Baking Day Saturday; Sunny Warm Sunday!

Since I was hunkered down yesterday due to the snow and wind, I made it a baking day. Our youngest husky Charlie has leaky anal glands, without going into too much detail, feeding her some pumpkin helps with her natural musk so to speak...but she hates it! I have to mix a little into her food and hide the rest in cookies. She gets two of these each day and it helps. I tried a new recipe as opposed to my regular Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Cookies. It was terrible to work with and the blog poster never answered many questions people had over the last few months, so I won't grace my blog with the link. I want to try to stop using peanut butter since Alex has an allergy, it could be dangerous if I miss something, so I was looking for a recipe with pumpkin and banana. I found it, but...anyway, I couldn't use my dog bone cookie cutter, boo hoo, too sticky. Next time I'll use my own recipe and substitute the peanut butter with mashed banana. Solved. The dogs still loved these though!

I gave myself a baking challenge to make homemade cheese nips since the batch I bought at the store was burned. I made these Cheese-It's and though they turned out nicely and looked the part, we still found them a little too flour-heavy (for our taste). I'll keep trying different things in the future to see if I can perfect this recipe. I'm glad I only made half the recipe though. Even with the floury flavour, they are all gone as I type this lol...beggars being choosy? :)

After I read Sam I Am's post about her lemon cakes, I just had to make one! Sorry Sam, I hope you don't think I ripped apart your recipe...but I didn't have self-raising flour, nor a fresh lemon...so I scoured the internet for a similar recipe that I could make based on what I had. Plus instead of a lemon/sugar syrup drizzled on top, I made it my own and drizzled it with Limoncello. DELISH! Here's my adapted recipe: Lemon Drizzle Cake.

We had breakfast for dinner last night! Blueberry pancakes with bacon and my fricassee potatoes. I just cut up 2 small potatoes, a small onion and cook them in butter in a frying pan on low, stirring occasionally, for about half an hour...they are really good! Since we had the lemon cake, the strawberry shortcake will fall to tonight's dessert...or maybe a sweet lunch :)

What a difference one day makes!!! It's sunny, mild and all that snow we got yesterday should be melted by sundown!

I see the lawn in the middle of all the doggie prints!

April 2nd, the first day that I sat out in simply my pj's and slippers! It's 5 Celsius on the thermometer, but in the sun, it felt about 15. I stayed outside for 3 hours this morning, reading my anxiety book. I needed some real Vitamin D...gosh I hope this isn't just another weather tease! That's the thing about our "spring"...it's complete winter then boom! Over a week's time it's spring, then a week later we're into a heat wave...I saw a few flies while I was out which reminds me that Alex is going to make me a screened-in porch at the end of April. Last year I hung pieces of an old camping dining tent...it worked but tore a lot in the wind so he's going to make it nice and permanent! Alex uses the bedroom screened-in veranda during the summers to hang out on his hammock...the backyard porch is mine! :) I spend time out there in the yard, this year will be also in the garden and with the dogs. It's nice to have our own outdoor spaces that we can share once in a while too. :)

I finished this book while I was out on the porch this morning. I wrote my review here. Generally speaking, I go into the why's in the review, I didn't really find this book eye-opening. Probably because years ago I did all the same research on my own and implemented mostly the same ideas that she has in her book. I was expecting something different. Anyway, I've found in the last few weeks, that just eating sensibly, practicing a cozy lifestyle, exercising on the rebounder daily, getting outside, staying hydrated and meditating has pretty much squashed the anxiety bug in me as long as I keep it up. I eat sugar, gluten, dairy and grains. I drink coffee and wine too. These are some things she suggests eliminating. But I think I've found my balance and I feel so much better. I don't regret buying the book because I learned a few new things, but in the end, self-help books are always a bit of a gamble anyway!

One thing though, she mentions that companies are not required to list genetically modified foods on their list of ingredients (this book was written in 2011 and she is referring to the States). I feel so ignorant, because it would be a good assumption that companies ARE required to do so. I just looked it up on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's website...no requirement. But they do say that Canada produces 4 GM products: modified corn products, sugar beet, canola and soybean. That doesn't mean that we don't import other GM foods from other countries though...We really need to watch what we buy and consume!

As for this book, The Cozy Life, I read it yesterday. I did like it, it was better than the Little Book of Hygge in my opinion! I took a lot of notes as I read it, and I wrote my review here if anyone wants to read it, it's rather long so I put it on a separate page that I posted! I also wrote a list of hygge activities to bring more coziness and comfort to your life - this list is customized to my own home life, but it's a good motivational list to get you thinking about how to make your lifestyle more cozy and comfy for you. I think this book is worth the read!

But again, I'm already doing most of these things that the hygge concept suggest doing! Even sitting on the porch in my pyjamas this morning with my coffee felt so cozy. Actually it's funny because Alex and I thought we coined the phrase "Pyjama Lifestyle" which is how we describe our own way of living. Little did we know the Danes have been doing it for years already!

The girls, husky bookends, enjoying the sunny warm weather.

Ooh! Too bright for Jack!! :) Maybe some sun glasses would help! :) I hope everyone has nice weather and enjoying their Sunday!

And as I often say, thanks for reading!

Fondue and Snow

It's still snowing this morning. It started yesterday late afternoon, and it's coming down really lightly - it's actually very beautiful!

I was hoping that the forecast was an evil April Fool's prank, but no such luck lol...there should be more snow after the weekend, then some fun rain to make things all muddy and slushy. :)

The dogs love it though. Even Jack wandered around a little more than he usually does. For him it's usually out/quick business/back in to burrow under covers! I spent some time outside just enjoying the quiet, it's so peaceful when it snows. I was lucky, the tourist neighbours were still asleep when I went out, so there was no unwelcome noise to ruin the experience.

My efforts to be cozy seem so natural, that I resist calling them efforts. I built a little fire when we all came in and we all just chilled and enjoyed the dancing flames. I don't like to make fires too often just because this fireplace, as gorgeous as it is, is an energy-sapper and we already pay enough monthly for Hydro. 

I think a big part of living a cozy lifestyle is fragrance. I baked bread yesterday and I just love how it makes the whole house smell cozy!

And of course, to celebrate our new fondue pot, Alex made his Italian fondue! We were looking through the fondue cookbook to maybe try a new recipe, but we didn't want to start buying all sorts of big ingredients so we stuck to what we had on hand. It's fun to eat different food, but I must stick to my food budget!! Though we didn't manage to bring the fondue to bed :), it was still a comfy, cozy meal. I'm already planning some different fondues for April and May's meal plans!

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Besides reading, today I'll be doing some baking. I'm challenging myself to make those Cheese-It's. If anyone else makes them, let me know so we can compare! I'm also making some dog cookies, ran out last night...and IF I have it in me, I'm going to try Sam's English Lemon Drizzle Cake. I may wait on this though because, as suggestible as I am, Mama Pea mentioned strawberry shortcake last week, so I have that planned for dessert tonight! :)

My Goal: COMFORT

Let's get some business over with first...of all my complaining lately, did I even tell you guys about the stale Kit Kats that I bought after Christmas? I can't keep track anymore of all the crappy stuff, complaining process, returns, hassles and finally refunds and coupons....anyway, Kit Kat sent me a coupon for $10 to 'enjoy' their product. I didn't expect that much, but I am grateful. :) Oh, the burned cheese nips? No response yet and I re-emailed the same complaint this morning.

So..yesterday I was talking about a shift in our philosophy towards purchases. Alex and I had to go out this morning and on the way back, we discovered a local store that sold kitchen supplies. The owner has been in the business 60 years, taking over his father's door-to-door "chaudron" (pot) business. He told us the history of fondue pots and the manufacturers here in Quebec. He also had one of these gorgeous enamel fondue pots left that he got as overstock and offered us a 40% discount. I think we were in that store a good 45 minutes before we decided it was worth the expense. This is quality! The pot is pretty heavy and the base is cast iron...and even though it means we have to cut down a few other expenses now, we are so proud of our purchase! And this is exactly the type of store we want to invest our money in.

Of course, this is the perfect opportunity for me to make one of the fondues from my new cookbook tonight! :) I was telling Alex about the Hygge and the Danish way of being cozy and he said that we need to find a way to have cheese fondue in bed lol...I don't think we'll every accomplish that but it's a nice cozy idea!

Speaking of cozy and comfort, I read through this book yesterday. It was a fun little book to read, and I admit I skimmed through some of the longer paragraphs that focused only on statistics. The whole concept, in a nutshell, is to make your life cozy with dim lighting (mostly candlelight), cozy nooks with lots of blankets and pillows, comfort food, warm beverages, a fire burning, time with loved ones and pets...and anything else you deem cozy.

Personally I found the focus on social interaction as a precursor to happiness to be a little off topic for me. I'm a self-admitted hermit and anti-social homebody. Alex is the same way. Society and social interactions actually have the opposite effect for us - we become mentally exhausted and stressed out. We much prefer quiet time with just the two of us and the pets around us. Maybe that's why I got through the book so quickly, I just skipped over those parts. But all in all, it's a wonderful concept and I have realized that I am already hygge-filled in my life! Everything I do is to create comfort for myself and Alex. I'm still going to read the other book I got "The Cozy Life" to see if there is anything different in there!

I used the last of the fresh tomatoes and lettuce to make BLT's yesterday for lunch, well, BLTC's since we add Cheddar. :)

I wanted to use up the leftover roast beef so I cubed it all up and made Alex a shepherd's pie. For me, I baked a chicken breast in barbecue sauce...it was such a comfort meal! :)

We stopped by the pet store to buy more bones for the dogs. Charlie looks crazy looking at me while she's chewing! If the dogs don't get a good solid chew each day, we find they get restless and antsy so I always have a "bone budget" for the winters. During the summer, they don't need as much because they're more active like us! :) 

Speaking of dogs, Alex is putting together a file for the next town meeting with regards to the loose dog and feral cat problem here. He spoke to our neighbour and they're forming a team to speak to the mayor. We heard some disturbing things about the condition of the canine control inspector's premises, the lady who is contracted out to this town. Apparently it's borderline neglectful, the stories were horrible and heartbreaking...we can't just look the other way. Ironically, we heard similar stories from two strangers we interacted with today, so we feel they must be at least close to being truthful. Alex knows that my mental health can't take too much of the stress so he's going to do all the talking and petitioning, but he definitely has my full support. We're actually going to do some investigating before mid-April's town meeting by visiting her premises. She doesn't know us by sight...it'll be like those private investigators in the movies lol. I'll be posting about this issue now and then! 

It's been a long day for us already, so Alex made us each our favourite version of an Old Fashioned and we are off to watch a few movies before the cheese fondue! I hope we don't lose power, the storm has just begun.

Sunshine, Sprouting and Some Shifting of Habits

I LOVE the sun! See those three sinkholes on the left of the photo? Yeah, that was me lol...at this time of year the snow is still really deep but not solid enough to keep me from plunging down. I'm taking full advantage of the sun today because the forecast is now 5 inches of snow tomorrow overnight to Saturday. I'm going to spend the weekend mostly reading, speaking of that...

I downloaded these two books this morning. Thanks to Yarrow and Sam I Am for the suggestion. I've been having such a hard time this winter and I think reading these books on making life cozy at home will do me some good! One of my goals in life is comfort and making our lifestyle as cozy as possible - especially while renting because we can't do anything we want with our rental, but I can make it cozy and peaceful to be in. I'm looking forward to reading through these, although they are digital version, which I usually don't like, I'll make the effort!

You guys are going to think that all Alex and I eat is pizza lol...It's true we do love the stuff! We had one of the frozen bacon and cheese pizzas for lunch yesterday, delicious! (Sorry for the ooey gooey cheese photos again Kymber) 😋

This is Mr. Snowy, he's my winter porch decoration. He's smiling because he's thrilled that it's going to snow tomorrow...I had to burst his bubble. It's time for him to retire for the season! I made him last November from some pallets that our lumber yard gave us. He is now housed in the storage room in the basement, I hope he's still smiling! :)

This morning I re-painted my Tweety Bird and Sir Dusty Buttons - buttons dusty no more! At least for now!! They needed a tuneup. Tomorrow I'll put a gloss paint over them so they'll be all ready to guard my new garden when the weather gets better! For now, they're keeping an eye out on the basil growing on the window sill. :)

With all of the lousy products out there, Alex and I have decided that we are going to slowly make a shift in our habits with regards to buying products; by that I mean, we are going to invest rather than buy for the best price. See these nice flannel sheets? We bought these at a reputable store, The Linen Chest. They were regular price $90 for the set and we saw them on sale 60% off so we took advantage and bought 3 sets of them...I can't believe they sell these for $90 to begin with because we got these at the end of January and already two of the pillow cases are torn and one of the sheets...it's so terrible. 

Anyway, we weren't always in a position to buy based on quality vs. price, and I know how hard it is to get by, a lot of folks just don't have that choice. We still live paycheck to paycheck what with paying back debt, saving for a down payment and just living the lifestyle we enjoy. For our first few years together, we had major car, pet and moving expenses and basically we were broke. 

Here's one example, all we could afford were dollar-store cutting boards. I don't know what you're experience is, but our experience is that they last a month - if that. Alex even tried sanding and curing them, but the knife marks go right through them and you can really smell the leftover onion and garlic on them, despite using baking soda and lemon to clean them. And the splinters...okay, I could go on and on, it's just one example. This photo is from a local craftsman's workshop. He makes all of these breadboards and pizza peels from cherry and maple wood. He guarantees them for 20 years if you follow his instructions on care. We're going to go to his workshop next week and invest some big bucks in buying a large and a small cutting board. I think from now on, we're going to keep this philosophy whenever we can afford it. I used to cringe at the words "locally made" and "locally grown" simply because I just didn't have the money...now we will opt for these things as we can afford them, and do without until that time because I'm sick of wasting money on crap. What about you all out there? What are your experiences? Are they as discouraging as mine? What's your philosophy on product purchasing? We both wish we had better skills to make more of our own things.

Do you sprout?  My fellow Canadian friend Dianna suggested a company called Mumm's to me a few days back as her go-to seed sprouting supply store. I've never sprouted before, but have been getting more and more interested as the quality of the lettuce in winter declines. I'd love to hear about every and any experience with home sprouting because I unfortunately fell upon an alarmist news article about the frequency of salmonella in sprout seeds...anyway, since I don't know much about it, I'd like to hear the good and the bad from people who actually have done or do sprout now! If you've written a post(s) about sprouting, please include the link(s) for me, I need to be more educated (and please never even think of a lengthy comment as being too long, I love them long!). I don't want to have a pre-judgment based on one article, but it does linger in my mind unfortunately. Anxiety anyone? Lol...okay, I'm still working on it!

And last but not least, a no-shame photo of Oscar suntanning, using Jack as his foot rest!

Whoa Is Me! More Snow!!

Here's a picture I took from the upstairs balcony/veranda. It's been sprinkling snow all day long. There shouldn't be too much accumulation, but the Weather Network is calling for 4 inches on Friday overnight to Saturday, sigh. Why on the weekend??? That gives motivation for the snowmobilers to come up north!!! It'll be another hibernation weekend I think...hmmm...maybe I'll sit and watch my basil grow lol...

I'm having egg issues too...not like other homesteaders who are gathering so many fresh eggs that they don't know what to do with them!!! But I think I may have overbought...yes, I did! I've already frozen a few dozen and I still have two more than need to be eaten in the next two weeks, so I'll be baking a lot and making egg dishes. I made a double-decker egg salad sandwich for Alex's lunch yesterday. I forgot to take a picture, but I made myself an egg white scramble with tomatoes and Parm. No dinner pics today, we had the leftover Crunchwraps!

I got my book order yesterday! :) I've already started reading the Anti-Anxiety book and there is a LOT in there...my gosh. It might take me reading it a few times over to process all of the food information relating to different conditions of the mind.

I also got this new gardening book. It's so much easier to read than Eliot Coleman's "Four Season Harvest" which I have to admit, I'm having a hard time getting through right now...but that could be that my mind is focusing on healing the anxiety. The author of this new book, Niki Jabbour, is from Halifax, so she's a Canuck and she writes very well, lots of explanations of each crop and how it relates to each season for the garden. I browsed through it last night and can't wait to get more into it! I'll still read Eliot Coleman's, it'll give me a few different perspectives and suggestions.

Anyone up for a baking challenge this weekend? After my horror story about the burned Cheese Nips in yesterday's post, Sam I Am mentioned that there has to be a way to make them at home; and I found a recipe that I did actually use once: Homemade Cheeze-Its. I looked back at my photos and I made them last November. I served them with homemade tomato soup and I couldn't remember why I didn't make them again. Alex thinks it's because they were really "flour-y", which makes sense because I kind of remember the dough being very sticky so I might have used more flour in the rolling and cutting. Plus I didn't have cookie cutters back then, just my dog bone-shaped ones...I have more now though so I can make them smaller. If you look at the website though, hers look perfect...I don't know that I can achieve that! But I'm up for the challenge. I have some Cheddar that ain't doin' nothin' so I'm going to do this sometime over the next four days!

Roast Beef and Rainbow Trout

This is Oscar. See how cute he is? He's trying to keep his toes warm on my heating pad that was incubating my latest batch of yogurt. Oh he's cute, I had to get a photo...an hour later I could have rung his neck because he was so into the heating pad that he knocked over the yogurt, grrrrr! Such a clatter...I did actually spring from my bed to see what was the matter! How did I not see that one coming??

After my initial "Oh My God OSCAR!!!!" squeal...he ran upstairs to hide next to Charlie. Aw, I can't stay mad at any of them. I managed to salvage some of it, but it didn't really set very well. Pets...

I made Alex some of that Beef Jerky that he loves so much. I'm not sure what happened, but it dried out so quickly this time that we had to re-marinate it and let it dry again. I hope my dehydrator isn't on the fritz because I always get the same cut of meat and use the same drying time. At least we salvaged that too! A day of food-rescue!!!

For dinner I made Alex a roast beef. I wanted to use the Brussels Sprouts that I'd bought on shopping day, they lasted a very long time in the fridge. I just cooked them in a pan with butter and salt and with a baked potato, Alex loved it! I'm not a beef-eater anymore because of my digestion, sadly because this looked and smelled so good! I found a simple method online for the beef. Just salt, pepper and Dijon mustard rubbed and then baked 25 minutes a pound for medium. How do you make your roast beef? I was trying to get the similar scent and taste of my grandmother's old Sunday dinner roast! I think I succeeded!

For me, I had a nice piece of Rainbow trout with a Chardonnay butter sauce (wine, butter and onions, that's it!). The first few bites were divine, but as I kept eating, I didn't really enjoy it, which kind of surprised me. I'm a fish lover, but I found the Rainbow to be really intensely strong in flavour. I got turned off salmon for the same reason, when years ago I used to eat it a few times a week...I hope my taste buds aren't shifting!

Another Chapter of the "Not Surprising" Files:

Some of you may remember I wrote about a box of Premium Plus crackers that Alex bought for me when I had food poisoning. I mentioned that one of the sleeves of crackers was all burned. Well, at the beginning of March, I did get a coupon from the company as a result of complaining. I used it to buy a box of Cheese Nips the other day, Alex loves them but we buy them rarely because they're not good for us. Check this out:

BURNED CRACKERS AGAIN!!! I've had it. I wrote again to the company saying I felt like I wasted my coupon on these burned Cheese Nips. No quality control. And I'll bet I simply get another coupon in the mail with no care about how mediocre the product is. Every day I get more and more examples of poor products and it really motivates me to become as self-sufficient as I can be. Crazy!