Chili Night!

Last night was chili night! I made my Slow Cooker Chili and it was great comfort food with some tortilla chips to dip with!

I woke up to more snow today! Boo hoo hoo hoo...it's such an eye opener how badly my mood is affected by the March weather. I mean, I know I have some form of Seasonal Affective Disorder because I have terrible cabin fever and low moods after January until about April. I'm quite sure that once I can be outdoors most of the day, things will get better. Ever notice that colour seems to disappear during a winter snowstorm?

I won't go into detail, but lately my anxiety disorder has been slightly out of control, so I'm trying something new. I ordered this book today and I hope it offers something to help me. I already know some foods that trigger the anxiety, like processed sugars and processed foods, high sodium and too much caffeine; and I avoid them. But maybe adding some new foods daily will help too, or just changing something up...I'm open to trying new things :)

I'm happy to say that I have Alex's support 100%. He wants to help me feel better too, it feels good to know I can rely on him. I used to go through these hard times alone and now I just have to go to him for all the hugs I want. Jack too :)

I was looking through my summer photos this morning and I CAN'T WAIT to have this hot sunny weather again!

I do love all of our seasons here, but winter always feels too long for me. How do you get through winter? Is it as tough on you as it is on me? I'm trying to find ways to enjoy it more, but I'm stumped right now! Grin and bear it. :)

It's National Puppy Day!

What a great excuse to showcase photos of Jack :) Look at that big mouth lol...I often wonder if he could fit a soccer ball in there...a year ago we would never have been able to get that ball out of his mouth, now he drops it with a little grumble. He's come so far!

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Because of my day-long nap yesterday I got nothing at all done. I guess that's okay once in a while! We had leftover Coq Au Vin last night and watched Moonshiners in bed until midnight when I drifted into my night-long nap lol...But today I have the chili in the slow cooker, the laundry is being done, the dogs had playtime with the balls and I want to paint, but don't feel my creativity, I hope it comes back soon. Hope everyone has a nice day, post about your dogs! :))

Pasta with Blue Cheese Sauce and This and That

The temperatures dropped from 10 C down to -15 C overnight and during the night we got another dusting of snow. With that bone-chilling wind, it was in the -30's C and I couldn't bring myself to walking the dogs today, sigh. We are having issues with the "dog catcher" in this area. We've complained a lot about loose dogs, especially the new weekender-neighbour's dogs. Alex finally wrote a complaint to the town and CC'd the dog catcher on it, who is contracted out by the town. She responded very derogatorily, excuse after excuse. What's the point? It turns me off walking my dogs in my own town, knowing that whoever breaks the law can keep breaking it without any kind of recourse. I can't wait to have my own property, FENCED, away from all this foolishness! I hate complaining, I'm usually quite positive...try to make the best of everything etc...but this whole dog situation has me feeling defeated. I WANT to walk my dogs, but it's become a source of stress for me, wondering if a loose dog is going to pop up out of nowhere and cause trouble. I do take precautions, I have my air horn to scare them away, but I'm no superwoman! If there was a dogfight, I wouldn't know how to react besides getting right in there to protect my fur kids. When Alex is with me, I feel better, but we have slightly different schedules and I love walking the dogs in the morning. Not sure what to do now...

This was last October. I barely got any sleep last night, the wind was howling so badly.  It was the same type of nasty wind last fall and the result was a tree branch coming right through the window. We were lucky our landlord reacted really quickly but it was a scary event! I guess that was on my mind all night. Lack of sleep is playing with my mood today!

Anyway, this is what's important! My family! Marlene and Oscar hung out together today, which doesn't happen often because Marlene is a little scared of the cats. My office is basically the pet room, I think I have 8 different pillows lying everywhere and a cat tree!

I did it! 54 doggie nails trimmed with my new Dremel! The huskies didn't mind whatsoever and were happily lying down while I did their nails (with lots of treats nearby!). Jack, however, growled the entire time and I had to put his muzzle on. I hold nothing against him, he's 11 years old and came to us already with aggression. We worked so hard with him so he would trust us and 99% of the time he's a sweet gentle dog. I don't think any amount of treats will make him enjoy the nail trimming process, so I just got it over with as quickly as I could. Once it was done, I took his muzzle off, his growling stopped and he kissed me incessantly! :) I also trimmed the huskies' feet fur, cleaned the dogs' ears and trimmed the long hairs on Jack's ears too. The Dremel made it all go so fast and all of that grooming only took under 90 minutes! Done for another month!

Meet Sir Dusty Buttons and Tweety Bird. These are my spring and summer mascots! I'll be repainting them this week to freshen them up and then they will be parked out on the porch to guard the garden!! :)

I found a crochet needle for a nickel at one of the thrift stores a while back and tried it for the first time yesterday. I thought maybe it would be easier on my hands than knitting, which I had to stop because I get pain in all of my knuckles. This is as far as I could go without the pain starting again - really! I think that besides using my sewing machine, my needle craft days are over, sadly! :(

Last night was pasta night :) I made a nice creamy Blue Cheese Sauce, penne for Alex and capellini for me. The only pasta that my esophagus allows these days is the thin angel-hair-like capellini. I also made a nice warm garlic bread to go with it. We finished up the Crackerjacks in bed watching a movie. My sleepless night last night had me napping all day, which I'm not a big fan of so I didn't get a thing done! I guess I'll just chalk it up to hiding from the winter again! :)

Coq Au Vin and Lemon Tree Update

Last night's dinner was my Coq Au Vin. This is such an easy meal. I started around noon with the preparations, that took maybe half an hour, then threw it all into the slow cooker for 7 hours. This chicken stew is COMFORT FOOD...it's so good with the homemade bread and butter dipped into that broth!

I took a closeup to show Mama Pea, who posted about her purple carrots turning her food an odd colour! The chicken turns red in this stew. Sometimes if I use a bolder red wine, it turns purple, but it tastes wonderful! :))

To celebrate the first day of spring, I HAD to plant something. I decided to start some basil and it's now sitting next to my chives in the window. The seeds are supposed to start germinating in about 2 weeks, I hope it's not too cold by the window for them. Though our temperatures are warming up nicely it's going to be above zero all week! :) Happy.

My lemon tree is really coming alive! The lemon on the right is the one that's been dark green since last summer...could it be turning yellow finally??? Two more on the left branch! 

I have five fruits growing and a few little buds. The white flower on the top of the bush should turn into a little lemon soon. The fragrance these little buds give off is amazing, like sweet lemonade!

And here's another little bud with Oscar the cat's hair all over it..he's shedding like crazy and loves to shake himself out near my plants, grrr! :)

This poor little fella didn't make it :(  Last summer all but the big one fell like this. They started to grow, turned yellow really fast and dropped. I hope things keep moving along like they are because I have a great recipe for homemade Limoncello liqueur and I'd love to use my own lemons!

Happy Spring Equinox and a BIG Kitchen Day!

The first day of spring has arrived! Despite the snow, the sun is out, it's above zero every day now and everything is gradually melting. My mood is boosted each morning when I wake up. 

I'm so happy to say that I am continuing the three-dog-walk. :) We went into the woods today along one of the snowmobile trails, but didn't get far because I kept sinking.

So yesterday was a big kitchen day for me. Maybe it's the spring weather...I have no idea, but I think I bit off a little more than I could chew lol...I started with homemade yogurt because we have a fruit shake each morning and it's not a routine I want stopped just because I run out of yogurt!

Alex and I bought each other a nice popcorn maker the first Christmas we were together. I love this thing, but honestly, it's a bit of a pain to clean. We'll never go back to other methods of popping corn though. I use coconut oil and with some clarified butter, you'd think you were at the movies! But I pulled this out of the dusty shelf to make crackerjacks!

I've had this in mind since before Christmas actually but never got around to it. Alex downloaded a good movie yesterday so I wanted to have a popcorn movie night. This is the caramel sauce.

If you love popcorn and caramel and Crackerjacks, do yourself a favour and make these Homemade Crackerjacks!!! They melt in your mouth but they are crispy at the same time! Oh my gosh, they were amazing! Good thing they're sweet because they would have been all gone in 15 minutes. Since Alex is allergic to peanuts, I used pecans and they worked really well!

The next thing to make on the list was homemade sausages. I had a 1 1/2 pound pork tenderloin thawed and I found a great website that had a lot of sausage recipes on it. Ever since I got my handy dandy little meat grinder with the sausage attachment I've wanted to try it out!

Ewww!!! I have to say I was a little squeamish when I touched these! When we went out to get groceries on our anniversary last week, we talked to the butcher and he sold us these hog casings for $3.00. Trust me there is enough in here to make 100 sausages. He told us to keep them in salted water in a cool dark place. He sold us the smallest amount he could and we knew we weren't making 100 sausages! I came to terms knowing most of this would be thrown out, it's too bad it doesn't freeze, once it's prepared it has to be used within a month.

Homemade Sausages. The verdict? Not worth the effort and money! We got SIX sausages from that $8 pork tenderloin. See the sausage patty? That was what got stuck in the meat grinder attachment! I love my little meat grinder, but it's no good for sausage making. I'm glad we tried though because down the line if we can afford a better sausage maker, I'd love to make my own again! It was a two-man job though with that little grinder, the casings kept slipping off. Anyway, I don't regret trying, they are in the fridge right now, setting and flavour-mingling. I'll put them in the freezer for our next European hot dog night!

Next up was Nutella Cigars. For New Year's Eve 2016, I made some appetizers with phyllo dough. I'd put the rest in the freezer and really wanted to use it up. These are very nice, and the Nutella kind of sneaks up on you! These are salted so the sweet and salt go very well together! Very yummy with coffee! :) See that ziplock bag to the left of the picture? That's my homemade pastry bag. I've hinted that I want a REAL one for a gift one of these days! I made meringue mushrooms for my Yule log cake last Christmas and the ziplock was a beach to use, let me tell you. I'd like to do more creative baking so I think Alex got the hint!  :))

For dinner, in my effort to keep using up the phyllo dough, I made Chicken Phyllo Bundles with mashed carrots. This was BEYOND delicious!

Most of the recipes I make aren't too complicated. These weren't either. The chicken breasts are stuffed with a mix of Feta, Parm and parsley. Then they're wrapped in the phyllo and baked. (Just a note on "best before dates"...my Feta had a best before date of March 6th. I'd forgotten about it. When I opened it up, it was fine. No weird colours, no bad smell, the brine was still watery and in the end it tasted amazing. I've learned over the years that things DO last beyond the "expiry dates", so always give things a second chance before tossing them!)

I took a closeup (a little blurry) of the chicken to show the stuffing. The parsley seems to have disappeared though. This is a definite keeper recipe! And you know what? I STILL have a third of the phyllo dough left!!! It's in the freezer again for the next round of phyllo recipes!

Today I'm taking it easy. It's going to be a slow-cooker meal, Coq au Vin. Do you freeze leftover wine? I do! White wine, never because I love to drink it. I love red wine too, but I never feel like drinking it when there are leftovers and I hate to waste, so I just put the bottle in a plastic bag, loosen the top and freeze it. I need a cup and a half of red wine for dinner, so my half bottle from Valentine's day will do it. I'm not a fan of "cooking wine"...which basically means an inexpensive vintage. I really think you can taste the quality of the alcohol you use in cooking so I always make sure whatever I use in my food, I won't turn my nose at to drink! Thawed wine still has the nice flavour and is definitely drinkable, but it's a little watery so it's best used for cooking :)

Everyone is enjoying the sunshine! :) Jack and Oscar often sleep back to back with each other. So today I'm going to clean up the porch a little. It's time to take in my winter decorations and think of something for spring! I'm also going to plant some herbs for my window garden. One chore I'm not looking too forward to though is trimming and filing 54 little doggie nails. Alex does the cats and I do the dogs. I did get a small Dremel last month though. One of the ladies at the shelter showed us how easy it was to use with all the tips to keep the dogs safe, so I'm going to try that out today.

I hope everyone has a great day today! Thanks for reading. :))

Sunny Sunday :)

I'm so happy today! It's the first day since December that I was able to take all three dogs on a walk together :) This really does make me very happy because I love seeing them explore and enjoy themselves. It's always hard for me to leave Jack at home in the winter, but he's not quite the winter-lover as the two huskies are!

Pretty Marlene. She gets bored quickly and while the other two were looking for something in the woods, she decided to take a break.

And they saw something!! I can barely see it in the photo but there is a little brown rabbit there in the woods. It's on the very right side of the photo to the right of that tree trunk. If you want a better view you can click the photo to make it bigger. Jack and Charlie saw the rabbit, that's for sure! How exciting! It brings me a lot of joy to make their lives fun :)

Here's another picture of the river. I love this photo for three things: 1. you can see the sun rays, 2. the little trees in the center "island" are covered with ice and look so pretty in white, and 3. to the left of the white trees, you can see the steam coming from the river. This is a nice little town though it would be nicer with less people :) I think I can only dream about having a little waterfall and river on my own property in the future! Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky!

Yesterday was baking day. I made a loaf of my No Knead Bread. But as you can see, I couldn't wait for it to cool...it's so yummy with butter melted on it!! And I made some Blueberry Muffins too. I'm terrible with giving credit for recipes. I try my best, but a lot of the time I pull out old recipe printouts that I've just copied and pasted onto my Word program. So all I can say is that this muffin recipe likely came from the Williams Sonoma website! They're never word for word because I change things up as I try new recipes.

We had to finish up the last of the fresh lettuce and spinach so I made a Chicken Cesar salad. It's so delicious with the garlic bread and a glass of wine!

This is a familiar scene...Jack burrows his head under our covers after dinner each night for a pre-bedtime nap. He's still wearing his hoodie :) 

Today is a big kitchen day for me!! I'm making the crackerjacks today, some Nutella cigars made with phyllo dough, and if the pork is thawed enough, I'm attempting sausages! I think that's it...isn't that enough? :) I'll post about this tomorrow! Enjoy your Sunday my friends. :) Today is officially the last day of winter, even if it's just in theory, I'm glad spring has sprung! Farewell to winter, I'm quite sure we will meet again. :)