slow living – september

I’m not sure what we did slowly this month - it went by so fast it blurred. September is always more like the start of the year for us; everything begins at the same time and none of it feels particularly slow. The beginning of the school year was the biggest event.

I’m following the example at Slow Living Essentials again this month, and using her categories to summarize my month and list some things I’d like to accomplish.

{Nourish}:

This has been a month of rushed meals as we try to adjust to hockey practice on two nights a week. Meals are simple, quick and easy. Occasionally we even eat at the arena, but next month I would like to do some advance cooking to avoid that bellyache. There is not much you can say about food cooked in a hockey arena. Their high-end menu item is sugar coated donut holes called Beaver Balls. Yep, you read it right.

I wrote about trying a kohlrabi slaw and a honey lemon ginger tea mix that is nice for colds and sore throats (or even just mixed into a normal cup of tea for a pleasant drink on a cold evening).

{Prepare}:

We tried hard to keep up with the last of the garden this month, continuing to freeze tomato sauce – roasted, passata and marinara. And then I gave up and froze a bunch of tomatoes whole, gave some more away and let the rest just go. I just can’t look at another tomato and want to do something with it. We’ve also made fermented jalapeno hot sauce, hot pepper jelly, roasted red peppers and caramelized onions that we put in the freezer.

We braided onions from the garden to store them longer term over the winter, froze a mountain of beans and cut up and froze more peppers. Our freezers are pretty much full.

{Reduce/Reuse/Repurpose/Repair}:

There was a lot of reducing going on this month. Unfortunately most of it had to do with our bank balances. New school shoes, school supplies, piano lessons, hockey equipment and hockey fees. Ouch. We did manage to find most of the equipment that we needed at a used sports store – otherwise the impact would have been much worse. We are able to take the outgrown equipment in on trade to offset the cost of new (used) equipment. And when you consider that every inch of their bodies are padded to play hockey, that is a lot of equipment.

{Green}:

I made a natural essential oil febreeze-type spray to deal with some leftover onion cooking smells in the house and attempt to tame the monster smell in the hockey equipment bags. We’ll see how that goes. Those bags really do have a life of their own. The tall kid won’t let me wash anything – it might spoil her team’s current winning streak. If you can call 3 games a winning streak.

{Grow}:

The tall kid grew half an inch this month. My 11-year-old looks down at me, and I’m 5’6″. It must be something in the tomatoes.

We’ve harvested beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, kohlrabi, squash and potatoes. We missed the boat on the cabbages; same as the broccoli, we didn’t pay any attention for a few days and they split and turned brown. Apparently they can’t wait like I thought they could.

{Create}:

I’m still working on the sweater for the tall kid. I haven’t picked it up much this month, but have at least finished the torso and have started on a sleeve. I hadn’t thought about this when I started knitting with a patterned yarn – but the pattern repeats slower in the body than it will in the arms – will this make it look odd when it’s finished? Should I quit now?

{Discover}:

I read a couple of books this month and picked up a few more that I’ve been flipping through. My book club has started up again, but I’ve decided to give it a pass for this year. We are already out of the house several nights a week and I am looking for an excuse to uncomplicate my life.

{Enhance – community}:

The dad has taken on the bulk of this category this month. He is co-coaching the tall kid’s Peewee hockey team and is volunteering once again with Ducks Unlimited.

{Enjoy}:

We’ve been enjoying the company of friends and family again this month. Even with the busy-ness of school and sports, we’ve managed to fit in some visiting and dinners with company.

We attended my brother’s wedding just this past weekend. It was a beautiful day and a lovely wedding in a conservation area setting. The girls had a blast feeding birds out of their hands on the hiking trails, then schooling a bunch of grown ups on the dance floor afterwards.

We had a death in the family this month – not something that would normally go in the enjoy category, but he was young, fun to be around and my husband, his mom and his sister were able to enjoy a visit with him a few weeks before his death. He is missed, but will be well remembered.

Another busy, alternately happy and sad, but interesting month.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, GNOWFGLINS

kohlrabi slaw – or, maybe my brother will like this

This was our first year growing kohlrabi. I can’t say that I love it yet, but I have no experience with it before now. Maybe I’m too old to try new things? But garden guilt won out again, and since I grew it, we had to try it. It tastes something similar to brocolli stems, cabbage hearts and turnip all rolled into one vegetable. Which, in my opinion, would make it great in soups and stews, so I will cut the remaining ones into chunks, blanch them for a couple of minutes, and freeze them for the days when I feel like making soups and stews.

And reading through a few recipes, I found some interesting ones, but this one stuck out as easy and something that I could make right away. And she waxed so lyrical about it, that I needed to try it. Then I made my own changes, so I doubt I even had the same experience that she did, but mine was good nonetheless. And reading another woman’s suggestion that kohlrabi reminds her of the song Volare has the endless voice of Dean Martin singing Kohlraaaaaaabi, o-o-o-o in my head. And now in yours.

My sister-in-law to be (the wedding is this weekend) left a comment last night that my brother wouldn’t try the kohlrabi that she bought – so maybe he will eat this.

A few changes that I made – my husband said that he wouldn’t eat it if I added fish sauce (he should never be around when I am reading recipes, because what he doesn’t know, in the end, never hurts him), but I humoured him because when I took the fish sauce out of the cupboard, I decided that maybe it was past it’s prime. I also substituted olive oil for the sesame oil, because mine had also gone off. Next on my list of things to do – clean out the spice cabinet. And, instead of bird eye chilli, I used some of the hot pepper jelly that we just made (it seemed like a reasonable substitution), but I also think Srirachi sauce would be a good substitution (mine was at work). I also used half as much oil – I don’t like oily dressings. You might like a pinch or two of sugar, if you prefer some sweet in the dressing – I added in some raisins (after the picture was taken). And as always, I don’t really measure salad dressings, I just pour, taste and repour until it seems right. So take these measurement with a grain of salt (pun intended).

Kohlrabi Slaw – serves 2

• 1 kohlrabi (mine were small – I used 2)
• 1 carrot
• 1 apple
• 2 tbsp vinegar of your choice (or try lemon juice)
• 1 tbsp oil of your choice
• 1 tbsp hot pepper jelly (or srirachi sauce – just use less)
• a pinch of cumin
• raisins (half a handful, or so)
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cut the sputnik arms off of the kohlrabi and peel the hard woody outer peel off. Cut the kohlrabi, apple and carrot into matchsticks (or shred them in the food processor, like I did).

Toss the kohlrabi and the apple with the remaining ingredients and chill before eating. Add any other ingredients that you think would taste good. It’s slaw – anything goes.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, Gastronomical Sovereignty, GNOWFGLINS, Mind Body and Soul

signs of autumn

The small squeaky kid always insists on scarecrows.

That one last pot of passata before the tomatoes were all done. And now they are done.

Apples bought from the local orchard – our tree didn’t produce anything this year.

Some of the last few harvests from the garden.

Piano lessons starting.

We are nearly done with the garden for the season. I’ll miss the fresh produce, but I think I’m ok with a short break from it all. There are still a few things to be done. We have to cure and store the potatoes, make sauerkraut, freeze the last of the kohlrabi and make some slaw with some of it, bake and puree some pumpkins and I’m going to try making some Lousiana style red hot sauce with the last of the jalapenos. I also noticed tonight that there are a ton of little green peppers on the plants still, so if it warms up a bit more again, we’ll have more of them to cut up for the freezer. And there will be a few stuffed acorn squash for dinner this week (shh.. don’t tell my kids). I’m still waiting to see if the brussels sprouts grow – so far with have big leafy plants, but no sprouts. I suspect that means no sprouts, period. It was our first attempt, maybe next year we’ll have better luck.

I turned the heat on tonight for the first time too – that is a definite sign of autumn. We’re snuggled up under blankets waiting for the dad and the tall kid to return from hockey practice. There might even be tea in my future. That’s a far cry from the beer on the back deck that we were enjoying at this point last month.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable