What is it about feeding people that gives us so much joy? Food in our family is a way of caring for the well being of our loved ones and expressing love. My husband loves to cook. It gives him a great deal of satisfaction and enjoyment. We are so lucky to be able to feed ourselves and family every day and not worry about where are next meal comes from. Yes we complain about the price of food these days but for most of us we are still able to put food on the table. Sometimes we have to get creative to stretch the dollar but I still fondly remember some of the comfort food we prepared at university. Chicken livers and peppers over rice was a staple along side macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meat sauce (from a jar), grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, homemade chilli and eggs and toast.
Kevin and I still have some family and friends to visit before this holiday season is officially over. Sadly it may not happen until January because this terrible flu that’s going around has affected these same people we had planned to visit.
Apart from that it’s been a busy and productive season. Christmas Eve was quiet and Kevin and I exchanged a few gifts, enjoyed some light snacks and watched some Christmas movies. The next day we had Andrea and Josie over for dinner. I prepared the turkey and the stuffing before they arrived. After opening a few more gifts everyone pitched in and helped prepared the side dishes. We sat down to an absolutely lovely meal of roast turkey, a rice stuffing, cranberry and orange relish, green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts with bacon and mashed potatoes. For dessert we had ice-cream topped with our homemade Rumtopf.
…from writing cards to making soup for the unhoused
This year I sent out over 75 Christmas cards. For the last three years my husband, Kevin designed our Cards and had them printed through a printing company. Last year we went through a postal strike so most of our cards didn’t arrive to their destinations till well after Christmas.
This season both Kevin and I donated our time, energy and money to support our communities and individuals who aren’t as fortunate as we are. A good friend of mine has given three Ukrainian families an opportunity to work in her home. It’s an arrangement that has been beneficial at both ends, especially after C suffered from a stroke last year. These amazing women helped her with cleaning the house, doing her cooking and preparing meals.
A couple of other friends have also used these women to clean their homes. They left Ukraine when the war broke out while their husbands stayed behind to fight. This Christmas, C and her husband put out the call for new items so that these women and their children could have a Christmas. I spent a day shopping for presents and two more days sorting and wrapping gifts.
Kevin has always wanted to make soup for the unhoused. Another friend, B has been working with the unhoused for a number of years now and told me about a project where people can come every Friday and pick up food and clothing. Right now tables are set up on the street and people line up to pick up a hot meal, some groceries and warm articles of clothing.
This past week Kevin made a huge pot of soup that made about 30 servings. I helped him take the soup to the drop off and I stayed to serve it up. Another woman had also made soup so there was plenty for everyone and there were lots of trays of other hot foods like tortellini and other pastas. It was bitter cold but I didn’t really feel it until the soup ran out.
Today, after shopping for ingredients, I finally got around to making bags of Party Mix and dozens of chocolate cookies for my Christmas plates that I hand out to my neighbours. I’m hoping to make more cookies tomorrow.
Some people can never have enough candy or sweets but when you see it displayed row upon row and in giant pastry cases you have to wonder if are obsession with sugar isn’t somewhat excessive. On the flip side, though, I find it overly frugal when individuals can make a chocolate bar last an entire week or take their Hallowe’en stash and spread it out over months.
After walking around Trafalgar Square and enjoying the art in the National Gallery, Kevin and I headed to the Steak and Co. for dinner. We chose this restaurant because it was down the street from the Harold Pinter Theatre. It also had a good rating.
It was a nice meal even if I did have to send my steak back twice. Kevin and I both ordered medium rare steaks and his was perfect but mine was blue and difficult to cut. The chef cooked me a new steak but it was also blue. After sending it back for more grilling the third try proved to be the charm. The staff were quite embarrassed and they kindly discounted our final bill. The appetizers and the dessert were outstanding and the service was exceptional.
After dinner we took the short walk to the theatre. The Harold Pinter Theatre is an ornate 19th century theatre with three tiers of balconies. It opened in 1881 as the Royal Comedy Theatre.
The play we watched was The Weir, starring Brendan Gleason. Kevin summed up the story line as a crash course on rural Irish culture. It took me a few minutes to get used to the Irish dialects. Here is a summary of the plot.https://www.haroldpintertheatre.co.uk/shows/the-weir
We caught a glimpse of the set before the play started
Today we decided to explore Hampstead. It is an affluent neighbourhood in the north of London. It’s a beautiful leafy green village with wonderful cafes, pubs, bakeries, book stores, antique and floral shops and high end clothing stores.
We had a perfect lunch in The Flask….cauliflower soup with truffle oil, baked Camembert with chutney and pickled fennel on sourdough bread.
On the way home from the cottage my friend and I just had to stop at this farmer’s pumpkin display. He admitted there would be more squash, gourds and pumpkins in the next couple of weeks. Hard to imagine when there are already hundreds on display.
Mama Cormier 