When Jan headed to Europe for a river cruise with her aunt, my plan was to relax and take it easy. Maybe catch up on my reading and do a little of the fall cleanup around the yard. But nothing too strenuous. Seems I misjudged. I was, in fact, busier than a one-armed paperhanger. Fun fact. Everyone my age knows this saying, but none of my children have ever heard it.

What exactly, you might ask, was I doing. It started with the basil. I had a bumper crop this year. Some people say that I always have a bumper crop, but this year was especially bumper-ish, if you know what I mean. Don’t believe me? Let me show you…

Typically, sometime in late August or early September, I’ll forget to water it, or water it too much, or there will be a touch of frost and it will be finished for the season. But this year, the basil just kept growing. And every time I harvested some for pesto, it just encouraged the basil to grow higher. So Jan suggested blending basil with “just enough” olive oil and then freezing it. I was dubious, but … see previous picture of the basil plants. I decided to give it a go.

I also wanted to clean out the fridge before our trip to Italy. I found a little fresh mozzarella that wasn’t going to keep, so I immediately thought of pizza. And then I had an idea. Why not add some of my frozen basil paste to the tomato sauce. And I had several Roma tomatoes that were close to spoiling, so I quarter them, roasted them with a little salt, and then brought it all together like this.

I mentioned earlier that I was dubious about blending the basil with olive oil and freezing it. After eating this pizza, I was sold. I immediately made another batch. I had a lot of basil. The picture I showed you earlier was take after I’d harvested the second batch.

What next? I’ve always liked butter tarts, but I’ve never figured out how to make the crust thin enough. Most butter tarts suffer from a fatal flaw. The crust is too thick, and it completely overpowers the filling. But last year I found a new recipe from our favourite brewmaster/bee keeper/butter tart maker. It is magical. It makes the most exquisite butter tarts, with thin, flaky pastry … with practice. So this fall I’ve been practicing, and some of our friends were interested in learning more. Which led to a cooking demonstration. This was hands on – students quickly took over making the butter tarts.

It was such a hit, that we had a second demonstration. The pastry even works for pies … or tourtière.

I didn’t spend all of my time indoors. I managed to get a fair bit of work done in the garden, including standing up our inukshuk, which keeps falling over.

And finally, I promised to re-caulk the shower. It took far longer than I thought it would, but I’m happy with the result.

I might have one more post from Jan’s trip to Europe, But either way, I’ll be posting more soon. Three days from now we will be on our way to Sicily, and I will be posting regularly. Should be fun.