Staying In

While the rest of Canada is experiencing bone chilling temperatures we are experiencing rain - I'll take that any day over the extreme cold days that we previously lived in when living through Alberta winters.  We need to take down the Christmas lights but I don't really want to do that in the rain so it will wait a few more days.  I might gather up the ones at the back of the house to dry off and organize before we store them.  This weekend has been slow, all about doing laundry, hubby unpacking from his trip and cooking.

Hubby did make it home on time on Friday night, what is a complete miracle based on all the weather cancellations and delays.  And the fact that his Westjet plane was preparing to depart at the exact same terminal at the exact same moment as this collision of two aircraft which resulted in a fire and the passengers deplaning by chute at Toronto Pearson airport.  He had been texting me wondering why after boarding it took 70 minutes for them to take off.  They were told it was a cold weather delay then a problem with catering as they were the opposite side of the terminal and couldn't see the fire.  I think that the crew decided to tell people another story rather than what was really going on but fortunately he didn't miss his connecting flight at Calgary and got home on time.  I watched the news and immediately realized what had happened and texted him so when he got to Calgary he was filled in.


Anyway, this weekend involves a lot of relaxation.  When I am relaxed I actually feel like cooking so I made one of my best taco casseroles which is a combination of a few different recipes to use the ingredients I already had.  I managed to use two small containers of my home grown tomatoes from last summer's bumper cherry tomato crop in the process.  It drives me bananas that in Canada the cheapest I can get corn tortillas is $3 for 10 but I like them so buy them once in a while for recipes like these.  I have only purchased two fresh tomatoes since running out of my own supply in November after the ripened from early October picking.  They go for $2.98 a pound right now so I am making due with these frozen ones.

I've also gotten back on the smoothie bandwagon now that I have a really good kitchenaid blender.  I am so glad I won that facebook auction and only paid $31 for this model which I am pretty sure goes for $195 Canadian.  Originally I thought it was more the base model but now that I have used it several times am amazed by it's chopping power.  I could chop a frozen steak in this thing no problem - it blows away my old blender which we still have never found the middle piece to the lid lost back in December.  This concoction is frozen mango, frozen blackberries (free for the picking from last August, still have  a large supply left), half an orange, small blob of flavoured pinneapple coconut yogurt, and milk.  It is my smoothie of choice - can't stand green smoothies, only fruit for me.

Hubby is making a ham/corn/potato chowder in the slow cooker today and I will make some biscuits to go with it when we eat supper.  Buddy is currently snoozing.  This is a picture of him rolling around in warm towels from the dryer.  He loves warm laundry, thank goodness he is such a clean dog.  Warm laundry is #3 after fireplace and electric blanket for him.

I hope everyone got some relaxation this weekend - happy Sunday!