Minchilli and Stewart

You can't go wrong with a Martha Stewart recipe as proven by Mr. Cowboy; Pork Chops with Apples and Onions was really tasty, perfect comfort food on a winter's day.

And instead of the usual rice or mashed spuds to go with it, Mr.Cowboy roasted up a head of cauliflower with leeks and sage picked from the garden (yes, under all the snow) and this combo is now a favourite of ours. The recipe is courtesy of Elizabeth Minchilli and her blog is one of the best. She lives in Italy; need I say more...

Airport sunset

There used to be orchards on both sides of the road leading to the airport; a few lonely trees are left but I'm afraid their fate does not look good. Now the road is bordered with monster houses and retirement villas. 
Maura's twin-engine turbo prop landed just as the sun was setting; the orchards are almost all gone but the sunset is still spectacular.

Give-away cookies

These are the kind of cookies that you want to give away because if you have them around the house you cannot just eat one, three or four will disappear before you can say butterfingers. Just four ingredients whipped together to make a finger lickin' good toffee cookie.
Another great recipe from Sweet Christmas by Sharon Bowers.

Merry Christmas Pancakes

These are called Perfect Christmas Pancakes. The recipe is from a book called Sweet Christmas by Sharon Bowers. I just got the book and as I collect pancake recipes I thought I would give it a go no matter what the calendar says. Well these are perfect and you certainly shouldn't have them only once a year.

The secret to great pancakes like these is to NOT overmix the batter. Plus they are made with both baking powder and baking soda and then you pour in a whole bunch of buttermilk. With this combination you get cake-like high,fluffy pancakes. These are so good that breakfast conversation consisted of words like wow and yummy.

Gwyneth vs Ina

 

The only reason I decided to make oatmeal cookies today was because we had an awful lot of oatmeal. So to make it interesting I chose a recipe from two of my favourite bakers; Ina Garten and Gwyneth Paltrow. The cookies pictured above are from Ina's book called Back to Basics. These cookies are full of sugar and butter and lots of oats, pecans, and raisins. This cookie is a meal.

On the other hand, Gwyneth's recipe from her book titled My Father's Daughter, are really great made with spelt flour, walnuts, maple syrup, and brown rice syrup. Instead of butter this recipe uses vegetable oil. Gwyneth's cookies have a nutty texture and there is no sugar so they are very enjoyable.

Back to TO

TG's last day with us:

Brown butter blueberry muffin
Genesis
Jasmine tea and haystacks
HD
Yoga 
Pizza
Salmon salad
Hillside Gamay Noir
Chocolate and peanutbutter
Cherries and dark chocolate
The Gleneagles loop
Community

 

Renovation hike

We are looking at our surroundings in a whole new light and it took almost losing (selling) our home to make us realize how much we love this house. I just finished hanging all the pictures back up. The downstairs bedroom is going to be my craft room. And the bathroom is going to be revamped with a new vanity and new lights. The small bedroom upstairs will get a new bed and be our guest room.
Again, this is going to mean a lot of packing and moving of stuff so to get mentally  and physically prepared, we did another hike up to the radio tower. I think we're ready.

Apple pie hike

These little ones keep us busy; the bird feeder is another chore to add to our list but we get so much pleasure from watching our feathered friends that no one minds having to shovel a path to get to the bird feeder.

An apple pie for my favourite someone.

With so much eating going on a hike was in order so we bundled up and hiked up to the radio tower. It was late, the sun was just going down, so it was a hard climb in the snow. But what a great feeling when we get to the top and take a breather to enjoy the view.

Travel Journal part three

Travel Journal part two

It is freezing cold, the wind throwing ice crystals against your eyeballs, and the snow is up to your earlobes but we still take time to appreciate the snow sculptures around us.

So when it's that cold  the only thing to do is make up a batch of fried bread.

And throw back a scalding hot double sugar espresso!