{Double Fan Scarf - free pattern}

I've been wanting to use this yarn for a while now, I wanted to see how the colours change in it. I've been looking for a perfect scarf pattern, which I found (well, almost) in a book borrowed from my local library.

I say almost because I've modified it a bit: the yarn that I used in a bit thinner than the one used by the original pattern; in addition, I wanted a bulkier, wider scarf. So I doubled up on the fan column (and made a few small modifications as well).

{Tomato Marmalade}

It's been yet another summer with abundance of tomatoes! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining; just running out of ideas on what to do with them... Until I looked in this book I have that contains recipes of various preserves.

Salsa? Done...
Spaghetti sauce? Been there...
Tomato marmalade? Well, that's interesting!...

So I decided to give it a try... until I was in the middle of chopping and measuring my tomatoes and I realized that the recipe has an error in it - it states 2.5 lbs/2 kg of tomatoes. But wait, 2.5 lbs is only about 1.1 kg rather than 2 kg!!! AND the book recommends to follow the recipe exactly as the balance between fruit, sugar, pectin and acid is crucial for gel formation. What was I to do?!... I just decided to sort of wing it. I am quite please with the result (including my kid that now wants it on her sandwich ALL THE TIME!). Try it with your chicken or fish :)

{A blanket of puff shells}

After finally finishing a blanket for my son, I figured I should do one for my daughter as well. Lucky for me, a local small yarn shop was having a sale! There, I picked up 30 balls of lemony Rowan "Cotton Rope" yarn (that's right, 30 balls! and it cost the total of only $30). This particular pattern - 3D, or puff shells - is not complicated at all; what takes time is the sheer size that I decided to attempt. The result looks beautiful, and what's more important, my daughter just loves it!

{Basic Fruit Purée}

Starting your baby on solids is an exciting milestone, but can be a bit daunting for any new parent. You want to give your child the best, and you know that food is a big part of that. If you choose the old-school way of starting your baby on purées (the route I took with both of my kids, at least for now), you can either buy prepared jars of purées or make your own.

Making your own is SUPER simple, especially in the beginning. You can make batches of single ingredient purées and freeze them; when ready to serve, it's fun to combine with other things such as cereals, meats, etc., or just offer on their own. I promise you, baby's taste buds will love it!

Today, I'll show you how to make fruit purées. I've tried many different ways of preparing it, and my favourite in terms of taste is baking. Yes, it IS more time consuming (but that's just because you have to wait for your fruit to bake), but the outcome is delicious!

Nectarine purée thickened with oatmeal cereal

{Delicious Meatless Spaghetti Sauce}

Although we live in a city, I garden in our backyard, and this is that time of the year where tomatoes are starting to ripen. Not to jinx it, but we get a generous amount of tomatoes every year! I really love tomatoes, but even I can't eat that much! In the past, I've done a delicious and easy salsa recipe (found HERE), and a few years ago I had a lot of tomatoes still green when we got our first frost that I made a relish.

This morning I weighed my tomatoes - 5 lbs! What to do with that? I didn't want more salsa, so the next best thing, I thought, would be homemade spaghetti sauce. I've never done it from scratch, only used store-bought, but we all know how different (and better) things taste when they'Re made from scratch. Am I right?!

So... let's dive into it!

Why I chose a meatless variety: I wanted to make a big batch - can it, so we could enjoy it for more than one meal. Canning meat products is more complicated (don't want bacteria to start breeding and spoil everything), and this process usually requires a pressure canner (which I don't have, have never used, and they are expensive). Plus, meatless given you more options when adding meat later - you can do the traditional ground beef/pork, but it can also be chicken, even sausage; the possibilities are many!