Quote of the Day: Dr Seuss

“Don’t cry because its over, smile because it happened.”

~ Dr Seuss

I’ve been going through my photos trying to trim down the numbers and I was reliving the beauty of summer in the garden. I sure am sad to see it go along with all the color in the garden, but I certainly appreciate the beauty of winter and the rest that it brings not only to me, but to the garden as well. Here’s an ode to summer.







I think I’m going to miss the color green the most. At least I have a lot of photos to get me through.

What are you going to miss the most about summer now that winter is coming?

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Sending Out Some Holiday Cheer

Mr Chiots and I always send out Christmas cards to friends, family, business associates, and clients. We usually send out around 100. We’re not ones to buy cards at the store, we try to come up with an interesting idea each year for our card. I’ve been trying to come up with something creative all year long, earlier this week it finally hit me. I’ve spent some time over the past couple days playing around with lighting, focus and angles to get the perfect photos for our cards. Here are a few of the options that didn’t make the cut.






We sent the final files off to the printer last night and in a week or two I should be busy addressing our Christmas cards (which are actually 6×9 post cards this year). I’ll have the final files on the blog later so you can see what I ended up doing for our 2010 Christmas Card.

Do you send out cards each year? How many do you send out? Do you make them or buy them?

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Friday Favorites: Stuffed

As most of you know, yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the U.S. Mr Chiots and I celebrated as most folks, with a big turkey meal with all the trimmings. I’m not a big fan of turkey, or most poultry for that matter, so Thanksgiving meals aren’t that exciting for me. I am however a HUGE fan of stuffing, or dressing.

I make mine with homemade bread, usually a mix of whole grain, white and sourdough. It’s easier if I have saved stale bread for the last couple months, but Mr Chiots and I are bread lovers, so we rarely have bread go stale on us. I ended up baking a few batches of bread for our stuffing (at least I was able to put half of the loaves in the freezer for Mr Chiots to take hunting).

I like my stuffing with lots of celery, onions and sage. This year I harvested fresh sage and celery from the garden for my stuffing. My sage was planting just for this meal, and this was one of the celery’s main purposes as well (along with my tomato soup).

I really like my stuffing to be more like bread pudding, really soft and wet on the inside and crispy on the top and the edges, and smothered with good gravy on the my plate. I use turkey or chicken stock as the liquid and sometimes a little cider. I ate my fill of stuffing Wednesday and yesterday and have a big container in the fridge to feast on for the rest of the week.

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side? If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, what’s your favorite side dish for poultry?

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Giving Thanks

The history of Thanksgiving is a blurry one, once you start reading up on it you realize it wasn’t necessarily a feast between pilgrims and Indians sharing food after the harvest. Regardless of what really happened, today is a day in the United States set aside for giving thanks and sharing a bountiful table of food with friends and family.

I’m very thankful for: Mr Chiots, my family, my friends, my little garden, and of course all the delicious food I’ll be enjoying today. Happy Thanksgiving to you all from all of us at Chiot’s Run.

What are you thankful for on this day?

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A Flurry of Activity

Yesterday I started getting ready for Thanksgiving. This year we’ll be having dinner on Thanksgiving day with my family and we’ll be having a Thanksgiving dinner with our friends this evening. For my family Thanksgiving I’ll be making: the turkey, stuffing, rolls, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. I’ll be making the same, minus the turkey for our gathering with friends.

I started making the bread for the stuffing yesterday. I usually save dry bread for a month or so, but we haven’t had any leftover bread recently, so I had to make some. I’ll use part of a sourdough loaf I had in the cupboard and I’m making some 100% whole grain and some wheat bread as well for this. I’ll use sage and celery from the garden and onions from the local farmer’s market for the stuffing. I also made several batches of rolls for a Christmas dinner my sister’s church is hosting for the local children’s home.

I also have to start making food for Mr Chiots to take hunting. I’m planning on making up a few big batches of stew and a few loaves of bread. I’m also making him some carrot oatmeal cookies to carry in his pockets for quick snacks while sitting in his deer stand.


Of course tomorrow my day will be filled with cooking the turkey, making gravy, rolls, and eating all this wonderful food.

What do you make for your Thanksgiving dinner(s)?

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