2017 Goals ~ Let’s go with Healthy, Wealthy and Wise… and a couple donkeys

I absolutely adore that the advent of the New Year gives one a sense of renewal, a chance to reflect and consequently focus on ones short and long term goals.  We have lots of changes planned for 2017 and, I must say, yes, I must, that we are very, very excited (and a teeny bit scared).  We will be putting all our eggs into our  entrepreneurial basket and focusing our time specifically ~ Pumpjack’s to our new wine business Terroir au Verre and me, Piddlewick, to my Pumpjack & Piddlewick  Shop and the life that goes on behind it, so our blog will get a bit of a face lift too this year.

Welcome 2017! It’s make or break time.
(Hmmm, maybe not a good euphemism when talking about entrepreneurial eggs.)

Building new pallet beds, Part 1 ~ Getting our excuses in early and planting late

If you have followed the weather at all here in France, particularly Northern Burgundy, you will know we have had rain. Rain, rain, rain. Plu, plu, plu. (Don’t you just love the French word for rain? It sounds just like a drop of rain hitting a surface.) Needless to say, all this rain has had a bit of an affect on the garden. Add in a deep frost at the end of April and storms in May, and I have to say I am so glad I have been really lazy this year where the garden is concerned.  Ah, what I mean is… I waited with due diligence until there was an opportunity to truly work on it.

Make your own dog (and cat) food – easy peasy and cheap!

We like good food, real food here at Pumpjack & Piddlewick, so when we got a cat, and then a dog we felt it only fair that they get good, real food as well, e.g. no preservatives, fillers, etc. so we took the decision to give them natural, home made food.

With our cat, as a consummate carnivore, it was quite simple~ fish, chicken or beef. When I cook for us, I make sure some is set to the side for her (which I simply sautée up). When I buy for us, I simply buy extra for her. And when we have vegetarian nights? I often make double batches of meat and store in the fridge/freezer ready.  And the difference in her! Her fur in particular, amazing! So beautifully soft and shiny. And then life got easier when we got a dog.

Time is not a Good Excuse for Eating Bad Food. Recipes included.

This day and age everyone seems to be time poor. Too busy doing things to, well, do other things. But honestly, there is no excuse of too little time when it comes to eating real food, good food, even (dare I say it) healthy food.

Downsizing – How or Where to Start? Open your Refrigerator

I love downsizing. I love going through my things and getting rid of any thing I can. There is something so very therapeutic about it, like a weight cast off your shoulders. Some of the items I give away, some I sell. It depends on the item. But where do you start if you have never downsized before?

What’s all the fuss about French Markets?

You may have noticed that any cooking show about food and France always shows someone shopping in a market, sniffing veg, squeezing fruit and generally making out that a French Market is Am-aaa-zing. But is it?

Don’t Panic! if you have to feed a Vegetarian

I remember when I was 17 and I declared to my mother that I was going to be a vegetarian. She said of course I was, and proceeded to ignore me. She wasn’t going to go out of her way, as she put it “for a phase”, and make special meals for me. I would simply have to make do with what she deemed vegetarian.  It all came to an emotional head when she served me yet another baked potato. What it boiled down to? She didn’t know how to cook ‘vegetarian’.

Cooking up Pumpkin – Classic Pumpkin Pie

To complete my weekend trilogy homily to the Pumpkin I close with a classic recipe for Pumpkin Pie.  The wondrous thing about Pumpkins, whatever their size, is the will provide you with a goodly amount of pumpkin purée, and with very little effort.  Sure, you can buy pumpkin in a can (in the States), but there is no comparison in taste.  For very little work you can easily make your own purée and freeze in readiness for use throughout winter.

What else to do with Pumpkin ~ A twist on Soup and Seeds

If you saw yesterday’s Blog Post (How Big Does Your Pumpkin Grow), I mentioned a number of Pumpkin recipes I tried, of which I included Spicy Pumpkin and Apple Chutney.  Today I am posting Thai Coconut Pumpkin Soup and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds for your autumn harvest enjoyment. (Tomorrow, I will post a Pie recipe to close on a classic .) After all, those large pumpkins go along way.

How big does your Pumpkin grow?

Whether it is images for Halloween or the cornucopia concept of harvest, autumn to me can be summed up in Pumpkins.  There is something about these roly-poly orange veg that just makes me smile.  (Maybe that is why we are driven to carve toothy faces into them?)