golden harvest chili

I've had quite the bounty of tomatoes from my garden the last week or so. I planted 5 varieties of heritage tomatoes: 2 kinds of sauce tomatoes, a pink, a white, and a yellow (I can't see the tags under the jungle of plants to give you the exact names). The sauce and pink tomatoes I'm saving for preserves, but I wanted some fun ways to use the white and yellow ones, besides just eating them (they are nice for that too). The varieties I have are quite sweet and mild, and I thought they might go nicely with some sweet corn I picked up at the local market. The resulting chili I concocted was so tasty, I just had to share my recipe with you.

Golden Harvest Chili

1/2 lb ground beef or chicken (optional)
1 small yellow onion*
4 med to large white, yellow, or orange tomatoes
1 yellow bell pepper
1 can romano beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cobs of corn (about 1-1.5 cups)
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dry oregano (or 1 tbsp fresh)
hot chili seasoning of your choice (I used 1/4 tsp hot Hungarian paprika)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt to taste
Sour cream to serve.

Chop onion, tomatoes, and pepper into small pieces. Cut corn from cobs.

Brown ground meat in large pan. Add onion and cook until translucent (if not using meat, cook onion in 1 tbsp oil). Add spices and stir until fragrant (~1 min). Add tomatoes, beans, and yellow pepper. Simmer for 20 min. Add corn and simmer another 5 min. Season to taste with salt, and add more chili if it's not hot enough.

Serve over wild or brown rice with a spoon of sour cream, or with corn bread.

*I made mine without the onion, since I'm allergic, but I'm sure it will be awesome with onion too.

a lion!

I'm glad everyone likes the bunny! I really love the new design too, so much that I'm nearly done a third toy! I had a great idea for a third animal in the middle of the night (breastfeeding seems to be good for my creativity) so if they all work out, the final pattern will have instructions for a bunny, a puppy, and a lion! All made with simple changes to the basic pattern.

However, there hasn't been much time for knitting around here the last few days, because Lev got his first round of vaccinations on Tuesday. He hasn't had any bad reactions, like a fever, but his sleep has been really disrupted and he just wants to be held most of the time. Hopefully he begins to feel better today.

I also meant to say thanks for everyone's suggestions for dairy-substitutes. I tried the almond milk, which was nice but expensive! The oat-milk sounded interesting, and I did find some, but I'm allergic to oats so I didn't try it (I have some weird food allergies). I also saw hemp-milk, but didn't try it. It was as expensive as the almond milk, and I had this funny idea that it would taste strange, like pumpkin seeds (I have no idea why). Lev seems to be okay with soy for now, so I've been drinking small amounts of that again. I long for cheese and yogurt, though, and the next few weeks of waiting will be hard. I just hope that Lev's digestive system is much improved by 3 months.

gingerbread cupcakes

Yesterday was my baby shower, and I had a few friends over. Instead of playing embarrassing games, we baked cupcakes. However, the mothers there did tell stories about their pregnancies, frightening at least one person into swearing she didn't want children (and we didn't even get into the really unpleasant parts!) I made mini gingerbread cupcakes with lemon glaze, and promised to share the recipe, since they turned out so well. Hopefully this makes up for the emotional scarring of my friend :)



Gingerbread Cupcakes

Makes 4 dozen mini cupcakes, 1 dozen regular size cupcakes, or a 9" square cake.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Mix together well in one bowl.

1 cup hot water
3/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey

In a second bowl, add hot water to molasses and honey, and stir until they are dissolved.

1/2 cup butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup white sugar

Cream butter in a third large bowl. Add sugar and mix well. Add egg and mix until smooth.

Add half of dry ingredients to butter mixture, and mix well, then add half of liquid ingredients and mix until smooth. Repeat with rest of dry and wet ingredients.

Prepare pans with paper liners, or grease and flour cake pan. Pour batter into pans. Bake at 350 F: 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes, 15 minutes for regular cupcakes, or 1 hour for cake. Place on cooling rack until cool.

Lemon Glaze

1 1/2 cups icing sugar
6-8 tsp lemon juice

In a small bowl, stir lemon juice into icing sugar one tsp at a time until you have a thick but spreadable glaze (you may not need all the lemon juice). Spread over top of cool cupcakes - glaze will smooth out after spreading, and be sure to add any decorations right away as the glaze surface will dry after a few minutes.

cranberry chutney

I promised to post this recipe a while ago, and had been waiting to get a photo to go with it. But you know, it just looks like a jar of dark-red stuff, which wouldn't really be helpful! This was delicious with the turkey and the wild boar we had at two different Thanksgiving suppers. I think it would be good with any poultry or game meat, and possibly even salmon. Regular cranberry sauce is good, but this is much more flavourful, with a tangy and spicy edge.

If you have not done any preserving before, please read up on the right techniques. I've only given basic directions below, and I would hate for your preserves to go bad because you weren't sure what some of the directions meant. However, if you're really worried about the processing, you can just freeze it.

Cranberry Chutney

Makes about 6 half-pint (250 ml) jars

1 package fresh cranberries (12 oz or 340 g)
1 cup drained crushed pineapple (250 ml)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger (30 ml)
zest of 1 orange (about 1 tsp or 5 ml)
juice of 1 orange (about 1/4 cup or 60 ml)
1 cup red wine vinegar (250 ml)
1 1/2 cups white sugar (375 ml)
1 cup raisins (250 ml)
juice from pineapple, plus enough water to make 1 cup (250 ml)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (5 ml)
1 tsp ground cloves (5 ml)

In a large pot, combine the cranberries, pineapple, ginger, orange zest and juice, and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then turn down temperature and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, and simmer for another 15 minutes or until the chutney is thickened.

Wash and sterilize the jars while the chutney is cooking.

Ladle the chutney into the hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) headspace. Clean jar top before screwing on lids.

Place jars in canner, cover with water, and process for 10 minutes.

about to be eaten

So, the next attempt at formatting was done through a Google application. It seemed to work fine, and would even post for me directly (no copy and paste required) but Blogger decided it needed to add a whole bunch of extra empty lines. Back to the drawing board...

I tried to do too much today. I'm still not used to the way I get tired so easily. A list of tasks that would have normally been a busy but fun saturday had me worn out and grumpy by early afternoon. I made bread and cranberry chutney, with a quick run to the grocery store to pick up the extra stuff I needed for the chutney. I took a bunch of photos for the new book, and I even fit in some knitting. The bread and chutney are for two Thanksgiving suppers we're going to this weekend (read: I will not be eating anything on tuesday!) I'll have to share the recipe for the cranberry chutney, since it turned out fruity, tangy, spicy and so good!

In case you didn't know, Thanksgiving is in early October in Canada, because this is harvest time. The end of November is winter for most of Canada (with the exception of Vancouver Island, and a few other mild spots). I think it's a bit sad that Thanksgiving is just a North American holiday - if you ignore the slightly fictional pilgrims and natives story, it's really just about celebrating the harvest time with your family. I'll take any excuse to roast a big turkey, cook loads of yummy veggies, and eat pumpkin pie!

And to give you a good laugh, here's a photo I took a while ago while we were goofing around with our kitties. Greta seems quite unconcerned that she's about to be eaten. The photos of Mila were too silly to show to the public, poor thing.

blueberry muffins

It's been ages since I shared a recipe with you, so here is my favourite recipe for blueberry muffins. In it's original version, it came from a Company's Coming book, not necessarily the first place you'd think to look for a great recipe, but there are a few hiding in them. Butter tastes better of course, but the oil works fine too. Freezing the berries first will help them hold together when mixing the batter.

Blueberry Muffins

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup soft butter or vegetable oil
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup blueberries (or other seasonal berries)

In a large bowl, combine the flours, b.p. and salt. Make a well in the centre.

In another bowl, mix the butter/oil and sugar. Beat in egg. Mix in milk and vanilla.

Prep your muffin tins (this makes 1 doz. medium muffins) by greasing or using paper liners. Set the oven to 400 F (200 C).

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and add the berries. Stir gently until the batter is evenly moist. Spoon into the tins, about 3/4 full per muffin cup. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Muffins are always best hot from the oven, but these will keep well if you freeze them as soon as they're cool. Then you just warm them up, or stick them in your lunch bag and they'll be thawed by lunch time!

a few little changes

I've been thinking of a few little changes to my Etsy shop. I like to keep the number of toy patterns at 20, because if it gets too much above that, it's a lot of work keeping track of which ones are sold out. As well, some of my patterns just don't sell very well. I do keep all my patterns for sale at my Lulu shop, because that one mostly takes care of itself.

So, one change I was thinking of making is to combine all three bunny patterns into one bundle. It always seemed silly to me to have three different ones, when really the only difference is the outfits. But while I didn't have so many patterns, it made sense to offer my customers more choices. So the proposed new pattern would have the bunny, with long and short ear options, and three outfits: the pinafore dress, the hoodie, and the jacket and waistcoat. I would probably sell it for $5.75, like the clothing bundles. I've put up a poll, so you can vote, or leave a comment with your opinion. I suppose another option would be to include the super cape and t-shirt, instead of the hoodie.

The other possible change would be to remove a couple of toy patterns from my Etsy shop, whichever 2 have the lowest sales. I think this would be the koala and either the cow boy or the puppy. However, I would hate to get rid of any of those while still having 3 bunny patterns. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Also, I want to announce that we've decided to lower the price of the Fuzzy Knits book. I know that people who order the printed version also have to pay quite a bit in shipping, so hopefully this lower price will make the book affordable for more people. This also means that the wholesale price for yarn shops has decreased a bit.

Today is a usual quiet and lazy Saturday. We popped down to the farmers market and picked up a bunch of organic veggies: zucchini, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, and some sugar-snap peas (already nearly all gone!). We also found some sausages from a nice farmer who raises antibiotic-free animals, and I picked up a bar of home-made soap as a little treat. Doesn't sound too bad, eh? Our farmers market is actually very small, but we make the best of it.

knitting and goats

For the knitting: I quickly knit up this little cutie over the weekend. It's a special gift for a boy who recently lost his mom. I've been told he already has several of my toys, but really wanted a squirrel to complete the set. The request was made a while ago, and I felt bad for putting it off, but I really only had time (and was feeling well enough) to get it done now. The sweater is one I knit from some of my hand-dyed yarn a while ago, but it never suited any of my toys until now. I'm sure this little squirrel will find lots of love where it's going.


And the goats :) Goat's milk actually. Cow's milk and associated products were giving me lots of trouble with indigestion (on top of morning sickness), despite the fact that I've been eating and enjoying them all my life. But pregnancy does weird things to your body. So I thought I would try switching to goat's milk, and see how that went. The cheese I like, and the taste is far more appetizing that cow's cheese right now. Goat's milk... not so much enjoying the aftertaste. I remember trying it as a kid and not liking it, but wanted it to give it another go. I ended up using most of the carton in some raspberry muffins, but still have to stop myself from imaging a faint taste of goat. Oh well, maybe soy milk, or that lactose-free stuff will be better. Anyone have a better suggestion?

yummy things

I made the yummiest salad dressing tonight, and want to share the recipe before I forget how I made it. You could use this on any green salad, especially spinach.

Buckwheat honey and mustard dressing

2 tbsp buckwheat honey
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp whole-grain mustard
1 tsp Dijon mustard
6 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a small bowl or jar. Whisk together well, or put lid on jar and shake well. Make sure honey is dissolved. This should be enough for 4 servings of salad.

I used the buckwheat honey because that's all we had, but it was so much tastier than just regular honey-mustard dressing! These are all ingredients I usually have around the house, and I'm not sure how substitutions would taste, but I hope you try this.

We also tried some jerusalem artichokes we picked up from the organic farm booth at the farmer's market. I peeled and boiled them, then after draining, mixed in some butter, tarragon, salt and pepper. They have a very unique but nice flavour. We'll have to get some again.

soup of the week

This took a little longer to get posted than I planned, but anyway, here it is. This is loosely based on a recipe from "Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant." I don't think I ever make a recipe exactly as written, but my food mostly turns out tasty anyway. This is a great cookbook, by the way. All vegetarian, with some fish dishes, and each chapter is from a different country or ethnic region. I have a tiny problem with some of their ingredient choices (does cabbage actually grow in southern Africa?) but I know enough to substitute what I like.

Hungarian Bean Soup

1 cup dry beans (navy or kidney)
or 1 can beans

1 leek, finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste (~1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
2-3 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup sour cream
2 tsp cider vinegar
chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Soak dry beans overnight, then cook until tender. Drain and rinse beans, but reserve 1-2 cups of the cooking liquid.

In a separate saucepan on medium heat, saute leeks and carrots in 1-2 tbsp of oil. When leeks start to brown, add garlic and spices and saute for about 30 sec to 1 min (warming the spices brings out more flavour). Add vegetable stock, bean cooking liquid, and beans (or add can of beans, liquid and all). You want a total of about 4 cups liquid, so add more veg stock if necessary. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes.

Take soup off heat, and stir in sour cream and vinegar. Check seasoning, and adjust if necessary (if you like spicy, you can add some chili flakes or sauce). Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley (if you're feeling fancy). Makes about 4 servings.


It's really quite simple, and if you can't be bothered with dry beans, I think the canned ones should be fine - you'll just need more veg stock. I added some cauliflower I had in the fridge, and you could add other vegetables if you want, although I recommend keeping it fairly simple. The flavour of the broth isn't strong, but it's very tasty. Have this with some dark rye bread, fresh from the bakery or oven.

oatmeal cake

I'm glad you like the idea of the weekly soup. Photos of the soups would be nice too, so you can see what they're like, although most soups don't look like much. The mushroom and barley soup is just dark brown with bits floating in it, so not very aesthetic :)

In a fit of restlessness last night, I made a cake from a recipe I found in the Joy of Cooking. I'd been teasing my husband by reading bits of cake recipes out-loud, and this is the one we decided to try first (my husband is a big fan of oatmeal). This turned out more photogenic than the soup, so I thought I would share the recipe. The cake is dense and moist, and tastes a lot like oatmeal cookies. When I make it again I might add some raisins and walnuts. I cut down on the sugar a little, but otherwise this is right from the book.


Ingredients
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13" baking pan.
Place rolled oats in a small bowl and add water. Let stand until water is absorbed (about 10 min). Meanwhile, mix together dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
In a medium bowl, at high speed beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add vanilla.
On slow speed, beat in oat mixture, then dry ingredients until blended.
Scrape batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool briefly on rack.

This is delicious on it's own while still hot, or have it with ice cream or vanilla yogurt. Once it cools, you can ice it with your preferred icing. I've put on some store-bought icing with nutmeg added, but I bet cream cheese icing would taste good with this cake too.

I've also been working on a little surprise for you guys, which I'll write more about this weekend.

weekly soup feature!

I had this silly idea last night that I should share the soup I make each week. It does say in my bio that I make delicious soup, so maybe I should prove it. My husband thought this was a good idea, since I've been lacking interesting things to talk about lately.

As a bit of background, I make a big pot of soup at the beginning of each week. We eat it for supper on workdays, so I don't have to take time to make supper every night. My husband loves soup, and usually I'm too hungry to care what I'm eating, so it works well for both of us. There are a couple hitches in the plan, though. First, my husband is mostly vegetarian (he will eat some fish and humanely-raised meat) so that limits the kinds of soup I can make. Second, I'm allergic to garlic and onions, so I need to modify most recipes. In spite of these limitations, I do manage to make something pretty tasty each week, and because I dislike repeating recipes too often, I make quite a variety of soups.

I recently bought myself a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" which seems to be a very good all-round cookbook. It's possible to get recipes on various websites, but I find they often lack good basic recipes, and you can't always trust that they'll work and be tasty. "Joy" has been around for years, so I can trust the recipes and information in it. On the downside, nearly every soup recipe in it has onions, so I'll need to modify any that I want to try.

Okay, if you're still with me after that dissertation on soup, here's the one I made last night: mushroom and barley. I added carrots and parsnips, and seasoned it with thyme and bay leaf. The recipe called for beef broth, but since I can't get good broth at my grocery store, I substituted free-range chicken broth plus some red wine and tomato paste. It turned out very tasty, although I only made enough for about 3 meals. I didn't want to go overboard with a new recipe.

If you would like me to share my recipe for anything I post here, just let me know. I'll try to remember all the changes I made to the original!

full house

Here are some of the toys hanging around my house lately; although, this photo is a few days old, so there are some new critters, and one of the cuties in this photo is already gone. They look all good and behaved, lined up like that, but I have my suspicions that they get into trouble in the middle of the night. Their sweet innocent faces don't fool me. Besides, my cats know a trick or two, and I'm sure they conspire with the toys to party it up during the night, leaving fuzz and bits of yarn all over my house.


I took a bit of a break from knitting yesterday to do some baking. I got myself a lovely new KitchenAid mixer last week (courtesy of some wedding present money) and I've been putting it through it's paces. First I made rye bread, for my Russian sweetie. It turned out chewy and tasty, and met with great approval. Then I made peanut-butter chocolate-chip cookies, just because. They were also much appreciated!

I was also given a sweet little table for my sewing machine, so now it has a home! I was so tired of dragging it out of the closet every time I wanted to sew something. Now I have a corner of our spare room all set up for sewing. My first project is a heating-bag/toy for my nephew's first birthday. I made it in a teddy-bear shape, and it has striped flannel pyjamas. Plus, my sister can remove the flax-filled bag to heat it in the microwave, to make the toy warm and cuddly.

espresso cupcakes

This recipe originally came from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. I've changed the recipe a little, and used a different icing, but they are still delicious. Because this came from a British recipe book, most things are measured in grams, but you can find the conversions here. I used good-quality chocolate bars, not baking chocolate, although you could probably use semi-sweet baking chocolate. This will make 12 medium cupcakes, or about 20 mini ones.

Espresso Cupcakes

Ingredients
125g softened unsalted butter
125g dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
125g all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
75g dark chocolate with ground coffee beans, melted (or plain dark chocolate plus 1 tbsp instant espresso powder or finely ground espresso beans)
2-3 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 200 C (400 F). Line cupcake tins with paper liners, or butter and flour them.
Blend butter and sugar well, then add eggs and blend until smooth. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder (and espresso powder or ground coffee, if using). Stir in dry ingredients a bit, then blend until smooth. Add chocolate and 2 tbsp milk, blending well. Add 1 more tbsp milk if batter seems too thick.
Fill tins about half to 2/3 full. Bake for 12-15 min - toothpick inserted in middle should come out clean.

Chocolate Icing

Ingredients
100g dark chocolate
100ml whipping cream

Put cream in a small saucepan, heat until almost boiling (but don't boil). Add chocolate in small pieces, stirring until it's all melted. Remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Let cool until thick enough to spread.










Thanks to Amanda and Allison for taking photos of our fun, and listening as I talked way too much about knitting. Taylor was a hoot, as usual, and it's been too long since we all hung out together. I hope Sara gets better soon, and enjoys her cupcakes. Also, thanks to Minou for keeping me warm during my sleep-over. She may be a little crazy, and eat yarn, but she's a cute kitty.

cupcake bakers

Last spring we moved to the far west end of the island of Montreal, from where I used to live in the heart of things. We moved for lots of reasons - to be closer to my job, to have cheaper rent, to live somewhere quieter and prettier. While I now live much closer to my sister, I'm an 1.5 hour bus ride from all my other friends.

When I lived downtown, my friends and I had weekly get-togethers for such things as cooking, baking, knitting, chatting (and maybe just a bit of drinking). I've really missed these (probably more than my friends know), since it's much too far for me to go on a wednesday evening, especially when I was working a regular job.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of our first cupcake baking party, and I'm super excited! I'm planning to stay over at my friend's place, so I don't need to worry about the murderous bus-ride at 11 pm or something. Who says I'm too old for a pyjama party? I spent yesterday evening reading through a Nigella Lawson recipe book, making myself hungry even after I'd eaten supper. I suggested we make either her espresso cupcakes (which also include chocolate), or the fairy cakes, those being an excuse to buy candy cake decorations. I'll be sure to get pictures of whatever we make, and maybe I'll post one of the recipes we use. Cupcakes once a year can't be bad for you :)

ginger cookies

I have an old family recipe for ginger cookies that I love, and which everyone else seems to love too. I suppose some people might keep such things a secret, but I believe that good things are better when they are shared. So here is the recipe for all my friends to enjoy. 

Ginger Cookies 

3/4 cup butter 

1 cup white sugar 

1 large egg 

1/4 cup molasses (I prefer black-strap, because it makes them darker and complements the ginger nicely) 

2 cups all-purpose flour 

2 tsp baking soda 

1/4 tsp salt 

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp ground cloves 

2 tsp ground ginger (3 tsp if you like extra ginger flavour) 

water 

extra white sugar 

Cream butter and sugar in one bowl. Beat in egg and molasses. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl, then blend gradually into wet ingredients. If dough is very soft, cover and place in fridge for 10 minutes or so. Shape into 1" balls, dip in water, then into extra white sugar (water helps the sugar stick). 

Place 2" apart on greased baking sheet. Bake in 350 F oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes (because they are too soft to remove from the pan) then place on cooling racks to finish cooling. 

This makes about 6 dozen cookies, less if you make them bigger. These keep for about a week, so don't feel bad about eating them all up quickly!

Handcrafters' Holidays Blog Meme

I saw this on Sew, Mama, Sew! and thought it would be fun to answer a few of the questions, even if my blog is a lot more about knitting than sewing. Hope you enjoy reading my answers!

Do you have a favorite gift that you love to give?

I love giving my family hand-made gifts because I know they will appreciate the time and creativity I put into them, whether it's just a hand-painted card or something I spent hours knitting.

If you’re making gifts this year, what are you making? (Post photos if you have some!)

I've made several aprons, knitted a bunch of toys, and plan to make a pair of mittens and a hat. Sorry, no photos yet. I don't want to spoil the surprise!

Name one thing on your personal wish list.

I do have several knitting books on my wish list, but lately I've been thinking it would be awfully nice to have a rotary cutter and board. I have this itch to do some quilting. A scissor sharpener would be great too! My poor old scissors :(

Do you make and sell things that would make fantastic gifts?

This is where I say how adorable and lovable my toys are, and what a great gift idea one of my pattern books would be. My pin cushions would make lovely gifts too, if I ever had time to sew any!

What is your favorite family holiday tradition?

My favourite family holiday tradition would have to be the big supper on Christmas day. It's not just the food, which is always great, it's the whole day spent together getting everything ready. When I was a kid, it was always at my grandparents' house. I have wonderful memories of arriving just after lunch to their warm, cozy house. Visiting and playing games with whichever aunts, uncles, and cousins were there that year. My grandpa watching 3 different sports games on the T.V. Delicious food smells coming from the kitchen. Making the gravy as all the food was being put on the table. The steamed pudding my grandma would always make, with two kinds of sauce. Sleepily walking home through the snow.

What do you love most about the holiday season?

What I've always loved most is finding (or making) the perfect gift for someone, and watching their face as they open the package. It warms my heart to be able to show how much my friends and family mean to me, in even such a small way.

What do you like least about the holiday season?

What I like least is how some people can be so cynical and try their hardest to not enjoy this time of year because these holidays are so commercialized in so many ways. It's not difficult to just turn away from all the shiny artificiality, and delight in whatever is special to you - family and friends, hoping for better things in the new year, practicing kindness to strangers, or even just enjoying the change in season.

Anyone close to your heart that you’ll be missing this year?

I won't be missing anyone, because for the first time in years I will be going home for Christmas!

What is your favorite holiday food?

My favourite holiday food must be my grandma's steamed pudding. It's full of raisins and spices, and is so rich and yummy. Then you get to put rum and butter sauce on it, or tart lemon sauce. It makes my mouth water to think of it.

Do you have a great recipe to share?

I have an excellent recipe for chewy ginger cookies. It's in another post, because this one is getting rather long!

apple crisp

I just took out of the oven a huge apple crisp. There's just enough vanilla ice cream in the freezer to make it go down smooth. I am sipping mulled wine while I wait for the crisp to cool.

I love Autumn :)