My Sweet October

Wow, I did not hit the ground running with this blog. However I did hit the ground in a mad dash with everything else...all at once. Wow, I'm tired. All worth it though. I'll catch everyone up!

All the sarsparilla, peppercorn, vanilla, cinnamon, juniper berries, burdock root, and God knows what else...all simmering away.

I made Root Beer! It turned out pretty awesome! My only regret is that I didn't have any sassafras which would have given it that final root beer oomph of flavor. Sassafras is supposedly carcinogenic which is why it isn't used in commercial root beers anymore. Sheesh, can't be any worse than high fructose corn syrup... Luckily John still had some at his house for next time...

And vanilla Ice cream using the raw milk from Lubbers Farm. Pretty much the best ice cream ever!!

Made a fish head curry. Our friend Greg went fishing and caught a few salmon so Rachael and I cleaned up the heads and I made a curry the next sunday.

We were given fresh eggs by another friend of our who own chickens. The yolks were so rich and orange we had to make a giant omlette. The next day I made A LOT pierogis with the remaining eggs. the dough was so rich and yellow.

Made Sauer Kraut with some cabbages from the garden! There was some leftover whey from the last time I made cheese so I decided to do some fermenting!

This wall has been bugging me ever since we moved in...so I painted it a flat blue, put up sticky vinyl, cut out some birch trees, and painted a clear coating over. The result? very subtle tree decoration on the wall. I like this wall now. If you do this, however, don't use spray paint clear gloss unless you can open ALL the windows in the house. I happened to do this on a very cold night in October. Sorry guys....

Made ricotta cheese! Again from the raw milk from Lubbers Farm. This then went into a vegetable lasagna. There was still some leftover ricotta so I made a polenta bake with sauted mushrooms, leeks and spinach topped with the cheese.

I also finished staining the last section of cupboards! (on this side of the kitchen anyways...) 

This was all the stuff I did in October that I had actually taken pictures of. I also slow roasted a pork shoulder in Founders Habanero spite and made Tamales. Josh brought over a whole bushel of random peppers, so I made green chile/cheese tamales as well. The rest of the peppers I diced and dried along with the rest of the parsley from my garden. What an October, but I can't wait for November!