After spending a few days off (tiny) island with my “up-island” family, I have taken hibernation to a whole new level. And my thoughts are starting to turn to “What’s next.” Yes, you may all realize that I am not very good at living in the moment.

I am beginning to think about the garden. This is spurred by my frustration at my diet lately. Now, do not misunderstand, I love turkey and stuffing and the works. What I’m having a hard time with is not having a garden to eat out of. I was spoiled this summer and autumn. But we did not plan well (as it was our first garden) and now I am lamenting not having a winter garden full of root veggies, kale and hearty winter beans. I turn my nose up at the imported veggies that the grocery store offers, and then I duck my head and sneak them into my basket. I still need my greens! What a shame! My lack of planning has lined my food with a guilt at buying into our silly food industry that insists on shipping kiwis from New Zealand in the dead of our winter. Or Mexican avocados so we don’t miss out on our winter nachos.

This type of thinking, this eating seasonally is still pretty new to me. Perhaps by next year I’ll know when to plant kale and the root veggies so that I can truly benefit from our mild climate.

Good news though, my dear friend Theresa has long ago put her garden to sleep, but yesterday she bravely tromped out there and uprooted a Christmas Carrot! Could there be anything more delightful than pulling up a bright orange vegetable  from the ground while we peel our imported chinese mandarins.

I might venture out to my stark little garden and see if there are any forgotten veggies.

And then I will scurry back to my warm nook to finish yet another cup of tea and dig into my new book, “Natural Beekeeping.” (Thank you Marc!)

Happy Christmas to you!

Yes, we have left our small precious island for a few days for Christmas Merrying. There has been a great richness in food, a surplus of laughter, a mingling of family and in between, a few stitches cast on.

But on who’s needles?

This Christmas, Gramma, the quiet knitter, has been reading my blog and has seen my growing interest in knitting. She saw it fit to bestow upon me scads and scads of knitting needles, and paraphenalia. The reason I am using such grandious language is to portray the awe I felt as I opened these carefully wrapped, still in their original packaging, knitting needles of every size imaginable. The honour I felt was overwhelming and so Thank you Gramma. My hands on your needles for another generation.

I hope you have each found a cozy spot in front of the fire and you are snuggling in for the Christmas season, close with family and friends.

I know I’ve found a good spot to stay in a knit.

ps) sewing needles and mini scissors for advent!

Merry Christmas!

“Not the gumdrop buttons!”
-Gingy (Shrek)

I set out to make gingerbread cookies. They are always one of my Christmas favourites so I thought I’d share with you my recipe. This recipe is age-old and my mother made it when I was a tike.

*sigh* The mess of baking is always the most discouraging part. But the eating makes up for it.

I managed to abscond with my mom’s cookie cutters (Yes I am a Christmas Pirate) so it made for some fun shapes. Some of the cookie cutters, I didn’t know what they were. So they were dubbed “The Blob.”

This is the entirety of my kitchen. So, those with small kitchens, there is no excuse to forego the Christmas baking!

Gingerbread Cookies

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cup white sugar

*cream this together*

Add 1 egg

2 TBSP molasses

In a separate bowl mix:

2 tsp Baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

2 3/4 cups of flour (Though this should be added gradually as I’ve found I need less flour on Pender than I did in Victoria or Nanaimo. And I needed more flour in Ucluelet.)

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix.

Sprinkle flour on the table, roll out dough. It should be the consistency of “a little wetter than pastry.” Roll out about 1/8 ” thick.

Bake on cookie sheet at 350F for 6-8 minutes.

Happy Baking!

This is my second Christmas Baking endeavor this year. Whipped Shortbread!

I grew up thinking that this was the only shortbread. Little did I know that this is not a customary Christmas recipe. I’m not a big fan of maraschino cherries but they are growing on me after 20+ years. Feast your eyes upon these lovely babies!

Here is the recipe so you don’t have to simply drool over your keyboard but you can get right to work on creating these melt-in-your-mouth treats.

Whipped Shortbread

Sift dry ingredients together. Add gradually to whipped butter. Drop by spoon fulls onto cookie sheet. Decorate with maraschino cherry bits. Bake at 300F for 20 minutes.

I’ve been very tardy and haven’t posted in a few days. I apologize to my throngs of readers (haha) for my hiccup in commitment to the blog. I would show you what I’ve been doing but it involves Christmas surprise so I must keep it hush hush.

In the unposted advent, I have received a measuring tape, a nifty little doo-hicky that helps you thread the eye of a needle, bamboo knitting needles of various sizes and a tea strainer. The photo above shows the bigger of the knitting needles I’ve received and Marc’s present of small broom and dustpan with multi-use around the stove and on the boat. A note must be put to Nana for her marvelous wool socks that I wear daily.

It has been frozen on the farm.

This is one of four ponds we have on the property, all with their ice slick that just started receding today.

This is our neighbour who we see constantly flouncing around his pasture naked. Finally he put a coat on so I can feature him on the blog with some decency.

There is no decency with this neighbour.

This neighbour doesn’t even have a working toilet. She just goes wherever. Talk about a rough neighbourhood.

We have been attending Christmas parties. Yesterday was teaming with the greatest combination of people from all different backgrounds and employments. It was a true show of colours for Pender’s ecclectic population. Those kind of gatherings are my favourite. Especially with all the good food we consumed.

I have touched on the tip of my Christmas baking. I am gathering ingredients to me. Namely, butter. And I will be delving in next week in earnest. Look forward to recipes!

But right now I’m hunkered down as I have my Power Squadron Boating exam tomorrow and I must study study.

How have you been dealing with the cold, friends?