Nesting and eating…..eating and nesting.

It’s true….I’m nesting.  I’m giving in to the overwhelming urge to tidy, purge unwanted things, organize my house, eat lots of gorgeous fall food, and stock the freezer.  Now, most women readers will be saying “OMG, ShaMoo’s preggers”…and the response to that would be a resounding ABSOFREAKINLUTELY NOT.  Ahem, I mean “No, of course I’m not”.  However this time of year always seems to send me into a tizzy of prep for wintertime.  My mom used to do the same….August and September were always all about making jam, pickles, and apple pie filling in my house.  Hard to break that habit, even though all of those things are a major pain in the arse to do (and I  won’t be making apple pie filling….I completely OD’d on apple pie growing up and now can barely stand the sight of it). 

So, on the prep end, I’ve made about 7 batches of jam so far (raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, blueberry/rhubarb, blueberry/peach, and Main Street’s favourite: plain old peach) with plans to attempt apple jelly this weekend.  My father-in-law informed me that the apples in our area are the best they’ve ever been due to the amazing summer we’ve had.  Gotta trust him; he’s a farmer…. Also, I’m currently searching for the “world’s best spaghetti sauce” to add to my freezer (if you have a great recipe, fire it my way please!!) and might just give dill pickles a try this year.   I had all of these fabulous plans to make several weeks’ worth of freezer meals when my in-laws were here (figured that my mother-in-law would like to help with that…..) but those plans got a knocked a little off track by our cross-border shopping.   I may be nesting, but I *do* have priorities, after all   I guess I’ll be tackling the freezer meals myself, sadly.  If all goes well, my freezer will be stocked to the lid and will get us through the nasty winter months, saving me from my typical “Oh crap, what should I make for dinner??” wondering that usually strikes at about 5pm every day .

On the eating end, well, I absolutely love this time of year for cooking (okay, and eating…whatever).  Picking up fresh veggies from the local farmer’s market and whipping them into an amazingly fresh dinner is one of the simplest ways to make me happy.  The kids could eat fresh corn on the cob until the cows come home which is great because they will in no way shape or form touch the other stuff I create with fresh veggies.  New potatoes in cream and dill sauce?  No way.  Teryiaki spinach and mushroom stir-fry with garlic?  Forget it.  And, one of my ultimate favs: Butternut squash soup??  Uh, no.  Sigh….they’ll learn to appreciate good food someday, I hope! 

Speaking of good food, and the appreciation of the same, we’ve been doing so much of that in the past few weeks.  As I mentioned, my in-laws were here visiting, and so we ate….LOTS.  They’re old school Alberta-types which means that the minimum requirement for each meal is a ridiculously large portion of some form of red meat, potatoes, and perhaps one other veggie.  So we did a lot of that….OMG, I felt like I needed a defibrillator by the end of their visit, wow.  Schmenkman and I also managed to get away for a kid-free weekend while they were here and did some utterly fabulous culinary experimenting at Niagara-on-the-Lake.  We ate several fantastic meals while we were there, but the absolute stand-out dish of the weekend was the Lobster Poutine we shared on our first night there. 

Lobster poutine = multiple bites of heaven

Holy crap.  It was flavourful.  It was juicy.  It was beautiful.  It probably clogged the hell out of our arteries, but oh baby, it was worth it!  We barely uttered a word while we were wolfing it down but when we finished Schmenkman looked up at me and said “You want to lick the plate, don’t you?”  Uh….maybe.  What’s your point?  If I’m paying $18 for an appetizer I want to get my money’s worth!  Alright, alright, so I didn’t lick the plate, but it took a ridiculous amount of self restraint to not do so….believe me (damn, Schmenkman knows me too well).

So, as the hot summer days sadly dwindle away, I do take comfort in the fact that we’re moving into “comfort food” season.   Who’s with me?