Pickles.

The first pickles of the season. I made them some time ago and I have to say they came out delicious, and we already ate them all so I think I have to make some more. This time I couldn't find a horse radish so they were less crunchy but still good. Once they start changing in colour I put them in the fridge this way the fermenting process slows down.

Juice.

Few days ago I had a chance to get some raspberries and blackberries for a few dollars, there is a fruits stand not far from where I live and sometimes they have big baskets of berries and other fruits that are little bruised and they sell them for a lot less then normal. I got two baskets of raspberries and one of blackberries and made some juice. I add this juice to my homemade ice tea or just make a cold drink. 

Reading

I picked few books that I would like to finish by the end of the month, at least I will try. It is really hard to find time for things like reading in the summer, there is so much to do in the warm months, like: preserving and cooking and going out with kids, and sometimes it's just too hot to do anything, and there are those lazy days when you can't find motivation to do anything, however I'm trying to create some kind of a routine and incorporate reading in it. I'm thinking if I can find just one hour a day for reading that would be great, but it is easier said then done, like for example yesterday the only time that I could read was right before bed. I can't read too long before bed because books put me to sleep, not that they are boring, I just relax too much, so I read for 10 minutes and I was out. Today I'm trying to read in the morning since I woke up extra early, we will see how it goes. Wish me luck.

My books:

 - The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

(A Curious Account of Native People in North America)

 - The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 

 - The lost City by Amanda Hocking

Amanda Hocking is one of my favourite authors, this book is almost like a continuation of her Trylle trilogy, I just started and already in a first chapter she refers to the other books, so I suggest to read that trilogy first, the books are:

1.Switched

2.Torn

3.Ascend

And with my younger daughter we picked few books to read together, she is 12 and loved graphic novel, she basically eats them up, but doesn't like chapter books so we always read them together and I'm hoping that she will find her love for chapter books at some point in her life.

 - The Soul Riders by Helena Dahlgren

 - Wing of Olympus by Kallie George

 - The Dragon Prince by Aaron Ehasz and Melanie McGanney Ehasz

 - The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren.

Apples and bread

My weekend in the kitchen:

Made an apple pie,

From the apple peel I made a drink, just add dry apricots, prunes and cranberries, water and a some sugar.

And I made breadcrumbs,

 

From my Garden.

This year is really strange when it comes to my garden, I have a lot of growth but not so much fruits. My community garden has been eaten by squirrels and beside green onion there is nothing. I had dill, carrots, spinach and corn and everything is gone but I have many peanuts in the ground.

On my balcony I don't have any squirrels so everything is growing well but it's all leafs, my beans are really tall but I had a hand full of beans and that is it, my zucchini is huge and has many flowers and small zucchini but they all dry out and the flowers on the small zucchini don't even open up. My cucumbers are full of flowers but not even one cucumber. As much as I would love to have all the veggies I am happy that I have green balcony with walls of leafs and I have the opportunity to garden in the community garden, so the year 2020 is strange but next year will be much better.

I had few strawberries:

And I have nice kale but indoors on my window:

And this is the bean harvest so far:

One thing that I always have, and hope to always have, is basil. I cut my first basil this season and made some pesto.

In my Kitchen.

I had a busy day in my kitchen, I defrosted my standing freezer and while cleaning I found a piece of gingerbread dough so I made some cookies. I also made some strawberry turnovers with the frozen puff pastry, made some almond milk and power balls with the almond pulp. It was a busy and sweet day.

Baking.

My daughter  did some baking, she made a chocolate peanut butter loaf, it looked little bit strange but came out really good. the recipe is from a Canadian Living book called Sweet & Simple. 

Also currently reading this book.

In My Garden.

My balcony is turning green, there are walls of plants that gives us little bit of privacy. The zucchini is growing like crazy, there is lots of basil, and the beans and cucumbers are climbing up. Like every garden I also have some failers, the green onion didn't grow at all, the black currant has a hard time growing, and my cucumbers have no fruit, lots of flowers but no cucumbers. Despite all that I love just the green colour all over my balcony.