Paisley Ontario CA Farmers Market

Grand Feast Finale

The fall is a favourite time of year with cooler weather, the fast pace of summer over and the air full of wonderful smells of wood fires, apple cider, and pumpkin pie.

It is also the time of year that fall fairs, and festivals take place and today we attended the Grand Feast Finale in Paisley Ontario CA.  Where we participated in their annual vendor sponsored potluck lunch and purchased cinnamon buns for tomorrows breakfast.

Attending fall fairs and festivals is a wonderful way for families to connect and spend a day together make arrangements to meet and if you get the chance next year to attend the Grand Feast Finale you will not be disappointed,

We will see you there!

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Roasted Carrot, Apple Soup

Apples are now abundant in our area both wild and domestic so we can only assume that the culinary desire to include apples in a hot soup comes from driving past so many apple trees.

In today's soup recipe we have roasted carrots, potato, shallots and garlic to deepen the taste of the soup. The garlic and shallots were brushed with olive oil while carrots were brushed with a mixture of all of olive oil and maple syrup.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• 1/8 of a cup of olive oil
• 3 pounds of carrots peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 shallots
• 2 whole garlic bulbs with the tops come out to expose the garlic
• 1 large potato
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 3 sticks of celery chopped
• 2 Granny Smith apples corded and chopped into large pieces
• To bay leaves (these are removed before you purée the soup)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
2. Prepare the carrots, shallots, potato, and garlic place on a covered baking sheet
3. Brush the potato, shallots and garlic with olive oil and the carrots with olive oil and the maple syrup Note: the remaining maple syrup is added to the soup
4. Place the vegetables in a 400°F oven for 40 minutes.
5. In the soup pot add the vegetable broth, bay leaves, celery and apple let this simmer while the vegetables are roasting
6. When the vegetables are done roasting remove the bay leaves from the broth
7. Remove the roasted garlic for the paper outer layer and carefully place this and the other roasted vegetables in the hot soup pot 
8. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and remaining maple syrup
9. Simmer for another 10 minutes
10. Carefully blend the vegetables in the broth creating a smooth thick soup
11. Salt and pepper to taste
12. Enjoy

From Our Table to Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Someone Once Lived Here

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Stop Expecting

I set out to write a totally different mindfulness post for today and instead of writing the post over the weekend which was the plan, I spent time with family, walking St. Lawrence Market, photographing Allan Gardens, watching movies with my husband and just relaxing.

Now it is 8:38 pm on the evening that the blog is due (self imposed due date) to be posted and I have no energy to write and I am giving up.

Wait a minute I enjoy doing this blog what is wrong with me?

I have set expectations for myself and in not reaching them I have disappointed myself and so I am giving up!

Not going to happen!

The weekend was wonderful and from it will flow the source of many blog posts to come and I spent quality time with my life partner.

Be mindful throughout the coming week of how often your expectations result in negative self-talk ~ in disappointment in yourself and

Stop expecting!

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

It is to such as these

The answer to this question is found in Mark 10:14 for we are  the beloved 'little children' of God born believing in God's unconditionally love.

And as we grow we forget, yet our Father remembers and takes care of us because  he loves us unconditionally.  

What are mortals that God remembers us we are his children.

Grandma Snyder  

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Fun Saturday Care Of Pinterest

Our Best Bites' Oreo Turkeys click here for directions

What do you do on a cold rainy Saturday at Grandma’s house?

You looks for crafts on Pinterest!

The Canadian Thanksgiving is October 12th this year 

so we looked for table favours and found to wonderful food crafts

just right for grandchildren and grandma.

There was great merriment at Grandma’s house from both the pleasure of creating and a very big sugar high!

Honey and Butter's Chocolate Acorns click here for directions

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Apple Roses

We went in search of a new Thanksgiving dessert with our granddaughters and found what we were looking for on Pinterest.  The problem is there were so many different pins for Apple Roses we did not know who to credit so after reading all the recipes we made our own.  

Here is the link to the Pinterest page we discovered 

Ingredients:  (We made 9 roses)

• 2 apples cored and sliced thin less than a 1/4 inch
• The juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 sleeve of president's choice butter puff pastry

Directions:

1. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a saucepan 
2. Core and slice the apples and place in the saucepan
3. Bring water to a simmer and cook the apple slices until they will bend without breaking
4. Drain the apple slices and place on a double layer of paper towel to cool
5. While the apples are cooling take out 1/2 a package of pastry which you have prepared ahead of time according to the package
6. Roll out the pastry onto parchment paper and cut the pastry into 1 inch strips Do not move the strips!
7. Cover the pastry with brown sugar and cinnamon pressing this into the pastry lightly
8. Now place the cooled apple slices on the first strip with the apple skins hanging over the edge of pastry slightly and over lapping the slices slightly
9. Roll up the strip being sure to keep the apple slices within the rolled strip
10. Place the now unbaked rose in a greased muffin pan
11. Bake at 400 F for 25 minutes
12. Let cool and enjoy

From Our Table To Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Waterfowl In Fall

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Ten Things To Tell Your (Grand)children in September

September in Canada is the month when children go back to school and presents opportunity to talk about family stories and your memories of school.

1) Talk about your earliest school memory.

2) Describe the first school that you attended; the name of the school, where it was/is, how big the school was, and if you remember the name of your first teacher. 

For a fun family activity go on line to is if there are pictures of the school or take a driving tour showing your (grand)children the school itself or where it was.

Count how many times you changed schools.

3) Discuss with your (grand)children reasons for each move as you remember them.

4) Reflect back on what it felt like to have, to leave friends, social clubs, etc.

5) Children at this time are frequently asked what they want to be when they grow up take this opportunity to let them know what you wanted to be at their age.

Emily wants to be an environmental lawyer and "take to court" business who are adding to global warming while Ruth want to be a marine biologist and swim with dolphins, at their ages I wanted to run a restaurant because I thought it would be fun and Grandpa wanted to be a farmer which he became.

6) Explore with your (grand)children their favourite subjects at school and share with them what subject you liked best.

7) What was your least favourite and/or the subject you struggled with at school talk to your (grand)children about the reason  for your struggle and how you sought help.

Click here to read Great Grandpa David’s story of taking a dog cart to school.

8) Describe your favourite teacher, the reason you liked him/her, how well you did in their class and did you feel they like you.

9) Show them any report cards, certificates, pictures that you have of your public school experience.

10) Share any historical family stories about school.

Great Grandma Audrey attended a one room school house and tells a story of being lifted into the rafters by a much older boys, when the teacher was out.  Only to have the boys have to help her down when the teacher returned and for each of them to be punished for his actions (back then it was the strap)

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

This Too Shall Pass

 “The way to live in the present is to remember that ‘This too shall pass.’ When you experience joy, remembering that ‘This too shall pass’ helps you savor the here and now. When you experience pain and sorrow, remembering that ‘This too shall pass’ reminds you that grief, like joy, is only temporary.” ~Joey Green

 It’s the middle of the night and you wake with a sharp intake of breath, you cannot remember what woke you up however going back to sleep will be next to impossible as you perseverate on the events of the previous day.

It is at times like these that turning away from unhelpful, unhealthy and intrusive thoughts to get yourself back to sleep is important and over the years I have returned to sleep with the repeated phrase ‘this too will pass’.

Being mindful of  the life you have lived and the things you have over come provides you with the buffers you need to weather unpleasant times.

Joey Green is also correct that being mindful that times of joy and pleasure will pass helps to focus the mind to remain present in your joy.  Again here we can look to the children around us to understand what being present in joy looks like.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Anointing Him With Oil

He kneeled at the centre of three circles.

In the centre was our friend with the pastor of the church.

Standing in the first circle with their arms reaching forward hands resting on both the pastor and our friend was his wife, mother, father, brothers.

In the second circle with our arms reaching forward hands resting on the shoulders of the first circle were his closest friends.

In the third circle their arms reaching forward hands resting on our shoulders were members of the congregation, and others who were drawn to this Sunday evening anointing service.

In the last stages of cancer, he so wanted to live and was prepare to die.

We prayed for healing, we prayed for faith, we prayed for hope, we prayed for courage, we prayed for him, his loved ones and ourselves.

Our faith was strong, strong enough to move mountains and our friend passed quietly into the arms of his God a few months later.

He was sick and called for the elders of the church and with them we prayed over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith that we prayed that evening saved him, and the Lord raised him up; and welcomed him home with the Lord.  (paraphrased from James 5:15)

Sometimes there is healing of the body 

and

Always there is healing of the spirit, the soul which is eternal!

Rather than diminishing my faith, his passing into the arms of God strengthen my connection to God.  With my hand resting on his wife's shoulder that Sunday evening I knew my God as Father, knew that he loved our friend with a passion that knew no boundaries. 

We had anointed him and faithfully placed him and his family in the loving hands of God.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015twosnydergirls

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup Vegan

2015 will go down in the tomato growing record books at the Snyder home.  Grandpa’s seven tomato plants are still producing cherry tomatoes by the handful and it was this abundance of cherry tomatoes that sent us in search of a new recipe.

We both love the flavour of roasted tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes were exactly right for this method.  As usual the refrigerator revealed what else would go into the roasted tomato soup; carrots, celery and homemade vegetable broth.

Friends had recently shared a bag full of this year’s garlic so this recipe at it's base had roasted tomatoes and garlic.

Ingredients:

• Enough cherry tomatoes to cover a 9 x 12 in. baking sheet with sides
• 2 garlic bulbs (12 cloves of garlic)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Balsamic vinegar  
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 stalks of celery chopped
• 2 carrots chopped
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon ground bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon ground thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon ground basil
• 1 can tomato paste
• 2 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions:

1. Cover the bottoms of a 9 x 12 inch sided baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of the pan
3. Roll the cherry tomatoes in the oil coating them
4. Cut the top off two garlic bulbs so that the top of the individual cloves are showing
5. Place these in a corner of the pan
6. Drizzle olive oil over the garlic
7. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on the tomatoes and garlic
8. Drizzle Balsamic vinegar over top of the tomatoes and garlic
9. Bake for 1 ½ hours in a 350 °F Oven.
10. Remove from the oven and let stand
11. Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot
12. Sauté the chopped onion and celery until the celery turns bright green
13. Add the vegetable broth, carrots, herbs, tomato paste and cook until the carrots are tender
14. Remove the roasted garlic cloves for the paper skins and add to the soup pot along with the tomatoes.
15. Simmer for 25 minutes.
16. Use either a food processer or a handheld blender being very careful not to burn yourself, blend everything that is in the pot into a smooth thick soup.
17. Add the maple syrup stir this in and serve.

From Our Table to Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013 – 2015twosnydergirls

Sometimes We Just Need A Warm Hat

The sewing guild that we belong to last year sewed preemie hats and some of us knitted preemie hats.  Our local hospital was very happy to accept our donations.  

As the fall is now upon us consider making hats for your local hospital to provide to parents for their infants as they leave the hospital because

Sometimes we just need a warm hat.

Links to patterns including the one in this post:

1. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/preemie-hats-for-charity
2. http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/preemie-hats
3. http://thedaintydaisyblog.blogspot.ca/p/preemie-patterns.html
4. Strawberry Hat Pattern that I used

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Fall Colour Has Arrived

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Gratitude Name Cards Thanksgiving

We have been on a journey this year to be mindful of those things we should be thankful for - a journey of gratitude and so as we looked around for a craft for our grandchildren this Thanksgiving we knew we wanted gratitude cards.

With our granddaughters we looked around Pinterest where we found lots of food crafts, we will post closer to the Canadian Thanksgiving Monday October 12, 2015 on this and we found the beginning of our craft.  On Pinterest we found examples of napkins where you would right what you are thankful for.  

This was very close to what we wanted the difference was we were looking to challenge ourselves and our (grand)children to think about how we are grateful for each other.  Now with the beginning of an idea we went to one of my faviourite sites The Graphics Fairy  here everything came together.  Emily came up with the idea of an autograph book where everyone would write down how they are thankful for the person named on the cover.

Step #1:  Picked out a graphic design that you like we used French Wreath Engraving download this to the computer.

Step #2: Using a photo editing program we use PicMonkey put in the saying you want and each person's name

We positioned 4 labels to an 8 x 11 inch piece of paper and printed this on white card stock paper.

Step #3: Printed the face page and cut out the the design and a blank back page out of card stock weight paper.

Step #5:  Cut out of writing pages to size so that everyone in the family has a page to leave their message on. (each of our booklets had 12 writing pages)

Step #6: Punch two holes through each stack of papers and tied the booklet together.

Step #7:  While  working on the booklets talk to your (grand)children about each person on the list, discussing with them what each person brings to their lives - what they are thankful for.   As the children came up with their own thoughts about a specific person write these down on a sheet of paper.

Step #8:  Finally sit down with your (grand)children and began filling the pages of the gratitude table name cards. 

Happy Thanksgiving 

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Perception As Limits

Grandma I can't do that!

You can fill in that with almost anything, that our youngest grandchild has not experienced or tried - she is not a risk taker and her perceptions is that she will fail and failure is bad.

It is her perception not her ability that is limiting.

She is not alone, many of us perceive our abilities to be less than they actually are, that failure is bad and so we limit our options accordingly. 

Our perception needs to be cleansed, we need to open the door of our perception to the infinite possibilities that each day presents us with.

As parents and grandparents encourage your (grand)children to try new things and wherever possible frame failure within a positive growth context.  

And model this by opening yourself up to new experiences and finding humour and hope within failure.

Be mindful that perception is not a truth it is a thought construct made from what the past has presented you with. 

Keep your perceptions of yourself and others open to the influence of the infinite set of possibilities your future holds.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls 

Sow in Peace

Just prior to this verse the followers of Jesus were arguing about who among them was the greatest and in 2015 we are still arguing about the same thing!

Little has changed from the time of Jesus.

Why do we want to be the greatest?

Those who are the greatest hold power and make the rules.

Those who are the greatest get to write the history books and define who was right and who was wrong.

Those who are the greatest get to decide who are entitled to help and who is not.

Those who are the greatest have wealth and can do what they want.

Yet we are called not to be among those who struggle for power.  We are not to sit in the council chambers of the rulers

We are called to be the least, to be servants and to welcome, weakest and the smallest among us.  Those who hold no power at all: children.  In doing this we welcome God the most powerful, the Lord of all into our midst.

Seek peace through the example of children who give without expecting anything in return.  Children who are by nature live in the moment, willing to forgive and finding joy in all things.

Welcome children into your life, be with them, listen to them play and watch them to understand the lesson the Lord has for you.  And together let's learn to sow peace as children of God.

Grandma Snyder

©2013 - 2015 twosnydergirls

Vegan Gluten-free Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves pressed
• 2 cups of mushrooms cut into bite size pieces
• 20 cherry tomatoes cut in half
• ½ cup of shredded basil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette
• ¼ cup of red wine
• 1 package gluten free Spaghetti noodles cooked

Directions:

1. Prepare all of the ingredients
2. In a hot saucepan add your olive oil, garlic and mushrooms sauté until the mushroom has released some of their liquid.
3. Prepare your spaghetti and while this is cooking
4. Add this the cherry tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinaigrette, and red wine to the saucepan.  Stir frequently and allow the liquid in the pan to reduce
5. Once the spaghetti is cooked and drained top with the ingredients in the sauce pan
6. Add your favourite vegan cheese.

From our table to yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Rusty Cockshutt tractors Out to Pasture

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Create Space Through Silence

A silence into which a parent listens is a powerful form of communication

and one that we struggle to implement.

Into an open, safe and tolerant silence children will open up allowing the adults who wait a window into their lives.

Instead we ask questions that we know that answer to.

We speak over them and they dismiss the words that they do give us.

And we are surprised that by the time they are teenagers they have stopped talking to us.

Be mindful in your parenting of the amount of time you spend talking and the silences that you create for your children to talk to you in.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Sustain the Weary With A Word

What word is so powerful that it will sustain the weary? 

This question has travelled with me all week as I prepared to write this post and it remains unanswered.  

Even more troubling is the James 3:6 passage that is part of the lectionary reading for today and thus informs the first question.

“even as a spark set the forest on fire so the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”

This word cannot be just any word for it runs the risk of doing just the opposite of sustaining the weary it can defeat them!

To come to some form of an answer I reflected back to times in my life when I was soul weary unable to find my way.  

At the darkest times I realized the word spoken was not spoken by a human voice.  

It was a silent human presences, a touch, the silent tears of a friend sitting vigil with me, the strong hug on a doorstep at the death of child.  

The words my soul heard was “I am always with you” and I felt my God near me, present in the human beings silently being present to my pain.

Allowing God to use them in sharing my pain.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls