Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Of Soups, Strudels, Bread and Bears

I have been very bad. It has been over a month since I last posted; but I'm sure you all know how much running around we all do before Christmas.

I will try to give you a quick update on the comings and goings of my household.


P.J. is doing wonderfully on he diet and has noticeably lost several pounds, for the first time since getting her, we actually saw her jump for a toy! All four legs left the ground! Amazing!

I have been trying out a new cookbook: "125 Easy Quick Breads" and made for dessert a cherry-filled coffee cake. It was lovely and crumbly, wonderful to have with tea or coffee.


The only thing about the cookbook I found odd, was that they generally called for a 70-80 minute baking time at 350. That seemed a tad excessive to me, so I would set the time for 45 minutes and check every ten minutes until it was ready.

I also made some homemade Challah, one of my favourite breads. This batch I hand-kneaded for about 15 minutes, I could have used my bread maker, in fact, my mother has an amazing bread machine Challah recipe, but I like kneading, I find it therapeutic.

A couple weeks ago we had a really miserable cold day. Jeremie decided he wanted soup - nice homemade chicken noodle soup. The problem was, we had no cooked chicken.

It turns out my husband is a great improviser, we made a chicken broth and threw in just about every root vegetable we had. Any spice that we thought might taste good, 1/4 cup of pot barley and noodles.

It was delicious! We ate it for two days!


Two weeks ago, we decided to go on a walk at a local park. We bundled up and took off on a Sunday afternoon. We were enjoying ourselves until we came to a big sign at the front of the main trail that read: "Warning, Brown Bears have been seen in this area, proceed with caution." And a big picture of a mean-looking bear underneath it.

I didn't feel like we were in any real danger, and Jeremie felt pretty confident, so we kept walking. Though that didn't mean we didn't jump with every snapped twig!

By the end of our hour walk, we hadn't seen any bears, or really much wildlife at all; but I enjoyed the fresh cool air very much, and the exercise was good for us.


My nature man:

The next few weeks are full of Christmas planning and Volunteer work. My mother every Christmas collects donations for the Salvation Army, she stands normally in a grocery store with her red Salvation Army apron and donation kettle, ringing the little bells happily.
After hearing about how much she loved doing it, I decided to give it a try at my own local grocery store.
I love it! I have a three hour shift and in a small town, you know pretty much everyone, so I get to visit or chit-chat with people coming and going.
Though, unlike my Mum, I decided to dress up like an elf.
I figured, if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it right!
I decked myself out in red and white, wore little elf boots and a Santa hat and just had myself a party!
I was so blessed by seeing how generous people are, how happily they give and how much they enjoy just a smile and a "good morning!"
More than anything else, doing this has really put me in the Christmas spirit!
Peace (on earth! :D )
- Jenny

5 comments:

Niki said...

wonderful newsy post, I Loved IT!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you have been busy. The coffee cake looks yummy. Good for you for volunteering - I bet people love seeing your elf outfit.

Dori said...

Jenny, please tell me we can see you in that elf costume! I would love that! Any pics at all? Also can you post the recipe for that cherry coffee cake? That is the best looking dessert I've ever seen! Making my mouth water!!

Dori

Vanessa said...

UPDATE PLEASE! :):)

From your friendly, neighbourhood, annoying sister.

Penny said...

The soup, bread and coffeecake look delish! When will you be posting your good news??

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