Category Archives: Food and Cooking

Wherever you go – it may be raining

06 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Art, Food and Cooking, Health, pets, therapy, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Spring travel whisked me away from the rainy Ottawa Valley to Vancouver Island.

It rained there too. 

My objectives were made months in advance:

  • Travel somewhere within Canada
  • Push my air travel anxiety limits – further than before
  • Visit with family
  • Do touristy things
  • Do not think about work

My destination was Vancouver Island, just off the coast of British Columbia. The long stretches of flying, sitting, waiting, flying, sitting, etc. tired me out. At various destinations I welcomed opportunities for walking tours and restaurant outings. Soon that tired me out too!

I practiced mindfulness as much as I could, savouring moments and reminding myself to breathe.

One family member took me for a drive up the east coast of Vancouver Island, humoured my request to stop where I could dip my toes into the Pacific Ocean.

Theresa dipping her toes into the west coast ocean waters

Pacific Ocean (well… some inlet) I am in you!

Soon I was on a bus then another bus to the beautiful city of Victoria. I was happy and comforted that relatives were waiting for me, extra umbrellas in hand to provide an escort to my hotel.

While in Victoria, I was treated to sufficient walking excursions, visited a castle and tried food from different restaurants. We had one sunny, windy day.

I spent one rainy afternoon by myself, enjoying bright flower gardens and inhaling the scent of trees in full blossom.

Flowers rain Victoria

A rainy tourist outing in downtown Victoria

A wet park bench

A wet bench and colourful flowers

Soon one of my adult children joined me after his own cross-country tour by train, ferry and bus. He got to meet one set of cousins for the first time. He accompanied me for a walk by the docks, an appropriate lunch and a walking tour up to Emily Carr House.

Lunch at Red Fish Blue Fish – Victoria

As with my tour of the castle a couple of days earlier, we exited through the gift shop and I picked up a few souvenirs.

Blonde Lady sitting at tea table in Emily Carr house

A chance to sit down during a tour of Emily Carr house

Did I achieve my objectives?  Yes! I practiced mindfulness moments wherever I was, taking in the experiences, breathing in and breathing out.

After a long day of travel east, I returned to Ottawa in the rain. I observed the local news about severe spring flooding in our region.

I was glad to be home, to have the chance to do laundry and rest in my creature comforts.

Snuggles was glad to see me too and perform his morning routine of waking me up to serve breakfast and read the online news together. Creatures of habit…

Black cat on lap

“Good. You’re back where you belong – with me!”

Thanks for dropping by.

T

Giving Thanks

12 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by in Food and Cooking, Health, Travel, Warm fuzzy

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

This time of year you can’t skim through blog post titles without encountering many about giving thanks.

I think that’s great. I think we should do this at least four times a year if we’re not able to perform the ritual every week at some place of community worship. We can each express gratitude, repeat “thank you” when we wake up to start our day, and when we lay our heads on our pillows, reviewing our experiences and serendipitous encounters throughout the day.

These are just a few of the things for which I am thankful:

  1. Family and friends;
  2. Food and wine;
  3. Books!
  4. Freedom, the right to vote. Opportunity to vote in advanced polls during this longest election campaign in Canadian history; WTF?! #ABC!
  5. Freedom of not having to openly declare myself associated with one particular belief system or political party;
  6. Opportunities to learn about different belief systems, political parties, platforms, candidates and guides. Sometimes, you may not be thrilled with the leader or the bombardment of negatively comparative messages but can identify with some of the teachings, platform promises and really admire the work of some of the representatives; (apologies for that clever analogy!)
  7. Full time employment;
  8. Vacation time away from the daily grind, time for reflection on my experiences, accomplishments and plans for the future;
  9. Opportunity to push myself with my flying anxieties again, this time in a larger aircraft and for a bittersweet journey down memory lane;
  10. My nerve-damaged yet persistently expressive hands on any QWERTY keyboard;
  11. The Internet, virtual and real communities, and blogs;
  12. Opportunities for narrative in rewriting my own stories, taming that inner-critic to bring about major changes in my life.

 

 

How about you?

Thanks for dropping by.

T

So I forgot to add garlic

16 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by in Food and Cooking, Health, pets, photography, therapy

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

It has been a relaxing day.  Pretty relaxing week off too.

I am learning from the resident felines to not get worked-up about house cleaning and all those unglamorous domestic duties.

cats lounging on couch

Cats know how to relax

It’s a rainy week but that’s fine.  I am still enjoying the happy times from our Thanksgiving weekend.  I have nowhere to go until tomorrow so I decided to get in some comfort food cooking.

Okra stew simmering

Okra stew simmering

Surely like thousands of other Canadians, I was getting tired of turkey leftovers so I made some sticky rice and okra stew.  I added in leftover sliced onions, cooked potatoes and some ripening tomatoes. Funny thing is that in my relaxed, “don’t give a hoot” state I forgot to add the garlic!

It still turned out to be a tasty comfort food treat.  Two out of three humans agree. One hasn’t tried it yet.  

Bowl of Okra stew and sticky rice

Okra stew and sticky rice serving

See below for the basic process and improvised recipe.  It’s quite easy and likely contains some of the needed vitamins for your winter-prepping body.  I don’t know about the sticky rice though.  That stuff is sticky and likely full of carbs.

I don’t usually add potatoes.

This stuff tastes best out of the pot.  Reheats don’t receive as many approving grunts.

 

 

Interesting situation… One of my resident youth became frustrated with seeing the baskets of nicely sorted dirty laundry, lined up and waiting on my bedroom floor for the past three days. She was also running out of clean clothes so initiated the process this morning.  Good!

Another young person went out in the rain to apply for a part-time job then picked up some much-needed groceries. Good!

I think they’re tired of seeing me lazing about, watching my NetFlix shows (hellooo, Jean-Luc) and spending hours online.  Hmmm.  

My devious plan is working. 

That Okra Stew – pictures and a rough recipe: 

ingredients for okra stew

Ingredients: Chopped okra (slimy. ick), diced tomatoes (preferably canned and skinned), chopped onions (not necessarily sliced like these leftovers) and chicken bouillon. Chopped, cooked potatoes are optional.

 

cooking pan with ingredients

Take one non-stick pan or stewing pot, put on element at medium-high. Add a splat of butter. Sauté onions and brown the potatoes.

Adding in an unsolicited plug for Stokes and the awesome Remy Olivier pan I invested in a few weeks back.  At the behest of a resident young person who also shares in cooking tasks, we threw out Teflon pans and pots that were flaking.  Non-stick, teflon pans are not good for your health.

adding chopped okra to the stew

Add the chopped okra. Stir and stew on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

adding diced tomatoes to okra stew

Add the diced tomatoes and chicken bouillon (mixed in a cup of warm water first).  Stir.

simmering okra stew and rice

Cover the stew and simmer for about 20 minutes. Cook some rice (optional). Young resident prefers sticky/sweet rice with her okra stew.

simmering stew in pot with clear lid.

Let the okra stew simmer for about 15 to 30 minutes. Works best using a pot with a clear lid.

Serve.

Kick back and watch a few more episodes of Star Trek, the Next Generation.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stay warm, dry and cozy. 

T