I spent the day in the kitchen

Sunday, 22 November 2020

I started my morning nice and early. Early enough, in fact, to witness a spectacular pink sky.

It was a cold start to the day. I’m not sure what the temperature was but my fingers were hurting with the cold and started to go numb. Might be time to wear gloves when I’m feeding the birds!

Cat and birds fed, I enjoyed a cup of tea watching the birds flutter around the feeders, and making plans for the day ahead.

The evening grosebeaks popped in for a visit as did a couple of goldfinch. Mrs. Cardinal, Hairy woodpecker and Charlie the wild turkey also stopped by and hundreds of geese flew by. It was quite a day for birding!

After yesterday’s trip to the grocery store, I had meat that needed to be cooked: beef stew, beef soup, chicken noodle soup, and whatever else I could come up with. So, I decided to spend the day in the kitchen cooking and baking. I had four chicken breasts. One I cut up and used for gluten-free chicken noodle soup; one I marinated for supper and the other two went into the freezer for another day.

While the soup cooked, I made a batch of Christmas cookies. They need to be refrigerated for 30 minutes before baking which gave me time to try a gluten-free version as well. Once they were both in the fridge, I tried a bowl of the soup. Oh my goodness, it was good!

Next up was vegetable stock – I am going to try to make butternut squash soup later this week but need vegetable stock, so I decided to try making my own. What I like about making this stock is I don’t need to peel anything. Garlic bulbs and onions went in with their skin still on. Followed by carrots and celery and a few springs of parsley. It was a pot full of colour as you can see from the picture below.

Believe it or not, by the time I got the stock on, it was starting to get dark outside. The snow started falling too. It looked beautiful. I had Christmas music playing all day, singing along, chopping veggies, mixing cookie dough, it was a fabulous day. The kind of day you look back on and smile because it feels warm and loving and just right.

At one point during the day, I stood outside on the veranda and a chickadee landed on a branch near me. He called out several times so I turned and spoke to him. He stayed long enough for me to get several great shots then he was gone. This was his gift to me and my gift to you. Enjoy!