“Sushi? Are you sure?” I ask again.
My fourteen-year-old son looks determined, maybe even excited.
“Yes, I’m sure,” he says. His tone has a tint of finality. He does not want to be asked again.
“What about something easy?” I say. “Like pasta, or pizza, maybe soup with grill cheese sandwiches?”
“No, I want to make sushi,” he says.
“Okay,” I say doubtfully.
Continue readingIf you read about my recent cheese adventure, then you may remember that I picked up a nice Swiss cheese at Fromagerie St-Fidèle in La Malbaie, Quebec. It seemed like a good excuse to make some French onion soup.
Over the years, I have tried different recipes, some more complicated than others. This time, I decided to just wing it. Here is what I did.
French onion soup
It is Thanksgiving, but my son and I aren’t celebrating. I recently started a new job, and he recently started kindergarten. We are both just happy to have a long weekend to relax.
I’m not going to make a turkey dinner for the two of us, but it is a long weekend, so maybe I’ll get something a little festive. As we walk up and down the grocery store aisles, I see the frozen tourtières. A tourtière is sort of festive, I guess. I put one in my cart.
It is easy to make. All I have to do is put the frozen meat pie in the oven and wait. My son and I enjoy our slightly festive dinner.
A week goes by. Temperatures are getting lower and the air is more refreshing. The trees look like they’re going to a festival with all of their bright leaves on display.
My son brings home an assignment that he had at school. The top of the sheet says, “Draw a picture of what you ate for Thanksgiving.”
My son has carefully drawn a brown circle. At the bottom, his teacher has written, “A little more detail next time, please.”
My family and I recently went on a road trip in the province of Quebec. I have lived in the Montreal area for many years now and I’ve been on road trips before, but I’ve never stopped at a fromagerie. I have seen signs on the road announcing their presence all over the place, and I’m very enthusiastic about cheese, but for some reason, I never stopped.
For this road trip, I told my husband and son that I wanted to stop whenever we saw a sign that said “fromagerie.” I was also willing to stop for the word “laiterie.” Now I’m writing a blog post so that you can join us on this delicious journey.
For many gardeners, the part of summer when the tomatoes are ripe is the best time of year. There is nothing more delicious and rewarding than a fresh tomato from your garden. Whether you grew them from seed or acquired some small tomato plants, you did it, baby! It’s time to enjoy the benefits of your labour.
Maybe you plan on making sauce, or maybe you just plan on having salads and sandwiches that are more tasty than usual. At this time of year, I just add fresh tomatoes to basically whatever I’m making. I’m making pasta? Throw in some tomatoes at the end. Omelet? Oh look, now it’s a tomato omelet. Cheese plate? Who doesn’t love tomatoes with some fancy cheese? You get the idea. We love tomatoes! It was inevitable that they would be named Garden Star 🌟 of the Week.
It would probably make more sense to give butternut squash the distinction of being Garden Star of the Week at harvest time when we can actually eat it, but look at how cute it is!
This is also the farthest I’ve ever gotten when growing squash and it is very exciting. I’ve had lots of big, beautiful, orangeish-yellow flowers, and then nothing. On the advice of several gardening books I have even used a paintbrush to help with pollination but it still did not work. I meant to try that again this year, but I didn’t get around to it yet, and look at what happened! Sometimes all you have to do is nothing.
My little baby butternut squashes will be delicious eventually. I like them roasted in the oven with some butter, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. I also like them roasted in the oven and then made into a comforting and creamy soup. Fall is going to be tasty this year, all because of my butternut squash, which is why it is the garden star 🌟 of the week. Congrats, cuties!
I hope that you’ll enjoy my most recent video. If you prefer to read the original vignette, it can be found here.
Here is some of the artwork featured in the video.
Perhaps you know it as the musical fruit, despite the fact that it is a vegetable, but the bean also enriches your soil by adding nitrogen to it. Because of this magical ability, it is an excellent growing companion for almost every plant. Just try to avoid anything in the onion family. Since they have a short growing period, you can plant beans two or three times in a growing season and have beans all summer and into the autumn.
Beans make an excellent snack or side dish, and they even make delicious pickles. Try planting purple ones so you can enjoy the pretty purple flowers near the start of the growing season.
There are just so many reasons why beans are the Garden Star 🌟 of the week. You did it, beans!
Please allow me to read you a story on this fine morning.
This video can also be found on my new YouTube channel, and you can read the original vignette here.
In case you’re interested, here is a small gallery of my amazing artwork from this video.
When I was a very small child, we had neighbours across the street who had a big garden with large paths. In the summer, they would give me a basket and let me pick as many raspberries as I wanted.
The raspberries in my garden are starting to ripen, which means I get a tasty, sweet, and tart treat every time I go outside. It’s like eating candy, but with fewer cavities. Nothing tastes better than a fresh raspberry. I hope to one day have enough of them to make jam. Congrats, raspberries, you are the Garden Star 🌟 of the week!
Raccoon Brontosaurus 