Saturday Skills Share: A new feature for Home Sweet Home

Community

Craft

Kitchen

Let's hear it for alliteration! And here's another blog-theme day alliteration one for you: Saturday Skills Share!
Here at Home Sweet Home, we've got all kind of theme days. You may know about some (Wednesday WIPs) and some are long gone (Friday Faves). It's cute but mostly it helps me remember what to post about when so that we don't end up with a Kitchen/Community/Craft blog full of recipes and nothing else. Get it?
Well, the newest theme day is going to be Saturday and we will be doing some skills sharing. Yippee! I guess this one is born out of the fact that we have both been around for a while being awesome in most of the things that we do, and we should share our skills with you.
Skills sharing is about the community teaching itself based on the idea that everyone is an expert in something. We want to share what we all know here at Home Sweet Home. Use the comments field to put in your own two cents or send us an email with your skills share and we'll post it during a quarterly skills share 'round up'.
Email: yerhomesweethome@gmail.com

Bedroom Makeover

I found this bedroom tour at Thrift Core. Take a peek! 

Moving WIPs and Woes

There is so much to do! Diandra is in Vegas at Rollercon and I am in the process of moving from a great little house that I've been living in for 3 years. Yeesh! So basically, I'm sorting into three groups: To throw away, To donate/sell, and To keep. It's been a good process and I've had yesterday and today (so far) without calls from work so I'm on (guilt-free) days off. I've been trying to be somewhat methodical and want to reduce the amount of pain and torture in my life so I want to move quickly and not have weeks of "where is that things that I need" moments...I HATE that.
So, in going through my (clean) clothes today, I threw out the ginch that I totally hate (why the HELL do we keep those uncomfortable pairs anyways? Just buy or make some that you like, yeesh! Well, it feels good to purge and it's been a while since I did a big one.

Kitchen: I'm making lots of food lately, I can't remember the last time that I ate out. The saskatoons are ripening and local fruit is in season. Yay! Since I eat B.C. local but choose P.G. local first, this is the sweetest time of year. I'm planning on a trip to the berry u-pick for strawberries and am patiently awaiting the ripening of our raspberries. I cut and froze the bottom branches (?) of the rhubarb so it looks lovely and trimmed and stuffed them in the freezer to await a cool day for pie! The apples in the yard are ripening too so that's really exciting. In my yard there is a tree of Gala apples (oh wow, they are delicious!) and Mark has a tree of absolutely gorgeous and huge light green and pink apples.

Craft: I've really been into a lot of sewing and only a little knitting lately. Other crafts are on hold right now. Yesterday I moved my first basket of things to the new house and guess what was in it? It was full of yarn, needles and mayonnaise. I'm not kidding. No surprise that I didn't do it on purpose. I was heading to Mark's to hang out till he got home and that's what I took to entertain myself. Wait, the mayonnaise was for dinner, sicko!

Community: I'm working on organizing the sponsorship stuff for derby since I am stepping down from my position with the RPGRG Board. I want it all to be an organized folder for whoever will take over. My feelings are that then I can focus on some other stuff, more direst action kind of things with the league.
I'm also working on some derby-realted posts for HSH. I sometimes forget that I've been playing for a while and so know a bunch of stuff that others might be interested in. I had a gear-cleaning tutorial all ready (ok, at least the bearings part) and then lost all the photos looking in my time machine (I do NOT get this program and am hoping for a newer/better reincarnation with my next computer & Lion) for this photo to show some of my teammates.

The game we just played in Quesnel was great, we mostly had a good time, though I had one of those moments when I think..."shit I don't even LIKE playing derby, when will it be over?". Then I started having fun: I jumped the apex around a 3 person wall and was using the inside to slip past girls all night. I also got some great compliments from the other team and my own teammates about my play and attitude which of course made me feel super awesome. I feel like I'm getting more relaxed out there and am able to pace myself and be patient. Trusting that my team can hold the other jammer even if she enters the pack first, and I can still be lead even if she beats me off the line. Trusting your team is huge! My confidence took a pretty big hit a while back and I feel like I'm getting it back. I'm working on some practices for jammers and want to add some jammer work to our practices; plyometric workout before sunday practice maybe? We are also gearing up for a Fresh Meat Bootcamp and our 3rd annual SK8FEST for November 3rd, 2012. Registration will be open soon! The RPGRG vets will be coaching both and it going to be great. I can't wait to coach some more girls, it's so fun. This means that I need to start planning workshops for jammers...sprints? footwork practice? sports meditation? plyometrics for jammers?

Summer is Salad time!

tomato baskets photo at P.G. Farmer's Market by Asia M-H

So in the effort to eat local, my iron levels take a seasonal low when fresh local green things are not available, i.e. winter. Last year, I did a bit better by storing some garlic scape pesto (substitute scapes for basil, almonds for pine nuts), freezing some greens, and eating some California-grown baby green mix (beets, kale, spinach) later in the spring. I'm getting lots of iron now from all the fantastic local greens available in my garden and at the Farmer's Market. I stocked up at the Thai Lady's booth last weekend and planted a bunch of basil, cilantro, and oregano in the greenhouse under the tomato plants. I am also going to grab some of a weird green (a cousin of celery) growing in a 12 foot tall bush up at the PGPIRG garden at UNBC. It'll be great steamed then frozen for this winter, I plan on bagging a bunch and transplanting it at Mark's place. I didn't really get a lot of greens planted early enough and am waiting for my spinach to grow into something spectacular. I'm going plant another round of lettuces going in the side garden at my place tomorrow.

seedlings photo at P.G. Farmer's Market by Asia M-H

I am really into salads in the summer but truthfully I'm probably more excited about salad dressings, which are really just sauce for your salad. I've been supplementing my salads with nuts and seeds bought in bulk at the grocers, hemp hearts (grown in Sask.) and using the last of the pickled beets, tossing it all together in a container and enjoying a healthy salad lunch at work.
My favourite 1) homemade and 2) store bought dressings are:

1) Jana's Famous Herb Dressing
I love this salad dressing from 'How It All Vegan'. It's okay with dried herbs but absolutely fantastic with fresh herbs. It stores well in the fridge for a long time if you don't use it all. The longer it is in the fridge, the more potent the garlic becomes. Not such a good idea for a work lunch, maybe. Your choice.
You will need: 
1/4 cup flax oil (hemp seed oil is great too!)
4Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 cloves garlic (for the faint of heart, just use one)
2 Tbsp. Thyme, chopped
1 Tbsp. fresh Rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. fresh Oregano, diced

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds or gomashio (toast sesame seeds in fry pan and grind with salt)

-Toss all ingredients into a small jar and shake it all up. 

Happy vendors at P.G. Farmer's Market photo by Asia M-H

2) Okanagan's Little Creek Dressing.
It is made in Kelowna at Little Creek Gardens, a certified organic farm on Okanagan Lake. It is great cold, hot, and with salads, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I often substitute it for Naam's Miso Gravy if tight pressed. In P.G. it is available at Save-On in the 'Natural' aisle of the store and probably at Ave Maria's. You can find it at your local grocer.
Ingredients: 
Sunflower Oil*, Lemon Juice*, Tamari, Raspberry vinegar (can't taste it, don't worry), Nutritional Yeast, Garlic*, Herbs*, and Sea Salt. (*organic)

An Ode to Summer

Until late last week Summer had yet to arrive in my little valley, and so on Thursday it did, in all it's sunny hot humid glory, and it's wonderful. The arrival of the summer also coincided with the arrival of forest fire smoke from Russia that is giving us a bit of a respiratory challenge and the most beautiful sunsets.



I find that I'm never truly prepared for summer (obviously because I prefer fall and winter!) and this summer I've decided to travel to rollercon smack dab in the middle of it all. Which puts me behind on canning and growing, but I'm making an effort and have a big canning list. First up, this weekend, Sockeye Salmon. The local Tseshaht First Nation (part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council) has received "permission" via the Canadian Court System to sell the fish they catch on their traditional lands commercially. We could always get it at TFN, but now it's extra-legal and the salmon stocks this year are overwhelmingly huge compared to previous years (Sockeye's quota alone is 950,000). I was going to put the fish canning off until September, but that's just Coho and Dog salmon time: and I want me some SOCKEYE! This weekend my derby wife, Chia, and I will be pressure cooking up some salmon together (haha, vegans!) and we're looking forward to it.

I have a bunch of other things on my canning list including relishes, chili sauce, salsas, jams, fruits, and pickles!!! Do you put up food in the summer season? What do you can/freeze? XO

Pride Week (& on being straight in gay bars)

Your Rated PG Rollergirls at PG PRIDE 2012

This is Pride Week in Prince George! First there was the Official Pride flag raising by Mayor and Council (7 present) Wednesday afternoon. Then Robyn won 'dick bubbles' at Drag Queen Bingo the same night. We've  since had a burlesque show, a drag show, parade and festival today at City Hall, and a huge dance party (now), the LGBTQIA fun in P.G. continues! Pride Week in P.G. is getting huge and awesome. I love every minute of it.
For a city with a sordid gay rights past, we've come a long way. We've risen from Ave Maria refusing to get rid of anti-gay literature (a long time ago but it sparked public outcry and eventually gay community-building for P.G.) to a past Mayor trying to shut down Pride Events to Queens doing drag on the steps of City Hall. Yeah P.G....I love it here!

A GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR (The politics of gay bars as safe spaces)
Bitch Magazine No.55 (2012)
by Sophie Cansdale

-Okay, so in the next bit I've used the word 'gay' to mean LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual). Why? Because this acronym (though correct and wonderful) is so fucking awkward that it makes my brain hurt when I read it, so with full respect to all the possible sexualities within the LGBTQIA community, I apologize.
-I used the word hetero to mean heterosexual(s) and this is probably not appropriate especially since in all fairness, I should have then used the word 'homo' to mean LGBTQIA folks. I did this because it is late and I think that it is not 'fair' that heterosexuals rule the world so they/we can handle being slagged a bit.
-Full disclosure:
1) I love calling heteros 'Gaylords' because its ironic and hilarious.
2) I also think saying 'Let's go, lesbo" is funny because it rhymes!
3) I'm a retard, I know. (also not PC but nostalgically ironic maybe?)
Anywho, read on!-

I just read this article in Bitch and it blew my mind. Sophie named my troubling feelings about heteros inhabiting gay spaces for fun and out of safety's sake. A couple derby seasons ago, we had all of our after parties at the local gay bar here in P.G.. It was awesome: we got the money from the door, got to dance to great music, and no one got raped. This is actually how I promoted the parties to roller girls: "It'll be fun, you might get your boobs grabbed but you will not get raped, I promise".  As the organizer of the after parties, obviously, this was important to me. Our presence there was generally well received by the regulars and we always had a great time.
I never got rid of this unwelcome feeling, not that I didn't belong exactly (since everyone thinks I'm gay anyways), and not because anyone made me feel unwelcome but I guess that this space was special and for gay folks and that as a straight woman I shouldn't go there too often. I figure that the gay patrons fight really hard every day to claim space for themselves so they should feel totally at ease in their space.
I've generally prescribed to not attending all the Pride Week events mostly because I like to show my support for my friends and community but don't want the heteros to take over a special week. So for me, a good way to do this is to always go in the parade and bring my kid if I can (this was the Duck's 4th parade!), then hang out at the festival and catch maybe one other event. This year I missed out on the shows and stuff out of poor planning but I feel great to know that these events are going on and are successful. This shows me that the LGBTQIA community in P.G. is strong, self-reliant, and doesn't need a bunch of heteros hanging around. That makes me feel great!
Thanks PG Pride for being awesome!

Also, did you check out my costume? The theme was 'Phoenix' so I made rainbow wings, a fire 'shirt', and a paper maché Phoenix head for my helmet. Hooray!

Bike to Work Week...nearly over.

All I have for work is a few more prizes to hand out and compiling of bike routes being used by PG cyclists. Oh, and wait to hear the radio ad coming to PG airwaves this summer!

WIP: Home Sweet Home Knit Along

Something Diandra and I have been working on is a KAL for us and our Home Sweet Home readers and friends!

If you want to learn some new knitting skills and meet some new knitting friends or designers or are looking for the next and most awesome Knit Along then you should do the

Home Sweet Home Knit Along! 

We'll be working our way through the newest and freshest designers and featuring one designer per quarter. You get to choose from the designers' patterns for the project best suited for you. We will have online knit alongers and circles in P.G. and P.A.. If you want to start your own group or bring the HSH Knit Along to your SnB or knitting group, go ahead! We'd love that! We'll ask you to send along progress reports and then post the best photos here.

YAY! Here are the deets:

The first designer we'll be featuring is Stephen West. So get searching because under the name Westknits, Stephen has lots of great patterns to choose from. His specialty is playing with construction and bright colour work in accessories like shawls, scarves, and hats. Find him on ravelry and on his own website. If you have ever wondered what to knit for guys, I'm sure nearly any of Stephen's designs will fit the bill.

For my KAL project, I've had my eye on a few of Stephen's fabulous scarves like Daybreak or Groove. I've wanted to make one for Mark for a while. I love the way that man looks in bright colours.

After getting Diandra's pick today, I was looking for a little inspiration and did an image search for 'daybreak' and found this photo from (sort of) near my home. Done! It'll be Daybreak for me. To start, that is. I think I may not have been so inspired by an image search for 'groove', well maybe. I'm imagining a bunch of dancing hippies. No offence to all the hippies out there.

Hey you! Grab your knitting friends or go at it along with us on the interweb.
There are fun knitting times ahead here at Home Sweet Home!
Email us your project pick to yerhomesweethome@gmail.com. We'll do a roundup in a few weeks to check on your progress and post your WIP photos here.

Pie Extravaganza

Last Sunday our house hosted Sustain-a-table and we had a pie themed dinner, inspired by mypapercrane's pie potluck! And boy, two women who love to cook and like to be challenged by the things we cook? Pure Gold. We made four savoury pies and four sweet pies (four each!). We had a swiss chard frittata with local eggs and our very own duck eggs, vegan mac and cheese pie, vegan seitan pot pie, and finnish mushroom pie for the savoury, and then for sweet we had a vegan, raw, chocolate raspberry chz cake, vegan caramel beer pretzel tart, vegan chocolate smore pie, and a FAILED vegan key lime (I need to get better at agar agar, but i think i know what to do next time).  I also made "rad whip" but it didn't get to cool long enough so was a little lumpy and runny but SO GOOD it didn't matter. The Key lime pie got mushed into a container and put in the freezer where it will serve as ice cream (with the left over rad whip) when I have an ice cream craving.

My dinner plate. Finnish shroom pie, vegan mac and chz pie, and vegan pot pie with nasturtium salad.

L to R: Nasturtium salad, chard frittata, plate with mac and chz pie, potpie, mushroom pie...

Better look at the potpie, mushroom pie, and mac n chz pie (veggie bacon crust!)

My dessert plate! L to R: salted caramel pretzel tart, raw raspberry vegan chz cake with rad whip, runny key lime, and s'more pie.

Jealous much? So good. (5 loads in the dishwasher today! yikes!)