My deck stringer and stairs still aren’t built, but I’ve got a freezer full of cabbage soup to help with the math-induced nausea that’s bound to hit when I finally get around to it.
This snappy snapshot was taken the first night I made the soup and it was very good. Not superior or excellent or out of this world. It was very good. With a baseline soup flavour of very good that means it will improve to excellent over the next 24 hours. That's the habit of soup.
I use this cabbage soup recipe from Natasha's kitchen and then I make a few adjustments to it. I like mine a little less bright tasting and a little more roasty so the next time I make it I'm going to replace the tomato sauce in the recipe with roasted tomato sauce.
Dahlias
Just when it's time to start digging out tubers, my dahlias are flowering. This has nothing to do with me not bothering to water them and everything to do with a curse.
A la Mode is one of my favourites and it only started flowering last week. So even though I should start to think about chopping my dahlias down there's no way in hell I'm going to think about chopping my dahlias down.
Scrap Snacks
Back to the soup for a moment - I made a batch of homemade beef broth to use in the cabbage soup (which was stupid because all you can taste is the tomato).
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
I added an egg, some water, a bit of Cream of Wheat and put it in the blender until the look of it activated my gag reflex.
Baked for about 20 minutes in silicone molds and then popped them out. I've never made a better chewy dog treat. It made great use of what would have been garbage, it was absurdly easy and Philip will do anything for them. They have his attention.
Therefore they have my attention. When I make turkey broth next weekend (after Thanksgiving) I'll do the same thing with the meat from that and take photos and measure things so I can give you an actual recipe.
You heard me right - Thanksgiving is in just over a week in Canada.
My Halloween Craft
This weekend I'm doing a trial run of this year's Halloween craft. Other years I've brought you the Pumpkin Die-O-Rama and the wall sized spider web. This time the I'm aiming for a monster.
I don't think the dahlia curse extends to my Halloween crafts but just in case, wish me luck.
Kat - the other 1
Maybe you could try putting some of your favorite dahlias in pots so you could bring them closer to the house to keep warmer longer?
Jean O'Neil
Would you be able to provide a rough recipe for the snacks?
Karen
Hi Jean. I'll be posting a full recipe soon! :) I'm going to make them with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving this time. ~ karen!
Nan Aitel-Thompson
My dahlias are doing the same thing.I'm in Maryland 6b 7a I leave them in ground because they are very close by the house, but I'm not pruning them down until they say so. I am trying to get them all so high I can look at them out the window as I exercise, success this year somewhat. You have been my role model for dahlias. Thanks.
Nan
ps now that Amazon isn't continuing the charity I can use your site, if only I'll remember.
Karen
That would be great, thanks Nan. And I'm quite proud of myself for being your dahlia doula! ~ karen
Linda in Illinois
Omg i love cabbage soup. I will go get this recipe for sure.
Your dahlia is beautiful!!
Cara M Powers
Love the dahlias..... can't wait for the MONSTER.
HAPPY FALL
Chris W.
The color on the dahlia you included is unspeakably beautiful. Curse or no curse, you really do know what you're doing. Not a fan of Halloween but we do put out autumn decorations on our front porch. We found a great place to get pumpkins, gourds, squash, etc. from this really nice couple who have a farm nearby - we now call her the "gourd lady". There's always huge selections of all of these and not pricey at all. There's also an Osage orange tree nearby where we find them all over the ground - I think the farmer is happy we take some of them out of the way!
Hettie
Good luck! :)
Terry Rutherford
I was going to follow your instructions, had the clippers cleaned, and then I realized they were still beautiful. So I couldn’t cut them down (I’m planning a Thanksgiving hostess bouquet for next weekend and then I’ll cut them down.) Best laid plans, huh?
Also still finding lots of hornworms with your magic flashlight.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Phillip and your Mom and Sister.
And yes, we always wait a day after making chili. So much better…