Woman in Real Life

Each year when Christmas approaches, I tend to get out all of my little sentimental kind of cookbooks. You know the ones? Collections of recipes put together by church groups and other organizations of women who use their husbands' names, like "Mrs. Gerald Regan." The directions for these recipes are sometimes incomplete. Often two or more recipes are basically the same, with ingredients listed in a different order. But I just love the idea that these women got together to publish their favourite family recipes for some cause near and dear to them.

This week I took out my copy of Cape Breton Squares and Cookies by the Des Barres Chapter of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.), Sydney, Nova Scotia. This precious cookbook consists of 21 pages of typed recipes, stapled together with a soft, mustard-colour cover. The recipes are presented alphabetically.

We had another busy week, with the four of us still home for Christmas vacation. Here are some of our cell phone photos from the past seven days.

This makes it look like we were very productive, but there were several days spent in pyjamas too.

Although, like most parents, I get a lot done even when I'm in pyjamas. Let me see, there's laundry, cooking, dishes, baking, tidying, cleaning...I could go on, but you know what I mean.

I headed to a local yarn shop for their post-Christmas sale. I took an introductory knitting class there last February and have yet to finish the scarf I started then. Some ladies in the waiting room at my daughter’s ballet class have suggested we work on a lovely scarf project each week while we wait. I picked up the supplies for that and some needles for the kids. Every time I want to knit, they do too, so I figured they should have the right equipment for the job.

For the first time ever, we celebrated New Year’s Eve just the four of us. We ate some Chinese food (yum), played some games, threw some blankets and pillows on the floor and just vegged together. Believe it or not, the kids said this was the best New Year’s Eve ever. Just goes to show you once again, all they want is your undivided attention once in a while.

On New Year’s Day, the four of us went to the Art Gallery of Ontario for Family Sunday.



We saw the Chagall exhibit, and the kids were given companion activity guides, which kept them busy looking for images in the paintings. Very helpful, as they would normally be “bored.”



We also participated in art activities related to The Adventures of Tintin. My son had just seen the movie, so it was good timing.



The kids made boats and attempted to float them in a pool of water. They also created treasure maps and the (foil) “bottles” to put them in. A Cape Breton fiddler was on hand to provide entertainment, along with some step dancers. Back at home, we made an arugula salad with sautéed mushrooms on top, inspired by one we had at Bar Italia the week before. Delicious with a light olive oil vinaigrette.






I noticed my ice cream maker sitting lonely in the cold cellar, and decided ice cream in the winter wouldn’t hurt anyone. I made a cookies-and-cream recipe from Lick it! Creamy, Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love. We sandwiched it between the few remaining chocolate chunk cookies I had made before.

 

We made this “15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta” from Oh She Glows. I was hoping it would be terrific, but not really expecting it to be, since it’s so easy to make. I doubled the recipe so the whole family could have some. Turns out, it’s delicious. Next time, I have to put a little bit less of my brother-in-law’s home-grown garlic, though. I loved it, but the kids found it a bit much for their tastes. Bloglovin Have you tried subscribing to your favourite blogs through Bloglovin yet? I like the way they send daily email updates to show when bloggers have shared new posts. Plus, if you go to their website, you see a little summary with enticing photos so you can quickly choose which entries you want to read. If you want to follow MY blog ;) you can go HERE. I so appreciate people taking the time to follow me with Bloglovin, email or GFC. It truly makes my day!