Beware this Friday Night...

        Anyone kicking off the Hallow's Eve Weekend like this?

..And it wasn't even Halloween! I hope shenanigans are afoot like on a Full Moon Party.       
                                     But stay safe friends, there are...things...about in the woods.

                                                                      Things such as...

 Enjoy this short, er..thrilling..film made two winters ago.
 This is the debut of...PILLOWHEAD.

How to gut a chicken

So, once you've killed, dunked, and plucked your chickens, it's time to clean them out. First remove the windpipe (shown on second bird), then cut off the glands above the tail. Cut an opening in the rear of the chicken, care not to puncture any internal organs. Then...you rip them out!!! Make sure to rake your fingers along the rib cages to get out all the lungs and whatnot, and save the hearts and livers if you please. Give them a very thorough rinse, and then place them in a vat of cold water. After a while, remove and place in ice-cold water to give them a firm-up. Voila! Ready for bagging and freezing.
When I get time, I will post  the rest of the slaughtering process.....in the mean time...TRICK OR TREAT??














                                                                             TRICK.

                      HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

most freaking awesome delicious shortbread cookies

Internet, you have given me many fabulous recipes which have turned out great. So, in return, I will relinquish my shortbread recipe. I sold these at the Saturday Market this summer and each week I would sell out, no matter how many I made. This is my grandmother's recipe. I have a feeling she probably got it from her mother, and so on. The trick is simplicity. I like to make a lot of dough and then make smaller batches with mix-ins. But here is the basic dough recipe, 1 batch. Beware, it is hard to eat just one!!!

Pre-heat oven to 275 F

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour   (you can substitute with RICE FLOUR to make these GLUTEN FREE!)

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl, sift well.
Add butter.
Mix together using hands.
When dough is uniform, dust rolling surface with flour and roll the dough out thin (1/4 inch?).
Cut out with cookie cutter of your choice.
Dust baking trays with flour as well.

Bake approx 12 minutes, until just going golden. Take out of oven and leave on pan for extra minute or two. It's all a matter of personal preference.  Here are some mix-in ideas, the same applies. These are great plain and also dipped in chocolate! Or make a depression in the centre of the cookie with your thumb and fill with jam :) yum yum..even better if you roll in chopped nuts!

- lavendar (1tbs chopped up)
- candycane (chopped into small bits
- various nuts chopped up
- pistachios
- sprinkles
- chopped up dried fruit

Enjoy!

                                   (booth's-eye view from the summer, cookies are in the basket)

goodnight, moon

when i was younger, i used to love the sound of cars driving by.
my best friend back then lived near an overpass and on the beach at the same time.
sleepovers at her house were heavenly.
we would sleep in the living room upstairs with the doors to the deck open.
she always let me borrow a sleeping bag.
i hated the sound of rain unless it was storming.

now, it is raining on my own roof.
come Spring the frogs start up in mad, orchestrated earnest
but Summer belongs to the crickets
and Winter to silence -
but now it is Autumn
and it belongs to the rain.

...but the night belongs to me!!

first crack at it

The internet is a wide, weird space. Outside is even weirder. I left the comfy convenience of city and suburbian life several years ago - not because it was too weird, but because it was the weird I knew. I am currently residing somewhere in Canada, surrounded by water. I live here with my partner and my cat (as pictured above) and we are doing our best to walk the path between our old lives of convention and rediscovering how freaking awesome it is to do whatever you want in the woods. What's even better? Realizing that time is greater than money.  Especially when you can sit on your front porch and have a chat with this little guy all the time!