Soup Day.......

We woke up on Saturday to a very over cast day, with a forecast of rain on and off all weekend.  So to my mind it was a soup day!  The one thing I enjoy about making soup is that it's a great way of using stuff up in your fridge and pantry.

So the first thing I did was gather and chop everything up.  As you can see it's a mix of fresh, canned and packaged items.

I found this package of 5 grain mix, so figured that would add fibre to the soup.

More importantly all the grains were pre cooked, so one step less for me.

Then my mother brought over this box of 4 cup of soup's from the UK this summer.

Cup of Soup is a favourite amongst the British and my mother usually has a cup with a sandwich at lunch time.  My brother swears this is as good as the canned version.  We tried it but found it way too sweet for us.

So my stock for this soup was the package of onion soup mix, and the cup of soup mixed in with boiling water.  Due to the salt content in the soup mixes and the canned tomatoes, I did not have to add more salt.  I also added a no salt spice mix and some some minced garlic to the ingredients.

I softened the fresh veggies in a little olive oil and butter, then added everything else and cooked until it was ready.  I let it simmer for an hour or so and this is what it looked like:

It was good, but was missing something.  I had some at lunch time.  Then at supper time, I decided to add a can of coconut milk, and it was SO GOOD.  That was the missing something.  It reminded me of a beef barley soup without the beef!

Do you like soup?  I like a thicker, creamier soup.  

1980's Bedding Trend on the way back.........

As per this article, bed valances are coming back in trend.  In case you have forgotten what they look like this is an example:

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I do remember these and I remember all our beds having them.  As we don't use duvet's on our beds and honestly I think valances are a dust trap, I for one will be passing on this trend.  I also remember have valances on all our windows as well.

Do you have bed valances?  Do you remember them?  Will you be jumping on this trend?

Autumn/Halloween.........

I was in Home Sense the other day and was greeted by all the Autumn and Halloween decorations.  I do enjoy the whole Autumn/Fall decorating theme, though do not do it in our house........but maybe I should?

I of course was drawn to all the glass pumpkins!

Only two more weeks and the kids will be back at school, where has the summer gone too?

Who could resist this..........

Not me, when I was in Home Sense the other day I had to take a look.........

Then of course I had to buy one 😁😉 The paperbacks are $7.99 each which isn't too bad.  They seem to be getting more and more books in Home Sense?

And I said I was going to cut back on reading............

Peaches........

Over the weekend a dear friend dropped off some Ontario Peaches for me.  She got them from the Niagara region.  She goes down there from Brampton each year just to pick up some peaches.  She brought me 7 of them.  I must admit, I am no expert when it comes to peaches.  Do I like them.....yes.  Would I travel over 100 kms just to get some freshly picked....no.

They were as good as they looked, very sweet and tasty.

I had some fresh, chopped up, as eating a peach whole with juice dripping down my face, isn't for me.

I also peeled and chopped one to put in our sugar free jello.  I had mixed feelings about this, and wouldn't put them in jello again, the peach flavour was over powered by the jello.

I had one jello leftover in the fridge with fresh raspberries in it, now they are one of my favourite combinations.

We also have strawberry jello with fresh or frozen sliced strawberries, we all enjoy that.  Orange jello with drained canned mandarins, one small can divided between the four glasses of jello.  Strawberry jello with sliced bananas.  The grandkids love it when I make jello; it's a treat for them as they don't get it at home.

Are you a fan of fresh peaches?  Do you like jello/jelly?

Photos from the lake.......

First let me say I am quite sure there are many "correct terms/names" when it comes to describing things to do with a lake........  You're not going to find them here.........as I haven't a clue when it comes to boats etc!!

We went to Gravenhurst the other week and it's on Lake Muskoka (I think?)  So I took some photos.

A guy on a mobility scooter was fishing on the dock, where I took this photo, so I got talking to him about the lake.  It's around 150 feet at it's deepest.  Here by the dock it's about 6 feet deep, with around 3 feet of weeds.  I could see a lot of "tiddlers"/tiny fish about 3 or 4 inches long but he said there were a number of bigger fish further out.  

He also said he "fell" in the lake on his mobility scooter and people had to dive in to rescue him as he can't swim 😐😕😦😬 I asked him if he was trying to catch his supper, and that's when he said; "he goes down to the lake more for company than anything else, and to talk to people like myself."

There is a Boston Pizza on the lake and we had our lunch on the outside patio overlooking the lake.  It was so nice and peaceful.........

Now my friend on the mobility scooter was telling me these "Yahoo's" drive there speed boots down from their daddies mansions on a Saturday morning to the marina for their morning coffee on a weekend.......

Then they go, speeding back to the mansion's.........

You can take a boat cruise on the steamship, Segwun.  We didn't bother, but it seemed pretty busy.

It is a very pretty area to explore, that's for sure.

Public Service Announcement!

Our clothes dryer has not been working properly for a while now.  The error messages were coming up more frequently, so had to throw in the towel and buy a new one.  We also decided that having one delivered in the summer was easier than waiting until the colder weather appears.  It's more or less the same one as the last one as other than it this one works!! LOL 

One of the biggest issues with dyers, is making sure you clean out the vent both inside the dryer and the vent going to the outside to prevent fires.  We had bought this kit from Amazon that attaches to a power drill and it works a treat.

We cleaned it out before we hooked up the new dryer and this is what came out of the vent.  It was pretty clean, so was happy with that.  Plus it's an easier job to do when it's not freezing cold and covered in snow, so a summer job!!

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So clean out your dryer vent before it gets too cold out.