Winter Warmers

Frost whiskers on bracken

We've had frosts and hail and sleet!  

The goose-feather doona and my woolies and thermals are out.

The fire is lit and making the place all lovely and cosy!

Broken glass?  No, indeed! Ice from a puddle!

It's winter and I love it!  It's soup season.

One of our favourites is chicken noodle soup so I thought I'd share the recipe for the Chez Archer Chicken Noodle Soup.

Stock:

• I make my own because the shop-bought ones often have corn or maize hidden in the ingredients as "dehydrated/hydrolysed vegetable protein"

• about 2 kg of chicken with bones because stock made with bones has all the great immune boosting goodness. - drumsticks are good.
• garlic - at least 3 cloves - crushed
• ginger - a good 2" grated
  .
• Simmer until the chicken is cooked.
• Drain through a sieve.
• de-bone (bones to the freezer for a batch of bone broth later)
• cooked chicken (can use some in the soup and the rest for a meal)
• cool the stock overnight in the fridge and discard the fat off the surface.

 The Soup:

Vegetables ready to add

• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 1 medium to large carrot - grated
• 1 stalk of celery - thinly sliced
• a handful of snow peas - chopped
• half a red capsicum - chopped
• more garlic - crushed clove (because that's good for winter ills too!)
• and noodles (I use Wokka Shelf Fresh Singapore Style noodles)
• salt and pepper to taste
  .
• saute garlic in a little oil
• add stock
• add prepared vegetables and noodles 
• heat through until the vegetables are lightly cooked - we like them to be slightly crunchy still rather than cooked to limpness.

Serve with toast soldiers!  We had it last night with toast soldiers made for leftover homemade pumpkin bread!  

Between the bread and the soup we got our recommended five daily servings of vegetables!

Are you a soup fan?  What's your favourite?
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Surviving the Winter

Winter, you say?

Yes, winter. While most of the Lovecats have just made it through summer, I’ve survived my first Canadian winter…snow and all.

I feel there should be a t-shirt this.

Screen cap from my phone on a very cold day

Any Canadians we meet love to tell my husband and I how brutal the winter is here. We got a lot of ‘what the hell were you thinking?’ comments when explaining our decision to relocate. I have to admit, when the temperature outside had a wind-chill of -42 celcius, I started to question my sanity in leaving a place where ‘cold’ meant 7 or 8 degrees.

However, now that spring has sprung I can honestly say I’m glad I did it. And you know what, I like the snow (mainly because I live somewhere that doesn’t require me to shovel it). 

The snow, while it’s falling, is magical. I’d seen snow once before I came to Canada, and it was already on the ground. Watching fluffy fat flakes drift down from the sky for the first time is something all always remember. 

What they don’t tell you: snow by the end of winter is gross. It gets piled up on the side of the road and turns to brown sludge. Who knew?

A street near my apartment after 10cm+ snowfall

Here are some fun facts about Canada:

• 15,500 of the worlds 25,000 polar bears live in Canada according to this infographic. I haven’t seen any yet.
• Also from that infographic: Canada has more lakes than all other countries combined!
• Canada is the second coldest country in the world if you look at the yearly temperature average, which is a chilly -3.6 C. Russia takes first place at -5.3 C. (source)
• According to Trip Advisor, Canada is approximately 9,984,670 sq. km and comprises of six time zones. It’s almost 30% larger than Australia and over 18 times the size of France.
• The ‘feels like’ temperature is really a thing. On cold days the wind can makes it feel even colder than it actually is. I.e. the temperature might read –22C on your thermometer, but the wind can make it feel like –32C on your skin. 

Have you ever lived in a really cold place? Do you like snow? 

Funday Monday!

It's winter DownUnder so I thought this collie in the snow would be just the thing for our Funday Monday!

Good luck with the "Euro" cut - I'll look forward to hearing how you went!