I don’t know how much soul I bring to recipes. I guess that happens when you have a love of cooking. And there are lots of amazing people who absolutely love cooking. Me? Not so much. I don’t love it. I do it but it doesn’t fill me with an intense joy. I like it when I have a reason, like the blog, to do it.

I do love entertaining, although there’s not been very much of that happening the past two years. What do I love about it? I love planning, creating a menu, researching recipes, organizing the serving dishes, making a centerpiece, creating a beautiful table, etc. And yes, I even love the cleaning. It gives me great satisfaction. 😉😉 And Richard always picks lovely dinner music. Quite often Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong or John Coltrane.

Now one would think I’m entertaining tonight. Nope. Just us. But I am trying a new recipe, Poached Cod.

Cod is popular as a food with a mild flavour and a dense, flaky, white flesh. In the United Kingdom, Atlantic cod is one of the most common ingredients in fish and chips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod

For more information on the Newfoundland cod fishery: https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/moratorium-impacts.php

It’s not been a great week, with a friend’s death, and then Russia invading the Ukraine. Too much turmoil. So for my recipe I chose a quickie. A quick recipe and a quicker salad – a bagged salad with added pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and cranberries.) Paired with a Moscow Mule.

The cod recipe was from the Acadian Pictorial Cookbook. Richard loves cod. The cookbook photo is the Grand Pre National Historic Site.

Grand-Pré is a Canadian rural community in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Its French name translates to “Great/Large Meadow” and the community lies at the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley several kilometres east of the town of Wolfville on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers. The community was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s poem Evangeline and is today home to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand-Pr%C3%A9,_Nova_Scotia

Information about the Acadians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadians

This area of Nova Scotia holds fond memories. My alma mater, Acadia University, https://www2.acadiau.ca/home.html is in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. What great years they were.

I couldn’t cook cod and not include a Newfoundland song.

I’s the B’y – Great Big Sea

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.” B.K.S. Iyengar

Working on complete harmony is a continuous journey.

Body: In the past I always tried to exercise every day incorporating cardio 🏃‍♀️, strength training 🏋️‍♀️, and yoga🧘‍♀️. This fall I tore a calf muscle and worse yet I had issues with what seemed like every muscle in my other leg because I had been overcompensating with it. (Getting old is no fun.) Off to Physio every week this winter and making great progress but still not 100%. I am a good student. I follow her instructions and exercises to a tee but my regular exercise regime has been less intense and at times nonexistent. Accepting that reality was difficult but necessary. My legs let me know when I do too much. Finally these past few weeks I’ve been able to increase my time and speed on the treadmill. I’m trying not to push it as I don’t want to regress. Heathy eating also comes in to play and thus today’s recipe.

Mind: Reading is something I love. It’s great that I can order books📚 online from the PEI library and then check them out at the local library. I’m a ‘book in my hands’ kind of person📖. I love to hold a physical book and turn the pages. There’s a certain joy I feel. The weight of the book, the texture, and the flipping of the pages give me a sense of satisfaction I don’t receive from online reading. I also love a physical newspaper 🗞, mostly because I love doing one of their crossword puzzles every morning. I used to buy the Saturday paper and limit myself to one puzzle every morning but this winter I get the paper online. I could buy crossword books but that just doesn’t feel the same. Once in a while I do get a ‘real’ paper. In addition I’ve joined the ranks of the many and do Wordle every morning. Besides loving doing these sorts of puzzles I figure they’re great mental exercises.

Spirit: Hmmmm. This is a more difficult one. Doing small improvements 🧰 around the house lifts my spirit. Even something as mundane as touching up spots on the walls and the trim. That may seem bizarre but I smile every time I look at them. I’ll often walk out of a room and then back in just to enjoy the results. Richard plays lots of music 💽 and that’s good for the soul. I used to play the piano🎹 and sing 🎶but I’ve fallen off and need to return to it. This blog is good for both my spirit and my mind. It gives me a weekly focus. I especially enjoy the research aspect: searching multiple cookbooks for suitable recipes and making them, discovering applicable quotes and music selections, and then finally putting it all together. Like a lot of people a hair cut 💇🏼improves my spirit. Maybe part of that is the head massage💆. On Sundays I often do some baking while listening to Elaine Paige on Sunday on BBC Radio 2. It features music and news from stage and screen productions🎭. Love this show and love to sing along with the songs. 🥰

As I briefly mentioned earlier healthy eating is important. Am I the greatest at this? Nope. I have a sweet tooth. But I try. On the healthy eating side 🍽 vegetarian meals are included at least twice a week. Sometimes it’s simply a salad 🥗 with maybe a hard boiled egg 🥚and other times it’s from a recipe. Today’s recipe, Tomato Chickpea Stew, is from the cookbook Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen.

I googled songs about chickpeas never expecting to find one but low and behold I found this one. Although it’s actually about hummus, hummus is made from chickpeas. A little bit of fun to lift your spirit.

The Hummus Song (Give Chickpeas a Chance) – Techiya

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this.

Give Peace a Chance – John Lennon

To Carolyn, who embodied today’s quote, RIP. You are loved and you are missed. Onward with your new journey sweetie. ❤️

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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The oak is the strongest tree in the forest, but the willow bends and adapts. When the fires and storms hit, it is the willow that survives.
Kara Barbieri

Adapting can play a part in our lives in many ways. The ability to adapt is important. Without it we may find ourselves stuck in situations and unable to change or enjoy new experiences. I must admit I don’t react well to change. At least not immediately. Springing something on me never sits well with me. But give me some time to think about it, weigh the pros and cons, and get used to the idea, then I usually can accept it and go with it. And with change comes growth.

Seeing that it’s Valentine’s Day we made dinner together, ahhhh, using a recipe from a PEI cookbook. Richard borrowed the book from the PEI Library and found this recipe.

We had the ADL cheese. https://www.adlfoods.ca, love to support local products and a white wine. (Sorry we didn’t have a local white.)

Here’s where today’s adapting came into play. We bought fresh gnocchi instead of making it. We substituted oyster mushrooms for the chanterelle mushrooms. The grocery stores didn’t carry them. I have no idea what chanterelle mushrooms taste like but the oyster mushrooms were delicious. They added a nice ‘meatiness’ to the dish. We didn’t have fresh basil so we used dried.

This was our first time making this recipe and we both loved it. We will definitely be having this again. A tasty vegetarian dish. We try to have at least two vegetarian dishes a week.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

“I Am Changing “from Dream Girls – Jennifer Hudson

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment. Thomas Mann

This spoke to me. I feel it’s what we should do but often don’t. So busy doing things that we don’t take the time to savour the moments. I’m not the best at doing this. I need to. Life is busy and often throws us curve balls but we should, as he says, hold every moment sacred.

A dear friend and former colleague does just that. She is the strongest, most amazing person I know. No matter the curve balls sent her she faces them with strength, determination, and a never ending belief in the power of positivity and love. She is a warrior. She is love. ❤️ She holds every moment sacred. I admire her so much.

I love this. To me it displays the many depths of love.

I’m in quite a reflective mood today. I’m sending lots of positivity and love to Brenda in England wishing her a speedy recovery and also to Carolyn who continues to inspire me.

Seasons of Love from Rent

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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“One fool at least in every married couple.” Henry Fielding

Not me. 🤪

So why am I talking about fools today? Oh I don’t mean human fools. Although in the world’s present state there are quite a few of them. I’ll leave that one alone. I’m talking about food. In the lovely British cookbook I received for a Christmas gift there’s a recipe for Raspberry Fool. Now Richard made Gooseberry Fool a few years ago so I decided to try this recipe ‘cause if he could do it then I can do it, right? And who doesn’t love raspberries and whipped cream.

My first question to him was,”Why is it called a fool?” He had no idea so of course I had to research and find out. That happens quite often. We’ll hear about something or someone and I’m straight to Google to find out. Just the way I am.

So what is a fool?

Google found it.

According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_fool

A fool is an English dessert. Traditionally, fruit fool is made by folding pureed stewed fruit (classically gooseberries) into sweet custard . Modern fool recipes often skip the traditional custard and use whipped cream.

Various other sites say that the name of this delicate dessert actually comes from the French word fouler, meaning to press or crush, referring to the crushed fruits that are gently folded into thick cream.

But Wikipedia (if it’s correct) states:

Why the word “fool” is used as the name of this fruit dessert is not clear. Several authors derive it from the French verb fouler meaning “to crush” or “to press”… but this derivation is dismissed by the Oxford English Dictionary as baseless and inconsistent with the early use of the word.

Sorry. I didn’t make the Almond Biscuits. 😢 I’ll save that for another day. 😋 I figured Raspberry Fool was enough dessert for us. Not foolish enough to make two desserts.

The recipe said it serves four, which I thought would be great – two today and two tomorrow. We don’t often have dessert so this would be such a treat. And what a treat! It was delicious. 😋 As it made a large amount and was very rich I think it could easily have made six or more servings. I guess it would depend on how large your main meal was and the size of your sweet tooth. 😉 If I make it again I’ll try substituting yogurt for half the whipped cream to make it a bit healthier. See how that works.

Who knew there were so many musical choices using the word fool. Choices, choices, and more choices. But seriously how could I not choose this one.

Fool on the Hill – The Beatles

Stay safe and healthy.

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“All I really need is a song in my heart, food in my belly, and love in my family.” Raffi

Isn’t that the best? And so true. Something to remember on a day like today. Nothing more needs to be said.

Can you believe it? Another weekend snow storm. We’ve certainly had our share this winter. I really don’t mind them as long as we don’t lose power. I get a peaceful feeling knowing I can’t go anywhere and just snuggle in for the day.

But I didn’t actually snuggle in today. After my workout I tackled painting a wooden cabinet. It was dark brown and I wanted it white. Primed it yesterday so needed to get at it today and finish. Got two coats on but I am way too particular. I wasn’t satisfied with the look so tomorrow I’ll give it a light sand and another coat of paint. Why are my projects always more time consuming than I imagine. Maybe it’s because I see a picture in my head of how I want it to look and then reality never lives up to my expectations. That’s definitely an issue I have. Need to work on that. Thanks goodness for music. Music sure makes work much more enjoyable, especially Broadway tunes. My favs. And then it’s there again when I’m totally exhausted. What would we ever do without music. 🎶

Today’s recipes are from Courtney Hogan’s 🎶 PEI cookbook.

Overall the recipes were easy to follow but in hindsight I should have read the recipes completely before I chose what to have for dinner. The pork sauce and the glazed carrots and parsnips were too similar. Now I have quite a sweet tooth but both recipes were too sweet for me. Richard said he’d have them again. But I won’t be making them together.

Wagon Wheel – Fiddler’s Sons and Courtney Hogan

Peaceful Easy Feeling – Eagles

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” Laurie Colwin

I absolutely love that quote. It may make you smile, sigh, or even shed a tear. I’ve never thought of cooking from that perspective but it is so true. All of us can relate to it whether it’s remembering delicious or disastrous meals. Surely we’ve all had plenty of both. Thinking about it brings a huge smile to my face 😊 and a bit of water to my eyes. 😢

Today’s meal is not from a recipe book. It’s from watching my mother make roast chicken dinners for years. Every time I make a chicken dinner I think of her.

My kids would say that my mother’s (Grammie Ruby’s) roast chicken dinner was the best. Mine will always be second to hers and I’m ok with that. In fact I love that hers will always have been the best. We feel her presence even though she’s no longer with us.

Mom always believed that a ‘stewing hen’ made the tastiest chicken dinner. For you who don’t know what a ‘stewing hen’ is here’s what I found online. (Mom just always called it an ‘old hen’.)

The egg laying chickens are called stewing hens once they are butchered. They’re at least ten months old. They also earned the nickname, “tough old birds”, for their tougher than average meat. These chickens need to be cooked for long periods of time in order to unlock their tasty and nutritionally dense magic.

Mom always said it was all in the cooking. She’d cook the chicken, with the cover on, at 350 F for four hours with about an inch of water in the bottom of the roaster. It always worked for her. I don’t vary.

For stuffing she used old hotdog or hamburger buns, saying they made the best stuffing, with salt, pepper, and summer savoury. It never failed to be a delicious addition to the meal.

Mmmmmm. 😋 One of the best things about chicken dinner? The awesome aroma that fills the entire house (and outside the house too due to the fan) all afternoon. Oh my goodness. I’m sitting in the living room totally enveloped by it. No wonder we can’t wait for dinner.

And what’s a chicken dinner without the accompanying vegetables and cranberry sauce. Being from PEI we always have the best mashed potatoes (usually with gravy but not today), https://www.peipotato.org/home, mashed turnip, and a combination of sweet peas and corn.

My big downfall is that I’m not great at carving the chicken but no matter how it’s carved it still gets enjoyed.

What are some favourites that came from your relatives or dear friends? I’d love to hear about them and the memories they bring.

Funny little side note here. Every year, following my mother’s lead, I’m always on the lookout for when stewing hens are advertised for sale as I usually buy 8-10 to last the year. Aren’t freezers the greatest? When I was at the checkout a few years ago the cashier commented that I must make a lot of meat pies. Nope. Surprise! 😮 Roast chicken dinner.

Now here’s some real fun. A little something to get you up and moving

Do the Funky Chicken – Rufus Thomas

Stay safe and healthy.

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“Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.”
― Sara Raasch,

And that’s what we’re in right now. A blizzard. For those of you ‘from away’ who don’t know about our PEI winter weather here’s a advisory from The Weather Channel.

Winter Storm Warning is in Effect!

Significant snow, blowing snow and wind. Total snowfall: 30 to 45 cm. Maximum wind gusts: 90 km/h. Locations: Prince Edward Island. Time span: today. Remarks: Snow, heavy at times mixed with ice pellets will taper to flurries this afternoon. Strong northerly winds in conjunction with the fresh snowfall will result in near-zero visibilities in extensive blowing snow. Strong northerly winds will cause temperatures to drop significantly today giving cold wind chill values. ### Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow. Winter storm warnings are issued when multiple types of severe winter weather are expected to occur together.

So do I like snow? Nope. And I really don’t like cold weather. Finding the joy? Ok. Here goes. What do I like about a snowstorm? I like that warm, snuggly feeling I get by being inside during the storm while hearing the wind and see the blowing snow outside. (As long as I don’t lose power. When that happens it’s not the least bit enjoyable.) I enjoy gazing out the window watching the swirling snow, getting cozy under a blanket with a good book and a cup of tea, doing some household chores, and baking.

Surrounded by the storm I decided it was the perfect time to try a recipe from the PEI cookbook Spanning the Gulf with a PEI Flavour.

What do you think? They look pretty darn good, right? Yes they do. The top half of the plate is the original recipe. Then I decided that since I had some leftover clementines I’d add some zest. They’re the bottom ones. I’m sure The Great British Bake-off would comment that they’re not all a consistent size but does that really matter? It’s the taste that really counts and Richard and I agree—— they taste terrible.

In fact I said they were disgusting. I followed the directions but I can really taste the baking soda. Yuck! Oh well. You can’t win them all. I was ready to throw them in the garbage but he wanted to keep them. Will put some peanut butter or jam on top of them.

Today’s music selection is two versions of Looks Like A Cold, Cold Winter. The first by Ingrid Michaelson and the second by Bing Crosby. Which one do you prefer?

Take care and stay safe.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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