Mop Philosophy Monday

 How's your week shaping up?  Any big plans?  Lists as long as your arms?
I got caught up with some work yesterday so today I have more time for meal-planning and poking around in the garden.
Last week I made this roasted tomato and asparagus salad, you can throw in bocconcini if you are so inclined.

Roasted tomato and asparagus salad.
With lots of herbes de Provence.

Last week I rearranged our kitchen shelves.  I love using this small set of shelves to change up the colour scheme of the kitchen, and to bring out things I use seasonally.

But why did I put that electrical plug on the first shelf?

Kitchen shelves.
With an electrical plug in an odd place.
It's even a bit crooked.

When we designed the kitchen I had an older radio that I used to listen to the cbc, and the shelf seemed the perfect place for just such a radio.

But times change... do they ever.  I should have known that a wifi, hands free, robot thing was going to enter my life... sooner rather than later.

"Hey Siri"
"Mm-hmm" (it actually says mm-hmm)
"Can you please play me some Classic Rock?"

Can you see my new HomePod?  It's the grey thing on the far right.  If I talk to it it pretty much anything I want to listen to blasts from it.  That little thing really puts out an incredibly clear sound.

The uncomfortable thing is the talking to it.  I feel so rude just barking orders at it.  It makes no difference, I know it rationally, if I say please to a robot but I feel like a jerk just ordering it around.

Do you feel weird talking to robots?

Happy Monday, may your week be filled with civility.
xoxDani

Mop Philosophy Monday

New statue in the garden.

 Who doesn't like the gentle look of St. Francis of Assisi?  I feel like we could use more of his vibes in the world these days.

 I've been spending lots of time in our garden lately.  Some of our plants suffered from the various ice storms we had this past winter and we lost a few things.  We've replaced plants and nurtured others and planted some annuals in the window boxes of the garden shed.

Purple shamrock annuals.

 I like the way Rebecca looks behind the flowering irises:

 How was your Father's Day?  I missed my Dad but we had a lovely chat and just knowing that he is just about fully recovered from his stroke made for a really happy Father's Day.

I bought some new statues for MrBP.  He loves them:

New Lions for the garden.
There's one on the other side too.

 It has taken us three years to finish these stone steps which lead to our kitchen.  See the iron railing?  We finally had that installed last fall and then just had to decide what to place on the stone pillars.  In the end we went for statuary over an urn, an urn would stand empty for most of the year due to our long winters.

Winter seems a distant memory now and the best part of the heat and sunshine in our garden is hanging laundry out to dry, one of my favourite activities.

I'll definitely be doing some of that today, what are you up to?
xoxDani

The First Snowfall

 We woke up yesterday morning to the first real snowfall of the season.  We had a light sprinkling last week but it wasn't even enough to sweep up.  Yesterday's snowfall required finding the snow shovel in our garden shed.
I always love the look of the garden during that first snowfall.  Fortunately just last week we had our gardener here to trim up the cedar hedge and the boxwoods, just in time for winter to really arrive.

 I can't believe how high our cedar hedge has grown, look at it towering over Rebecca!  The photo below shows a glimpse of the beautiful stone house next door, this is where Anna26 lived at one time!  Wish you still lived next door, Anna.

 I don't really decorate the garden for Christmas with the exception of some greenery and holly in my favourite glazed clay pot, seen below.

 My kitchen has been a busy one this week, churning out lunches and dinners and a dish for last night's Fun Bookclub potluck (I brought a roasted cauliflower dish).
At the beginning of the week I cooked up a big batch of dried chickpeas as the base for some meals.
One thing about eating plant-based- it requires eating lots of beans!  I am somehow averse to constantly buying beans in cans but I think in order to go to the trouble of boiling beans one needs to do a large batch, it's quite time-consuming after all.

 I wanted to make some hummus for snacks and sandwiches, and while I basically use Jamie Oliver's recipe one thing I do different to Jamie is that I peel the chickpeas:

 This was a tip from another hummus recipe I read somewhere, and while it is a bit fiddly to peel the chickpeas it does make a huge difference to the texture of the hummus.

 The other difference is that I add a bit of nutritional yeast, for flavour and the B vitamins it contains.

 And of course Herbamare salt which I'm a bit addicted to!

 I wanted a thicker hummus that wouldn't drip out of a sandwich, you can see the texture I was going for below:

While I was making the hummus I roasted a few cherry tomatoes.

 This is a delicious sandwich: hummus spread on both sides of a bun, topped with arugula and roasted tomatoes.

A perfect lunch!
I have a fairly busy day today: a long walk with Scout, a meeting at the accountant's office, a restorative yoga class with Laura (done in a hammock-type thing, I'll be falling down for sure), grocery shopping, and a promise to Lil Rascal to cook some latkes for dinner tonight.
Hope your Wednesday is busy and happy,
xoxDani