Last week, I awoke to an ominous snow falling over the field behind our home. Nearly a foot had fallen overnight. This morning, scant patches of snow remain, and the grass is a vibrant green. It melted so fast it sounded like rivers cascading off the roof of our home the past few days.
This morning was warm, but the weather cooled quickly. Just north of us, rain, thunder, hail, and snow fell. That’s so like the prairies to put all that work into melting the snow, just to pelt us with more. Hopefully it misses our neighbourhood. It’s amazing what being a few kilometres south can do.
The flip side is, that combination of snow-melt-snow-melt is incredible for our dry lands. The farmers benefit greatly when we get lots of snow melt, which deeply moisturizes their fields, making it easier for the crops to grow. So, I suppose I can set my grumblings aside and welcome the snow if it graces us with it’s presence. It won’t last much longer anyway, right?
I awoke with a headache today, which was frustrating after being sick on the couch all last week. Inside, I’m eager to get back to my routines and ‘tackle life,’ so to speak. Outside, my body is trying to catch up to my spirit. Ha-ha. I took a Tylenol and warmed a rice bag in the microwave to rest over where the headache had settled in. By the afternoon I still felt somewhat groggy, but much better.
We went out to Costco today. They serve samples at noon, which makes sense, since all the shoppers are probably hungry. I know I was. The best sample was a coconut cookie dipped in Belgian chocolate. It reminded me of the Easter nest cookies I intended to make this year, but I ran out of time.
I’m glad I chose to start my apple chips this evening, rather than this morning. Our home was warm this morning from the rapidly warming temperatures outside, but being on the outskirts of the storm cooled everything down quickly. I much prefer to turn on the oven when the home is cool. It saves the furnace from having to work so hard, and offers us yummy food in exchange.
I sliced three B.C. Spartan apples up into thin slices, sprinkled them with salt and cinnamon, and put them in the oven at 200F. I’ll bake them for two or three hours, until they’re nice and dry.
I covered the cores and unused pieces in water and boiled them for about thirty minutes, hoping they’ll make a nice juice. Or, at the very least, tea. I’m not sure it’ll be strong enough for juice, since I didn’t have many cores to put in there.
I’m not a fan of wasting anything. Some time I’d like to try making my own apple cider vinegar with scraps, but I have plenty of that for now.
This evening, my husband shows signs of possibly having the same cold I had last week. He and my daughters had a different cold the week before. I made them ox tail soup two weeks ago for their cold. For mine, I made congee, a Chinese rice porridge of sorts with chicken and vegetables. I made sweet ginger sauce to pour over top, which tasted amazing.
If he’s sick again, I’ll have to find something gentle and nourishing. Maybe a stew with the last of the ginger I have, and the beef we got from our meat restock a couple of weeks ago.
I’m excited to be writing these updates now, as I have always wanted to track “through the home in a year.” We choose to live our lives in deep response to the seasons, and are grateful for the ways in which we benefit from the ‘taming of the wild,’ or the work our neighbours do.
For example, we love electricity and we live in a complex with a strata that shovels our snow and cares for our driveway. And we purchase our meat and vegetables from local farmers as much as possible. We still try to live seasonally and follow modest lives, even so. Doing so helps us live within our means, harmonize with the world around us, and deeply appreciate the beauty of our humanity.
The house smells sweetly of apples and cinnamon, now. Perhaps I should follow my nose to the kitchen and see how those apples taste. They should make for a great treat soon enough.
Here’s another recipe for you while we part ways. It’s nothing fancy, just a sweet tea. I know everyone makes theirs differently, but here’s how I like mine:
- Boil 4 cups of water and pour it into a 2L pitcher
- Add 1/2 cup sugar or honey and 2 black tea bags (or any type of tea)
- Steep for 10-15 minutes & remove the tea bags
- Top the pitcher off with cold water so you can drink right away
Sometimes I add fruit, lemon slices, etc. to the pitcher but more often than not I just like it plain and simple. Throughout the summer I make a fresh pitcher every day. In the winter, I stick to hot drinks.
What is your favourite sweet tea recipe?
– Jules
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