Late garden harvest and red pepper hummus recipe.

On October 1, I went to get carrots from my garden.  To date, we have had no frost, I was pleasantly surprised to find all these yummy veggies.

Parsley, which actually tolerates frost well. I have dug up parsley under the snow in November and it was still fabulous.

Baby dill, love it in scrabbled eggs, soups, sauteed mushrooms and mashed potatoes.

Three tiny jalapeno peppers, I thought I picked them all three weeks ago.  These peppers will turn bright red in about a week.

I planted yellow and red bell peppers until they ripen I'm guessing these two are one of each.

Purple pole beans, they turn green when cooked.  Delicious, I'm surprised the bean plants are still producing fruit so late in the year.

 Carrots, onions and little cucumbers.

 Rounding up my veggies to pose for group photos.

These are pickling cucumbers, which I have been picking every five days since early August.

 Four sage leaves for the chicken noodle soup, I made.

 

 Three sweet onions.

 Hmmm another snapshot of those beans.

I like to photograph veggies because they are so colourful and stay exactly where I place them.

 My red pepper hummus recipe:

• One 19 ounce can of chick peas drained and rinced
• Four pealed garlic cloves coarsely chopped or tossed in whole
• One red bell pepper, coarsely chopped seeds and stem removed
• One half cup coarsely chopped parsley
• One heaping tablespoon smooth peanut butter
• Freshly squeezed juice from one lemon or lime
• One tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
• About two ounces of extra virgin olive oil

Put all ingredients in food processor. 

 Process at high speed for 25 seconds.

Chill in fridge about two hours before serving with crackers, breads or toast.

Last week, I picked some pumpkins, gourds and squash from my friend Cindy's garden for a harvest display on my front door landing. 

Yesterday, I made chicken noodle soup and red pepper humus.  Today, I sew... yippee! Dancing around the room with glee!  I'm working on a wedding quilt for my niece and god child.

Happy stitching, quilting, gardening and cooking.

Alzheimer's Touch quilt for Dale - Doug's cousin

My husband is holding the quilt top over his head.  Perhaps I should invest in a little clothesline for taking these photos.

This quilt has squares of denim, fake fun fur, mock suede, waffle weave 100% cotton tea toweling, poly-cotton, polyester, nylon and satin. I added ribbons and little bags with five tiny buttons in them for more texture.

 This airplane was embroidered on the square before quilting.

This water flower and my intials with the year were embroidered rather than quilting.

All the little fairies were embroidered instead of quilting the block.  I found machine embroidery on the quilt sandwich quite difficult because these fabrics have stretch and the seam allowances are quite thick.  It took several tries to get the squares hooped.  The ribbons were also a problem while machine embroidering, even though I pinned the ribbons out of the way, the yellow striped ribbon below got stuck in the idt device behind the needle and the machine stitched out the fairy's left eye, nose and mouth in his lap!  So picked out those stitches as best I could and embroidered the remainder of his face by hand.

The three fun fur squares have a button sewn in the centre instead of quilting.

 The fairies are embroidered on the five mock suede blocks.

I used silver metallic thread on the propeller.

 

It is all finished and ready to be mailed.

 The backing is 100% cotton flannelette.

I free motion quilted heart shaped leaves, jesters' hats, and swirls on some squares, others were quilted using decorative stitches.

 The waffle weave feels bumpy and has stretch to it.

For information about Alzheimer's touch quilts, please visit the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba.

Ornamental Gourds - So colourful.

Look what I bought for a $1.40 CAD!  Yippee!

I just love ornamental gourds, they are so photogenic, plus their textures are wonderful.

  I plan to keep them just to admire until after Halloween.

 Apparently if they dry out properly, they will keep indefinitely.

Then again, at only .35 cents per pound or a $1.40 for the whole basket, they are easily affordable to replace annually. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure I have already got my money's worth, playing with them last night and today.

 There may be more photo shoots with these little beauties.

 

 

 

Perhaps they can be props with quilts or sewing machines.  It seems that the simplest things in life can bring such pure joy.

Dear Readers, I have been thinking about watermarks on my pictures.  Many folks are marking photos with copyright year and name.  Have you ever had your photographs stolen?

I feel the watermark takes away from the photo, plus if someone really wants to steal your photo they can remove the watermark. 

Your thoughts?

Bee Maid Honey - A most excellent day!

It is no secret that I love honey.  Yesterday, I visited a local bee keeper who I have been buying honey from for years.  It was my lucky day as they were processing honey.  So sweet.

This is my friend Merv with a giant caldron of melted bees' wax.  The melted wax is poured into molds, that harden in blocks. 

I dipped my finger in the liquid wax, it was hot.

Merv had 600 colonies of bees this summer, it was a good year for honey.

After the bees fill a comb full of honey, they seal it shut with wax.  These wax seals are removed by machine.  This is sticky business.

 

 Little bits of wax remain in the combs that are scrapped off manually.

 Honey is processed using heat. 

When honey is heated, the bees, wax and debris float to the top as honey is heavy.

 This is a 45 gallon drum full of yummy honey.

The whole shop smells wonderfully sweet. I bought honey and bees' wax.  Like I don't have enough hobbies already, I'm going to make some candles.