Tasty Tuesday (actually on Tuesday!)

This week with only one kid here, we are trying to clean out the freezer and fridge and not buy too many groceries.

Here's the meal plan for this week:

• Mon- Frozen Punjabi Beans, Frozen Cornbread
• Tues-Leftover Salmon- Salmon Cakes (I used this recipe, but tweaked it a bit) Also good recipes from All Recipes and Eating Well
• Wed- Pasta- Smoked Salmon Pasta
• Thurs-  Leftovers
• Fri- Oysters from Festival Takeout from Dino's and Wendy's
• Sat-Homemade Pizza with Anchovies
• Sun-Frozen Burgers/Frozen Buns Haddock Soft Tacos, Salad

Here's last year's meal plan:

• Mon-Frozen Haddock, Fries, Greens
• Tues-Frozen Stew, Cornbread
• Wed- Leftovers
• Thurs-Frozen Spinach Pasta
• Fri-Oysters
• Sat- Pizza
• Sun-Burgers

HaHa! Looks like I had the same idea last year of using up the frozen stuff! :-)

Garden Updates

We're having such a busy summer! This weekend was busy with us going to the inlaws on Friday to visit my SIL and her boyfriend who were here visiting from Ontario.  DD stayed overnight with her friend in town.  Saturday morning was the Soapbox Derby for DS. After that, everybody came over for BBQ lunch.  Then DD spent the night at a local friend's house and DS had to get packed for camp.  Yesterday we drove DS to camp, stopping at Victoria-by-the-Sea for chocolates on the way! We pick up DS on Friday and then it's the Oyster Festival!  Busy, busy ,busy! :-)

The perennial gardens are doing great! Here are some picture updates:

 The transplanted rose bush is blooming!  It needs to be trimmed though, because it has a lot of dead branches.

 Here it is before:

Here's the pond side garden:

Here it is before when I transplanted the plants in June:

 Left side garden, quite overgrown:

 Before, with the lilacs blooming in June:

 Right side garden:

And before in June:

 Courtyard garden:

Before in June:

 Temporary garden:

Before in June:

 Veggie Garden. I don't know what happened, but none of my plants grew except a few lettuces and bokchoy which have now started to flower. Most of the flowers are some kind of weed. The wildflowers in front of the window did well!

Here it is in June:

Isn't it fun to see how much has grown in about a month? :-)

Pillows, Artwork, Curtain Room Divider, Door

Here are some projects I've been working on the past few weeks.

I made some envelope pillows with the same fabric as the wing chair. It's hard to tell, but the pillow on the swivel chair is the same as the pillow on the corner of the couch.  Plus we got a new plant!

 Here's how it used to look:

I hung some art work with 3M Command hooks (Plus I made the starburst!)

Here's how it used to look:

I also hung a map from South of the Border, a hotel where HH and I spent one night of our honeymoon trip from Louisiana to Nova Scotia.

Here's the wall before:

With the doorway widened between the kitchen and back room, you can see the side of the fridge when you're sitting on the couch. I used to have a bunch of little pictures and magnets there so I cleaned it up and hung a picture (with Command hooks again).

 We also hung a "curtain" to block off the hallway, to keep it cool in the kitchen, but it's just there for a little while. :-)

 Here's how it looked in the winter:

 I was inspired by this canvas & grommet room divider:

So, I hung some old Ikea Kvadrant drapery rods

that we used in our old bedroom to block off our built in closet shelves. 

I hung a curtain I had

to divide the kitchen and back room.

Home Hardware had canvas drop cloths on sale this week, but they were out of stock so I ordered one and it should be in on Saturday.  I'll get some grommets and do it up nice!  This will cheaply take the place of a sliding barn door for the time being, and maybe forever!

I started stripping... one of the doors for the front room closet!! Ha Ha!  I used Circa 1850 

which worked really well on the door .(I'm still working on the blue trunk. I started on the front side, but this paint stripper only worked on the pieces that hold it together.  I got some new stripper so I'll have to give that a try.)

 Here's the door with the stripper on it.

 

It really started to crackle and pop as the paint lifted off.

 Here I've scraped some of the paint off. It's really messy!

After I sanded and sanded using 80, then 100, then 150 grit sandpaper, here's how it looks.

I'm ok with a little stain left, but there are some stripes that I don't like.  I'll do the other door and see if I can get them to look similar. 

So, that's what I've been up to! :-)

How to make KimChee

This is my third time making KimChee. We usually buy it in Charlottetown at Seoul Food and it's $5 for a small container.  I've looked up a few recipes and have come up with one that's pretty good.

When I first made it in January, I had 2 headS of bokchoy cabbage

 and I used 1/8 c. cayenne pepper and 1/2 c. chili flakes.  This was way too spicy so I quickly soaked 2 c. regular cabbage 

for 2 hours to dilute the spiciness.I put it in 2 large jars and let sit out for 1 week in cool dry spot.  The regular cabbage is too crunchy and it was still too spicy.

The next time I made it in March, I used 1 head Savoy Cabbage,

 and1 head bokchoy.  I also used dried Chili Japones chopped in the Ninja blender

and 1 T Cayenne pepper.  It was ok, but still not like the other stuff we buy from Seoul Food.

In the meantime, I also bought kimchee at the Summerside Farmer's Market, but it wasn't spicy at all- more like Sauerkraut.

So, then HH picked up this magazine

and it had this recipe in it:

It says to use Chili Powder

And Napa Cabbage

So, I did.  Except I couldn't find Napa Cabbage at the store, so I had to wait about 3 weeks.  Finally last week I found it!

So, here's my recipe:

1 Head Napa Cabbage

Chopped

Soak overnight in 2 bowls with 9 c. H2O with 1/3 c. plus 1/2 of 1/3 c. Sea salt (ratio is 6 c. H2O, 1/3 c. salt).  Rinse well.

Coarse grate 2 carrots, 1/2 daikon radish.

Mince 1 head garlic, same amount ginger.

You can see cabbage soaking in yellow bowl with a plate on top to keep it in the water.)

Make sauce with 1/4 c. fish sauce, 1 t. sugar, 1/2 c. chili powder.

(Here are some salt crystals I found in the bottom of the old fish sauce jar!)

Mix all together and put in jars.

I set the jars on a plate because I really filled them and they leaked as they fermented.  I  let it sit in cool spot for 4 days then put in fridge.  We started eating the kimchee right away, but kept it out to let it ferment longer.

I'd say I still need to find the right chili powder. I think I need Korean chili powder, not Tex-mex!  But it's good, just different! :-)