book club 38 - wild and wrangled by lyla sage

 2025-38

 

2 recent sunday brunches

one with photos and one without.

lets start with the one without photos

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monte cristo sliders

blt avocado brunch salad (no egg)

fruit

hash brown patties

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 this was so good and easy to put together.  we did the jam on the side of the sandwiches, because of the kids, but the adults all opened their sammys and added it.  the kids refused to try.

the salad was delicious - a definite make again, as were the sandwiches.

 

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hot brown sandwiches

hashbrowns

yogurt

granola

fruit

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 a little more complicated that the first brunch sandwich, but well worth it.  the boy made most of the sandwich and sauce on his own, with his dad anxiously watching over his shoulder.  we left the tomatos off for the tomato haters, but i fried them and we added them to the tops of sannies.

some people had yogurt parfaits, with the granola and fruit on top, some had straight yog, and some had none at all

a divisive meal - stuffing meatballs

 

from the new notebook system comes stuffing meatballs - a pound of ground meat of your choice - we used pork - mixed with a box of stuffing mix, prepared.  mix and roll and cook and eat.

the girl hated them, but she hates everything.

the boy seemed indifferent- he ate his dinner but offered no opinion before he vanished into his room.

the mister didn't love them but didn't hate them, and was unsure when i asked if he would have them again

i had to eat the most of them because no one would eat the leftovers, and i was torn too - some bites were quite good and others were weird, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's how it went.  i'm really not sure if i would make these again or not.  

reading watching listening loving eating

 

reading  - all the sinners bleed by sa cosby

watching  - season 2 of the traitors

listening  - i have just discovered sierra ferrell

loving  - the rain we've had the past few days

eating - still lots of easy dinners - stir frys, tacos, pasta

egg salad and chive flowers on sourdough

 

family recipes

 i am done moving all my recipes that were saved on paper from the green binder and just laying around loose paper to my new notebook systems.  i saved the best part for last - family recipes written out by my mom.  i always thought she had the best handwriting.  i wanted to make sure i had something handwritten by her to remember how cool her writing was.

i didn't even realize until just now that she too had a big binder of recipes for years and years,  over time the binder broke, her way of cooking changed, and perhaps she even did her own cull of recipes.  Now it's just some loose pages, some of which my dad gave to me.

I absolutely did not want to get rid of her originals, and I found (yet another) blank notebook in the basement, this one standard paper size, and pasted in her originals

 my whole childhood and well into my teens, my mom would spend a lot of time and effort before christmas to make huge treat boxes for both sets of grandparents - cookies, chocolate, sweet bread, and her most excellent caramel corn.  i always was recruited for this one, to do the stirring every 15 minutes.  she would make so much of this every year, but it was so good and the only time of year we got to have it.

 

there is a 100% chance i will never make this cake, but i couldn't not keep the recipe.

 please enjoy this magazine page from 1984 (!) which was a fancy ass meal when i was a kid.  my mom never messed around and made the puff pastry, just the chicken, but i do remember this dish and i recall making it in my early 20's, the occasional time i was flush enough to be able to afford to buy both chicken AND bacon on my minimum wage paycheque.

 

 

the sparkly parkade and downtown kamloops murals i've walked by recently

 

book club 37 - and then there were none by agatha christie

 2025-37

 

book club 36 - the wedding people by alison espach - DNF

 2025-36

 

garlic and rhubarb, but not together, a fritata, noodles and veg

 

in the bin 4

  Hello, and welcome to episode 4 of in the bin, where I share with you any and all assorted products I've used up or discarded recently

go oliers

 

something i like - the quilters (on netflix)

 

reading watching listening loving eating

 

reading  - three inch teeth by cj box

watching - dept Q and hockey

listening - to audiobooks - currently - a two spirit journey by ma-nee chacaby

 loving - the morning air when it is cool and fresh

 eating- pretty boring this week.  hot dogs, eggs, stuff like that

book club 35 - dating and dragons by kristy boyce

 2025-35

 

book club 34 - the war of art by steven pressfield

 2025-34

 

bread and notebook progress

 bread!

 notebooks!

 i am still plugging away at moving everything to my new notebook(s) but i think i am nearly there!  i was definitely holding on to a lot of recipes that realistically i was never going to make, so that felt good to let go.  its a small job, in the big picture, but one that i'm happy to be almost done with.

book club 33 - vacation wars by meghan quinn

 2025-33

 

rhubarb update

 

the rhubarb began to flower/bolt so we cut it all down.  I gave some away.  I made stewed rhubarb, crisp, jam, tea, chopped and froze some,  juice, muffins and i still didn't get through it all.  hopefully the compost pile will enjoy a few stalks.

book club 32 - the starfish sisters by barbara o'neal

 2025-32