I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas day today, filled with family, good friends and good food!
May 2013 be a year of peace, happiness and prosperity for you and your loved ones.
This is one of my favourite Polish Christmas carols. I hope you enjoy it. :-)
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas!
Wishing you all a joyous Christmas and happy New Year. May this be a time of peace and good will for you and yours, and may 2012 be a year of good health and prosperity.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Our Menu
This is the menu we have decided on for this year's Wigilia feast on Christmas Eve.
Starter: Devilled eggs, with bacon and shredded cheese
Salad: Spinach Salad, with yogurt dressing and quail eggs
Main course: Leg of lamb with fresh rosemary
Broccoli cooked a la Julia Child
Pierogi filled with potato and cheese
Dessert: whatever looks good at the bakery
Drink: Cranberry punch with frozen berries
Red wine
We are going to focus on a few things to make ourselves, then allow others to do the work for the rest! lol For the sake of time and space, we will be buying our pierogi and the dessert. We have never done leg of lamb before, but it is a simple dish to make. The eggs can be cooked in advance. The spinach salad recipe calls for hard boiled eggs, which we will use whole quails eggs for, instead. We have long wanted to try quails eggs that haven't come from a can. ;-) For dessert, I see no point for us to make our own when bakeries can do so much better then us! lol It's just not worth the extra time, energy and stress to do any of that ourselves this year.
Later on,I will share the recipes for the lamb and spinach salad.
Getting Ready
This has been a very unusual Christmas season for us. Dh's back seems to have given up on him entirely. He is in massive amounts of pain and barely able to move. He has been almost completely housebound for about two weeks now, and the rare forays out has taxed him to the limit. Thankfully, he has been able to work from home. I must say, we are really appreciating how supportive his employer has been, though I imagine they are getting pretty frustrated over the situation by now.
Dh is working right now, actually, so I am currently posting this from the tablet. I apologize for any weird typos in advance. lol
Meanwhile, our Christmas preparations continue, if slower than usual. We didn't get our tourtiere done until a few days ago. The temperatures have been too mild to store our pies on the balcony as usual, so we could only do as many as would fit in our fridge freezer. We ordered 12 pounds of ground meats this year, and made deep dish pies. That translated into only eight pies. We have had one so far, and they turned out quite well. We won't be doing deep dish again,though. The meat to crust ratio is better in a regular sized pie.
Our gift shopping is done. We gave the girls some cash from the gift budget, in addition to anything they had saved up themselves. Dh hasn't done any shopping at all, of course, so I have done all the gift buying at our end. Youngest decorated the tree this year, and Eldest has decorated the house. The tree is full of gifts under it, which has been entertaining for the stray cat and her kitten that we have taken in for a while.
All that is left right now is to do the final food shopping, which should be done tomorrow, though I am thinking of doing it tonight, instead. I will post the menu separately. Hopefully, once that is done, we won't have to go shopping again for a good while!
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Let's try this again
I tried to post earlier, but blogger was having technical difficulties. Here's hoping they're fixed, and my post actually keeps... :-/
It's been a month since I last posted, so there's a bit to catch up on, both good and back.
In the good news...
Eldest talked me into doing NaNoWriMo, which has a goal of writing 50,000 words in the month of November. The first day was a very good start, which promptly fell apart after the second day. That stalled me a bit, but I slowly started to catch up. In the end, I completed the goal a couple of days early! Doing her part to encourage me, Eldest agreed that if I completed NaNoWriMo, she would sing at an open mic night. A nearby coffee shop had weekly open mic nights, but they closed for renovations and, since reopening, I haven't seen anything to show they're still doing it. We'll have to figure it out.
In the more neutral news, Eldest has left her job. She liked the work well enough, but there were a couple of issues. One was the surprisingly bad public transportation to the location she worked at. We knew it wasn't good - that's partly why she applied to a different location in the first place - but good grief, it sucked. It's one thing to be driving her in for 3 or 5 am shifts. It's another to be driving her home again because the buses in the area don't run on Sundays. Or evenings. Or that it take 3 times longer to take the bus compared to driving. There were other issues, though, and she did tell one of her managers about it. It turns out there's plenty of reason for this location to have such a high turnover rate. She's going to take a bit of a break, then start handing out the resumes again. The job market has really perked up, and not just for Christmas, so it should be interesting to see how that works out.
Then there's the bad news. A few days ago, our younger cat suddenly started having difficulties walking and lost all bladder control. We thought she might have had a spine injury or something. It turned out to be massive kidney failure, and she had to be put down. She was not a particularly nice cat, and was really rather dumb. She could be pretty nasty, would sometimes go after the older cat for no reason, and generally didn't like people. Yet when she was in a friendly mood, she could be the sweetest thing. Most of the time, though, she would just lay around like a fluffy black puddle on the floor. I swear, that cat had cartilage for bones! It was sad to have to put her down. Especially so suddenly. She was only 3 years old. She was Youngest's cat, too. This is the second pet we got for her that ended up being put down.
Now, we're not sure what we're going to do. You see, we still have a stray and her kitten around. They had been on our balcony, but when the temperatures dropped, we brought them inside. We're not allowed to have more than 2 pets, so we've been trying to adopt them out. We had a couple of potential takers fall through. I don't think there are too many people willing to take on both mother and kitten. I was just about to contact my friend at the pound to find how to turn them in when we suddenly found ourselves down a cat. Youngest has been wanting a dog for ages, but this kitten has been loving on her like her own cat never did. The mama is pretty high strung, but friendly and playful. We got tacit permission to hang on to them a bit longer. If nothing else, we'll wait long enough for the kitten to be old enough to be separated from his mother. In the end, it will be Youngest's choice.
Aside from that, we're slowly getting into the Christmas mood. We've put the tree up, without decorations, to train the cats to stay out of it. So far, it hasn't been an issue. I really expected to have troubles with the kitten getting into it, but he seems content to leave it alone. Of course, once it's decorated, it might be a different story. So far, so good. Decorating will start this weekend.
We haven't ordered our meats for our annual tourtierre this year. Partly it's because we suddenly don't have the money. Getting the cat to the vet, then put down, ended up costing us over $450. That was money that was supposed to go for Christmas preparations. Not that we could make our usual number of tourtierre, anyhow. It's not cold enough! After a brief deep freeze, the temperatures went right back up again and are now bouncing above and below the freezing level. Our only freezer is the top of our fridge, so we relied on being able to keep the tourtierre frozen outside. It's not cold enough! So I'm thinking we'll place a meat order for perhaps a dozen pies. There isn't room for that many in the freezer, but wee can fit a few in and still have a couple to give away or something.
I haven't done my annual Christmas decorations this year yet, either. I had an idea in mind, but it required access to the kitchen sink, stove top and counter space. Every time they all got cleared, they immediately got covered! So I'm trying to come up with something else that will be quick and fairly easy. I've got some papier mache ornament shapes as bases, as well as some paints and glue. I have other supplies in the craft cupboard to use as well. I'm thinking, for some of them at least, I'll be doing things with spices. I've usually been doing items that reflected light in some way. I think this time, I'll be more rustic. We shall see how that works out.
It's been a month since I last posted, so there's a bit to catch up on, both good and back.
In the good news...
Eldest talked me into doing NaNoWriMo, which has a goal of writing 50,000 words in the month of November. The first day was a very good start, which promptly fell apart after the second day. That stalled me a bit, but I slowly started to catch up. In the end, I completed the goal a couple of days early! Doing her part to encourage me, Eldest agreed that if I completed NaNoWriMo, she would sing at an open mic night. A nearby coffee shop had weekly open mic nights, but they closed for renovations and, since reopening, I haven't seen anything to show they're still doing it. We'll have to figure it out.
In the more neutral news, Eldest has left her job. She liked the work well enough, but there were a couple of issues. One was the surprisingly bad public transportation to the location she worked at. We knew it wasn't good - that's partly why she applied to a different location in the first place - but good grief, it sucked. It's one thing to be driving her in for 3 or 5 am shifts. It's another to be driving her home again because the buses in the area don't run on Sundays. Or evenings. Or that it take 3 times longer to take the bus compared to driving. There were other issues, though, and she did tell one of her managers about it. It turns out there's plenty of reason for this location to have such a high turnover rate. She's going to take a bit of a break, then start handing out the resumes again. The job market has really perked up, and not just for Christmas, so it should be interesting to see how that works out.
Then there's the bad news. A few days ago, our younger cat suddenly started having difficulties walking and lost all bladder control. We thought she might have had a spine injury or something. It turned out to be massive kidney failure, and she had to be put down. She was not a particularly nice cat, and was really rather dumb. She could be pretty nasty, would sometimes go after the older cat for no reason, and generally didn't like people. Yet when she was in a friendly mood, she could be the sweetest thing. Most of the time, though, she would just lay around like a fluffy black puddle on the floor. I swear, that cat had cartilage for bones! It was sad to have to put her down. Especially so suddenly. She was only 3 years old. She was Youngest's cat, too. This is the second pet we got for her that ended up being put down.
Now, we're not sure what we're going to do. You see, we still have a stray and her kitten around. They had been on our balcony, but when the temperatures dropped, we brought them inside. We're not allowed to have more than 2 pets, so we've been trying to adopt them out. We had a couple of potential takers fall through. I don't think there are too many people willing to take on both mother and kitten. I was just about to contact my friend at the pound to find how to turn them in when we suddenly found ourselves down a cat. Youngest has been wanting a dog for ages, but this kitten has been loving on her like her own cat never did. The mama is pretty high strung, but friendly and playful. We got tacit permission to hang on to them a bit longer. If nothing else, we'll wait long enough for the kitten to be old enough to be separated from his mother. In the end, it will be Youngest's choice.
Aside from that, we're slowly getting into the Christmas mood. We've put the tree up, without decorations, to train the cats to stay out of it. So far, it hasn't been an issue. I really expected to have troubles with the kitten getting into it, but he seems content to leave it alone. Of course, once it's decorated, it might be a different story. So far, so good. Decorating will start this weekend.
We haven't ordered our meats for our annual tourtierre this year. Partly it's because we suddenly don't have the money. Getting the cat to the vet, then put down, ended up costing us over $450. That was money that was supposed to go for Christmas preparations. Not that we could make our usual number of tourtierre, anyhow. It's not cold enough! After a brief deep freeze, the temperatures went right back up again and are now bouncing above and below the freezing level. Our only freezer is the top of our fridge, so we relied on being able to keep the tourtierre frozen outside. It's not cold enough! So I'm thinking we'll place a meat order for perhaps a dozen pies. There isn't room for that many in the freezer, but wee can fit a few in and still have a couple to give away or something.
I haven't done my annual Christmas decorations this year yet, either. I had an idea in mind, but it required access to the kitchen sink, stove top and counter space. Every time they all got cleared, they immediately got covered! So I'm trying to come up with something else that will be quick and fairly easy. I've got some papier mache ornament shapes as bases, as well as some paints and glue. I have other supplies in the craft cupboard to use as well. I'm thinking, for some of them at least, I'll be doing things with spices. I've usually been doing items that reflected light in some way. I think this time, I'll be more rustic. We shall see how that works out.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Running
The last while has been pretty ridiculous. I feel like I've been running around constantly! We had some unusual stuff pop up and that had us rearrange pretty much everything. When it all settled down, I expected things to slow down a bit and get back to normal.
They didn't.
With our Christmas season soon to kick in (yeah, I know, it isn't even Halloween yet, but I'm a crafter, which means getting started requires more time), things are just going to pick up. Throw in my husband's health issues and Eldest's new job, and I find myself heading out about 3 times a day.
Did I mention Eldest has a new job? :-D
Locally, the job market seems to be picking up dramatically. I'm seeing "help wanted" signs everywhere. Part of it is because businesses are looking for more staff for Christmas, but it started picking up before that could be considered the reason.
Eldest had dropped her resume off at a few art stores, but they haven't been looking for much lately. Then she filled out an online application for Michaels. She specified a store that we usually frequent. A day or two after she finished submitting the online application, she got a call from a different store. They called on a Wednesday, asking if she could come in for a Thursday morning interview. She walked out of the interview with a job! She applied for, and got, a job in receiving. They asked her to come in on the Saturday at noon to do some paperwork, saying it would be about 3 hours. She finished the paperwork after about an hour or so, then they put her to work in the back! Her first shift was 3am on the next Monday, and today she just finished another shift with a 3am start.
The down side of a 3am shift is that the buses stop running at 1:30am and don't start again until 5:30am. Which means I have to drive her. She could take a cab I suppose, but the cost is prohibitive, and we don't exactly have reliable cab service in our city. There are plenty of cabs out there; their service just sucks.
I don't mind driving her, though. I tend to be up late anyhow, and it gives us a chance to chat. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make up for the lost sleep by sleeping in. Whether it's running errands that are time dependant, needing to pick up Dh from work because his back has gone bonkers again, or whatever, I just haven't been able to get any real sleep. The things that need doing aren't a problem; it's just that I'm not getting any chance to catch up on things in between, whether it's my email, my course work or just plain sleep! *L*
My crochet classes are getting sign ups now, though. I had my first official class, and it was a blast. I've got classes booked every week; it's just a matter of getting people to sign up for them. I've finished the first part of my instructor's course and have started on the second part, but with all the running around, I've accomplished little.
We've had some issues with our van, though. Some weird electrical gremlin is affecting our lights, inside and out, and it's getting worse. For the first time in 2 years, I contacted the dealership asking about our coverage for that (if the coverage we paid for does cover it, it'll only cost us our deductible. Otherwise, I have no idea what it will cost to fix), along with a couple other questions. After 2 yrs of no claims against our roadside assistance, we were supposed to get some money back. I was told to talk to the insurance company and they had no idea what I was talking about. What they had was a different type of coverage, and it would require claims free to 2015. Which means if we get our van fixed using our coverage, we lose the rebate.
We were supposed to go into the dealership on Thanksgiving afternoon to talk about that, including the possibility of a trade in (that would allow us to have lower interest rates, though I doubt it would have given us lower payments). The dealership has moved since we bought that van and, while I had a vague idea of where it was, having driven past it some time ago, the salesman gave me directions to the entrance, which isn't on the main road.
We never found the place. His directions sent me someplace else completely. This actually exemplified why I had numerical street systems. Dh tried calling for directions while I drove around, trying to find the street the salesman told me I should take (it turned out to be an avenue), but after following the directions from the receptionist, who somehow got it in her head that we were coming from a different direction, we got to an area that was primarily residential. Dh even used google maps on his phone, which was so vague, I still didn't know where it was supposed to be. We decided to just go home. Dh phone again, this time to leave a message for the salesman we were supposed to meet, but the receptionist couldn't get past his name (a French version of a common English name). He was so pissed, he gave up trying to leave a message and we just went home.
Once home, I looked up the place online and that's where we found out that the place was no where near where we were told to go, and that the avenue (not street) their entrance is on didn't even extend to where we were told to go - it was cut off by the residential area we saw, instead.
So I fired off an email to the salesman explaining why we didn't make it, expressing our unhappiness, and asking the one question they weren't addressing, even after asking 3 times; did our coverage include the sort of electrical problem we described.
It's been 3 days and he still hasn't answered. I don't think he will.
So now I'm driving around with a van with only one headlight in the front, one set of lights in the back, a break light that pops on and off, sometimes dinging, sometimes not, at random, a left signal that blinks at double time, but not sometimes doesn't turn on at all anymore, and a right signal that sometimes becomes a left signal, then back again on its own. I've already been warned that trying to track down a problem like what we're having can be extremely expensive - and that's before the cost of repair.
Beyond this, I'm really happy with our van. I have no real desire to trade up, though if it would have resulted in lower payments, I would have been okay with that. I'm just ticked that we're not getting our questions answered, and then that weird runaround, and now no contact at all.
Irritating.
Well, I'm feeling myself fall asleep as I type this, so I'd better finish up. Not that I can go for a nap or anything. Time to go do dishes, then dirty them up again to make supper. Assuming I don't get a message from Dh asking for a ride, which I expect will happen within the next half hour.
*sigh*
They didn't.
With our Christmas season soon to kick in (yeah, I know, it isn't even Halloween yet, but I'm a crafter, which means getting started requires more time), things are just going to pick up. Throw in my husband's health issues and Eldest's new job, and I find myself heading out about 3 times a day.
Did I mention Eldest has a new job? :-D
Locally, the job market seems to be picking up dramatically. I'm seeing "help wanted" signs everywhere. Part of it is because businesses are looking for more staff for Christmas, but it started picking up before that could be considered the reason.
Eldest had dropped her resume off at a few art stores, but they haven't been looking for much lately. Then she filled out an online application for Michaels. She specified a store that we usually frequent. A day or two after she finished submitting the online application, she got a call from a different store. They called on a Wednesday, asking if she could come in for a Thursday morning interview. She walked out of the interview with a job! She applied for, and got, a job in receiving. They asked her to come in on the Saturday at noon to do some paperwork, saying it would be about 3 hours. She finished the paperwork after about an hour or so, then they put her to work in the back! Her first shift was 3am on the next Monday, and today she just finished another shift with a 3am start.
The down side of a 3am shift is that the buses stop running at 1:30am and don't start again until 5:30am. Which means I have to drive her. She could take a cab I suppose, but the cost is prohibitive, and we don't exactly have reliable cab service in our city. There are plenty of cabs out there; their service just sucks.
I don't mind driving her, though. I tend to be up late anyhow, and it gives us a chance to chat. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make up for the lost sleep by sleeping in. Whether it's running errands that are time dependant, needing to pick up Dh from work because his back has gone bonkers again, or whatever, I just haven't been able to get any real sleep. The things that need doing aren't a problem; it's just that I'm not getting any chance to catch up on things in between, whether it's my email, my course work or just plain sleep! *L*
My crochet classes are getting sign ups now, though. I had my first official class, and it was a blast. I've got classes booked every week; it's just a matter of getting people to sign up for them. I've finished the first part of my instructor's course and have started on the second part, but with all the running around, I've accomplished little.
We've had some issues with our van, though. Some weird electrical gremlin is affecting our lights, inside and out, and it's getting worse. For the first time in 2 years, I contacted the dealership asking about our coverage for that (if the coverage we paid for does cover it, it'll only cost us our deductible. Otherwise, I have no idea what it will cost to fix), along with a couple other questions. After 2 yrs of no claims against our roadside assistance, we were supposed to get some money back. I was told to talk to the insurance company and they had no idea what I was talking about. What they had was a different type of coverage, and it would require claims free to 2015. Which means if we get our van fixed using our coverage, we lose the rebate.
We were supposed to go into the dealership on Thanksgiving afternoon to talk about that, including the possibility of a trade in (that would allow us to have lower interest rates, though I doubt it would have given us lower payments). The dealership has moved since we bought that van and, while I had a vague idea of where it was, having driven past it some time ago, the salesman gave me directions to the entrance, which isn't on the main road.
We never found the place. His directions sent me someplace else completely. This actually exemplified why I had numerical street systems. Dh tried calling for directions while I drove around, trying to find the street the salesman told me I should take (it turned out to be an avenue), but after following the directions from the receptionist, who somehow got it in her head that we were coming from a different direction, we got to an area that was primarily residential. Dh even used google maps on his phone, which was so vague, I still didn't know where it was supposed to be. We decided to just go home. Dh phone again, this time to leave a message for the salesman we were supposed to meet, but the receptionist couldn't get past his name (a French version of a common English name). He was so pissed, he gave up trying to leave a message and we just went home.
Once home, I looked up the place online and that's where we found out that the place was no where near where we were told to go, and that the avenue (not street) their entrance is on didn't even extend to where we were told to go - it was cut off by the residential area we saw, instead.
So I fired off an email to the salesman explaining why we didn't make it, expressing our unhappiness, and asking the one question they weren't addressing, even after asking 3 times; did our coverage include the sort of electrical problem we described.
It's been 3 days and he still hasn't answered. I don't think he will.
So now I'm driving around with a van with only one headlight in the front, one set of lights in the back, a break light that pops on and off, sometimes dinging, sometimes not, at random, a left signal that blinks at double time, but not sometimes doesn't turn on at all anymore, and a right signal that sometimes becomes a left signal, then back again on its own. I've already been warned that trying to track down a problem like what we're having can be extremely expensive - and that's before the cost of repair.
Beyond this, I'm really happy with our van. I have no real desire to trade up, though if it would have resulted in lower payments, I would have been okay with that. I'm just ticked that we're not getting our questions answered, and then that weird runaround, and now no contact at all.
Irritating.
Well, I'm feeling myself fall asleep as I type this, so I'd better finish up. Not that I can go for a nap or anything. Time to go do dishes, then dirty them up again to make supper. Assuming I don't get a message from Dh asking for a ride, which I expect will happen within the next half hour.
*sigh*
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas
We're in the middle of preparing our Wigilia feast, which seems to be turning out quite wonderfully. The house smells marvelous, and I can't wait to try that goose!
I'd like to take a moment in the middle of all the preparations to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May Christmas be a day of joy and contentment, and may 2011 be a year of health, happiness and prosperity for you and yours.
I'd like to take a moment in the middle of all the preparations to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May Christmas be a day of joy and contentment, and may 2011 be a year of health, happiness and prosperity for you and yours.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Almost ready!
Well, we're almost ready for our Wigilia! The tourtierre are done. We may pick up a few last minute gifts. Otherwise, I've done my wrapping, though the girls have some to do. The goose is thawing out right now, and the rest of the groceries needed will be picked up on the 23rd and the 24th will be spent preparing.
In deciding on a menu this year, we've decided to cut things back a little, even though we've got a 5th person joining us this year. We have a tendency to produce a huge menu that would feed an office party rather than just ourselves. *L* We've dropped the cheese and soup courses completely.
This is what we've decided on for this year.
Appetizers:
Bacon and Cheddar devilled eggs
Fruit plate
Baguette
Salad:
Greek salad
Caesar salad
(we're doing two, as Youngest and I don't like some of the ingredients of a Greek salad, but Dh and Eldest love it)
Entree:
Roast goose, basted with orange juice and red wine (no stuffing)
Tourtierre
Cheesy mashed potatoes
Broccoli, Julia Child's style
Dessert:
Whatever tempts us at the bakery
Drinks:
Cranberry punch (cranberry juice, ginger ale and frozen berries)
Wine; probably a red, but whatever strikes our fancy
Yeah, we're "cheating" with some things. The fruit plate will be something pre-made at the grocery store, and I'm quite content with their bakery offerings. The rest won't require a lot of time or attention. Even the goose won't need a lot, once it's in the oven. The less time spent tending pots and pans, the better! Eldest will be doing the salads and the broccoli. We don't usually cook broccoli, but when I did, I usually either steamed or stir fried it. After watching a Julia Child episode, Eldest was inspired to try out the method (first cooked covered in a small amount of water, then pan fried in garlic and butter). It is SO incredibly good.
I think I'll need to take out those Julia Child dvd's again. We could use some kitchen badassery.
In deciding on a menu this year, we've decided to cut things back a little, even though we've got a 5th person joining us this year. We have a tendency to produce a huge menu that would feed an office party rather than just ourselves. *L* We've dropped the cheese and soup courses completely.
This is what we've decided on for this year.
Appetizers:
Bacon and Cheddar devilled eggs
Fruit plate
Baguette
Salad:
Greek salad
Caesar salad
(we're doing two, as Youngest and I don't like some of the ingredients of a Greek salad, but Dh and Eldest love it)
Entree:
Roast goose, basted with orange juice and red wine (no stuffing)
Tourtierre
Cheesy mashed potatoes
Broccoli, Julia Child's style
Dessert:
Whatever tempts us at the bakery
Drinks:
Cranberry punch (cranberry juice, ginger ale and frozen berries)
Wine; probably a red, but whatever strikes our fancy
Yeah, we're "cheating" with some things. The fruit plate will be something pre-made at the grocery store, and I'm quite content with their bakery offerings. The rest won't require a lot of time or attention. Even the goose won't need a lot, once it's in the oven. The less time spent tending pots and pans, the better! Eldest will be doing the salads and the broccoli. We don't usually cook broccoli, but when I did, I usually either steamed or stir fried it. After watching a Julia Child episode, Eldest was inspired to try out the method (first cooked covered in a small amount of water, then pan fried in garlic and butter). It is SO incredibly good.
I think I'll need to take out those Julia Child dvd's again. We could use some kitchen badassery.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Before I head to bed...
Well, I'm happy to say today's cooking of the tourtierre filling went quite well! Aside from tormenting my eyes with a dozen onions, everything went quite smoothly. After peeling the onions (and keeping the skins for dying eggs at Easter) I had to take a break. Eldest was kind enough to premeasure all the spices and herbs for me while I did, then youngest took care of putting the 24 cloves of garlic through the press for me. I prefer the pressed garlic over the minced garlic for these.
The cooking was actually done by about 6 pm, though it took quite a while longer before it was cool enough to set the pot outside. It was still quite warm, actually - warm enough that I think it would have melted the snow I put it in and we'll be having to yank it loose from ice tomorrow - but it should be okay.
You know, we'd never be able to do this sort of thing any other time of year! For the number of pies we make (I got 24 pounds of meats this year, which should be about 20-22 pies), unless we had a chest freezer, we'd have some serious concerns about safely storing the filling until it cooled down completely. Being able to put the entire pot (or pots, as we've done in the past) outside in temperatures below freezing works out rather well. Then, on baking day, the pies get moved through a series of cooling areas before finally ending up outside. In the end, after they're wrapped up in foil, we put them outside to freeze, leaving them stored in a sealed bin. Without a freezer bigger than whats on our fridge, outside is the only place we can freeze and store them!
We need to decide on our menu very soon. Aside from a goose and tourtierre, we haven't really thought about it. It should be fun!
Before I head off to bed, though (seeing as how it's past 2:30 am as I write this), here are a few photos of this year's Christmas decorations on our tree.
This one was made using glow in the dark yarn and some gold metallic crochet thread twisted together as I wrapped it. The centre is a mostly hidden flower cut out from some scrap booking paper. The stamens are highlighted with gold glitter glue, applied with a fine tipped paintbrush.
This one is made with some leftover alpaca yarn and silver metallic crochet thread. The centre is some blue card stock with a glittery finish, a self adhesive gem and some silver glitter glue to add some extra sparkle.
We made a total of about 30 of these, each one different from the other. Three of them were wrapped "backwards" for an effect I think I actually prefer. I wish I'd thought of it earlier. As it was, I seriously considered cutting out more forms (rather than gluing two squares of cardboard together, as per the instructions at the site I linked to, I cut the start out of foam core) to do more. In the end, I decided we already had more than enough.
We've got so many decorations now, even considering how many we give away every year, we can't fit them all on the tree! I really like our busy, eclectically decorated tree. :-D
The cooking was actually done by about 6 pm, though it took quite a while longer before it was cool enough to set the pot outside. It was still quite warm, actually - warm enough that I think it would have melted the snow I put it in and we'll be having to yank it loose from ice tomorrow - but it should be okay.
You know, we'd never be able to do this sort of thing any other time of year! For the number of pies we make (I got 24 pounds of meats this year, which should be about 20-22 pies), unless we had a chest freezer, we'd have some serious concerns about safely storing the filling until it cooled down completely. Being able to put the entire pot (or pots, as we've done in the past) outside in temperatures below freezing works out rather well. Then, on baking day, the pies get moved through a series of cooling areas before finally ending up outside. In the end, after they're wrapped up in foil, we put them outside to freeze, leaving them stored in a sealed bin. Without a freezer bigger than whats on our fridge, outside is the only place we can freeze and store them!
We need to decide on our menu very soon. Aside from a goose and tourtierre, we haven't really thought about it. It should be fun!
Before I head off to bed, though (seeing as how it's past 2:30 am as I write this), here are a few photos of this year's Christmas decorations on our tree.
We made a total of about 30 of these, each one different from the other. Three of them were wrapped "backwards" for an effect I think I actually prefer. I wish I'd thought of it earlier. As it was, I seriously considered cutting out more forms (rather than gluing two squares of cardboard together, as per the instructions at the site I linked to, I cut the start out of foam core) to do more. In the end, I decided we already had more than enough.
We've got so many decorations now, even considering how many we give away every year, we can't fit them all on the tree! I really like our busy, eclectically decorated tree. :-D
Monday, December 13, 2010
A few brief moments...
It's becoming increasingly difficult to find uninterrupted time to write! I've got a few brief moments now, but from the sounds of things, they won't last long, so we'll see how much I can catch up.
Though I haven't been putting up any library lists lately, it's not for lack of going to the library! Eldest has been going several times a week, sometimes a couple of times a day, even after completing the studies she was working on. As I write this, she and Youngest are there right now and I've got an open invitation to join them for coffee later on, if I want. The branch we use has a Second Cup in the same building, next to their little free art gallery. It's been a great place to get some quality time in together while having all sorts of discussions and doing some people watching, too.
Sadly, in noting the time, I won't be able to join them today. As soon as I finish this, I need to get a stew going. Ah, well. Maybe this evening. :-D
Dh, meanwhile, is home sick today. He seems to have finally caught the stomach bug I suffered with not that long ago. I hope that's not it, because whatever bug I caught, it seems to have completely messed up my digestion on a long term. I'm guessing it effected my intestinal flora in a bad way, because even though I'm feeling fine now, no matter what I eat or how little, I've been suffering from bloat ever since. Dh has enough problems without that on top of it! Either way, he's just gone back to bed.
Raider King is still living with us. He's still looking for work and has a job interview coming up, which is encouraging.
As a family, we're slowly trying to get ready for Christmas. This year's Christmas decorations are based on these instructions. They went over so well that both girls ended up making some, and even Raider King made a few as gifts for his family.
Our tree is up, as well as a few decorations, but very little else; a frustration of mine. We're also behind on getting our yearly group photo that I use to make our digital Christmas cards. It was supposed to be done yesterday, but between people being sick, in pain or just plain snarly, it just didn't happen. It was going to instead happen today, with the girls and I meeting Dh near his office during lunch and getting some outdoor shots, but with him home sick, that's out. So I have no idea when we'll get the photo taken now.
I've pre-ordered the meats for our tourtierre (24 pounds this year) and will be picking it up on friday. We'll be baking like crazy over the weekend. If things work out, we'll freeze a few and mail them to Dh's parents through Express Post. Packed properly, they should still be frozen when they arrive, but even if they're partly thawed, it just means they can eat them faster. :-D
While ordering our meats I looked into getting a suckling pig, having been inspired by watching old Julie Child shows. She recommended a 10-12 pound pig, which would be more than enough for the 5 of us. No such luck! The smallest available was 30-45 pounds. I don't think our oven is even big enough for a pig that size, and it would be way too much for so few people.
So what I'll most likely do, then, is a goose. I've never done goose before, and it's not the same as other birds. One of the things I've learned while reading various cookbooks was that the skin needs to be pierced to allow the fat to drain. The one time my mother cooked domestic goose, we found it so fatty, it was almost inedible. I now suspect she didn't know about the skin piercing thing. Having so successfully cooked a Canada Goose previously, it never occurred to any of us that a domestic goose would need to be treated differently.
Well, I've just lost my quiet time. Oh, well. At least I got this much done. :-P Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up more soon.
Though I haven't been putting up any library lists lately, it's not for lack of going to the library! Eldest has been going several times a week, sometimes a couple of times a day, even after completing the studies she was working on. As I write this, she and Youngest are there right now and I've got an open invitation to join them for coffee later on, if I want. The branch we use has a Second Cup in the same building, next to their little free art gallery. It's been a great place to get some quality time in together while having all sorts of discussions and doing some people watching, too.
Sadly, in noting the time, I won't be able to join them today. As soon as I finish this, I need to get a stew going. Ah, well. Maybe this evening. :-D
Dh, meanwhile, is home sick today. He seems to have finally caught the stomach bug I suffered with not that long ago. I hope that's not it, because whatever bug I caught, it seems to have completely messed up my digestion on a long term. I'm guessing it effected my intestinal flora in a bad way, because even though I'm feeling fine now, no matter what I eat or how little, I've been suffering from bloat ever since. Dh has enough problems without that on top of it! Either way, he's just gone back to bed.
Raider King is still living with us. He's still looking for work and has a job interview coming up, which is encouraging.
As a family, we're slowly trying to get ready for Christmas. This year's Christmas decorations are based on these instructions. They went over so well that both girls ended up making some, and even Raider King made a few as gifts for his family.
Our tree is up, as well as a few decorations, but very little else; a frustration of mine. We're also behind on getting our yearly group photo that I use to make our digital Christmas cards. It was supposed to be done yesterday, but between people being sick, in pain or just plain snarly, it just didn't happen. It was going to instead happen today, with the girls and I meeting Dh near his office during lunch and getting some outdoor shots, but with him home sick, that's out. So I have no idea when we'll get the photo taken now.
I've pre-ordered the meats for our tourtierre (24 pounds this year) and will be picking it up on friday. We'll be baking like crazy over the weekend. If things work out, we'll freeze a few and mail them to Dh's parents through Express Post. Packed properly, they should still be frozen when they arrive, but even if they're partly thawed, it just means they can eat them faster. :-D
While ordering our meats I looked into getting a suckling pig, having been inspired by watching old Julie Child shows. She recommended a 10-12 pound pig, which would be more than enough for the 5 of us. No such luck! The smallest available was 30-45 pounds. I don't think our oven is even big enough for a pig that size, and it would be way too much for so few people.
So what I'll most likely do, then, is a goose. I've never done goose before, and it's not the same as other birds. One of the things I've learned while reading various cookbooks was that the skin needs to be pierced to allow the fat to drain. The one time my mother cooked domestic goose, we found it so fatty, it was almost inedible. I now suspect she didn't know about the skin piercing thing. Having so successfully cooked a Canada Goose previously, it never occurred to any of us that a domestic goose would need to be treated differently.
Well, I've just lost my quiet time. Oh, well. At least I got this much done. :-P Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up more soon.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Unexpected changes and opportunities
The last few days have seen a few changes and stuff outside our normal routine. The first major change was some bad news for Raider King. He and Dh have both been home sick a lot with some sort of nasty bug - one that a lot of people seem to be fighting, but which the girls and I have managed to avoid. Unlike Dh, Raider King's health troubles did what we're always slightly afraid will happen to Dh. He lost his job. He'd only been there a couple of months. So now he's back to job hunting. He had been looking for his own place, using the savings he's managed so far, and had some good leads, but I told him not to worry about it until he's actually got an income again.
I got all autocratic on my family recently, booking medical appointments for all of us. Dh has been procrastinating getting the medical release his physiotherapist wanted to see before doing any more work on his back and Eldest has been looking at the possibility of being gluten intolerant. None of us have gone for physicals in ages, so I booked appointments for all of us. We had to split it up between two days, with Eldest having her appointment this morning. Our appointments were supposed to be me, Dh, then Youngest, over the cours of 1 1/2 hours. Youngest, who wasn't comfortable with the whole thing, came in with me for my physical (we skipped a certain invasive examination in the process). Our doctor ended up just getting her file and doing her physical right after, then he saw Dh, and we were done before the time Youngest's appointment was booked. Kinda nice, when it goes all so smoothly. We've all been written up for blood tests, plus Dh is to get a chest Xray because of the cough he's been having so much troubles with lately (and the reason he's been missing more work lately). No appointments necessary, and all can be done in the same place, so the next time Dh can take a morning off, we'll spend a night fasting and all go in at once.
After this morning's appointment, I dropped Eldest off at the library so she could do her studies. Today, she was focusing on feet. She's a bit perturbed by the differences between the reference images and real feet and hands, though. The length of the fingers and toes, space between them, even the directions they lean, all seem off to her in the books. The toes on the men's feet, for example, were all sort of leaning inwards towards the big toe in the reference photos, but when looking at our own feet, they don't do that. I thought perhaps it was because we never wear fashionable pointed toe shoes - ever. It's a possibility, anyhow.
Youngest, meanwhile, is going to be doing some hair modelling soon. Through one of the local home schooling families, we've been in contact with a woman who it taking a beautician course. Students always need real heads to practice on, and she's got exams coming up. Youngest has long thick hair that's never been dyed, so next week she'll be having her hair and make up done. The woman doing it has to do 5 different upswept styles, plus make up. I think we'll have to split it between two days, but we'll see how long it actually takes. As I was chatting with her, we got to talking about commercial colours. She told me how, since taking this course, she now will never use boxed home dying kits - some pretty nasty stuff in them, apparently. I told her Eldest is currently bright pink, and it turns out she and I both have also gone quite the variety of bright colours. I mentioned my own hair is currently half coloured - I'd used henna to colour my hair, but the store I found the powder in no longer seems to carry it. I haven't found another place that sells it yet - at least not just the powder. I've found some mendhi kits, but I just want the powder. Anyhow, my hair has grown out quite a bit since then and is quite long, but the henna colour is still very much there, so I'm half a red-head right now. *L* I mentioned it in jest, but I seemed to get her wheels turning, because she started saying that perhaps she could colour my hair for me - something else she needs to be tested on. We'll see how that works out once we finally meet in person. Should be interesting. I've got very thin hair and it's going silver, which requires different time and attention than she might have available. Some of her tests have to be done at the school within a time limit, but the work she'll be doing on Youngest is actually for her employer, and she can do it in her own home. She just has to get all 5 styles done and photographed by Dec. 6. I might even be doing the photography for her, as she was planning to use her little point-and-shoot. It should be interesting.
Another recent event has been a spice mix exchange we hosted in our co-op. Counting myself and Eldest, 7 people took part, so we all ended up with 7 different spice mixes. We decided on having 1 cup of each mix per person. The recipes, of course, didn't come in even 1 cup quantities, so we all had to recalculate our quantities. The recipes were all in Imperial measurements, so we had to figure out things like how many teaspoons in a tablespoon (3), how many tablespoons in a teaspoon (16), work out how much we had to increase our recipes to get 7 cups, then work out how much each ingredient had to be increase individually. What I found funny is how we'd go from fractions to decimals and back again. Then, when it came time to actually but the spices, everything is sold in metric quantities. It could get rather confusing! One of the participants did an extra mix for her husband, who'd made a mistake calculating one of his ingredients, and she ended up way too short. Thankfully, I had enough at home I could give her.
We all got together at one of the multi-purpose rooms at our co-op, where there was plenty of space to spread out, then put together our mixes while drinking tea, having cookies and chatting. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we did it. I'll be jarring some of them up to make gift sets, but we've also been using them in our own cooking. I'll have to share some of the recipes here later on. :-D
The next few days should be a little more routine. We do need to get going on some of our Christmas plans. I'm not sure how we'll rearrange the living room this year to fit the tree, since we've got a couple of armchairs now. We've also got to get started on this year's Christmas decorations soon. I've got stuff to crochet for a craft sale first, though.
Speaking of crochet, Youngest has been rather productive. She made a great scarf for Raider King in a fluffy pink yarn he picked out. She's making another giant blanket for herself, all in variegated yarns, plus she's starting another shawl. This will be the first shawl she's making for herself. All the others have been gifts. It's been a bit difficult for either of us to get the work done, though, since our usual work space is now Raider King's bed. *L*
Tomorrow is our regular errand running day, so I expect to be quite busy. I don't like running around, but it needs to be done. :-P I like things when they're quiet and boring! *L*
I got all autocratic on my family recently, booking medical appointments for all of us. Dh has been procrastinating getting the medical release his physiotherapist wanted to see before doing any more work on his back and Eldest has been looking at the possibility of being gluten intolerant. None of us have gone for physicals in ages, so I booked appointments for all of us. We had to split it up between two days, with Eldest having her appointment this morning. Our appointments were supposed to be me, Dh, then Youngest, over the cours of 1 1/2 hours. Youngest, who wasn't comfortable with the whole thing, came in with me for my physical (we skipped a certain invasive examination in the process). Our doctor ended up just getting her file and doing her physical right after, then he saw Dh, and we were done before the time Youngest's appointment was booked. Kinda nice, when it goes all so smoothly. We've all been written up for blood tests, plus Dh is to get a chest Xray because of the cough he's been having so much troubles with lately (and the reason he's been missing more work lately). No appointments necessary, and all can be done in the same place, so the next time Dh can take a morning off, we'll spend a night fasting and all go in at once.
After this morning's appointment, I dropped Eldest off at the library so she could do her studies. Today, she was focusing on feet. She's a bit perturbed by the differences between the reference images and real feet and hands, though. The length of the fingers and toes, space between them, even the directions they lean, all seem off to her in the books. The toes on the men's feet, for example, were all sort of leaning inwards towards the big toe in the reference photos, but when looking at our own feet, they don't do that. I thought perhaps it was because we never wear fashionable pointed toe shoes - ever. It's a possibility, anyhow.
Youngest, meanwhile, is going to be doing some hair modelling soon. Through one of the local home schooling families, we've been in contact with a woman who it taking a beautician course. Students always need real heads to practice on, and she's got exams coming up. Youngest has long thick hair that's never been dyed, so next week she'll be having her hair and make up done. The woman doing it has to do 5 different upswept styles, plus make up. I think we'll have to split it between two days, but we'll see how long it actually takes. As I was chatting with her, we got to talking about commercial colours. She told me how, since taking this course, she now will never use boxed home dying kits - some pretty nasty stuff in them, apparently. I told her Eldest is currently bright pink, and it turns out she and I both have also gone quite the variety of bright colours. I mentioned my own hair is currently half coloured - I'd used henna to colour my hair, but the store I found the powder in no longer seems to carry it. I haven't found another place that sells it yet - at least not just the powder. I've found some mendhi kits, but I just want the powder. Anyhow, my hair has grown out quite a bit since then and is quite long, but the henna colour is still very much there, so I'm half a red-head right now. *L* I mentioned it in jest, but I seemed to get her wheels turning, because she started saying that perhaps she could colour my hair for me - something else she needs to be tested on. We'll see how that works out once we finally meet in person. Should be interesting. I've got very thin hair and it's going silver, which requires different time and attention than she might have available. Some of her tests have to be done at the school within a time limit, but the work she'll be doing on Youngest is actually for her employer, and she can do it in her own home. She just has to get all 5 styles done and photographed by Dec. 6. I might even be doing the photography for her, as she was planning to use her little point-and-shoot. It should be interesting.
Another recent event has been a spice mix exchange we hosted in our co-op. Counting myself and Eldest, 7 people took part, so we all ended up with 7 different spice mixes. We decided on having 1 cup of each mix per person. The recipes, of course, didn't come in even 1 cup quantities, so we all had to recalculate our quantities. The recipes were all in Imperial measurements, so we had to figure out things like how many teaspoons in a tablespoon (3), how many tablespoons in a teaspoon (16), work out how much we had to increase our recipes to get 7 cups, then work out how much each ingredient had to be increase individually. What I found funny is how we'd go from fractions to decimals and back again. Then, when it came time to actually but the spices, everything is sold in metric quantities. It could get rather confusing! One of the participants did an extra mix for her husband, who'd made a mistake calculating one of his ingredients, and she ended up way too short. Thankfully, I had enough at home I could give her.
We all got together at one of the multi-purpose rooms at our co-op, where there was plenty of space to spread out, then put together our mixes while drinking tea, having cookies and chatting. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we did it. I'll be jarring some of them up to make gift sets, but we've also been using them in our own cooking. I'll have to share some of the recipes here later on. :-D
The next few days should be a little more routine. We do need to get going on some of our Christmas plans. I'm not sure how we'll rearrange the living room this year to fit the tree, since we've got a couple of armchairs now. We've also got to get started on this year's Christmas decorations soon. I've got stuff to crochet for a craft sale first, though.
Speaking of crochet, Youngest has been rather productive. She made a great scarf for Raider King in a fluffy pink yarn he picked out. She's making another giant blanket for herself, all in variegated yarns, plus she's starting another shawl. This will be the first shawl she's making for herself. All the others have been gifts. It's been a bit difficult for either of us to get the work done, though, since our usual work space is now Raider King's bed. *L*
Tomorrow is our regular errand running day, so I expect to be quite busy. I don't like running around, but it needs to be done. :-P I like things when they're quiet and boring! *L*
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Aftermath
Christmas has come and gone, though for us the season continues until Jan. 6. This being Boxing Day, we're making a point of staying well away from stores! ;-)
Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We stretched our Wiglia meal from somewhere before 7pm to past 11:30. During one of the breaks between courses, Dh had time for a short nap. *L* The Scallop Shumai turned out all right - Eldest and Dh liked them the most. I'm not a seafood lover, so to me they were just okay, and Youngest wasn't too keen on them... which suited Dh and Eldest just fine. :-D I managed to NOT cut my fingers off while chopping the shrimp, but not for lack of trying. *L* I have a noteable chunk of my index fingernail missing now, and an annoying little slice on the side of my thumb that keeps catching on things.
Ah, the joys of cooking! *L*
The appetizer course also included a cheese plate. Along with some tried and true favourites (havarti, gouda and brie), we tried a new artisanal goat cheese. Mon âme est aux Terres de Portneuf ce que mon coeur d'artisan est fromage. The goat cheese was coated in ash. I figured the ash might lend a saltiness to it. I was wrong. No, this method brought out the painful side of ash. It was extremely acidic. Strangely, Eldest developed a taste for it, though it needs to be eating rather carefully! *L* We also had a variety of olives to nibble on. Plain black olives, caper stuffed green olives (way too salty!), and cheese stuffed green olives (quite nice). There were pickled onions (very harsh and vinegary: I'll have to remember to stay away from this type in the future) and tiny pickles (much sweeter than I expected!) with fruit, sourdough bread, a baguette and olive and cheedar bread. To drink, we had warm apple and cranberry juice (about a 50/50 mix) heated in the slower cooker with whole cloves, a few cinnamon sticks and some nutmeg. We fished out as much of the spices as we could when it reached a flavour we liked, after a few hours in the slow cooker.
After a break to digest, Eldest made her Greek Salad. We were still pretty full, so it was after this course that we took an even longer break and Dh got his nap in. *L* After that we had the ham (falling off the bone tender!), garlic mashed potatoes and tourtierre, and the roasted leek and apple dish. That was the one thing that could be considered a failure. It was *really* sweet. Even though it used only one apple, it dominated the dish, while the leek flavour just sorta disappeared. I wouldn't mind trying it again without the apple, though.
When we were done with that, we waited long enough for the whipped cream to be made. It was sweetened only with the crushed candy canes. It was all right, but not something I'd want to do again. Probably because we're just not really fans of candy canes in this household. *L* The apple pie, however, was really good. Youngest and Dh didn't actually have any. She doesn't like apple pie or whipped cream, and Dh figured he'd screwed his blood sugars up enough already. *L* So Eldest and I get the pies all to ourselves. Mind you, there were also chocolates (boxed mix), cookies (we actually bought those as much for the tin as for the cookies) and brownies for sweets, too. Those actually didn't see a lot of action. The chocolates are gone by the end of Christmas Day, but there are still plenty of cookies and brownies.
After we finished eating, we relaxed for a while until midnight, then opened our gifts. I am so glad I set up the video camera to film this! The kids were pretty excited about their gifts. We got Youngest a stereo CD player. She's needed one to practise her singing in her room, but we have had the worst luck with basic portable players. The CD players on all of them never seem to last more than a couple of months. The radio's continue to work fine, but we really don't listen to radio. With that in mind, we sprung for a higher end system that I really hope will last her a while. I've been hearing her singing in her room for the past two days now. :-D
As much as she liked that, she was even more excited over the carved rosewood crochet hook and skeins of Peruvian wool yarn we got for her. *L* Gosh, it's so much fun watching the kids unwrap their gifts. With the hook, all she could do was squeak in excitement, and she was literally speechless when she unwrapped the yarn.
Those where the highlights of Youngest's gifts. Eldest was just as fun. We got her several books, including Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and The Zombie Survival Guide (I may be remembering the Zombie title wrong). Then there was the big, hardcover reference book simply called Birds. The remote control spider robot was a hit, too.
Dh's gifts were much enjoyed. Some were hobby related, like the photography book on family portraiture. I think he had the most fun with the Hickory Farms kit Youngest bought for him, with sausages, cheeses, etc., complete with a mini-cleaver. She got it because of the cleaver. It's adorable! *L*
The highlight of my own gifts was most definitely an autographed copy of Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks! I love cookbooks that you can read to start with, but throw in some amazing photography and Pioneer Woman's fantastic sense of humour, and I'm totally hooked! I keep reaching for it and flipping through the pages. I'm really looking forward to trying some of those recipes!
After the gift opening, it was off to bed. In the morning, we had our stockings waiting for us for a few more gifts, then a quiet Christmas day. We've been drinking a lot of tea lately - one of Eldest's gifts was a tea chest, so we're working through all the flavours. The days are sunny and relatively warm - after the Arctic deep freeze and snow we've been having, our current -6C is practically t-shirt weather - so I'm hoping we'll get a chance to head out somewhere and do some exploring and picture taking.
There's still New Year's to celebrate, and finally, Three Kings Day. Dh doesn't even have to go back to work until the 4th, which is kinda nice. :-D
Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We stretched our Wiglia meal from somewhere before 7pm to past 11:30. During one of the breaks between courses, Dh had time for a short nap. *L* The Scallop Shumai turned out all right - Eldest and Dh liked them the most. I'm not a seafood lover, so to me they were just okay, and Youngest wasn't too keen on them... which suited Dh and Eldest just fine. :-D I managed to NOT cut my fingers off while chopping the shrimp, but not for lack of trying. *L* I have a noteable chunk of my index fingernail missing now, and an annoying little slice on the side of my thumb that keeps catching on things.
Ah, the joys of cooking! *L*
The appetizer course also included a cheese plate. Along with some tried and true favourites (havarti, gouda and brie), we tried a new artisanal goat cheese. Mon âme est aux Terres de Portneuf ce que mon coeur d'artisan est fromage. The goat cheese was coated in ash. I figured the ash might lend a saltiness to it. I was wrong. No, this method brought out the painful side of ash. It was extremely acidic. Strangely, Eldest developed a taste for it, though it needs to be eating rather carefully! *L* We also had a variety of olives to nibble on. Plain black olives, caper stuffed green olives (way too salty!), and cheese stuffed green olives (quite nice). There were pickled onions (very harsh and vinegary: I'll have to remember to stay away from this type in the future) and tiny pickles (much sweeter than I expected!) with fruit, sourdough bread, a baguette and olive and cheedar bread. To drink, we had warm apple and cranberry juice (about a 50/50 mix) heated in the slower cooker with whole cloves, a few cinnamon sticks and some nutmeg. We fished out as much of the spices as we could when it reached a flavour we liked, after a few hours in the slow cooker.
After a break to digest, Eldest made her Greek Salad. We were still pretty full, so it was after this course that we took an even longer break and Dh got his nap in. *L* After that we had the ham (falling off the bone tender!), garlic mashed potatoes and tourtierre, and the roasted leek and apple dish. That was the one thing that could be considered a failure. It was *really* sweet. Even though it used only one apple, it dominated the dish, while the leek flavour just sorta disappeared. I wouldn't mind trying it again without the apple, though.
When we were done with that, we waited long enough for the whipped cream to be made. It was sweetened only with the crushed candy canes. It was all right, but not something I'd want to do again. Probably because we're just not really fans of candy canes in this household. *L* The apple pie, however, was really good. Youngest and Dh didn't actually have any. She doesn't like apple pie or whipped cream, and Dh figured he'd screwed his blood sugars up enough already. *L* So Eldest and I get the pies all to ourselves. Mind you, there were also chocolates (boxed mix), cookies (we actually bought those as much for the tin as for the cookies) and brownies for sweets, too. Those actually didn't see a lot of action. The chocolates are gone by the end of Christmas Day, but there are still plenty of cookies and brownies.
After we finished eating, we relaxed for a while until midnight, then opened our gifts. I am so glad I set up the video camera to film this! The kids were pretty excited about their gifts. We got Youngest a stereo CD player. She's needed one to practise her singing in her room, but we have had the worst luck with basic portable players. The CD players on all of them never seem to last more than a couple of months. The radio's continue to work fine, but we really don't listen to radio. With that in mind, we sprung for a higher end system that I really hope will last her a while. I've been hearing her singing in her room for the past two days now. :-D
As much as she liked that, she was even more excited over the carved rosewood crochet hook and skeins of Peruvian wool yarn we got for her. *L* Gosh, it's so much fun watching the kids unwrap their gifts. With the hook, all she could do was squeak in excitement, and she was literally speechless when she unwrapped the yarn.
Those where the highlights of Youngest's gifts. Eldest was just as fun. We got her several books, including Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and The Zombie Survival Guide (I may be remembering the Zombie title wrong). Then there was the big, hardcover reference book simply called Birds. The remote control spider robot was a hit, too.
Dh's gifts were much enjoyed. Some were hobby related, like the photography book on family portraiture. I think he had the most fun with the Hickory Farms kit Youngest bought for him, with sausages, cheeses, etc., complete with a mini-cleaver. She got it because of the cleaver. It's adorable! *L*
The highlight of my own gifts was most definitely an autographed copy of Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks! I love cookbooks that you can read to start with, but throw in some amazing photography and Pioneer Woman's fantastic sense of humour, and I'm totally hooked! I keep reaching for it and flipping through the pages. I'm really looking forward to trying some of those recipes!
After the gift opening, it was off to bed. In the morning, we had our stockings waiting for us for a few more gifts, then a quiet Christmas day. We've been drinking a lot of tea lately - one of Eldest's gifts was a tea chest, so we're working through all the flavours. The days are sunny and relatively warm - after the Arctic deep freeze and snow we've been having, our current -6C is practically t-shirt weather - so I'm hoping we'll get a chance to head out somewhere and do some exploring and picture taking.
There's still New Year's to celebrate, and finally, Three Kings Day. Dh doesn't even have to go back to work until the 4th, which is kinda nice. :-D
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
So close!
Just a couple more days before we start celebrating Wigilia. Today, the girls and I did the food shopping. The only thing we'll have left is getting the lettuce for the salad and the fresh shrimp and scallops - though it looks like we'll have to go with frozen scallops, at least. I asked at the grocery store today and was told they won't be getting more fresh scallops until after New Years - the suppliers are out. With that in mind, we'll be picking up frozen scallops tomorrow, rather than waiting for Christmas Eve morning.
We'll need to time some things out rather carefully. The apple pie(s?) will be baked tomorrow. I'll be starting the ham early in the day, as I'll need the oven for the roasted leeks and apple dish. The ham can be kept warm more easily than a vegetable dish. Of course, we'll need the oven to heat up the tourtierre, as well. The hot spiced apple drink can be done in the slow cooker, so all we'll lose there is counter space.
I do still need to look for more stocking stuffers for Christmas morning. I'll make a run out again sometime after Dh gets home from work. I'll have to remember the plug the van in for the night, too - we're dipping below -20C tonight.
I am hoping to post a couple of recipes in the next day or so. If not, I don't expect to post again until after Christmas. We'll see how it goes. :-D
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and health, wealth and happiness in the coming New Year!
We'll need to time some things out rather carefully. The apple pie(s?) will be baked tomorrow. I'll be starting the ham early in the day, as I'll need the oven for the roasted leeks and apple dish. The ham can be kept warm more easily than a vegetable dish. Of course, we'll need the oven to heat up the tourtierre, as well. The hot spiced apple drink can be done in the slow cooker, so all we'll lose there is counter space.
I do still need to look for more stocking stuffers for Christmas morning. I'll make a run out again sometime after Dh gets home from work. I'll have to remember the plug the van in for the night, too - we're dipping below -20C tonight.
I am hoping to post a couple of recipes in the next day or so. If not, I don't expect to post again until after Christmas. We'll see how it goes. :-D
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and health, wealth and happiness in the coming New Year!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Our Menu
The girls and I have worked out the menu plan for this year's Wigilia. Traditional, it's not! LOL!
Here's what we've worked out.
Appetizer: Scallop Shumai
recipe from: The World in Bite Size
It's a combination of chopped fresh shrimp and whole scallops in won ton wrappers that are steamed.
Salad: Greek Salad
(no recipe)
I wanted either a soup or salad for the second course. Usually, we have a soup, then a salad with the entree. The soup we usually had would be something like a clam chowder, which I found too heavy. So my restriction with a soup was that if we had one, it would be something light. Instead, Eldest suggested she could make a Greek Salad. She makes an excellent Greek Salad, so we're going with that. :-D
Entree:
Baked ham studded with whole cloves, roasted with apple juice.
Tourtierre (this year, our filling mix included elk!)
Garlic mashed potoatos with cheese (Youngest asked for this one. :-D )
Roasted Leeks & Apple
The roasted leeks is a recipe from The Philosopher's Kitchen and includes white wine, honey, marjoram and anise seed with the apple and leeks.
Dessert: home made apple pie
I use a recipe modifed slightly from one in Treasury of Country Recipes that is incredible. I'm not actually a big apple pie fan, but this one is an exception! We'll be baking this in the next couple of days. Eldest recommended we try it with a whipped cream with crushed candy canes in it. Should be interesting. :-D
Drinks
hot drink: Spiced apple and cranberry juice
(no recipe)
cold drink: Cranberry and ginger ale punch
(no recipe)
Along with this, we're going to have a cheese plate, fruit, and little nibblies like olives, tiny pickles, pickled onions and whatever else I see that looks good. Hmmm... maybe we can do a fondue? The kids love that. :-D
I'll have to see what nice breads I can pick up, too. The breads, lettuce and seafood won't be picked up until the last minute - Christmas Eve morning, if I can swing it that late. Otherwise, the night before.
I figure by the time we finish the feast, it'll be midnight or so. *L* It easily takes us several hours to finish it, as we take our time with each course.
The family is debating whether or not we're going to Midnight Mass this year. We're not practising Catholics at all, but Midnight Mass is something special. We've got a Catholic church just up the block from us now, but I have no idea what they're got scheduled, if anything. We'll see how that works out.
Either way, I'm looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home!
Here's what we've worked out.
Appetizer: Scallop Shumai
recipe from: The World in Bite Size
It's a combination of chopped fresh shrimp and whole scallops in won ton wrappers that are steamed.
Salad: Greek Salad
(no recipe)
I wanted either a soup or salad for the second course. Usually, we have a soup, then a salad with the entree. The soup we usually had would be something like a clam chowder, which I found too heavy. So my restriction with a soup was that if we had one, it would be something light. Instead, Eldest suggested she could make a Greek Salad. She makes an excellent Greek Salad, so we're going with that. :-D
Entree:
Baked ham studded with whole cloves, roasted with apple juice.
Tourtierre (this year, our filling mix included elk!)
Garlic mashed potoatos with cheese (Youngest asked for this one. :-D )
Roasted Leeks & Apple
The roasted leeks is a recipe from The Philosopher's Kitchen and includes white wine, honey, marjoram and anise seed with the apple and leeks.
Dessert: home made apple pie
I use a recipe modifed slightly from one in Treasury of Country Recipes that is incredible. I'm not actually a big apple pie fan, but this one is an exception! We'll be baking this in the next couple of days. Eldest recommended we try it with a whipped cream with crushed candy canes in it. Should be interesting. :-D
Drinks
hot drink: Spiced apple and cranberry juice
(no recipe)
cold drink: Cranberry and ginger ale punch
(no recipe)
Along with this, we're going to have a cheese plate, fruit, and little nibblies like olives, tiny pickles, pickled onions and whatever else I see that looks good. Hmmm... maybe we can do a fondue? The kids love that. :-D
I'll have to see what nice breads I can pick up, too. The breads, lettuce and seafood won't be picked up until the last minute - Christmas Eve morning, if I can swing it that late. Otherwise, the night before.
I figure by the time we finish the feast, it'll be midnight or so. *L* It easily takes us several hours to finish it, as we take our time with each course.
The family is debating whether or not we're going to Midnight Mass this year. We're not practising Catholics at all, but Midnight Mass is something special. We've got a Catholic church just up the block from us now, but I have no idea what they're got scheduled, if anything. We'll see how that works out.
Either way, I'm looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Getting in the Christmas spirit
Today, the girls and I decorated the Christmas tree. It has actually been up for a couple of days, but we had to get rid of an extra couch - a friend of mine was able to make use of it - and rearrange the living room. While Eldest and I delivered the couch, Dh and Youngest moved furniture around so that the tree could fit right in the corner. Since it's covered on two sides by walls, that meant we only need to decorate the front half. There isn't a lot of room there. We pulled it away from the corner and Eldest helped me put on the lights and garlands, with one of us in the corner and the other in front, passing things back and forth. Once that was done, we pushed it back in, then did the front. I asked Youngest if she wanted to help, but she pointed out there really wasn't any room for her to be in there, too, so she went back to using her bead loom. :-D
Looking at the tree as I write this, I find it seems to be tilting to one side quite a bit. That's never been an issue before. Could our floor really be that much uneven?
Now that the tree is up, we can work on decorating the rest of the house. The tree has LED lights, but I still have my old strings of lights that can go around windows or something. The girls can decorate their rooms, too. At some point, I'll have things organized enough that we can position the couch and armchair in places we won't want to move them from until after the tree is down again.
Today was also the day I got to open my first Advent gift exchange gift. I've become a member of a local crafter's group and a bunch of us signed up for an exchange. The person organizing it paired off the people who signed up for it. Once we had our partners, we filled out questionaires for each other, sharing things like what our favourite (and least favourite) colours are, what kinds of crafting we like to do, what music or books we like, etc. Then we each had to buy 24 small gifts (maximum $5 each) and 1 large (maximum #24) gift. My partner actually numbered all the gifts! Much more ambitious than me. *L* Mind you, she also had 2 others she was collecting for, as she was doing exchanges for her kids, too, so labelling was necessary. I just made sure the last gift had something different about it. I did consider numbering them, but aside from the last gift, it really didn't matter too much what order they were opened in.
Today, I got a set of transparent decorative balls that looked like they would go on a tree, except that the "confetti" inside was meant to dissolve in bathwater for a luxurious soak. What a cute idea! She got them at Michaels and, even though I've been there several times recently, I had never seen them. I look forward to trying them. :-D
Meanwhile, I've been trying to place an order for our tourtierre meats. I want to have the meat by friday, so we can make them this weekend, but I haven't been able to get through to the butcher. I did leave a message saying I wanted to place an order, but no one's called back. Looks like I'll have to do it in person. For this year, I think we'll do Elk for the game portion of our pies. We're planning to do two dozen pies this year, so we're looking at 24 pounds of ground meats. I need to figure out what I'll use to cook them. I might have to buy a new pot. At my in-laws, we'd use my MIL's roaster and lid (which could double as a second roaster on its own), each over 2 elements. I have two roasters, but our oven is bigger than hers, so they can't straddle two elements. I've seen some big, deep pots that should work, but at $80 - and that's the cheap price! - it's pretty expensive for a pot I'll only use once a year. We did 12 pounds of meat last year, and it just fit in one roaster (we hadn't bought the second one yet), with barely enough room to stir it, so I know using what we have now will be a pain. I really do need something else. I just hate spending money if I think I can get away without.*L*
Looking at the tree as I write this, I find it seems to be tilting to one side quite a bit. That's never been an issue before. Could our floor really be that much uneven?
Now that the tree is up, we can work on decorating the rest of the house. The tree has LED lights, but I still have my old strings of lights that can go around windows or something. The girls can decorate their rooms, too. At some point, I'll have things organized enough that we can position the couch and armchair in places we won't want to move them from until after the tree is down again.
Today was also the day I got to open my first Advent gift exchange gift. I've become a member of a local crafter's group and a bunch of us signed up for an exchange. The person organizing it paired off the people who signed up for it. Once we had our partners, we filled out questionaires for each other, sharing things like what our favourite (and least favourite) colours are, what kinds of crafting we like to do, what music or books we like, etc. Then we each had to buy 24 small gifts (maximum $5 each) and 1 large (maximum #24) gift. My partner actually numbered all the gifts! Much more ambitious than me. *L* Mind you, she also had 2 others she was collecting for, as she was doing exchanges for her kids, too, so labelling was necessary. I just made sure the last gift had something different about it. I did consider numbering them, but aside from the last gift, it really didn't matter too much what order they were opened in.
Today, I got a set of transparent decorative balls that looked like they would go on a tree, except that the "confetti" inside was meant to dissolve in bathwater for a luxurious soak. What a cute idea! She got them at Michaels and, even though I've been there several times recently, I had never seen them. I look forward to trying them. :-D
Meanwhile, I've been trying to place an order for our tourtierre meats. I want to have the meat by friday, so we can make them this weekend, but I haven't been able to get through to the butcher. I did leave a message saying I wanted to place an order, but no one's called back. Looks like I'll have to do it in person. For this year, I think we'll do Elk for the game portion of our pies. We're planning to do two dozen pies this year, so we're looking at 24 pounds of ground meats. I need to figure out what I'll use to cook them. I might have to buy a new pot. At my in-laws, we'd use my MIL's roaster and lid (which could double as a second roaster on its own), each over 2 elements. I have two roasters, but our oven is bigger than hers, so they can't straddle two elements. I've seen some big, deep pots that should work, but at $80 - and that's the cheap price! - it's pretty expensive for a pot I'll only use once a year. We did 12 pounds of meat last year, and it just fit in one roaster (we hadn't bought the second one yet), with barely enough room to stir it, so I know using what we have now will be a pain. I really do need something else. I just hate spending money if I think I can get away without.*L*
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Happy New Year
Another year, come and gone. Where does the time fly? It's hard to believe we've been living where we are for over 3 years now. It's almost the longest I've lived in any one place since I left the farm at 18. We never expected to be in this apartment for so long. We'd expected to be in our own house - or at least a bigger rental - within the first year. Life never turns out the way you expect, does it?
I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's. Of course, there are still those waiting to celebrate Orthodox Christmas this month, and Chinese New Year is coming up soon. :-D
We stayed home for both Christmas and New Year's this time. Since moving away from our families, we no longer have lots of travelling with big dinners on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We're kind of liking things quiet.
Our Christmas was a bit unusual this year, in that we got a couple of larger, more expensive, gifts for the girls. Usually, we spend about $200-$300 for gifts for all 4 of us, plus the grandparents send money for us to get gifts for the girls. This year, thanks to the generosity of grandparents, we replaced our old Xbox with an Xbox 360. That one is more for Youngest, as she likes gaming on the Xbox more. Plus, we got the remote for it, so it's also our dvd player now. That meant we could pass on our dvd player to the girls to replace the cheap one they had that broke. So they can watch movies on the little 13 in tv they've got in their room again. Since they helped pick the gift, we let them have it early.
The most fun Dh and I had was letting the girls guess what the 5 packages, 3 of them quite large, that made one gift was. We gave them hints. It folded. It used gas. It lit up. It rolled.
It was a drafting table set. If they need the space, they can lift the top a bit, fold in the legs, and let the top drop down. It came with a lamp. There was also a drafting chair, which has gas in the stem for raising/lowering the seat. And, of course, it has wheels. The girls - especially Eldest - really needed it. It was very hard for us to make them wait until Christmas for it.
Oh, and the reason it was 5 packages...
It actually came in 2 packages. One for the desk top, another for everything else. Neither of which fit in the trunk, we discovered. Dh and I managed to get the larger package into the back seat, then the thin table top box into the trunk, tying it down. When we got home, however, we couldn't get it out again. We'd been able to squish the box past the seat to put it in, but it couldn't get the angle to do it again to get it out. After struggling with the box for a while, we finally gave up and simply tore it apart and took it out piece by piece. The parts inside were in 4 smaller boxes, so I ended up with a total of 5 boxes to wrap. I had to find and buy larger wrapping paper to do it, but that's ok. I was running low in my stash.
My own Christmas gift from Dh is going to have to wait. Dh was going to get me a couch. Actually, I told him he was getting me a couch for Christmas. LOL Nothing new, of course. New ones are way too expensive. But we've been looking at couches at a clearance place, and we're planning to see what Goodwill or the Salvation Army might have.
Unfortunately, it's going to have to wait a bit longer. You see, on New Year's night, as we were waiting for midnight, we had out some celebratory snacks. I'd taken a bight of some glorious bread from the Italian grocery store, topped with baked brie with maple syrup and pecans. So delicious! The crust on the bread was quite chewy, and as I took my first bight and started to chew, I heard/felt a strange pop in my upper jaw.
I broke a tooth.
It cracked in half, lengthwise. The whole inside of the tooth is loose and wiggles around. I could probably pull that part out with my fingers, if I were into that sort of thing. This is one of those weird times where I'm glad I had a root canal done, though it's likely the root canal that made it weak enough to crack in the first place. The tooth doesn't have any nerves in it, so there's no pain there. Just tenderness in the gum area, though I have to make sure nothing I eat touches the tough, or it's a lot more than just tender! I called the dentist's office that's in our building, but the earliest they could take me in is Monday afternoon, so I'm extra glad it's not painful.
Anyhow, the funds that were supposed to get me a couch will now have to pay to have this tooth taken care of. I'm guessing it'll have to be pulled, and I'll be getting a false tooth to replace it - eventually. I'm afraid to find out what it's going to cost. :-/
Besides that, we had a great New Year's Night. Since we don't get tv, we just watched a movie while waiting. At midnight, we broke out a chilled bottle of sparkling apple juice - something else the girls found at the Italian grocery store - and toasted each other. We also discovered that we have a surprisingly good view of the downtown fireworks. That's where we would've been, had we gone out. We'd had enough of the cold from the last few years, though. Last year was particularly bitter, and this year was even colder. We'd talked about having a BBQ at midnight, but the door to the balcony was frozen shut, so that wasn't really an option.
Meanwhile, the girls have been really enjoying their gifts. The drafting table has absolutely inspired Eldest. She's been painting and drawing up a storm. Youngest had bought her a book that demonstrated techniques she's been experimenting with, and the results have been pretty spectacular. Youngest, meanwhile, is getting use out of it as well, though she's spending more time in the books she got as gifts.
We've still got the tree up, of course. Three Kings Day will be here soon, and then all the Christmas stuff comes down for another year. Until then, we'll probably be staying inside a lot and staying warm! It's been bitterly cold across the country, though we haven't had a lot of snow, like in other areas. That does make things a bit easier.
I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's. Of course, there are still those waiting to celebrate Orthodox Christmas this month, and Chinese New Year is coming up soon. :-D
We stayed home for both Christmas and New Year's this time. Since moving away from our families, we no longer have lots of travelling with big dinners on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We're kind of liking things quiet.
Our Christmas was a bit unusual this year, in that we got a couple of larger, more expensive, gifts for the girls. Usually, we spend about $200-$300 for gifts for all 4 of us, plus the grandparents send money for us to get gifts for the girls. This year, thanks to the generosity of grandparents, we replaced our old Xbox with an Xbox 360. That one is more for Youngest, as she likes gaming on the Xbox more. Plus, we got the remote for it, so it's also our dvd player now. That meant we could pass on our dvd player to the girls to replace the cheap one they had that broke. So they can watch movies on the little 13 in tv they've got in their room again. Since they helped pick the gift, we let them have it early.
The most fun Dh and I had was letting the girls guess what the 5 packages, 3 of them quite large, that made one gift was. We gave them hints. It folded. It used gas. It lit up. It rolled.
It was a drafting table set. If they need the space, they can lift the top a bit, fold in the legs, and let the top drop down. It came with a lamp. There was also a drafting chair, which has gas in the stem for raising/lowering the seat. And, of course, it has wheels. The girls - especially Eldest - really needed it. It was very hard for us to make them wait until Christmas for it.
Oh, and the reason it was 5 packages...
It actually came in 2 packages. One for the desk top, another for everything else. Neither of which fit in the trunk, we discovered. Dh and I managed to get the larger package into the back seat, then the thin table top box into the trunk, tying it down. When we got home, however, we couldn't get it out again. We'd been able to squish the box past the seat to put it in, but it couldn't get the angle to do it again to get it out. After struggling with the box for a while, we finally gave up and simply tore it apart and took it out piece by piece. The parts inside were in 4 smaller boxes, so I ended up with a total of 5 boxes to wrap. I had to find and buy larger wrapping paper to do it, but that's ok. I was running low in my stash.
My own Christmas gift from Dh is going to have to wait. Dh was going to get me a couch. Actually, I told him he was getting me a couch for Christmas. LOL Nothing new, of course. New ones are way too expensive. But we've been looking at couches at a clearance place, and we're planning to see what Goodwill or the Salvation Army might have.
Unfortunately, it's going to have to wait a bit longer. You see, on New Year's night, as we were waiting for midnight, we had out some celebratory snacks. I'd taken a bight of some glorious bread from the Italian grocery store, topped with baked brie with maple syrup and pecans. So delicious! The crust on the bread was quite chewy, and as I took my first bight and started to chew, I heard/felt a strange pop in my upper jaw.
I broke a tooth.
It cracked in half, lengthwise. The whole inside of the tooth is loose and wiggles around. I could probably pull that part out with my fingers, if I were into that sort of thing. This is one of those weird times where I'm glad I had a root canal done, though it's likely the root canal that made it weak enough to crack in the first place. The tooth doesn't have any nerves in it, so there's no pain there. Just tenderness in the gum area, though I have to make sure nothing I eat touches the tough, or it's a lot more than just tender! I called the dentist's office that's in our building, but the earliest they could take me in is Monday afternoon, so I'm extra glad it's not painful.
Anyhow, the funds that were supposed to get me a couch will now have to pay to have this tooth taken care of. I'm guessing it'll have to be pulled, and I'll be getting a false tooth to replace it - eventually. I'm afraid to find out what it's going to cost. :-/
Besides that, we had a great New Year's Night. Since we don't get tv, we just watched a movie while waiting. At midnight, we broke out a chilled bottle of sparkling apple juice - something else the girls found at the Italian grocery store - and toasted each other. We also discovered that we have a surprisingly good view of the downtown fireworks. That's where we would've been, had we gone out. We'd had enough of the cold from the last few years, though. Last year was particularly bitter, and this year was even colder. We'd talked about having a BBQ at midnight, but the door to the balcony was frozen shut, so that wasn't really an option.
Meanwhile, the girls have been really enjoying their gifts. The drafting table has absolutely inspired Eldest. She's been painting and drawing up a storm. Youngest had bought her a book that demonstrated techniques she's been experimenting with, and the results have been pretty spectacular. Youngest, meanwhile, is getting use out of it as well, though she's spending more time in the books she got as gifts.
We've still got the tree up, of course. Three Kings Day will be here soon, and then all the Christmas stuff comes down for another year. Until then, we'll probably be staying inside a lot and staying warm! It's been bitterly cold across the country, though we haven't had a lot of snow, like in other areas. That does make things a bit easier.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
The joys of winter...
What fun it is!
We cooked up our tourtierre filling last night. It went really well, though next year, I'm going to have to invest in a large stock pot or something similar. The 12 pounds of meat just fit in my roaster, making it pretty difficult to stir, not to mention work with on one element.
I had plenty of help, as well. Eldest had met up with a friend downtown, but it was so cold, they ended up coming here. I was on the way out to do the last big grocery shopping before Christmas, so I picked them up at the train station so they wouldn't have to walk or bus the rest of the way. I intended to just drop them off at home, fill the gas tank, then go shopping when I jokingly asked if they wanted to come along. They decided to come with me! That worked our rather well.
Oh, it was quite nice to fill that tank from about 1/8th to full for only $31. The last time I had to fill that tank when it was that empty, it cost me almost $60.
The girls were a great help at the grocery store, and carried most of the bags in for me, too. Then, when it came time to actually cook the tourtierre filling, and had 3 extra sets of hands to make short work of thing. I got Youngest peeling garlic cloves for me - in the living room, since there was no space in the kitchen. Eldest's friend measured out the salt and spices for me while Eldest prepped the food processor and started peeling onions. Meanwhile, I was unwrapping packages of meat and mixing them up in the roaster. That grossed everyone out. LOL
Youngest chopped up the garlic cloves for me, too. We've got a handy little chopper for that. By the time Eldest finished peeling the onions, she was weeping from the fumes, so we kicked her out of the kitchen to deal with that while her friend quartered them for me and I pulsed the pieces in the processor. I love kitchen appliences! Can you imagine having to finely chop a bag of onions manually?
When the cooking was done and the meat was cooled down a bit, I covered it with a layer of foil, popped the lid on the roaster and we set it out onto the balcony for the night.
Problems started this morning, when my husband couldn't open the inside sliding door. Water had pooled in the tracks and frozen overnight. We ended up having to use a hair drier - and a towel to sop all the water up - to be able to open the door. It took something like half an hour before we could get the meat back inside! Unfortunately, it's going to happen again. Things get pretty humid in here, and the baseboard heaters are under all the windows. There's going to be constant melt and freeze all winter. Last year, we only had to thaw things about a couple of times. We'll see how it turns out this year.
The frosty meat is a bit of a chuckle. It isn't actually frozen solid, though the outer edges are pretty close. We'll start making the pastry in the afternoon. It should be workable by then.
We're really looking forward to trying our first tourtierre tonight. We've never had boar meat before. I wonder how much it'll change the flavour?
We cooked up our tourtierre filling last night. It went really well, though next year, I'm going to have to invest in a large stock pot or something similar. The 12 pounds of meat just fit in my roaster, making it pretty difficult to stir, not to mention work with on one element.
I had plenty of help, as well. Eldest had met up with a friend downtown, but it was so cold, they ended up coming here. I was on the way out to do the last big grocery shopping before Christmas, so I picked them up at the train station so they wouldn't have to walk or bus the rest of the way. I intended to just drop them off at home, fill the gas tank, then go shopping when I jokingly asked if they wanted to come along. They decided to come with me! That worked our rather well.
Oh, it was quite nice to fill that tank from about 1/8th to full for only $31. The last time I had to fill that tank when it was that empty, it cost me almost $60.
The girls were a great help at the grocery store, and carried most of the bags in for me, too. Then, when it came time to actually cook the tourtierre filling, and had 3 extra sets of hands to make short work of thing. I got Youngest peeling garlic cloves for me - in the living room, since there was no space in the kitchen. Eldest's friend measured out the salt and spices for me while Eldest prepped the food processor and started peeling onions. Meanwhile, I was unwrapping packages of meat and mixing them up in the roaster. That grossed everyone out. LOL
Youngest chopped up the garlic cloves for me, too. We've got a handy little chopper for that. By the time Eldest finished peeling the onions, she was weeping from the fumes, so we kicked her out of the kitchen to deal with that while her friend quartered them for me and I pulsed the pieces in the processor. I love kitchen appliences! Can you imagine having to finely chop a bag of onions manually?
When the cooking was done and the meat was cooled down a bit, I covered it with a layer of foil, popped the lid on the roaster and we set it out onto the balcony for the night.
Problems started this morning, when my husband couldn't open the inside sliding door. Water had pooled in the tracks and frozen overnight. We ended up having to use a hair drier - and a towel to sop all the water up - to be able to open the door. It took something like half an hour before we could get the meat back inside! Unfortunately, it's going to happen again. Things get pretty humid in here, and the baseboard heaters are under all the windows. There's going to be constant melt and freeze all winter. Last year, we only had to thaw things about a couple of times. We'll see how it turns out this year.
The frosty meat is a bit of a chuckle. It isn't actually frozen solid, though the outer edges are pretty close. We'll start making the pastry in the afternoon. It should be workable by then.
We're really looking forward to trying our first tourtierre tonight. We've never had boar meat before. I wonder how much it'll change the flavour?
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Merry Christmas
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a joyous and prosperous year in 2008.
"See" you after Christmas.
:-)
"See" you after Christmas.
:-)
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Tourtierre
We've been fighting off some pretty nasty colds for a while, so things have been quiet around here - unless you count the sounds of coughing and nose blowing! Time to slowly catch up on things.
Part of our Acadian Christmas tradition is the tourtierre, a type of meat pie. Every family seems to have their own version of it. Here's a recipe from Mdm Benoit that's the foundation of the secret recipe I inherited from my MIL. (I highly prize my Mdm Benoit cookbooks - if you find any, snap them up! My favorite is Mdm Benoit Cooks at Home.)
First, the filling (quantities for 1 pie).
Quebec Tourtierre
1 pound minced pork
1 small onion, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp savory
1/4 tsp celery pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs.
Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, except the bread crumbs. Bring to a boil and cook 20 minutes, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring often to heat up the meat. Remove from heat.
Add a few spoonfuls breadcrumbs [and stir in]. Let Stand 10 minutes. If the fat is sufficiently absorbed by the bread crumbs, do not add more. If not, continue in the same manner.
Cool and pour into a pastry-lined pie pan. Cover with pastry. Bake in a 500F oven until the top is well browned. Serve hot.
Note: Feel free to mix and match your ground meats. The original tourtierre were made using game birds and only changed to pork when it became common. You can also use things like potato flakes or flour in place of the breadcrumbs. Experiment with the herbs, too. We've never found celery pepper, so we use ground celery and added our own pepper and other herbs and spices to taste.
The recipe is easy to increase - we've used as much as 38 pounds of ground meats, adjusting the other ingredients to match. The only increase that isn't necessarily proportional is the water and breadcrumbs, depending on what meats you use. At that amount, the filling was divided into a pair of roasters (actually, a single roaster with a lid that could also be used as a second roaster), each over a pair of elements on the stove. With careful stirring and occasional reversing of the roasters, they cook just fine. We'd then put them in my FIL's trunk to cool down for the night, then make the dough and bake the pies the next day. Obviously, that doesn't work if you don't live in a cold enough winter climate! ;-)
We also never baked them as such a high temperature!!! Usually, we could fit 3 or 4 pies in the oven at once, baking them at 350F until well browned, rearranging the pies half way through the cooking time.
Now for the crust, also from Mdm Benoit.
Hot Water Pie Crust
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
Bring water to a boil. Add shortening. Remove from fire and stir until smooth.
Sift, measure and re-sift flour with salt and baking powder. Combine mixtures. Stir until smooth.
Set in covered container in refrigerator for 2 -3 hours.
Note: This is NOT a flaky crust in any way, which is perfect for such a savory filling. We usually quadrupled this recipe. Using modern appliances makes it a lot easier, too. After boiling the water, we'd add it to a mixer bowl with the shortening and beat it with an electric mixer. We'd then put on the dough hook, then switch to the bowl of dry ingredients and let the machine to all the work. We also did just fine using all purpose flour, and even did half and half with whole wheat flour.
When making multiple recipes, divide the mixed dough into the number of portions you need for each top and bottom, then chill.
Another trick to make things easier - especially when making large numbers of pies - is to use a sheet of thick, clear vinyl. These can be bought off rolls at most fabric stores. The sheet we got was large enough to cut off a square somewhat larger than the width of the pie dough we'd be rolling. Place the larger sheet on your rolling surface, then dust with flour. Take one of your portions of dough and coat both sides with flour, then top it with the smaller piece of plastic. Roll dough to size. You can then use the plastic to help you move the dough onto the pie plate.
When the pie plates are filled and you're ready to add the top crust, wet the edges of the bottom half with water, first. After you've trimmed and crimped the edges, cut steam openings in decorative designs into the top.
Enjoy!
Part of our Acadian Christmas tradition is the tourtierre, a type of meat pie. Every family seems to have their own version of it. Here's a recipe from Mdm Benoit that's the foundation of the secret recipe I inherited from my MIL. (I highly prize my Mdm Benoit cookbooks - if you find any, snap them up! My favorite is Mdm Benoit Cooks at Home.)
First, the filling (quantities for 1 pie).
Quebec Tourtierre
1 pound minced pork
1 small onion, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp savory
1/4 tsp celery pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs.
Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, except the bread crumbs. Bring to a boil and cook 20 minutes, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring often to heat up the meat. Remove from heat.
Add a few spoonfuls breadcrumbs [and stir in]. Let Stand 10 minutes. If the fat is sufficiently absorbed by the bread crumbs, do not add more. If not, continue in the same manner.
Cool and pour into a pastry-lined pie pan. Cover with pastry. Bake in a 500F oven until the top is well browned. Serve hot.
Note: Feel free to mix and match your ground meats. The original tourtierre were made using game birds and only changed to pork when it became common. You can also use things like potato flakes or flour in place of the breadcrumbs. Experiment with the herbs, too. We've never found celery pepper, so we use ground celery and added our own pepper and other herbs and spices to taste.
The recipe is easy to increase - we've used as much as 38 pounds of ground meats, adjusting the other ingredients to match. The only increase that isn't necessarily proportional is the water and breadcrumbs, depending on what meats you use. At that amount, the filling was divided into a pair of roasters (actually, a single roaster with a lid that could also be used as a second roaster), each over a pair of elements on the stove. With careful stirring and occasional reversing of the roasters, they cook just fine. We'd then put them in my FIL's trunk to cool down for the night, then make the dough and bake the pies the next day. Obviously, that doesn't work if you don't live in a cold enough winter climate! ;-)
We also never baked them as such a high temperature!!! Usually, we could fit 3 or 4 pies in the oven at once, baking them at 350F until well browned, rearranging the pies half way through the cooking time.
Now for the crust, also from Mdm Benoit.
Hot Water Pie Crust
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
Bring water to a boil. Add shortening. Remove from fire and stir until smooth.
Sift, measure and re-sift flour with salt and baking powder. Combine mixtures. Stir until smooth.
Set in covered container in refrigerator for 2 -3 hours.
Note: This is NOT a flaky crust in any way, which is perfect for such a savory filling. We usually quadrupled this recipe. Using modern appliances makes it a lot easier, too. After boiling the water, we'd add it to a mixer bowl with the shortening and beat it with an electric mixer. We'd then put on the dough hook, then switch to the bowl of dry ingredients and let the machine to all the work. We also did just fine using all purpose flour, and even did half and half with whole wheat flour.
When making multiple recipes, divide the mixed dough into the number of portions you need for each top and bottom, then chill.
Another trick to make things easier - especially when making large numbers of pies - is to use a sheet of thick, clear vinyl. These can be bought off rolls at most fabric stores. The sheet we got was large enough to cut off a square somewhat larger than the width of the pie dough we'd be rolling. Place the larger sheet on your rolling surface, then dust with flour. Take one of your portions of dough and coat both sides with flour, then top it with the smaller piece of plastic. Roll dough to size. You can then use the plastic to help you move the dough onto the pie plate.
When the pie plates are filled and you're ready to add the top crust, wet the edges of the bottom half with water, first. After you've trimmed and crimped the edges, cut steam openings in decorative designs into the top.
Enjoy!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The last three - almost done!
Here are the last three in the light coloured set of decorations I'm making. All I need to do now is the edges.
This is the only one of the set where I didn't use gemstone beads. I forgot. *L* So it's just silver twisted bugle beads, plus clear seed beads that have the holes coloured black. I had to go into Eldest's supply of beads for those.
This one was simple in design, but difficult to do - I had to do it without a hoop. I'd marked the squares on the fabric in a row, which was a mistake. I had already finished the one pictured above, and when it came time to move the hoop to this one, I was catching the beads on one side, and the mirror from the one below on the other. I truly dislike working without a hoop!
The ribbons are done in back stitch using rayon floss and the stone chip beads are rose quartz.
I was able to use the hoop for this one, at least. :-D
The points are done in the same clear and black seed beads I used before, with hematite chip beads for the accents.
Before I finish any of the edges for this set, I'm going to have to find a way to wash off the pencil marks. I really expected them to rub off easily, like the white pencil crayon I'd used on the red set did. No such luck here.
This is the only one of the set where I didn't use gemstone beads. I forgot. *L* So it's just silver twisted bugle beads, plus clear seed beads that have the holes coloured black. I had to go into Eldest's supply of beads for those.
This one was simple in design, but difficult to do - I had to do it without a hoop. I'd marked the squares on the fabric in a row, which was a mistake. I had already finished the one pictured above, and when it came time to move the hoop to this one, I was catching the beads on one side, and the mirror from the one below on the other. I truly dislike working without a hoop!The ribbons are done in back stitch using rayon floss and the stone chip beads are rose quartz.
I was able to use the hoop for this one, at least. :-DThe points are done in the same clear and black seed beads I used before, with hematite chip beads for the accents.
Before I finish any of the edges for this set, I'm going to have to find a way to wash off the pencil marks. I really expected them to rub off easily, like the white pencil crayon I'd used on the red set did. No such luck here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)