Jultember in a single word...

to be perfectly honest... i briefly considered doing a post-a-day during Jultember. however, as i have been genuinely struggling to find the will to get out of bed some days, said effort was doomed to failure before it even started. so, i took the occasional photo of the random nonsense i got up to over the course of a month that began in one season and ended in another.

this year's balcony garden project has been a literal oasis. beyond being lovely to look at, living like we do in an apartment in the middle of the city, it is especially nice to occasionally harvest something just moments before it ends up on the dinner table.

the inclusion of more flowers in this year's garden meant that there were even more colorful creatures stopping by for a visit. i was (pleasantly) shocked to see a ruby-throated hummingbird zipping around one afternoon (the visit was too brief to get a photo). one almost forgets that there is (non-squirrel) wildlife in the city, and we will definitely be planting even more welcoming flowers in next Summer's garden.

i did have to rescue a visiting cicada from potential death-by-adorable-cat. i formed a human shield between the two, until the cicada eventually climbed back through the netting and  flew away... then i spent the rest of the day threatening to climb a tree to strangle a cicada (perhaps it was the same one) whose noisy antics was driving me up a wall.

the animator was most amused.

him: if you hate that noise so much, why didn't you just let the cat kill it?
me: that would be cruel. they're annoying, but they're cute.

i found myself in need of a quick pick-me-up one random afternoon, so i made some candles. this was my first time using wooden wicks. i am hooked!

the light is stronger than with the cotton wicks, but the candle burns so slowly that it feels like it will last forever. i burned this one for close to twelve hours, and the jar was still near-full. i approve.

i have been neglecting my knitting projects, partly because it was too hot to be bothered, but mostly because i just stopped caring. this top was intended to be part of my Summer wardrobe. maybe next year.

that is some of my own hand-dyed yarn. i will talk more about the genius/lunacy involved in getting this effect on a cotton-based yarn if/when i finish the top.

 

i did manage to (finally) complete another pair of socks (more about that some other day) for the animator, which i started back in April. i also finished spinning the charcoal-grey yarn that i talked about in that same post. there is enough of this to make a whole garment, so now i just have to find a pattern that is worthy of this special yarn.

it is hard to maintain consistency across such a large spin, but i am satisfied with the end result. this is begging to be turned into a comfy cardigan.

i added some new yarns to my stash. i got a sweater's quantity of each color. they knit up into such a beautiful fabric. the fiber is a cotton-acrylic blend that will make for some comfy allergy-free sweaters for me.

i usually avoid wearing browns, but this warm gold was created to be worn next to my skin. this just screams AUTUMN!!!

we consumed a ridiculous amount of iced tea earlier in the month. there was a stretch of a couple-few weeks were the temperature in the middle of the city was hovering around 40°C (104°F), with the "feels like" temperature a few degrees above that. it was... brutal.

this was a particularly hot, dry Summer, so it was a great relief when the rain finally came about halfway through the month. which brings me to the point of this pointless thing...

if i had to summarize this past Jultember in a single word, it would be "tomato".

we got a large box of veggies from his parents' garden, including about twenty-five pounds of tomatoes... because his father is that lunatic. i roasted half of them (like i did last Summer), and the rest were turned into many tomato salads. [random aside: that plate with the chip is older than both of us.]

that particular salad was served along with a heaping plate of Greek-style lemon chicken and potatoes (made by the animator). said dish was flavored with fresh oregano and thyme from our little garden. the leftovers were equally amazing the next day.

we sent a photo of the salad to his dad, who was impressed by my neat arrangement of the slices... then he immediately began amassing another box of tomatoes. you know, in case we were in danger of running out of the stuff.

meanwhile, every now and then, one of us would step out onto the balcony, and return with a handful of freshly-harvested tomatoes. there is presently a large container of fresh tomatoes occupying half a shelf in the fridge, along with three containers of garlic-roasted tomatoes, all waiting to be used up. it is at the point where we are putting tomatoes into just about everything we consume.

the veggie haul from his parents' backyard also included several heads of celery. i chopped a few stalks at a time, and stored them in the freezer for the coming soup season.

we transplanted a couple of the smaller celery plants to the balcony garden project...

and i placed the bottom of one of the chopped up heads of celery into a pot of soil, where it promptly started to grow new leaves.

then, without warning, Jultember was through... and with it went Summer.

now we are racing toward the part of the year that i love most of all. i ventured halfway across town this past weekend to get my first taste of this year's harvest of concord grapes. i actually bought three containers of the stuff, but the first one disappeared within minutes of getting them home.

but the best bit came when the animator was checking the weather forecast earlier today.

him: apparently there is a typhoon forming somewhere in Asia that is going to bring an early Fall to Canada.
me: that must be one powerful typhoon.
him: it's the butterfly effect.
me: yeh, but with like every butterfly on the planet flapping extra hard. 
him: the last three words of this article should make you smile. you ready for this?
me: go ahead.
him: "definitely sweater weather."

yep. still smiling.

Jultember: puzzles for sadists...

every once in a while, i turn one of my photos into a jigsaw puzzle, and i did so last night with a cicada shot i took yesterday. he decided he would do my puzzle. a few minutes later, i get what is possibly the single best comment ever.

him: your puzzles are for sadists.
me: i know. that's the best part of the thing.

i have a folder somewhere on the puter where i keep dumping images with the intent of giving them the same treatment... one of these days. i took a cursory glance at some of the ones i have set aside for said purpose thus far, and i had to laugh. 'twould seem that i do tend to specialize in puzzles for sadists.

and how do i respond to this realization, you ask? naturally, i made another one. this time, it is a bowl of cherry tomato halves. you are most welcome, sadists.

those cherry tomato halves is step two in the construction of what may just be the world's best tomato salad. allow me to take you back to step one.

this has become the go-to dish around here when the little yellow bucket starts overflowing with tiny tomatoes.

1) i transferred a few handfuls of them into a bowl, which i topped off with some locally-sourced basil, oregano, and thyme.

yes... it is quite nice to have a garden, even such a tiny one.

2) next comes the tedious part, that bit from the first photo. all those tomatoes were sliced in half, then placed cut-side up, with a sprinkling of salt added after each layer. if you squint a bit, you might some little white flecks on the cut surfaces of the tomatoes in the first photo. those are bits of kosher salt.

3) it is absolutely critical to allow that salt to sit undisturbed on those cut surfaces for a few minutes (or more). as the salt dissolves, it adds a depth of basic flavor that cannot be recreated by dousing the tomatoes in dressing. i use this time to strip the herbs from their stems and toss them on top (in no particular order).

thyme...

oregano...

basil (which i ripped into smaller pieces)...

4) then i drizzled on some balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil, and added a sprinkle of fresh-ground black pepper. (i did not bother taking a photo at this point because it looked the same as the step before).

5) now comes the good bit. top this off with a healthy crumble of feta cheese.

one quick toss later, and i had a dish that even a tomato non-lover would get excited about. we served it up with some wings hot off the grill, but you can easily make a light meal of this salad alone.

i was so excited after the first bite, that i celebrated by opening a bottle of beer that was part of my summer sampler.

this is Coup de Grisou. it is a Belgium-style spicy buckwheat ale that is brewed right here in Montreal.

i already have future plans for this beer. mostly, i want to try using it in a lobster bisque, which would be an adventure unto itself, because clearly i like to make my life complicated. that's the best part of the thing.

28: keeping peaks crisp...

i have this need to classify everything into categories, and today's topic fits into three categories at once:

• so not a recipe: this dish is so simple and straight-forward that it would be criminal to try to pass this off as a "recipe" of any sorts.
• fridge-cleaning food: it is the perfect thing to make when we are getting ready to restock the fridge, as it offers a good use for all the bits and bobs of veggies lurking in the produce bins. in mid-Winter, they would be tossed into a pot of soup, but come Summer, they are better put to use in this sort of thing.
• Summer food: not only is it served cold, but it is a dish that requires zero heat to make it happen. toss in a frosty drink, or a cold beer, and this is the perfect way to chase away the heat. 

so, what am i talking about? one of our favorite, go-to dishes, especially at this time of year. i present to you... a chickpea salad.

full disclosure: i have a twisted affection for chickpeas. i have been known to dump a can of them into a bowl, and eat them like it was a bowl of popcorn or grapes. nothing odd about that.

not only are they incredibly tasty in all sorts of dishes, but from the right angle, they look like a tiny brains. if you squint a bit, you can almost make out the pineal gland. not really, but i just got through watching "From Beyond" (not my choice, i assure you), and my inner (former) brain-science nerd is still cringing at the over-use of that term.

where was i? oh, yes... chickpeas. rinse and drain a can of chickpeas, then dump them into a bowl. that may be the hardest part of the whole thing.

as noted, this salad is a good way to get rid of bits of veggies. i went digging through the fridge bins, and found a Vidalia onion, mini sweet peppers, a Roma tomato, the remains of a bunch of cilantro, and the last of the mini English cukes. i also nabbed one of the lemons that was earmarked for making iced tea, and i was ready to go.

minor aside: i am absolutely addicted to these mini English cucumbers. they are just tinier versions of the regular English cucumber, but they seem to be so much more flavorful. i usually cut them into either spears or slices for dipping or adding to green salads. or you can just grab a whole one and start nibbling. you will not regret the experience. i promise.

my brand of OCD demands that all of the ingredients must be roughly the same size or shape, so i opted to slice the cukess into cubes...

which were added to the chickpeas.

then i did the same with the remaining veggies.

next came the herbs. we have a healthy patch of oregano in the balcony garden, so i included a few snips of that the last minute.

i usually prefer to rough chop herbs for salads, so that is what i did to the cilantro, and i just stripped the oregano leaves from the stems. so easy.

into the bowl they went.

the last step was to make a vinaigrette. and by "make", i mean adding the remaining ingredients over the top of the salad, with no kind of pre-mixing required.

in went a generous drizzle of olive oil, splash of cider vinegar, salt and pepper, and the juice of one pilfered lemon.

i also included a bit of the lemon zest... because i can. my salad, my rules.

that is all. give it a mix to combine, then taste and adjust to your liking. no exaggeration... we have been known to eat half of the salad right out of the bowl during this "tasting" step. it really is that good.

it is pretty much good to go at this point, or it can be refrigerated for later use. i prefer not to leave it sitting for too long, as the veggies start to lose peak crispness... and i am a firm believer in keeping peaks crisp at all times.

this is a very filling salad, as you may guess. i am especially fond of having it with a bit of feta cheese crumbled over the top. toss in an icy beverage, or a cold beer, and that is all you need to round out a perfect mid-Summer meal.

of course, it also works well as a side dish, especially when paired with a season-appropriate serving of saucy ribs. in a word... perfect!

17: a stroll down memory lane...

[i realize that i am automatically dating myself by admitting this out loud, but... here goes.]

i spent a good hour (or so) this morning, watching the "Two Princes" music video on repeat. what prompted this insanity, you ask? well... let us just call it a late-night stroll down memory lane. but, most of all, i was trying to figure out what was going on with that knitted cardigan. and, no... there was no alcohol involved. it is just a thing i do.

i once followed a woman around a supermarket for what must have been a good half an hour, trying to get a closer look at the sweater she was wearing. i am still convinced to this day that she took longer than was necessary purchasing her groceries because she was concerned that some strange lady pushing an empty cart was going to follow her all the way home. playing an almost thirty year old song on repeat for an hour is downright sane by comparison.

him: (waking up to find me very much not asleep): why aren't you sleeping?
me: i tried, but the thunderstorm was a bit unnerving, so i listened to the music of my adolescence instead.
him: i see.
me: and now i am listening to music that is older than me.
him: older than you? so, like from the Elizabethan Age or something?

then he dragged a pillow over his head, in anticipation of my swift and exacting revenge. he knows me so very well.

today's topic began about two months ago... when our entire building was in the grips of something resembling torture (i will talk about that when i put that piece of paper from the treasure chest). for now, it is enough to know that we were on the verge of forming a mob to go after a crew of construction workers who were making our collective lives a living hell.

then, he announced that he was going to be out of town for a few days. so, there i was, being tortured a little more each day, and left alone with three equally frustrated kitties. no exaggeration, i had to turn into a pet therapist to get them through that whole ordeal. it was insane.

this was the perfect time for a comfort meal.

it should be noted that we do not do a whole lot of frying of stuff these days. i would love to climb up on a soapbox and talk about "healthy  living" and other such lofty sounding things, but the simple fact is that it really stresses me out to have to dispose of used oil/grease. it is a pain in the neck, and an unavoidable reminder that you just ate a meal that was swimming around in all that fat. it is so much simpler to leave that sort of thing to the professionals and just treat oneself to the occasional fried-by-someone-else meal.

but, still, i wanted to burn the whole world down... and i really wanted fried fish.

my homemade fish-and-chips was such a tasty experience, that i promised him i would make it again. so, here we are almost two months later.

i should point out that this a wholly Caribbean approach to frying fish, which begins with the understanding that there are bones involved. so, if you are one of those types who can only deal with carefully manicured fillets, consider yourself amply warned.

these are porgies. they are tasty, and awesome for this kind of frying. they were seasoned using a mixture of green onions and spices that were blended with a bit of vinegar. it is what my people refer to as "seasoning"... clever, i know... and there is always a jar of it somewhere in the fridge.

the flour for dredging was also seasoned. if memory serves, i used ground cumin, chili, turmeric, salt, and black pepper. then i gave it a quick mix to combine.

each fish was placed in the mixture and lightly dredged.

then placed in a shallow pan with about half an inch of oil.

now, you could just cook the fish all the way through, and eat them as is, as i did with the fries, however, i was still steeped in my stroll down memory lane, so i took it a step further to make what is referred to in Caribbean cuisine as stewed fish.

the objective is not to cook them all the way through at this point, but to form a browned exterior, so they got a flip after a few minutes.

i removed them to a cooling/draining rack, dumped out the oil, and gave the pan a light wipe with a paper towel. then returned it to the heat, and turned my attention to the collection of veggies for the next step.

random aside: these were some freakishly large plum tomatoes. i feel a bit traumatized.

[full disclosure: he did most of the next bit, as i was making salad in between taking photos... in clouds of steam.] sliced pepper, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and tomatoes went into the pan, along with a splash of olive oil.

saute for a couple minutes, then toss in a few sprigs of oregano (from the Balcony Garden Project), and some thyme (from the market, because thyme refuses to stay alive in the Balcony Garden Project).

another minute or two later, and add a healthy squirt of ketchup and some water, taste, and add salt/pepper as desired. he also added a bit of freshly-grated lemon zest at some point.

now it is time to add the fish, and i find it easiest to pull the veggies to one side...

add a fish...

then shovel all the veggies on top of that fish, so there is room to add the second one, then distribute the veggies over both of them in some manner that seems relatively even. add a splash more water if needed, then just cover and cook for about five minutes, or until the fish are done all the way through. i tossed in a handful of chopped cilantro at the end.

the flour on the exterior of the fish will add a lovely richness to the sauce, so it is best served with something that takes advantage of all that deliciousness. i made a bit of coconutty rice with red beans.

he likes his veggies/sauce over the rice (left), but i prefer mine on the fish (right), to mix in as i eat.

and we had a jointly-prepared salad. i chopped the veggies, and he made the vinaigrette. the meal was amazing, and a good time was had by all.