J'en ai marre-melade

Hello!
The title of this post is a French pun, so unless you speak French, I'm afraid I can't translate, as they say in the world of subtitles "untranslatable French pun"
Well... I've been busy washing, juicing, slicing, boiling and simmering lemons lately for our bi-yearly school fete! It's this weekend! Usually my mum makes the marmalade around this time of the year, when she visits us, but she's not coming this year, so I took over :) 12 little jars, which means about 4 or 5 batches, I lost count, not to mention the one I messed up as my lemon peel to water/sugar ratio was a bit on the low side, oh well, more for us :) I go nuts about Lemons here... They are gorgeous, in Canada, you don't have a lemon tree in your backyard, and you don't have friends who generously give you bags of lemons when your tree is not producing enough, we do it with apples... Although my family did it with zucchini, my parents grew the largest zucchini I ever saw! They were actually in my brother's section of the garden, but I digress.
I thought I should show off my Lemon Peel Delight (didn't know if it would pass as marmalade, so I called it "Delight" a nice lovely word that covers a range of consistencies, which is EXACTLY what I made!!!). I learned a few tricks making this, how to sterilise your bottles and caps, and that it is a very sticky process! It was fun though.

Speaking of bi-yearly, like the Fete at the school... well... did you know that the English language makes no sense sometimes? Of course you knew that... there's no ham in hamburgers, and the like. Well... did you know that bi-weekly can mean twice in one week, OR also mean every two weeks? Here in Australia we/they use the word fortnight to mean every two weeks, it's a lovely clear word, IMO. Comes from "fourteen nights". Bi-monthly, does that mean twice a month, or every two months? It means BOTH ladies and gents! Yes, same with bi-yearly! Now this is one concept that made me and my hubby shake our heads in disbelief!!!!! You can pick up any dictionary and have a peek, and I bet you they will say I'm right. Well, in either case, they can't say I'm entirely wrong, can they? It's one, or the other, or both! :)

Food for thought, though I prefer marmalade!

My problems are very little...

I'm linking to another blog I found, via the blogs suggested by Blogspot when we log in. There are some absolutely amazing pictures which we will not see in the newscasts we get on telly. The blog is here: http://dancingwithkatrina.blogspot.com/ ... Pictures of Katrina's devastation in the USA. Don't even get me started about how badly this was handled by the USA Government!
Somehow, even if we got bombarded by the media, like they love doing, to the point of desensitising us I always feel we're not seeing everything, and sometimes, we don't really "see" it like it's another tv show, and not news. With shows such as CSI, L&O and the like, looking at corpses, mutilations, etc... Yeah, I know, it's "Hollywood" but still... I think deep down inside this is having an impact on how we see things in the "Real" world... So yes, we saw Katrina pictures on the news, but seeing the pictures from the blog, taken by real people, on the ground there, taking pictures of other real people, dealing with a very real reality... it sinks in better than on the "box". So that's why I think that blog is worthy of mention here.

I wanted/needed to tell someone about those images, and DH is out at the moment. So hopefully you will get something out of them too...

As an aside, I couldn't help bursting out laughing, a moment ago, when I realised I had put on my jumper (sweater for non-Aussies) inside out. I went to school this morning to drop off the girls, talked to some parents, and came back home, and never realised my top was on inside out! .... yeah, it's a very small problem...

Soup anyone?

Hi again... well, what I thought would happen did, hence you're finding me here again. I go on cooking sprees, make yummy food, and then forget what I made and what we liked.... Once I can remember the recipe it's not so bad as I always write comments in my recipe books (in pencil!) as to when I first made the recipe and if we liked it or not... and any other details.
Well, in hopes to inspire others, and to jog my memory, here are the soups we like:
(reminds me of the Kids In The Hall song "These are the Daves I know")

Beetroot (beet) Soup: from my aunty's recipe
Black Bean Soup: there was one I used to make, which I can't find, so now we like the one from Sundays at the Moosewood, in the North African section.
Succotash Chowder: this one is from the Moosewood Cookbook and is just delicious it's made with Lupinis (Ah! now I remember what those lupinis in the freezer are for! I always try to cook more legumes than I need and freeze some! Yay!)... ok, so the soup is made with Lupinis and potatoes, celery, great herbal seasonings and corn!
Fennel Bulb soup great when fennels are cheap and in season, they are also quite nice braised.
Gingered Carrot Soup also from Moosewood

This is all for now, the rest will have to wait until later. eventually, one day! As for now, that's all I remember. I might even come and edit this post if I ever get motivated enough *Ü*