As I mentioned last week, I’m in full-on pumpkin spice flavoured foods mode. I baked these pumpkin cookies and took them to our friend’s house for our weekend stay. They were a definite hit. And boy, were they a nice treat during our deconstruction/demolition project.

The recipe only calls for one cup of canned pumpkin puree so, hm…What to do with the remaining pumpkin? Well, I’m giving this recipe a try.

 Pumpkin Roll Bars

Janet made these and passed along the recipe so I know they’ll be tasty. I’ll let you know what Hubby and I think.

                                                               The mainland as seen from the lighthouse at Boar’s Head.

​Cheers!     

​For less than $3 per bottle you too can enjoy delicious wine in the comfort of your own home.

Many moons ago we used to brew our own beer. Then we moved, life changed and happened, and it’s only now that we’re getting back into being our own brew-masters and vintners.
Much like cooking and baking you can do everything from scratch, or you can start with a mix, i.e. a kit. Everything you need comes in one box, you just add water.

Firstly, and most importantly, you need to sterilize all your equipment. Yes, it is time consuming but you don’t want a stray bacterium to ruin your batch. Hubby is in charge of that chore. Actually, he does most of the work, letting me help in the bottling. And consuming.
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Cheers!

A number of days ago I celebrated my birthday and our good friends gifted me with a bottle of wine. It happens to be my favourite varietal – gewruztraminer. (Gee, I wonder how they knew that?!?)  Here is a description of that type of wine:

Delicious on the palate, but hard to spell, this wine is known for its aroma. Gewürztraminer is an aromatic white wine grape whose skin is pink to light red-coloured. Its origins are Germanic, but it is most known for the astonishing wines it produces in the Alsace region of France. The grape has many similarities to Muscat, but Gewürztraminer wines have higher alcohol and lower acidity.
Gewürztraminer is most known for its intensely fragrant, typically floral, aroma. It often has a very noticeable lychee aroma with hints of rose, spice and honey. It usually has medium to low acidity. Due to its natural sweetness, Gewürztraminer is often used in dessert wines.
https://mywinecanada.com/types-of-wine/gewurztraminer-wine

And here’s the bottle of wine, as yet unopened, but that will change very soon.

Yes, it’s homemade, and it’s delicious. Gone are the days when homemade wine was likened to vinegar. Sure, that might occasionally happen but in all my years I’ve yet to encounter less-that-tasty homemade wine.
 
Since moving back to Nova Scotia we are once again brewing our own beer (yum!) and, with the help of our friends, making our own wine. We start with a kit (grape juice, grape skins, and yeast), add water and let it sit. Change containers and let it sit some more. Just before bottling we add a little of this and a smidge of that to adjust the wine to our taste. For instance, we like a touch of oakiness in our chardonnay so we add drops of liquid oak. Brilliant!
 
In other news, tomorrow’s full moon is called the Hunter’s Moon.

Also known as a sanguine or “blood” moon, the term “Hunters Moon” is used traditionally to refer to a full moon that appears during the month of October. It is preceded by the appearance of a “Harvest Moon”, which is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox (which falls on the 22nd or 23rd of September).
https://www.universetoday.com/61121/hunters-moon/

We’ll be back from camping, having benefitted from the light of the almost-full moon, or cursing the brightness of the almost-full moon through the tent walls.
 
Have you tasted homemade wine? What did you think? Or are you one of the growing number of home brewers/vintners?
 
Cheers!