It’s January.
For some of us Canadians, that means we are just heading into the depths of winter and all it’s depressing greyness, cold and damp dark days. Fortunately for me, my parents happened to settle on the west coast, particularly, Vancouver Island. Even better than that, I had the fortuitous idea to move to the capitol after high school and settle in the warmest climate in Canada. My garden is budding already, there are flowers shooting up from under all the trees and the house sparrows have returned to the birdhouse outside my kitchen window to create their nest and have 16,986 chicks before the next winter settles in.
January also means that people are into their annual health kicks. Gym passes, yoga mats, weight sets and ab machines have been bought, grocery lists have been decluttered of “chips, chocolate bars, cheezies and instant noodles”. Deals and pacts have been made with ourselves to be different this year.
Continue reading “Roasted Cauliflower Salad” →
Starting out the year right is part of everyone’s resolutions right? Lose weight, get organized, clean the closet, stop procrastinating, be a better wife/husband/sister/brother/friend. We’ve all made the promises to ourselves. Well, some of us. I don’t make resolutions anymore. My whole life is a resolution. I have a billion and one pop up reminders on my iPhone reminding me to be a better mom, stop yelling, sweep the kitchen, play with the kids. I have serious concrete plans to get a tattoo on my left wrist that simply says “breathe.” I live my resolutions year-round.
Continue reading “Pear and Ginger Smoothie” →
Happy New Year everybody! It’s that time of year again…time to start anew. Time to put away the last of last year’s clutter and start with a clean slate. Around here, the first day of the year is reserved solely for recovery. Both for the house and for ourselves. Although this year, with the crazy stomach flu we’ve had, we didn’t get up to too much craziness on NYE.
The beginning of the year also marks a turn of the seasons, yes we are just (technically) heading into winter, but we are also seeing every day get longer. Before we know it, spring will be here again! But before I get carried away, let’e talk Winter Brews. As the seasons change, these popular brews will soon be unavailable again for another long year. Okay, so maybe it’s not the last chance but the stocks of the great winter brews will be dwindling quickly. So why not indulge in yet another big boisterous brew during the waning holiday season?
Continue reading “Tipple Tuesdays – Winter Brews and Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle Cake” →
As Christmas rapidly steams full speed right at me, my thoughts naturally turn to the food. What’s for dinner? What snacks are we going to be munching on all day? Did I hide the bathroom scale for the rest of the year? Do we have enough eggnog? Do we have the basics so I don’t have to leave the house again until January? What are we going to bake for Santa?
These are the thoughts that run through my mind late at night when I’m just falling asleep. They slip through my subconcious and are forgotten again until the very last second. This year marks a milestone in our kids lives. They are both old enough to enjoy the whole spirit of the season and my son is very involved in the gifts and decorating. It was only par for the course that I get him involved in baking the cookies we shall be leaving out for Santa.
And what cookie is easier than a classic flourless peanut butter cookie? Nothing. These babies literally take 10 minutes to scrape together, then simply flatten them, pop them in the oven, bake, remove and let cool. Place them on your fanciest plate with a big mug of nog for Santa (maybe some carrots for the reindeer) and your all set to go.
Now our only struggle is whether to let an almost four year old stay up to wait for Santa….
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!
Continue reading “Cookies for Santa: Classic Peanut Butter” →
Christmas is full of traditions for most families. Caroling, decorating the house in obscene amounts of lights and garish garlands, tinsel or no tinsel, pet Santa costumes, pictures of screaming children with old Saint Nick, stocking hung by the chimney with care, Terry’s Chocolate oranges stuffed into the bottom of your stocking, tables laden with bowls of mandarins, mixed nuts and boxes of chocolate bonbons. But as a young family, we’re still struggling to find out own “traditions”. Of course we carry over many of our parents ways like stockings and trees, cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, watching “A Christmas Story” on Christmas Eve while we snuggle on the couch and drink egg nog (and rum).
But this year I thought I would try and start something else. I’ve always baked for Christmas, whether it was for an office party or to give away as gifts. As a die hard fan of food, I like to make it and then give it away (most of it anyway). So this year I tried some gingerbread. First we made gingerbread men. Kind of a little warm up to something bigger. They turned out just fabulous. It put a spark of joy in my heart when my three year old son woke up the next day, looked at the gingerbread men and asked me when they were going to come alive and run away. Kids really do say the darnedest things. What do you say to that? Crush his imagination by telling him they aren’t going to come alive or try to distract him by telling him to bite the head off before it does come alive and run away? I chose the latter…seemed to work out just fine.
So then I thought, why not tackle a gingerbread house? So many people make them, right? Or is it really, that so many people go out to the grocery store and buy a kit for $12.99? Yeah, that’s probably what most people do. I decided my kid wouldn’t really care about a gingerbread house, but would probably be more excited about something a little more…child-like? A rocket ship? A bulldozer? Well, great ideas they may be, but I am no engineer or architect. So I looked up popular designs on the interwebs and I found that another popular rendition of the traditional shape, is a gingerbread train. Made up of mostly rectangles and circles, how could it be hard?
Continue reading “Kelp Noodles and Spicy Peanut Sauce Stir Fry” →
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