Goodbye August

Tomorrow is September.  One more week until back to school.  I can look back on the past two months and say that we enjoyed our summer, and for that I'm grateful, but I'm not ready for it to be over.  I've always secretly dreaded back to school while everyone else seemed to be jumping for joy.  Partly because I'm SO not a morning person, partly because I hate homework and schedules and assignment deadlines, and partly because packing lunches while it's still dark out sucks.

We ended our summer with a one week cottage rental up north.  The weather wasn't great, we had rain five out of the seven days, but it was a good week of relaxing, kayaking, board games, puzzles, fishing, fire building, movie watching, and reading.

Yesterday was laundry, all day.  Today was back to work.  One more long weekend to look forward to before we put summer away.

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Embracing Routine, and Braised Cabbage

Instagram lately.

Airing out stinky hockey equipment.

Swedish meatballs at IKEA.

A quick trip to Muskoka, where there's still plenty of snow.

Our kitchen, turned into a barbeque assembly area.
Wii, rediscovered.
Food.
Hockey.

I'm grateful that we made the time for a quick road trip last weekend.  Things have been so routine around here, and although I try to appreciate all of the moments that make up our everyday lives, I desperately needed a changed of scenery.

We celebrated another hockey tournament championship.

Number one son decided to make a birthday cake for his girlfriend.  The recipe he chose wasn't a simple one, and a two hour education followed.

Lessons learned:

Unhusked hazelnuts do NOT have the husk removed.  

Hazelnuts are also known as filberts.  

Husks are not easily removed with a vegetable peeler.  

Toasting nuts removes most of the husks with minimal effort.

Hazelnut paste is not Nutella.

Heavy cream is whipping cream, not the table cream I use in my coffee.

The toothpick will never come out completely clean.

Icing a cake with mousse is a pain in the a**.

Mom needs a new stand mixer.

We ate Irish food in honour of St. Patrick.  The kids thought the corned beef tasted like ham, so the ham-haters in the house weren't impressed.  I've never made this before, so I just used the pre-seasoned, packaged brisket from the grocery store.  Next time I think I'll try making a more authentic one from scratch.

Surprisingly, the braised cabbage was a hit.  Until now, I had never even so much as bought a cabbage, unless you count the pre-shredded coleslaw mix.  Growing up, I couldn't stand it.  If cabbage rolls or sauerkraut appeared on my plate, you could bet I'd be at the table for a very long time trying to find ways to avoid eating.  I didn't much like the smell while I was slicing it, but once it started to simmer the smell was amazing.  One of the kids thought it tasted like onion rings.

I will be making this again.

Braised Cabbage

adapted from Emeril's recipe on the Food Network

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons bacon fat

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

One half of large head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

1/2 bottle beer
Red pepper flakes, optional

Directions:

In a large pan, melt butter and bacon fat. Add the onion, bay leaf, and cabbage, stirring to mix. Add the beer, season with salt and pepper, and cover. Braise until the cabbage has wilted, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf, sprinkle with red pepper flakes (optional) and serve immediately.

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