Turkey Soup and Rustic Bread

We had a belated Christmas dinner with Jp's family on Wednesday as everyone was somewhere else at Christmas this year. When it was announced that we'd be having a turkey dinner, Jp asked for the carcass (that doesn't sound very appetizing does it?) again for soup - in the past his sister has given us up to 15 pounds of bones and meat! She told us repeatedly that we couldn't have it because she was going to make soup with it.

We had an very enjoyable meal and at the end of the meal, his sister handed us a big container of meat and told us that we could have it for our soup as she had too many dinner plans for the upcoming days and wouldn't be able to make it for herself 

So here it is  - 

Yummy looking isn't it? It has gabazo beans, black beans,
yellow peas and lentils,  peas, carrots,
green beens,  lima beans and rice. 

Along with the soup I made of loaf of No Knead Bread which creates a very rustic loaf of bread. 

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And, I just had to capture this beautiful Christmas cactus that's been in bloom since just before Christmas. This is an off-shoot of a plant that my parents had going back the the 70's. They just keep going and going (just like our jade trees) 

Friday Update

This has been quite a snowy week for us - we're just not used to that around Vancouver. This is one of the few times in a year you'll hear me say that I'll be happy when it starts raining!

Although I seem to have adjusted better to the cold this year - usually I wear gloves at anything less than 6 degrees and this year but this year I'm out playing ball with the dog and it's -6C and it's not so bad. I seem to have a better tolerance this year, which is a good thing because I hate being COLD!

My brother, who lives in our wintry Prairies, taught me to plow a walk path for the dog in the snow. My other dogs would only walk on the path -but being a young, vivacious Labrador uses it sometimes but mostly runs around wherever she likes. That's okay, she's happily having fun retrieving her football from the snow banks with little snow moustaches or snow beards -it's so cute. 

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My neighbour's dog died the other night, apparently it went outside for a bathroom break, came back in the house and sat with her for a bit then hopped out of the chair onto the floor and died. That's freaky! It doesn't sound like it was poisoned or anything like that - they think it was an old age thing, she was an 11 year old Boston Terrier which was a little bit on the fat side (that's how they described her). Still it's disturbing pretty to have your dog die suddenly like that don't you think? I was unsettled by it because I certainly don't want anything to happen to Eco. 

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I'm still testing out the new bread machine, so I made some pretzels. A house favorite. Although the recipe says to let them sit overnight for crispier ones, we found that the day old pretzels weren't very good at all. Good thing we can eat them all within hours of coming out of the machine - especially with some honey + mustard!

I realize I should have been a bit neater and more thorough with my egg wash - they'll look prettier next time.

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This Christmas I was reminded that I should start my amaryllis bulbs in mid-November because I started mine at the beginning of December and it's just bloomed now. It did reward my patience by giving me 4 blooms (with a couple more to follow) That's one hard working bulb!

French Bread on the Rise

Look what's coming my way soon - a nice fluffy loaf of French Bread:

I probably shouldn't lift the lid while it's in process, should I? 

And it's perfect for a day with this forecast:

Did you see that? "Feels like -19" - you dang right it does!!! 

Wind gusts 39 kmh!! blech! 

This would be one of the very few days in a year that I don't walk Eco. The wind just keeps howling and sending little snowflakes across and up and every direction. She doesn't seem affected by the cold at all, she just happily runs around retrieving her football, but I'm just not going to go out there. Besides, I'd better stay home to keep an eye on my bread! ;-