Imploded

I've been trying to figure out how to put this experience into words for a few days now...

The other night was sushi night at the Orchard's place... I'd never rolled sushi before, and it really wasn't all that difficult. Mind you, it didn't look like anything I'd ever purchased... I'm not going to profess myself a pro-sushi roller just yet. Each piece was MASSIVE. A real mouthful that took a moment to work thru.

Like, a good long moment.

Which is fine when it's awesome... savoring a giant mouthful of sushi? Awesome.
When you're about to die? Not awesome.

I'd just wedged my second piece of sushi in my mouth when it happened. We didn't have normal soy sauce bowls, so I'd just wiped a bit of wasabi over the top of the piece and dripped some soy sauce onto it.... no big deal... except I hadn't tested the potency of the wasabi before wiping on...

Kim is saying something to me... I'm listening... and suddenly, she goes out of focus.
My face is imploding.
My face is being sucked into my sinuses.
My eyeballs are turning inward.
I can not breathe.
I can not blink.
Tears.
There are tears.
Where has the roof of my mouth gone? There is a giant hole... my brain is frozen and on fire and WHY CAN'T I BREATHE?
Has she noticed? Has Kim noticed? Can I turn my head and make it seem like I'm suddenly distracted by something?
Did I just squeak?
How am I making noise? I can not BREATHE OUT. OR IN.
OH MY DEAR SWEET GOD IN HEAVEN WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED TO MY FACE? MY MOUTH? WHERE HAS THE AIR GONE?
I need someone to notice that I'm dying.
I'm dying.

and then..

it passes.

Then Jason bites into some wasabi...

Good bye November

Before I went to sleep I was thinking about how happy I was that Mo-vember was over. Seriously, as a single girl, Movember gives me the creeps- all those perviously handsome faces turned pedo face.

And because I was thinking about it, I had lovely dreams of kissing lots of sensitive-smooth-lipped men.

Thank you lucid dreams. Thank you.

seriously?

I'm really wishing that it was the weight of everything grown, not just the weight of edible produce, that we were measuring for the 1000lb challenge.

Since the heavy frosts have hit, I've been slowly cutting back the warm weather plants- the peppers were the first to go, the eggplant (another failure crop), and then I started in on cleaning up the tomatoes....

Oh dear.
Those tomato plants...

I know that most of them had a late start... or an interrupted start (relocated by either the chickens or myself)... but come on- there should have been a better yield. I guess I was really counting on the frosts being later, or lighter for longer. I took almost 15lbs of green toms off the plants in the first culling after the frost... There's another 15lbs at least out there... But I just had a shower and I don't want to smell like a tomato plant all day.

So yes, the one plant that I pulled today? It was that nasty yellow pear. A mistake planting, it was suppose to be a Sun Sugar, those are my favourites... a grape sized sweet tom in a rainbow of colours... like jelly beans! Anyway... if we'd been weighing/ measuring the plants? This dude, even after SERIOUS pruning all summer... 11 feet long and about 18lbs... One plant!!!

Winner for best yield and best taste this year would go to those speckled paste, they weren't too too dry, and they were super pretty.

I haven't updated the challenge page in awhile, I'll let you know when I get around to it.

make the most of it

A toast!
To my favourite toast.
Growing up, somehow, my mom could time the bread just right- so it was coming out of the oven as we walked in the door. The smell would drive me crazy, and waiting till it had cooled just enough that she could cut off thick slices, and slather them in butter- left me drooling and hanging over the counter in the kitchen.

Sometimes I try to recreate those smells. I don't eat much bread usually... and the bread I do eat- I treat myself to from the Millstone Bakery in town... mmmmm. I really need to learn how to make just one loaf.














This is my favourite bread, a Finnish Coffee Loaf that our family just called "Sugar Bread" growing up.... it makes the sweetest toast... I can't wait till morning!

corney

it's corn season.

growing up, I hated corn season. I just wasn't that interested in it... I was interested in the butter... but could care less for the sensation of corn stuck between my teeth. and. I was too lazy to cut it off the cob.

and, it wasn't all that good.

it came to my attention a few years ago that I was going about corn all wrong... I was called a "PINHEAD" and was told to stop buying my corn at No Frills.

Since switching to buying my corn from the adorable old farmer down the way... I have become a corn addict. My compost bin is filled to the brim with husks... my trips to the loo ever so satisfying.... it's likely I should be investing in dental floss.

Thank you Farmer Dolly.

multi-talented

I'm eating dessert with Lynn Miles.

Ok, think "6 degrees of separation" type dessert- but think fewer steps.
Shall we back the train up a little further so this all makes sense?

I have a friend who has a bed and breakfast. I'm sure I've gloated about this before.
I have a friend who has a bed and breakfast, and I'm house sitting for her again. I will be gloating about this more.
I have a friend who has a bed and breakfast, and each year during the festival she has some of the musicians stay at her bed and breakfast- so they don't have to camp out on the hill (though, some of them do, and they have the right to gloat).

Anyway, this year, Miss Lynn Miles stayed at the B&B (again) and this year, as a little thank you gift, she left a little box of the cutest ever chocolate shortbread cookies for the hostess. I just ate some for dessert. And... I've got a few for my lunch. Along with a cookie that the hostess herself made- think apple crisp crumble.... but handheld.

and how to make it a little better.

... though not actually made in Africa, nearly as good as the original.