There’s been a whole lotta relaxing going on around here – much more watching of HGTV than working on our home + garden!
We went out for a run around 11 and came home to work on the yard for a bit. Matt found these two little turtles in the yard! One was upsidedown and the other was nearby – we think he might have been stuck upsidedown and the other was helping him? I sure hope he isn’t sick!
Snap!
I mowed the yard..
But thanks to a rainstorm (and the HUGE one that’s on the way) I stopped halfway through. Matt picked up where I left off and finishing in the drizzle (he can mow the yard 10x faster than I can)
After showers, we made sardines and kale chips for lunch!
I found this new brand of sardines at Whole Foods – in MAPLE SYRUP flavor!! I love anything sweet-savory so I bought them right away. They were $3.59, which is obviously more than the basic ones, but I’ve found that getting a little bit fancier brand really does taste better
I LOVED the flavor of these – they were not very fishy at all! The wood smoke seemed to dry them out a bit, and the maple flavor was great. And of course I love that they were sustainably harvested from within the USA. If you’ve been wanting to try sardines, try these!
I mashed half the tin with some plain yogurt, a tsp more maple and some chopped yellow pepper
And then melted that onto a Dakota bun with bleu d’auvergne – INCREDIBLE!
Served with a big pile of kale baked in coconut oil and lavender salt. Ketchup on the side!
The sun tea turned out really good! Loved that I didn’t have to boil the water or wash an extra container. Just soaked it in sun for a few hours yesterday.
Have a great afternoon!
{ 68 comments… read them below or add one }
Those turtles are really cute! There aren’t very many random animals around here, just an abundance of tiny lizards and rabbits.
Now that’s an innovative way to save electricity (virtual thumbs up)
Cool turtles!
We have HUGE tortoises at our house! 
I’ve never tried sardines. They scare me, but you of course make them look good. 
I may have to venture to sardine land! 
Happy Labor Day!
EEEEE! Turtles!! My fav!!
awwww poor turtle!! haha, I could see him saying, “yipe yipe”! As Matt’s holding onto it. You always make me want to try all your foods Kath! You have a way of having me crave stuff.
I actually loved sardines before I became a vegetarian. The addition of maple would be amazing!
i’m eating sardines right now as i read your blog! mine are boring, though. yours sound awesome!
Silly question… If you bake something with coconut oil, does it taste like coconut? Im really ashamed of asking this.
A little bit, yes!
Interesting sandwich
.
I’m not looking forward to the rain this week. Oh well, I’m sure the ground will be happy!
The turtles are so cute! How sweet that one was trying to help the other.
Every time you guys eat sardines it makes me wish I liked them. They look so good! I guess I can’t say I don’t like them cause I’ve never tried them…I’m just not sure I could prepare them for myself though – I might need to just be tricked into eating them
Glad you are enjoying your day!
haha – TRY THEM!
Haha I know I just need to bite the bullet (or sardine!) and do it!
Poor turtle! I hope he’s ok. I’m glad you guys turned him right side up! Lunch looks like perfect fuel! Enjoy your afternoon!
I need to give sardines another try, the first time didn’t go so well, but I love the idea of maple flavor.
Whooooo for New England made products. Bar Harbor is gorgeous!
Can you believe I’ve never mowed a lawn? So weird.
1) You get wild TURTLES in the US!!?? The country just gets better and better!! I love turtles
2) Sardines in maple syrup. Um, wow! The best I’ve seen in England is in oil, or in tomatoes..
I have never heard of sardines in maple syrup–that is different! As long as there would be something to mask a bit of the sardine taste, I do not think that I would mind them
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
You just guilted me into mowing my yard!
I’m interested in trying sardines (again–ate them soaked in vinegar and on saltines as a child). I wouldn’t choose the ones in maple syrup since I don’t really enjoy sweet flavors in my main and side dishes and eat a very, very low sugar diet.
So, please save me the time involved in research and tell me, should I buy sardines in oil or water?
I like the ones in olive oil or fancy sauces. I drain off all of the oil before mashing.
thanks for the personal reply!!!
Do you enjoy mowing the yard? I once had a friend tell me that she found it very zen and that she would meditate while doing it. For me, the noise, the smell of the grass is so not zen, so I avoid mowing at all costs.*
Yeah! It’s like vacuuming
me, too! SERIOUSLY, love those two types of work.
Vacuuming and mowing the lawn are the two most relaxing things I do! No music, just peaceful noise of the motor running. I get some of my best thinking done when doing those two chores!
Lovely lunch, Kath! Those kale chips are making my mouth water!
love the turtles! my brothers and I found one when we were kids and we tried to keep it… didn’t go over well with my mom.
Cute turtles, I used to see box turtles all the time in Florida. Lunch looks great!
Oh my gosh! so funny that your post just came up with sardines! I had canned tuna, packed in olive oil, on my salad for dinner…Seems strange that I can eat it without even mixing it with mayo or anything but I buy a good quality canned tuna and it is SO good! Doesn’t need anything more than a little bit of salt and some oil and vinegar from the salad dressing.
I should try the sardines here in Italy because they are known for them! i’ll let you know how it is =)
I think you might have just given me the courage to try some sardines. Canned fish has always made me nervous in the past, hehe. That kind sounds like it would be good for sardine newbies.
My husband can more 10x faster than me too!!! It must be because we are shorter and they have longer arms/legs =) Normally, he doesn’t even let me mow because I take so much longer!
Good for you for mowing the lawn.
I am digging the vintagey/antique-ish wash and effects you put on the photos in this post, too.
Sardines. Never had em. Probably never will. More for you to enjoy that way
That sardine sandwich sounds flipping amazing. My friend’s (at the time) boyfriend made sun tea with rose petals in it once. It was really delicious.
The turtles are so cute!
I was just craving kale chips yesterday and wondered whether kale was still in the stores or if it was too late in the season. That’s not from your garden is it??
And sun tea – makes me think of my mom, she used to make a giant pitcher of it during the summer!
It was from Whole Foods!
Is it weird that I realized last week that I’ve never mowed a lawn and want to?!
We don’t have a GH anywhere around here, but there’s a Sunflower bakery that has bread that looks like the Dakota bread. Ever heard of copiers making something similar?
Looks like a wonderful day– hope it continues to be!
i LOVE that 3/4ths of your plate is kale. Eat More Kale.
Sardines in maple syrup, seriously? I would buy those if I saw them just out of curiosity. It sounds like a good combination in principal so it’s nice to hear that it really is good from you!
I can never get the perfect kale chips. Mine always turn out to crunchy and just break in my mouth as soon as I take it in. I want to enjoy chewing them.
Never had sardines. Not sure I ever will…but the combo still looks interesting =)
Love the kale chips! I’d never thought to bake them with anything but olive oil, but I’m sure they’d be great baked with sesame seed oil too! That’s one of my favorites because you get more of an Asian taste to it.
i’m working up the courage to try sardines! i LOVE that they are a quick, easy and cheap source of protein… and so versatile as well. i might just have to throw them in my cart tomorrow
I love how green and lush your yard is!
Those sardines sound awesome! I love maple/smoky flavors on fish!
Yum! I usually do not eat sardines, but those sound really good!!
I’ve still never tried sardines, but you make them look more and more appealing with each post!
Turtles!! so cute!
and your lunch looks DELICIOUS!
Sardines in maple syrup?! That’s almost as exciting as your awesome Cville froyo flavours!
Those sardines sound incredible! Salty and sweet! YUM!
These sardines actually sound really good (never thought I’d say that)! Might have to find them on my next WF trip
Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day!!
I am from Maine and the Bar Harbor brand is a regular around those parts. I always get the lobster bisque in my stocking at Christmas. So glad you liked the sardines!
Great job on the relaxing + productivity! It always seems easier to do chores when you can balance it with fun stuff
I have never tried sardines, I just can’t get past the way they look/way I anticipate they’ll taste…even though everyone says they’re not fishy. Maybe someday 
The turtles had probably just mated. The male turtle sometimes gets flipped upside down after they are finished mating. Otherwise they would have nothing to do with each other! It may seem strange that they would mate this late in the year but the female can lay eggs up to four years later.
Those turtles are so cute! We used to have huge snapping turtles around the house that I grew up in. My dad tried once to shoo it away and it ended up snapping a stick that he used to poke it. Ouch!
I love turtles– how cute that you found them in your yard! I’d be tempted to keep at least one as a pet
Finally, the sardines look appetizing to me! I could
totally chow down on a sandwich like that!
I LOVE Kale chips!!! Yumm. Ketchup is a must, though
I once found a turtle in my vegetable garden. Actually… twice this has happened. For a while I kept it as a pet and even gave her a name {you can tell the gender by the shape of the bottom shell}. I also fed her raw fish since it was a box turtle… it was either fish or mealworms! Anyways… I had to return her back to her own habitat since she wasn’t eating very well. It wasn’t until later I learned that you can keep a turtle alive in your refrigerator for many months as they hibernate quite well in cold temperatures. Figures. Reptiles!
Wow you make sardines look good. I might just have to try them. Do you have a recipe for the kale chips. That sun tea looks so refreshing.
Yeah, I linked to the recipe in the post above ^^
Do you have one of those mowers that aren’t self-propelled? We have 2 acres and a commercial grade Scag mower but my husband just bought a small little push one for some of the really hilly areas that the other one can’t get. I had no idea it wasn’t self-propelled and got quite the unexpected workout pushing that thing! It’s no joke!
I think we do!? But maybe not actually. It doesn’t propel as well as our old Charlotte one
My colleague eats sardines from a tin at her desk for lunch! I am always intrigued but still haven’t tried them yet. I have bought them, but just ended up giving them to my cats haha.
They look delicious though!
YAY for Sun Tea! I am glad it turned out well!
Ahhh! I’ve been wanting to try those Bar Harbor Maple sardines for quite some time now. Unfortunately I live in a food desert and I can only get Bar Harbor’s Cracked Pepper Kipper snacks, which are pretty great, too. They have all the Bar Harbor stuff that you can buy by the case on Amazon, but I don’t want to commit to a case of something I’m not sure I’ll like.
I found a great brand though, Wild Planet, that are really amazing. They aren’t smooshy like most sardines are. Really tasty. If you see them I hope you’ll give them a try. Their tuna is good, too, canned in it’s own juices and sea salt only.