Mango Upside Down Cake

From the country...

This is another fairly easy cake to make. I had purchased some reduced to clear mangoes and this is what became of them. This cake is moist and the topping has an exotic twist. You could use pineapple in replace of the mangoes. I thought the cake was even better the next day when the flavours really came out. Check out the recipe here and enjoy!

Bonne Fete A Toi!

From the country....

Happy Birthday Aunt Mimi!

Love: Nate,Luca & Millie Mae

Ottawa Girls Weekend.

From the City...


Last weekend Lisa (middle) and I made the trek to Ottawa to see our best (on the left) Amy who lives in Pangnirtung Nunavut. She was traveling around on business so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit and catch-up with each other, because we don't really get to do it as much we would like.

It was a pretty fun weekend. Seeing as I'm nine months pregnant, I'm not the funnest person to travel with but that's the best thing about good girlfriends, you don't really need much but a hotel room, junk food, magazines and old stories to have a pretty hilarious time. I had about four baths over the course of two days because the tub was bigger than our ridiculously small bath tub in Toronto and I also ate this delicious thing called a beaver tail. It's like a deep fried pastry that you can get topped with chocolate or cinnamon or garlic or cheese or whatever. In ottawa, the tail is your oyster. er, you know what I mean. It was also a good chance to take my mind off my growing belly, which has become quite the feat these days.

x's and o's to my girls.

A turkey what?!

From the country...

This here is a turkey saddle. A turkey what? A saddle for a turkey hen. A saddle for turkey mating. Through my research I have found that my ladies need these so that when the 20lb+ Tom turkey "treads" on their back during mating, the saddle protects the hens from being all defeathered and scratched up. I am placing an order for 12 turkey saddles. Quite possibly the oddest thing I have ordered online. I am not ordering some risque item to improve my sex life but a saddle to help the turkeys with theirs. Are my priorities straight?

Love hurts... even for turkeys.

Apple Cake

From the country...



I made this lovely cake yesterday because we have a crisper full of Crispin apples and it was a relatively quick and easy recipe. It makes a nice moist cake, perfect for snacking with a tea (which I do plenty of... breastfeeding..always hungry!). Here is the recipe, I substituted dates because we didn't have nuts in the house and it worked out just fine.

Crafting for Baby

From the City...

I've been trying to keep myself busy lately with craft projects and my mother in law Diane gave me the best idea for inexpensive art to hang above the baby crib.

I found this incredible bird fabric that pretty much set off the rest of the colors in the nursery (nursery being the one wall in our bedroom, Toronto rent is expensive!!). From there, Simon, Diane and I picked two other fabrics that seemed to work well with the bird fabric. We then picked up some cheap canvasses from the dollar store. From there we cut the fabric with about two inches around the canvas and then stapled it to the wooden frame making sure to pull the fabric as tight as possible. The corners are the trickiest part. The strategy I used was folding the fabric corners similar to how you would fold the corners of a Christmas present.

The biggest purchase you need to make is the heavy duty wood stapler. But trust me, it's worth it. You'll find yourself stapling everything just because you can.

Give it a try.

amelia

Girly Things...

From the country...

Here are a few of the girly things that Millie has received as gifts. This is completely uncharted territory for me having had two boys(although Lucas does like to wear the odd barrette in his sunny locks). I often gazed over at the little girls racks in the second hand stores and pined over sundresses and hair bows. Now I can venture over to those racks with purpose.

I have to keep it real though, we do live on a farm. Millie Mae will wear pretty sun dresses smeared with spring mud and dampened with puddle water. It will be pretty shirts mixed with her brothers hand-me-down pants and rubber boots. And of course, you can't forget overalls and a little tiny pitchfork.

Thank you for the girly stuff Dianne.

Thanks for the pink bundle of stuff I found in the mail box last week, Auntie Ann.

Thanks for the bassinet, Mum and Aunt Kathy.

She is a lucky little girl, decked out in girly stuff thanks to you ladies.

New Batch!

From the country...

This is the first batch of preserved goodness made this year! Actually, come to think of it this is the second, geez I am on the ball. I have made a yummy strawberry rhubarb jam and this here marmalade. I also made some bumbleberry jam before X mas. The berry jams were made with fruit harvested in the summer and frozen in the freezer. In the marmalade, I used Seville oranges with one red grapefruit and 2 lemons (my Gran swears by the Seville orange...). It made an even more tangy version of the batch we made last year. A nice puckery marm good with cheese or roast duck..or just out of the jar! For the recipe click here.

Millie Mae Born on Valentine's Day!

From the country...

Amelia Mae Boyd graced us with her presence on Valentine's Day morning. Lil' Millie is a calm, plump (all nine and a half pounds of her!), and snuggly baby girl. Yep, I can officially say girl! After two of the worlds best baby boys, I can now say I am the proudest Momma of a little girl named after my favourite person in the whole world, my sister Amelia.

Will she fall right into the groove here and become our newest farm hand? Will she be right beside Nate tending to the chickens and planting seeds in the greenhouse or will she be another wild child like Lucas armed with an amazing imagination? Will she be like me ? Growing up here on the farm, chasing her brothers around with frogs, cutting her own hair when it is in the way, a real tom boy? Will she fish with her brothers, craft with her Momma, and cook with her Daddy?

Time will tell.

Warm Welcome Millie Mae.

I am over the moon that you are here, my lil' pea pod.

Waiting for Baby

From the City...

This is what you do when you're 8 months pregnant in February.

1st Turkey Egg of the Year!

From the country...

Is this a sign of young turkey poults to come?

Warm Spring Thoughts...

From the country...

Basil plants in the greenhouse, fiddleheads, fresh spring greens and a fuzzy little chick basking in the sun...

Turkey Bounty

From the Country...


I though I would share with you a picture from our turkey harvest that we did before Christmas. We sent 27 birds to the processors and they came back all squeaky clean and ready to pop in the oven. Our largest gobbler finished out at 23lbs! All of these beauties were sold to people for their Christmas feast with love from the farm!