Homemade Lemonade

The sun is out and the BBQ season begins. Wahoooo!. I can not wait for dinner tonight, Japanese marinated pork kebabs, Corn on the cob, potato salad and homemade bread with homemade ricotta (Deeeeelish!!!)

At the moment I am into making everything from scratch ranging from mayonnaise to bread to cheese. Today when I was browsing through the garage sales I saw two glass jars which would be perfect for homemade lemonade. On returning home I went straight into action making the best lemonade ever. The recipe follows.....

Homemade Lemonade

1 cup water
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 quarters of a cup of sugar

4-5 cups of plain or carbonated water (depending if you want a fizzy lemonade or a still lemonade)

In a small pan add the 1 cup of water with the sugar. Heat the the water until the sugar has dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and add the lemon juice. (I also added the lemon peals and let them infuse until the sugar syrup cooled.) Once cooled, remove the lemon peals and add the the remaining cups of water until you are happy with the concentration. Decant into bottles and refrigerate. Serve over ice.

A little hasty

Unfortunately my wedding dress could not be taken in as I had hoped. My friend was worried that she would have to cut the material and did not want to ruin the dress. I was gutted at first but luckily I have found a seamstress in town that can do the work for me. Phew!!!!

I am looking forward to visit the first farmers market this weekend and support my friend in selling her traditional perogies. She wants to save up enough money so that she can take her mum and dad to Europe.

Roll on Saturday for the market and Monday for the dress fitting

Wedding Plans

Everything is coming together nicely, My dress has been altered and my petticoat has been made. I have my eye on some lovely shoes which hopefully I can get very soon. The table decor is pretty much sorted too, white table cloths, brown craft paper runners with mason jars as vases for fresh flowers. I am still in 2 minds about flowers. I don`t know whether to have fresh flowers or potted plants. (We`ll see nearer the time). My friend is making a two tiered wedding cake and Ian has arranged a photographer.

The wedding aisle has been planned, a semi-circle of hay bales with the aisle running down the middle lit up with bamboo hurricane lanterns. The alter (per say) will be a table covered in a white table cloth where Ian and I will sign the register. Either side to the front of the table will be two logs with a large flower arrangement donned on top.

Our disco which will be in our barn will be decorated in white lights with ivory and green ribbons draping from the ceiling. The garden is to is be adorned with lots of fun games, horseshoes, moose knuckles, boche, mini golf and a coconut shy. I just pray that it does not rain. Only two months to go.......

Weekend fun

I had a lovely day out with my friend Claire. Spent the morning wandering around ten mile nurseries. Entered every competition at the local wedding fayre with the exception of winning a not so attractive photo frame. Chose the design of my wedding cake. Picked over all the crafts at Edgewood farms. Supported our local fire fighters by having a true Cariboo lunch (2 hot dogs with all the works). Then spent the afternoon grooming a gorgeous horse named Shadow and watching her do her stuff in the arena. Lovely day!!! Life is good :)

Friday morning

Chickens fed, dogs walked and seedlings watered. Not bad for 8.30 in the morning eh!

I can,t believe my seedlings are flourishing. The radishes are in the lead followed by the peas, then the carrots and onions. The tomatoes are taking a lot longer than I thought. I just hope they didn't freeze in the keen frost a couple of weeks ago.

My pallets are ready to go too. I'm just deciding where they should go in the garden. So much choice. Here is a sneak peak of how they will hopefully look once my seedlings are transplanted.

Unfortunately my computer is not allowing the photo to be uploaded. I will try again later :(

Lay a little egg for me...

We are back in egg production. Whoop whoop. Our chicken are on a mission. Winter saw less and less eggs so much less that I had to buy some from the store:(

Last week there was a complete turn around. I found 12 in the dog pen and around 11 in the hen house. My little chickens are working hard and so am I. The freezer is being stockpiled with baked goods and I enjoyed a good breakfast of pancakes yesterday.

Laziness

Well what can I say.....I can come up with lots of reasons as to why I have ignored my blog but mainly the fact that we have moved our whole live further north has taken quite a lot of our time up. We have spent the last three months organising the house, buying new furniture, settling into our new jobs, forming new friendships and now that Spring is starting to emerge we have been tidying the garden. The list of jobs seem endless but we are both thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

I have not forgotten my blog on may occasion I have thought about taking the odd photo of what we have had for dinner but too be honest it would have been a slap dash post. We have eaten many roasts, devoured many slow cooked meals (Butter Chicken, Beef Stew, BBQ Ribs) scoffed our way through untold hearty cooked brunches and nibbled on continental breakfasts (pan au chocolates, fruit salads). The amount of food is astronomical!!! I sort of lost my excitement with my cooking but it is slowly creeping back in.

This Easter weekend is probably the second meal where lots of preparation has been required. We have some friends staying with us for the Easter weekend from Vancouver. My excitement for cooking has come back and I am planning and cooking meals for the fun weekend to be had. Our friends should be arriving this evening and after a long 8 hour drive I though a simple spaghetti bolognaise and caeser salad would go down nicely (Yes I know we should be eating fish but spag bol rules). The big meal of the weekend is Easter Sunday. I thought a buffet style meal would be nice, baked ham, potato gratin, veggie dips and curried coleslaw followed by a blueberry pie saturated in thick whipping cream. Mmm roll on Sunday. I promise I will post pictures. 

Happy Easter