Cozy

Mist Cottage is cozy in this frigid winter weather. The basement is not heated, but is maintaining a temperature of about 10C, 40C above the temperature outdoors this morning. That basement insulation is really doing a good job.

So far we are able to purchase most of our usual food items from the grocery store. We order and pickup, and have not entered a grocery store for almost two years, as of the end of February. Over time we have found this to be advantageous, as the orders are fulfilled with good quality products, and if there is an issue a simple telephone call or chat will resolve it, usually by giving us a refund code to use with our next order. I think that when the pandemic winds down and we are more comfortable going into retail stores, we will still order online and pickup our grocery orders.

The one item that has become a bit of a challenge for me, is ordering lactose free milk. Over half of the time it does not come with the order, they are out of stock. At the moment I have no milk, as it did not come with the last order, the only item that was out of stock. I do have some almond milk in the cupboard which will be pressed into service, but it isn’t the same. It isn’t much of a complaint really, just an annoyance.

Attila has completed bolstering the floor joists under the kitchen. The next stage of the project is to install electrical wiring so that the refrigerator can be moved. At present the only place to put a refrigerator in the kitchen is across from the sink. Because we share the kitchen, and are very often both working there, access to the refrigerator or sink becomes tricky when the other is in use.

I am feeling a bit “stuffy” today, so I decided to make myself a pot of tea. At present I am favouring Peach Ginger Tea. I used to enjoy a bit of peach schnapps with tangerine juice, so I decided to add a teaspoon of my recently made Orange Marmalade to my cuppa. Although it seemed like a good idea, it didn’t add a lot of flavour, so it was not worth the added sugar. I would rather just enjoy my wee bit of marmalade on homemade bread.

January and February are the months when life slows down. We enjoy our time in the kitchen. The pantry and the refrigerator are always well stocked with hearty, healthy things to eat. This necessitates a lot of time spent cooking and baking. The bounty of harvest and preserving season is now providing us with plenty of healthy food to eat. Where once we were taking jars full of food down to the pantry in the basement for storage, we are now bringing them up to the kitchen to be enjoyed. Empty jars are accumulating on the shelves, where full jars once stood. It will be at least five months before we can begin enjoying garden fresh food again. By that time most of our canning jars will be empty again, ready for another season of activity, and hopefully plenty.

It is bread baking day, it should be ready by late afternoon, and cool enough to slice by evening, in time for Attila to prepare his lunches for work the next day. The Chicken Noodle Soup made over the weekend will provide me with lunches all week long. Attila has cooked a quantity of pinto beans in the Instant Pot, which he uses to make re-fried beans, a dish too salty for me to enjoy. Attila eats at least four meals a day, to my three, so his fourth meal need not be influenced by my dietary restrictions, and this works out very well for us. He enjoys some of his favourite foods for his fourth meal, foods I cannot eat.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Mon, Jan 24, 7:55 AM
-30 °C
FEELS LIKE -36
Partly cloudy
Wind 5 NE km/h
Humidity 59 %
Visibility 24 km
Sunrise 7:34 AM
Wind gust 8 km/h
Pressure 101.3 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 5:06 PM

Quote

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”
Edward R. Murrow
1908 – 1965