project I shared with the Keepers of the Home last time.. 

A layered journal... 

Here are a few examples of the pages inside the journal.. 

You just get yourself a journal of some kind and using a glue stick you paste on layers of papers.. 

Pages from old books then a pic from a magazine then perhaps a recipe or a poem you love or stickers or music papers or scrap booking papers.. 

Just whatever turns your crank and write a bit of journaling in some places.. 

Do you get my drift?  grin.. 

I find it so creative and fun and relaxing.. 

Some of the girls are going to set up card tables or find a special spot just for doing this... 

You can find some ideas on Pinterest for it, also.. 

Now for a little catch up of recipes from the last post.. 

So glad you were interested and thanks so much for your notes.. 

As you know, I love to hear from you and know you are out there and appreciate each and every word.. 

If I forget to answer a question or not leave a recipe then please just get after me.. 

I forget sometimes.. (a lot)  sorry.. 

Now the pumpkin preserves recipe is HERE..

And this is a pic of the Tomato Soup Base that Carman from Keepers showed us.. 

They are the two jars with tomatoes in them.. 

All she did was to chop up about 7 tomatoes (Roma) just as they are and 1 red pepper chopped up and a whole lot of chopped parsley and 1 T. rock salt.. 

She mixed it up together and let it sit for a bit to get some juice.. 

This filled one jar..

So I just multiplied the amount of tomatoes and pepper for about 6 jars and let it all sit for a few hours or overnight.. 

Fill the jars and squash down to cover with juice.. 

I used different coloured peppers.. Whatever I had.. 

Then she canned them for 35 minutes... 

I have opened a few jars already as the soup is sooooo good.. 

All you do is put the base in a pot and add some tomato juice or broth and a few veggies like carrot, parsnip and potato or perhaps some chicken or whatever and make your soup.. 
She serves hers over polenta... Yummm...

Don't add any extra salt.. 

You may want to cut back on the salt a bit ... 

I only used a couple of Tablespoons for my whole batch as we try to cut back on our salt content.. 

But you have to add some.. 

And be sure to use lots of chopped up parsley...

K?  

Have a blessed weekend my dears.. 

Tomorrow is the Lord's Day !

God bless.. 

Farm Diary. #1..

Good Evening my dears... 

I hope you had a great weekend.. 

It is Monday once again and a rainy cool one here in Eastern Canada.. 

Terry and I went up to the farm this morning.. 

We arrived there around 10 am after stopping for a Tim's coffee on our way.. 

A nice way to start the week with the rain splattering against the window and a hot coffee in hand headed for the farm.. smile.. 

We are not staying there each night.. 

We work away and then come home to sleep and do a few things here .. 

We are not ready to stay yet.. 

Old and slow.... grin.. 

As Terry says... 

"What's the rush?.. 

We will get here when we get here.. 

Just enjoy yourself, Faye."

OK... grin.. 

Terry put a fire on first thing as we were having snow flurries along with the rain and wind.. 

The place was not really cold but the heat felt good, nonetheless.. 

Here is a sweet thing my Mom gave me when we were in visiting last week.. 

A dear blue cookie jar that belonged to my great aunt Emily.. 

I love it... 

Mom said that she knew I would like it and it fits right in there on the shelf in the pantry.. 

When we arrived I put a ham on to bake.. 

At Easter they were on sale so we bought 2 as they were cheap and kept them in the fridge down in the basement.. 

I find a ham makes so many meals for the two of us.. 

We already had ham for a breakfast and a few slices fried up for lunch yesterday.. 

Today, I cut off a hunk or two to make a pasta dish and a bubble and squeak and baked the rest.. 

Then froze the bone with a bit for a soup later on.. 

Then I made up a recipe of no knead bread. 

I had plans for that and just put it to rise.. 

While I was working in the kitchen getting some sewing started I noticed something going across the yard right under the kitchen window.. 

I turned to the other window looking out towards the lane.. 

Which way did it go?  grin.. 

There he goes !!

The Wiley old red fox !!

Do you think he knows there are some chickens coming here to abide?  Oh oh.. 

I love seeing a fox, don't you? Not when we get some chickens here, though.. 

I did a bit of sewing and then Terry was hungry as he only had toast for breakfast... 

A salad is always welcome... 

Terry loves these boring meals !! 

I have been asking him if he wants rice or something else but he always prefers mashed.. 

And onion and ham gravy turns his crank, too.. 

It is tasty and you only need a bit.. smile.. 

This ham was baked in cast iron and kind of burnt where the cover touched the meat.. 

Oh well.. 

Here is an old vintage curtain I bought at the Thrift store.. 

I love old vintage fabrics and spent an hour or two making 3 valances for the back room I was telling you about.. 

We are going to name it ... The Snug.. 

Thanks to one of our sweet readers suggestion... 

Anyway... To make a long story short it was an almost complete waste of effort.. 

I measured it and ripped it across to save time. 

It tore across very evenly so I tore it again for the other two and sewed away to the murmur of rain pattering against the window and  Terry sawing away at some boards for the end eves of the snug.. 

When they were finished I picked them up to iron and as I was lining them up I noticed they were perfect on one side and out about an inch on the other side.. Grrr.... 

They didn't tear straight and for some unknown reason I did not even notice.. 

I am not a great at sewing but normally not that dumb.. 

Well, they will fit the little front entry way with a little adjustments and I found some sweet lace ones when I was digging around in a tote of curtains I had not been through.. 

What a pain !!

I also had these two quilt blocks that I bought at a yard sale or somewhere.. 

Two little cushions for the rocker but I had no fibrefill there so could not finish them either.. sigh.. 

A little pin cushion that I made with a stamper and some brown ink.. 

It was already finished.. grin.. 

I did finish the bread, though.. 

It is only one loaf of no knead but you can divide it in two and get two smaller loaves or one large one.. 

I found a recipe for making a cinnamon loaf in a bread book .. 

 Instead of using their recipe I used the old faithful dough one and made it their way.. 

With the other half I made a French bread.. 

The same book said to turn the oven to 425 degrees F... 

Spray it with water and bake 10 minutes and then turn it down to 375 degrees F. and cook for another 30 minutes.. 

The crust is awesome... 

So crisp and chewy.. 

And Terry loved the cinnamon bread!!

I only had 1 wee slice.. honest.. 

Terry said it tasted like the sticky buns we buy when we are in Alma and I agreed.. 

A great book full of ideas.. 

I will share a picture of it next time.. 

We cleaned up our mess and headed home... 

It is still raining out there and Terry is watching hockey.. 

I will be so glad when the playoffs are finished... smile.. 

I am headed to bed dear girls and will take more pics next time up to the farm.. 

We now have hot water for everything!! 

Kitchen sink, the shower and bathroom sink.. 

We are getting there!.. 

I have to look up dates to order our chicken, ducks, geese and turkeys tomorrow, Lord willing... 

Thanks for dropping by and have a great week.. 

Isn't God good?.. 

xo