Grape-holes and Brioche Fairy

Yesterday morning (before it started raining again) I dug a couple of holes in which to plant the new grape vines I purchased on the weekend: 2 Bacco Noir and 2 Pinot Gris.

new grapes hanging in the greenhouse

One of the holes I dug filled in with water - not surprising with all the rain we've had. Grapes need good drainage, so I'm undecided what to do: plant a vine there anyway and hope it won't drown, or dig another hole in another spot which will totally mess up the layout of the vineyard (i.e. straight rows of four). Help me out! Vote in the poll below!

digging grape-holes ... or a well?

Also, it was Tuesday, so now that I'm on vacation, I was able to go see Fish Guy in St. Peter's; scored myself some fresh haddock fillets. Now Fish Guy parks his fish-market-on-wheels at the NSLC in St. Pete's; Joey in the store told me that they sell a lot of white wine on Tuesdays. 

Mid-afternoon it started raining again (surprise!), and I was forced to stay in the house. Bored, I decided to make something non-edible (although you could eat it) to pass the time. I found a recipe from Mother Earth News to Make Your Own Natural Lotion, so I tried it - but not before modifying the recipe. Really, who has beeswax in their pantry? Not I. So I ignored that. And you know what ... it still worked. I used coconut and olive oil and a drop of pure vanilla extract. Lovely stuff.

add some flour and sugar and you'd have cookies

Eventually, I had to eat. The haddock got pan-fried with some rummy bananas:

they're fried

rummy bananas

I consulted my Spirit of Bermuda: Cooking with Gosling's Black Seal Rum cookbook.The fish was supposed to be wahoo, and the bananas were supposed to be flambeed, but who has wahoo kicking around and wouldn't that just burn off all the alcohol? Instead, I seared the bananas in butter and then splashed some rum (twice) in the hot pan to deglace and they were delicious. 

After dinner I waited until the hens finally made their way into their house for the night, and I locked the door behind them and headed to the MacBouch for the Tuesday Night Jam and a frosty ginger ale. I must be a good girl because while I was out, the Brioche Fairy left me a loaf in the bread machine:

bread machine brioche recipe