Garage Sale Finds

Seasons are winding down already. 

Summer and garage sale season! 

We decided to take one more trip out and about to look for some interesting pieces before the cold air blows through town and the selling stops. 

We found a few nice treasures and didn't even spend $20!

1.Baby food jars! They don't look like anything special yet... but they will be crafted into storage for my buttons and little trinkets :) PLUS ... we got the cookie tin for free! Definitely will be used!

2. GAMES!!! Classic games for my therapy at work, including pop up pirate, chutes & ladders (previously known as snakes & ladders.... I guess snakes are too scary now), and a super hero matching game! If you look closely in the pic, you can see little super heroes on top of their red box - this game is amazing for little boys. Sooo proud of finding this! And an adult game too - classic risk board :)

3. Label maker - for garage and craft labels :)
4. Little white trees - for Christmas decorations (Free!!)
5. An old whiskey box - to be put to good crafting purposes (Free!!)
6.A table runner - for Christmas time :)

Then... since we had so much luck... we went out again :) Spending only $30 this time!

7. A wooden stand  - for craft displays :)

8. Scrapbook materials - included these practically unopened cardstock packs, the box, and more!

9. A pile of MDF  - I didn't take a picture of it... cause I didn't really care that much... lol. But Mr. A is excited to have some cheap new wood to build some shelves in the shop/shed!

10. A little stroller - for those days when we are traveling through airports, etc.Barely used and in great condition! And neutral colours of course :)

11. A playpen - This unused playpen was sold to us for $40! It's beautiful and untouched and easy to transport to Grandmas house when needed. We actually bought this one a while ago, but I thought I'd show it off with the other prizes :)

If only there were garage sales to occupy my time all year long! 

{xoxo}

Adventures in Canning: Green Bean Edition

Our plentiful garden is overflowing with vegetables these days. 

Waaaay more than we are capable of eating! 

Some will stay good forever, if kept in a cool (not freezing) environment such as potatoes, carrots, onions. 

Seriously, I only finished eating potatoes from mom's 2012 garden this summer.

But some things, like tomatoes and green beans, don't keep so well. 

Our solution: canning!

This is definitely something that I did not expect to start doing.. well... ever. But it's actually fairly straight forward, and truthfully results in the best green beans you've ever tasted. 

I would share the whole process with you... but that would take a LOT of blog posts. 

I may have pages of notes written on my iPad so that I can attempt to replicate mom's methods one day... 

But here are some pics so that you can feel like you were part of the fun:

That was just one of 4 or 5 batches. 

Lots of green beans for the whole year! 

{yumm}

Last Garden Update (maybe...)

As summer winds down (*tear*) our gardening days are winding down as well. 

Soon the frost will be here in full force so my mother-in-law has been working hard to make sure that none of our beautiful veggies go to waste. 

Mom is stilling pulling up green beans, and we've spent a few days digging out the potatoes now too!

We actually have around 3 barrels full of potatoes like this one below :)

Although there are a few red tomatoes, there is also an abundance of green ones! 

Luckily we've had a really beautiful and warm September so far in Grande Prairie, which is encouraging my lovely tomatoes to keep growing and ripening. 

Hopefully all of this green will turn to red before the cold weather comes!

I am by no means an expert in gardening, but I have learned a LOT this year!
Hopefully all of that knowledge doesn't fade away over the long, cold GP winter.
Next year I plan on gardening again, with the baby on a nice blanket outside, enjoying the sun while I work :)

{grow}

More Vegetable Experiments {baking}

Veggies! 

Since I still had an abundant supply of veggies following all my cooking experiments, I decided to try my hand at baking some of them :)

I've never baked with Zucchini before so I decided to start with something that had a very high likelihood of tasting delicious when it was done. 

Zucchini chocolate chip muffins were my recipe of choice. 

And they were de-li-cious! 

Honestly, my husband and I had to give some away to make sure we didn't devour them all in one day! 

Super easy to make, and well worth it. 

Why have I not jumped on this bandwagon before?!? 

Then I found a link on Pinterest for delicious looking zucchini and cheddar biscuits. 

I thought, "I could make that!". And I did.

Here's a link to that recipe :) 

And here are the pics of my creation:

This banana bread wasn't made with any veggies at all... I just had bananas that were turning brown. 

Plus, it's a classic in my kitchen. 

Good old wholesome banana bread - good for any meal or snack!

I'm very much enjoying my experimenting in the kitchen this year. 

Maybe this will give you some good ideas for your own summer veggies! 

{yumm}

More Vegetable Experiments {cooking}

Veggies! 

These days I have vegetables overflowing from my kitchen. 

Either from our CSA shares, from my own veggie garden, or from friends. 

The spaghetti squash and zucchinis below came from my sister-in-law's garden. 

(the phone is there so you can really see how massive they are!)

I have never cooked spaghetti squash before!

[sidenote: this year seems to be jam-packed with new things for me!]

I scoured facebook for suggestions of how to eat it :)

What we ended up doing was baking the spaghetti squash until it was tender, scooping out the insides and mixing it with butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Since I also had these massive zucchini's I was looking for new ways to bake them. 

The classics for me are always to roast them with other veggies, eat them raw, or toss them in salad. 

This suggestion to grill zucchini with garlic butter and parmesan cheese was right up my alley!

Both creations were delicious :)

And then there was Swiss Chard.... another vegetable that I have not dared to cook before.

I looked for a simple side dish to make with this.
I came across these simple sauteed swiss chard recipes frequently, so I thought this was a good place to start. The veggie looks a lot like Kale and I figured it would taste somewhat similar when sauteed.
Here are some pics from a simple recipe with garlic and parmesan:

Long story short: it tasted gross.
Mr. A ate it all, but I didn't. I was not a fan!
Anyone have any other swiss chard recipes for me??
This one was a flop!

Oh well... 2/3 ain't bad!

{yumm}

Vegetable Garden Update

Look at that beautifully growing garden plot!!

Since my last post, there's been a bit of weeding and that's really it.

This garden is taking care of itself! 

Even the amount of rain we've been getting has meant we didn't need to water anything!
We didn't really have any lettuce or kale come up this year :( But everything else is looking good so far! 

^^beans^^

^^carrots^^

^^bushels of potatoes^^

^^itsy bitsy tomatoes^^

So far we've taken out the onions and the green beans (half the beans anyways).

The onions will keep nice in the cold room, but the beans need to be taken care of. 

Time for a canning lesson!

{xoxo}

Banana Boats

Just a couple pictures of one of our favourite camping treats (especially Mr. A!).
Delicious banana boats warmed up over the fire :)
Just take a small chunk of the peel off the banana, then fill the banana with deliciousness.
Our version of this consists of peanut butter and chocolate, but you can use different flavours of chocolate chips, different fruits, marshmellows - basically anything you want.
Replace the peel that you had taken away and wrap the whole thing in tinfoil.

Cook over the fire, flipping occasionally :)

Unwrap and enjoy! Careful - it's quite hot at first. We use a spoon and spoon it all out a bit at a time :)

I envision making these with my kids one day and I can't wait! 

If you've had these, you'll know what I mean. 

If you've never had them - try them on your next camping trip!

{xoxo}