Merry Xmas!

First of all, I want to wish the merriest and brightest Xmas ever to you and all your loved ones.

Isn

Like baking gingerbread....and wrapping presents..... 

 Under the watchful eye of the blowmolds....

And I was able to put the finishing touches on my 'buffet'.

I also took the time to reflect on 2016.

This was an extremely difficult year.

As many of you know my father passed in last January.

There was a lot of sorrow, tears and uncertainty.

But there was a lot of joy and laughter as well....

 I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am very 

resilient, I might stumble but I will get back up stronger than ever.

What's planned for today?

longing in our pjs, watching tv and eating leftovers.....

Have a great day everyone!

The glory of potted cheese

I believe I blogged about this before...once or twice!

But making a jar of it filled me with joy!

For me this is free cheese...yesssss!

On Monday morning I decided it was time for a freezer clean up. I threw out a bunch of mystery zipper bags and pieces of stale bread. I fished out broad beans, smoked salmon and shrimp to make a nice freezer supper and I spotted my freezer plastic container labeled Potted Cheese....It was full

Time for POTTED CHEESE!

This recipe is from England. You take all the bits of cheese lying around in your fridge...I know some of you will go : Whhaaattt? we never have any bits of cheese lying around!

Well I beg to differ. You know that dried piece of cheddar you are about to throw out? Put it in a labelled freezer container, and keep adding over time.

Once the pot is full, you can defrost it or leave it until you crave something different!

I usually cut the cheese a bit before freezing.

This time I had cheddar, gouda, havarti and mozzarella .

I put the cheese in the food processor (as you can see in the picture, my vintage 1989 Cuisinart)

I added seasoned salt, paprika and marsala wine

I believe you can add about any spice or dried herb.

It is great with white wine too. Beer could be nice....

after whizzing to a smooth consistency, I put it in a 2 cups (500 ml)

Mason jar or 2 smaller ones.

Wait a couple of weeks for the flavors to blend and serve as a spread or on toast or crackers!

It will keep for several months in the fridge.

Enjoy!

All Done

Well it is finally over!

Tomorrow we will drop off the balance of the Etsy shop's inventory. As much as I had fun with this little shop as much I am glad that it is over.

In the end the boxes were just suffocating. Too much stuff!

Funny what was my train of thought:

First it was: I will put the shop on haitus

Second: I will only keep the Xmas stuff

Third: GET RID OF IT ALL!!!

Of course I kept my favorite pieces....

Of course I may change my mind along the way....

We never know!

Be well in faith that everything will be all rigth

Yummmmm......

I'm always looking for some new healthy slow cooker recipes...

And I'm sure glad I found this one!

wonderful vegetarian morrocan stew

Now you will get tomatoes, squash, chickpeas, sweet potatoes. abricots...

And cook it slow for 8 hours, 4 if you're in a hurry.

This is a hearthy, tasty main meal or side dish.

 

It reheats really well.

 

 

Now you can do interesting things with leftovers...

 

I put some of the veggie stew in a skillet and heated up, and cracked some eggs in it.

 

Served it with whole wheat toast buttered and rubbed with a garlic clove and we were in heaven!

 

So for now I wish you sweet dreams...

 

and I hope to see you soon. 

 

 

Adventures in bread making....

I love bread! About 2 years ago I took the plunge and started trying to make bread.

I say trying because I'm not always succesful....really!

I tried making baguette (that was real awful) ,regular white bread (better as toast), biscuits(too thin), slow cooker brown bread (just like a big muffin but real tasty) and an amazing bread that takes forever and you need to preheat a dutchoven for ages in the oven, but the result has been really,really good!

Lately after a really long no baking period, I tried hamburger buns (That's definitely Guy Fieri's fault...lol...Dinners,drive-ins and dives). The buns didn't rise properly and I ended up with slider size buns, good but too compact. Yesterday I trid Naan bread, a traditional indian bread, a recipe from Emeril...Well Emeril you are full of....It tasted like Pita bread not Naan!!! Well I ate most of it...hehehe! I have tons of lentil curry leftover, so I'm trying another recipe....To be continued! lol

On another subject....I love opening my email and finding I sold something on Etsy! It always makes my day!

I hope to save enough to pay half of the car's repairs....Positive thinking!!!

I read a lot of blogs and people plan their weekly menus a lot! I can plan for Friday,Saturday and Sunday but that's it! After it's a long string of leftovers...I am so grateful Dan loves leftovers! My dad is a big leftover person too and my mom (let's not go there!!!) was definitely the queen of leftovers...oh yeah definitely....lol

Tonite I plan to make some kind of asian cold noodle salad with green and red peppers, spring onions, a spicy dressing with chicken and maybe shrimp.....Should be D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!

Until next time....Be kind to your neighbors, they might have Pyrex (I couldn't help myself...I find this hilarious....)