The Farm

I love that my parents house, my home, looks like a gorgeous quilt or a painting from above.   Whenever I wish I was home I google-map it.  That red roof is the barn I had my wedding reception in, that tiny blue square is the pool.  Lovely.  And that road is the last paved road before the mountain, the first of the Tuscarora foothills.

Apple Picking, Saucing, Canning, Baking

Habit

That's the pack I just finished.  Right.  No more cigarettes.  Here we go.

Fig and Ginger Jam

There were massive quantities of figs at Whole Foods and they were on sale.  I couldn't not buy them.  It would be impossible.  They were exceptionally beautiful and ever since my aunt invited us to a fig party last year I've been thinking about Stonewall Kitchen's Fig and Ginger Jam.  I figured I could make some approximation.  Every now and then I make up canning recipes (more like combine a bunch of canning recipes to make something close to all but not quite any of them).  Figs have a really low acid content though so this isn't really for canning.  More like for sticking in a jar and putting in the fridge.  I am making scones and am going to eat my body weight in gingery-figgy goodness.

1 lb of figs, diced
1cup of sugar + 2 tbs sugar
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1.5 tsp of ground ginger.
2 inches of fresh ginger, diced
3 tbs rice wine vinegar
juice and zest from two lemons

Mix all ingredients through fresh ginger in a non-reactive bowl and let them sit for a few hours at room temperature until they are all mushy and sticky.   While my fruit was all meltifying I put the ginger in a bowl with 2 tbs of sugar and it let out a lot of gingery sugary juice.

Put the mixture in a large dutch oven with the remaining ingredients and stir over medium high heat for 30 minutes or until they are thick and gooey and look like jam.

 Put it in a jar and stick in it in the fridge.  Put it on scones with lots of butter or ricotta cheese.

Monday

I reverse google imaged with no luck, credit anyone?

We are unpacked.  David is working from 9 am - 11 pm.  Our ceilings are high which is wonderful but it means that our walls can't be painted without a ladder.  I'm still applying for jobs at a rate I wouldn't have believed I was capable of. Trying to find someone who will hire me to do something other than a dead-end secretarial position.  Because I'm 26, which feels old to me. And I need a big girl career.

I've always smoked a little, having a cigarette on weekends with a drink and then going months and sometimes an entire year without smoking.  Last week I had a hard time making it through convention night coverage without a cigarette.  I resolved to quit on Friday when my pack ran out.  Then I burnt the shit out of dinner (after two hours of cooking, at nine at night) and heard from a friend who's wedding is not going so well.  With all the same issues as when ours wasn't going so well.  And I dragged the dog on a walk to the library to return the two books I read last week in my unemployed days and bought another pack of American Spirits.  I'm trying not to beat myself up about it.  I'm also trying not to beat myself up about the quantity of sorbet and chips I've been eating or the amount of money I've spent on paint samples.   This growing, moving thing isn't easy and it doesn't feel easy.  It doesn't even feel hard in that good stretching, growing way.  It feels crummy and empty and long.

Grey Is My Favourite Colour

There is nothing so frustrating as hiking through the heat to Benjamin Moore and having the rude lady mix you paint samples and coming home to find that the two grey options, recommended by blogs and googled thoroughly turn out to be decidedly blue and purple options.  We do not want blue and purple.

 This is not the same as this

and this is not the same as this

Have you painted anything grey recently?  Any favourite colors?  Next time I'm making Home Depot mix me sample pots.  They are much, much cheaper.

Best Shopping Weekend

Today I found these at Marshalls.  I love them so much I can barely speak.

I often wish there was a fashion blog for people sized 12-16.  Not big enough for plus size fashion blogs and lines but not quite straight sized either.  For girls who are 5'10" and chubby.  Okay.  What I'm saying is someone else should pick out all of my clothes and put me in them.  Someone with really good taste.  That's what I want.  Anyone want to do that for me?