A Week for Eats

Well, this week has been a week of food. It started with making ketchup which was waaaay too tomato-y (for those not in the know, I loathe tomatoes) but the next day I tried it on something else and it was amazing, so that recipe gets to stay. It's a quickie too because we start with tomato paste. Tonight I get to make gnocchi with our new potato ricer!

There are no pictures of Caspian eating because his supply of 'on tap' milk isn't really for public viewing, but here are some pictures of him being adorable.

It doesn't take much. 

He gets it from his dad I bet.

And this one just cracks me up.

Yep, food, food, food. Last night we went to the Farmer's Market where I was surprised and amazed to see currants at one stand. A quick smart-phone search told me how much I would need for jam (I LOVE currant jam) but when we got home I noticed they looked different than the recipe's picture. 

Well apparently someone started calling a tiny version of grapes that are used to make raisins "currants" because they didn't know what the word "Corinth" was (the original locale of these grapes) and so these grapes are called currants in America, where real currants were outlawed for like 50 years or something because the lumber industry lobbyists thought it would help cure their lumber of a disease or something. Color me ticked. So ticked that I'm thinking of ordering actual currants just to make jam now even though I can only find them in a 5 pound bag vacuum sealed. 

So instead of photos of jar after jar of delicious black currant jam you get to see one photo of our homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut which looks pretty good but which we haven't tasted because it needs to ripen for several more weeks at least.

It smells really good though if you press your nose up against the lid. 

So no jam yet, but our cherry pitter just arrived and we're going to try to make some cherry pie filling to jar up before cherries go back to being imported and hugely expensive. If anyone would like four pounds of tiny seedless grapes that are apparently only used to make raisins let me know. We both hate raisins. I've been told they're nature's candy, but nature should keep her day job if that's the case.

The happy face of a baby who knows he doesn't have to eat the disgusting thing known as a 'raisin.'

We also are getting geared up for a winter garden (told you - all about food) and were really happy to find a place that sells non-GMO, all organic, heirloom vegetable seeds! For those who don't know what that means (like David last night) it means that the plants have not been genetically altered (no scientists poking around with their DNA and deciding it's still nutritious and safe for me to eat) no pesticides on the soil that the original plants that bore the seeds grew in (and again, not going into our insides) and heirloom means we can actually keep the seeds from the plants we harvest and plant them next year, and again and again. 

In response to this information my mom said we were just a pair of Birkenstocks away from something.  I don't know what Birkenstocks are, apparently some sort of shoe. 

But we're hardcore - we don't wear shoes!

So I need to run to Target today and get some lawn bags to clear out some weeds, and hopefully this weekend my dad will be helping me to build the planter boxes. I'll post pictures when we're all set up. 

Just this morning we had a great surprise too (not the arrival of the cherry pitter). My sister-in-law, Stacia's sister Sharon, finished the blanket she was crocheting for Athanasius and it arrived, and it's seriously cool looking. He seems to love it:

I think he just likes it though because he sees it as the banner beneath which his troops will march.

So that's been our week. Today is the start of the Dormition Fast for us, the two week fast before the Feast of the Dormition, the day that the Theotokos fell asleep in the Lord. Within that fast is the Feast of the Transfiguration, the day celebrating Christ's transforming on Mount Tabor. As a symbol of this 'first glimpse' of the fruits of the Resurrection we bless fruit on Transfiguration, so we're going to try to head down to Stacia's favorite "you-pick" fruit place and get some good stuff for the day. Hopefully you'll get to see that too!

But until next week, for now, g'night!

Told ya' that's where he gets it.