Brand new Baby Stella Margaret

Sophie makes a Pasta Necklace

Day 3 ~ (photo taken December 31, 2009)
Well, looks like I missed a few days...

French Canadian Tourtiere
Today I dug out my Mom's recipe for her authentic meat pie (click on this link...  Nanny's Meat Pie).
Memories of my Mom, the best home cook ever, was making sure the filling was just so perfect, and my Dad, the Engineer, ensuring the measurements were just so, that each and every year the  ingredients and total outcomes were documented.  (after Mom passed away, I found his notebooks in her recipe book case, years of documentation going back for as long as I can remember!  
This year I made my own adjustments, added my touch...
I had a bit more than 1LB of freshly ground pork so I plunked that into my heavy enamel covered cast iron (translation HEAVY) dutch oven, along with a finely chopped onion, 2 small peeled potatoes, 1/2 cup or so or water, the spices and fresh crushed garlic. 
Bringing  that to a boil infused my kitchen with the smells of my childhood, I then lowered the heat and let it simmer, uncovered until the potatoes were tender.  I let the mixture sit and cool down a bit while i did other things, and when ready, I took my hand blender and pulsed the potatoes right in the meat mixture until they were mashed.  This all went into an uncooked deep dish pie shell, the edge then brushed with cream, a top crust placed on it, brushed cream on it again and popped it into a hot oven until the crust was a lovely crispy flaky golden. 
This is by far the best meat pie you will ever ever taste.  Soft, meaty, hearty, not too heavy on the savory spices, not too salty. My favorite way to eat this is with my homemade creamy apple and cabbage coleslaw, and slathered with a mixture of tomato ketchup and whole berry cranberry sauce. 
I eat this for breakfast, lunch or dinner. 
Thanks Mom and Dad, for creating these memories for me.  :)

Day 2, December 30, 2009

Cleaning Day

Christmas vacation, 12 days of being home, not having to get up at 6:30am and get ready for work.
this afternoon the 'cleaning girls' came over. we didn't want to be in their way so tim took his sandwich and box of kleenex down to his dad's house and i took a drive to the beach. cold and windy it was. greenish blue water. white snow. cloudy sky with a hint of pink showing through.
came home to a crock pot full of cheesy scalloped potatoes and ham. yummy! he had campbells chicken noodle soup. his comfort food. :)

A Photo A Day ~
I am embarking on a journey today, to take a photo a day and post it on here.

Day 1.  December 29, 2009       SUNRISE

INTRODUCTION

Piping down the valleys wild,
   Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
   And he laughing said to me:

'Pipe a song about a Lamb!'
   So I piped with merry cheer.
'Piper, pipe that song again.'
   So I piped: he wept to hear.

'Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
   Sing thy songs of happy cheer!'
So I sung the same again,
   While he wept with joy to hear.

'Piper, sit thee down and write
   In a book, that all may read.'
So he vanished from my sight;
   And I plucked a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
   And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
   Every child may joy to hear.

(poetry by William Blake)

The kids came for Sunday brunch today.  M and N and S and T and C and V.  Mr. Squirrel enjoyed a piece of bread that i threw out for him. 


A basket of Cocoa? Yup. He wanted to join in. What a silly lovable cat he is!


S. enjoyed the round table full of family, 8 of us in total. We had brunch, and it was lovely.
No time nor room for many photos today but...
Newsflash... S. will be a big sister in Mid June!


Isn't she getting big? A real cutie!
I love my family. forever.