I KNOW!! I’ve weaned myself off of that late afternoon cup of coffee. With this. Oh wait, I also had some of this. This one’s just plain old hot chocolate, straight-up. That white creaminess on the top, by the way? aren’t dollops of whipped cream – they’re (melting) homemade marshmallows. Which yes, I know, are oh-so-very Martha. And to be honest I don’t have the patience for the cutting and the dusting with icing sugar (I can never cut them cleanly, and wind up a total mess with marshmallow goo stuck to me and less-than-Martha looking mallows all over my kitchen. And myself. And the floor. And the dog. Black-haired dogs and sticky freshly sawed-apart marshmallows do not mix.) So I discovered if you just drop spoonfuls of the marshmallow mixture onto parchment paper or pipe it out from a zip-lock baggie (in which case you can make Peeps!) it’s far easier and less labour-intensive, and you don’t need to dust everything with icing sugarContinue reading

There seems to be an awful lot of interest surrounding the topic of hot cocoa. Specifically, how to make it. This is not surprising considering the recent enormous dump of snow that has blanketed Calgary, slowing it down considerably and sending it scrambling to find its mittens and snow shovels. (Confession: I love it. Even the driving part. I love walking the boys to school and shoveling the sidewalk and coming in with the bottom inches of my jeans cold and wet. I’m sure the novelty will wear off sometime around January 2nd.) So to make real, for-true-life hot cocoa this is what you do (or what I do): stir together a tablespoonful each of cocoa and sugar (or honey) in a small pot, and add about a cup of milk (soy or almond milk is fine, although it’s sweeter so you may want to cut down the sugar). Heat. (You’ll have to heat the water anyway-you may as well heat milk, right?) Or, ifContinue reading

It started snowing this afternoon in Jasper – big, clumpy flakes that fell quickly, like wee snowballs, blowing sideways past the window in the main lodge. We were sitting by the stone fireplace, eating hot seafood chowder and sliders, after an hour or so of full-contact ping pong downstairs. Feel free to hate me a little bit. It was a fitting reception for the first group arriving for Christmas in November. Chef Michael Smith arrived late in the afternoon with chef Paul Rogalski (of Rouge) followed by Ken Kostick and Karl Lohnes. Chris Standring arrived yesterday, like us, and Gail Hall and the crew from the Edmonton Journal. Next week Anna Olson will come, and one of my favourite ladies of all time – Elizabeth Baird, with her sidekick, Emily Richards. I’m so sad to be missing them. I’ll get over it. Perhaps another hot chocolate will help. As guests arrived, giant silver tureens of real hot chocolate sat in waiting with bowls full ofContinue reading

Another clue in the Mystery of the Tight Pants: I had to run over to the gas station to buy cream to whip for our peach crisp the other night. Want to know why? Because the pint we bought earlier this week (in anticipation of a veritable parade of fruit cobblers, crisps and pies-we managed one, anyway) was used up by my SISTER while making us COFFEE every morning (and more than the occasional afternoon). Here I thought it tasted so good because the freshly ground beans were organic and from Salt Spring Island and I was sipping it on the porch overlooking Clayoquot Sound. Nope – apparently it had more to do with the 35% cream, in (according to my calculations) outrageous quantities. We decided to launch a sort of coffee project this week, partly because both of us are a little bit workaholic and she, as a single mom of three and full-time teacher, grabs on to projects like lifelines when faced withContinue reading

Still had some of that garlicky hummus from the weekend, whole wheat tortillas and fresh parsley; took some frozen shredded chicken from the freezer and had something made before I had time to nibble through enough to count as dinner. The motivation behind the mandarin milkshakes was mainly to reclaim a large chunk of prime real estate in my freezer that has been occupied for far too long. Besides, I had to put that vanilla ice cream out of its misery (if just to shut it up); likewise the last of the mandarin oranges that were getting too soft to be appealing. (Kind of like me.) I didn’t partake, but whizzed about 5 peeled mandarins with a few scoops of vanilla for Mike, Ben and W as they came back from playing at the park and ice skating. I buttoned the middle button of my pea coat today – comfortably, without fear of someone losing an eye by the sheer force of it popping off inContinue reading

It turns out it’s a leap year. I thought for a minute I had miscounted, having reached day 360 (!) with a week left until New Year’s Eve. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this in February, but we have an extra day this year, so 366 it is. (Of course I won’t be stopping entirely. I can’t say for sure whether I’ll continue writing every single night, if I do Mike might move out of the house or at least into another bedroom, but I will keep this going. I have 4 more days to work out the logistics! Have I told you DwJ will be in the National Post? On January 3rd! A little ironic that it will run 2 days after this project was supposed to end…) I think I love Boxing Day even more than Christmas Day. We did a whole lot of sitting around, playing with W’s marble games and puzzles and hockey with his new net set inContinue reading