Family Day

It was bitterly cold but we still managed a walk along the river to see the swans.

To warm up after that gruelling walk I made Whole Wheat Raspberry Cornmeal Scones; so good with a cup of tea. The recipe is from Hollyhock-Garden to Table.

And for dinner Mr. Cowboy went all out with his very tasty meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes.

Archie's quilt

The quilt is very close to being finished. The three layers are pinned together and all I need to do now is some stitching in the ditch, sew on the binding, and attach a label.

The Three C's

These are the last of the homemade egg noodles paired with a very rich and creamy Carbonara sauce. I made Jamie's recipe my own by adding chilies and parsley. This was so good that everyone had seconds even though they knew there was dessert.

Carrot Cake! This cake, from the Barefoot Contessa Foolproof book, is loaded with carrots, raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon. The icing, of course, is cream cheese and butter but I only had a cup of icing sugar so we ended up with a very cheesy frosting and not an overly sweet one. Just perfect!

My new toy

When Mr. Cowboy makes coffee, he blends three or four different kinds in his new Cuisinart Coffeemaker, adds salt (a little too much for my taste), and once it has brewed, he lets it sit overnight. In the morning, he will reheat his java in the microwave. Adds a half cube of brown sugar and tops it off with milk and calls it coffee. No thanks.

Yes, I have tried Mr. Cowboy's coffee but prefer my French Press. Now I can grind my own beans in my new Camano Coffee Mill. Maura went all the way to Camano Island in Washington State but they were all sold out . So she ended up buying my grinder in Gastown at Old Faithful.

The Best

I love making coffee cakes so when I saw the recipe for The Best Coffee Cake Ever posted by the Pioneer Woman I knew I had to try it. The cake part is really nice, almost like a pound cake, but the topping did not meld with the cake as PW's pictures showed on her blog. I did use a 9x13 pan which is what the recipe calls for or larger so if I ever make this again I will definitely use a much bigger pan. The neighbour sure was happy to get a chunk of this cake.

Summer in January

Last September we filled two buckets with our very own cherry tomatoes and so glad we did. Now we are craving a fresh tomato sauce and all it takes is a pan full of tomatoes, garlic (which is local), parsley, and don't forget the chillies.

Simmer until nice and bubbly and the cherry tomatoes have cooked down. It's always nice when someone volunteers (Thanks, Maura) to remove all the tomato skins from the pan.

We poured the sauce over our very own egg noodles that we made on Saturday; I know it's January but I thought it was summer it was so good.

Puffy puffs

For a change from our usual Sunday morning pancake routine, I baked up a pan of Breakfast Puffs, supposedly an Amish recipe. These are so good that if you close your eyes and bite into the cake-like puff you will think you are having apple pie. The secret-lots of cinnamon.