Putting Out and Putting Up.

Who says you need to go away to some beautiful, foreign destination to experience a working vacation? You know, those vacations where you pay to go and work for farmers, resorts, charitable humanity projects, etc.??  Not for us, oh no.

On vacation? Check! Working hard? Check!

I have had the pleasure of enjoying married life again since my husband got home on Friday. We also both have this week off work (more or less). So naturally, we are working at preserving all the produce in sight! And *ahem* did I mention I'm enjoying married life?? Tee hee. Two months is a loooong time!

The produce is quite early this year, so we are already behind doing things that we would normally do on the labour day long weekend. I had already 'put up' 10 jars of dill pickles before Friday. Since Saturday, we have made one batch of tomato chipotle salsa (7 x 500mL), about 5L of tomato sauce (frozen in 1L and 500mL jars), and about 6L of pepperonata. Somehow it doesn't sound like that much...but we've been busy!

I also got some new video of a riding lesson. I thought I would impress my hubby with the progress in my riding/Brumby's training and get some great video. Well, Murphy's Law kicked in, I guess.  I didn't have the greatest lesson, the exercise was reallly hard for Brumby and I had no lower leg, apparently. I'll try to post more on that later.

For two weeks, I was picking this amount 

daily, sometimes more.

I needed a cake for my husband since his birthday is August 5th and he was in the field. This cake is made with coarse-ground almonds and I've sprinkled blackberries and red currants on top. When it bakes, the berries sink into the cake. Inspired by mangocheeks from Allotment to Kitchen in this post and this one.  The actual recipe I used was found at Bibliocook.  

Slice, served with fresh whipped cream and berries.

I've been back in the cooking mood since I have someone to cook for (and help!).  Had a fabulous lunch today of fresh market brussel sprouts, peppers, onions, garlic, and sliced chipotle smokies.  Finished with a splash of tarragon vinegar and served on quinoa (leftover from last night's dinner).

Happiness is:

Not to be overshadowed was our dinner. Mr. Ruckus had not yet had any beets from our garden, we've been working our way through a surplus of produce, so tonight was the night. We stopped in to our favorite butcher and got a couple of bison tenderloins. This bison is raised about a half-hour away and is absolutely fantastic.

Mr.Ruckus massaging the bison with mixed fresh herbs.

The finished product. Simply steamed beets, snow peas, grilled bison.

Now this is more like it!