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| Blurry sunrise photo seen while dropping Seth off at the bus stop. |
Brrrrr. It’s cold and snowy outside so let’s stay inside and talk about food.
One day in the grocery store back in November, Kate pointed to the box of oatmeal packets on the shelf that I used to buy a long time ago. She seemed intent on wanting me to get them. I told her I had oatmeal at home I would make for her. So later that week, I got out the large bag of sprouted oats, read the back again to measure for water and made her warm oatmeal from those oats. She ate it right up and the next morning, she pointed to the bag high up in the pantry so I made it again. I found an empty jar, filled it with the oats and put it back on the high shelf. The next morning, she reached up and pulled down the oatmeal jar and I thought, like the bread, I should move it so she can reach it and reduce the chances of her dropping it.
Looking to make it more hearty, I started adding chopped apples and cinnamon to the simmering oatmeal, followed by a drizzle of maple syrup and cream in the bowl to cool it down. One day, I threw in raisins and then decided to add coconut oil to the water as it boiled. Another day I switched the fat to butter. I also added nutmeg to the cinnamon. Another day I substituted sliced canned peaches, then fresh pear. She eats it all up every morning. Sometimes she still hauls the bag of frozen hash browns out of the freezer and sets them out next to the toaster oven, but that’s not very often these days. She’s into the oatmeal.
No matter what she’s picked for breakfast, she pours herself a cup of orange juice (if the bottle is not very full) and sets out a wooden spoon(if needed) and folded napkin on her two placemats. It’s her breakfast routine and we thrive on routines around here.
Later mid-morning, she has a bit of a snack: a banana, crackers and cheese, scrambled egg, deli meat and cheese, yogurt or something else. I think she eats the least amount of sugar of all of us(except for me right now) and other than chocolate pudding and a bit of cake from special occasions, she eats virtually no desserts. Thankfully she rarely gets colds and other viruses and I think her good diet choices and lack of sweet tooth help a lot.
However January isn’t September.
It’s worse.
It’s a couple weeks into the beginning of the long Canadian winter.
So when I looked over and saw a selection of these cupcakes and the two women rearranging the product told me you saved money by buying two packages, I thanked them heartily for their up-selling and we brought home these delicious little gems from the “two-bite” brand that we have enjoyed many times before. Once they were in the house, Seth was interested in the reason for their purchase so we told him that they were for students returning back to studies and that he was included in that group who might need chocolate cupcakes for strength and endurance.
North Americans might not have an aristocracy, but we know how to start and maintain fine culinary traditions!
Speaking of fine culinary traditions, that leads me into another confectionary tradition here at our house: the Christmas filling of the M&M’s dispenser. And since I needed to refill it last week, I cleaned it up and gave it a chance to be part of our family lore in a little photoshoot. It’s not a beautiful hand-crafted keepsake, but it is a fun part of my children’s childhood and for that reason I wanted to record it here.
In light of the recent fires in Los Angeles, CA, I realized again how the things we keep and use in our homes are dear to us. Some of them are interchangeable with a simple replacement, some are irreplaceable and gone from us forever and some may be restored to us via secondhand searching. It’s not trivial to take photos of our home and the things we keep in it. If you ever looked through old photographs, you know how comforting it is to see an object and say “I remember that!” It doesn’t mean we have to clutter our homes with stuff, but to fondly notice the items that do make a home for us, bringing joy to our families and then perhaps record it from time to time in some form or another.
More in the food category is my version of “festive chicken salad” that my friend Stacy made into croissant sandwiches for our Christmas lunch the Sunday before Christmas Day. It was so good that later I messaged her for the full list of ingredients in case I was missing something I noticed. She sent me the link to the food site, Belly Full and then I added what I like and had on hand. I think I ate a bowl of this without bread everyday for close to 4 days in row before I felt like I might be getting tired of it!
My version used a spoonful of homemade cranberry sauce I had made for Christmas Day meal. It’s great to have something yummy to eat that doesn’t need to be put with bread in order to enjoy it the best. I’ve tried to eat egg salad the same way, but the version I make (celery, crumbled egg, mayo, celery salt and parsley) seems too savory on it’s own. Adding the fruit and nuts to the chicken salad brought some balance to the savory flavors. I don’t know if egg salad lends itself to ‘festivity’. I’ll have to think about that some more. Maybe something with orange and walnuts. Or pear. I’ve been splurging on fresh pears since the new year. Seth and I really like them. I purposefully pick the ones that seem just about ripe although I have had success ripening them in paper bags in early fall when they are in season around here. Pair it with a good cheese, other dairy protein or meat protein, nuts and maybe a small handful of crackers and you have a really nice snack or lunch. Finish off with a square of dark chocolate and a cup of tea and you will have eaten one of my go-to lunch ideas.
One of the days I made the chicken salad, I substituted the sauce (yogurt, dijon, mayo) for this yogurt Jalapeno dip. It added some pep and was a nice change, although I found the other flavors were a bit more dimmed by the spice. But I’ve been eating this with raw veg or tortilla chips and it’s very good. I first had this type of dip when my friend Sara would bring it for our church lunches. I don’t think I would have been brave enough to buy this big family size if she hadn’t introduced it to me before.
The ingredients often do not look appetizing but are full of nutrients and are inexpensive to process yourself. Here are two little bowls of processed chicken bone broth where I’ve already removed the fat layer so I can add the gelatinous broth to my soup or gravy.
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| Corn and potato chowder with ham (and possibly bacon) |
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| Broccoli and Cauliflower soup from 2023 |
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| Another version from 2023 with basmati rice. |
And finally this past Sunday it was my turn in the rotation for our church family to help provide dessert for our Sunday lunch. I still had the ingredients to make pumpkin pie so I made that on Saturday and then Sunday morning, I put together this tray of goodies which someone said looked like leftover Christmas treats! Yep! Out my pantry and into the mouths of delighted children!
