Rerry Rhistmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Or as the dogs like to say, "Rerry Rhistmas!" C and I spent our first Christmas here in Regina and we had a very quiet and relaxing time (which, if you know my family and our Christmas's, is quite a change). Most of Christmas Eve was spent cooking a big, delicious meal and, of course, eating it.

But first, we needed a tree! So we waited until the day before Christmas Eve to go out and get one. All of the places seemed to be sold out like Sobey's and Walmart, but luckily there were a few sparse bits of shrubbery left at the Real Canadian Superstore (yes that's a real store and that's the real name).

The one in Regina looks just like this one except it's covered in snow.

The nice thing about shopping for Christmas trees on Christmas Eve-Eve is they're really cheap. We got this majestic 4-footer for $7 (Canadian).

The best spot for the tree was right in front of the bookshelf. It discourages too much "learnin'".

The bad part about shopping for Christmas trees on Christmas Eve-Eve is the customer service in the Christmas tree lot sucks! It took us more time to get someone to help us, then get a price check, then get the correct price check than it took to stuff it into the Subaru, drive home and decorate the stupid thing. But all in all it was almost worth it. Almost.

C is decorating the hell out of that tree.

Luckily C managed to stuff a box of her old Christmas decorations into the shipping crates when we moved up here. She went down into the basement and hauled them all up. "Way to be, C!"

Gratuitous stupid photo of pets in front of the Christmas Tree

Nice tree, eh? So far the ornaments have gone largely untouched by the pets. Except for an occasional accident here and there.

"What? It was like that when I found it."

After we got that whole Christmas tree thing out of the way, the next thing to tackle was Christmas Eve supper! Yum! We got started cooking (and drinking vino) about mid-afternoon. We decided to have a lamb roast with scalloped potatoes, yorkshire pudding, asparagus au gratin with mushrooms, and a garlic soup with garlic bread as an appetizer. For dessert we had bread pudding. Oh mama was supper good!

Warning: If you don't like garlic, you may want to at this point turn your computer off and walk away.

First we started by boiling 30 cloves of garlic (mercy) and some diced potatoes for the soup. It's hard for any meal to go wrong by starting with garlic, I always say.

Evil spirits begone!

A watched pot never boils -unless you have a bottle of wine, then it spins and swirls.

While the soup was cooking, we started prepping the roast to marinate. First we insert about another 30 cloves of garlic into the tender roast.

"Get in there you garlic!"

It was tricky work but luckily Allis was always close by to make sure we didn't do anything wrong. And she did a great job too, she never once took her eye off of that roast.

Allis: "Hey, I think someone's at the front door. Why don't you go check?"

Once the roast is bristling with garlic cloves, we put on some rosemary sprigs and let it marinate in some red wine. Mmmmmm.

Do roasts float? Golly I hope not.

After marinating for about an hour (the recipe recommends marinating overnight but we just can't plan that far ahead), we took the roast out and rubbed a garlic paste (mashed raw garlic cloves in flour) all over it. Oh man that looks good.

"A little more to the right. Yeah yeah. right there. Ahhhhhh."

Then you wrap it in some foil, throw it in the pot and stick it in the oven for three hours. Actually, our oven is really off, sometimes it takes 2 to 3 times the amount of time it says in the recipe to cook things in it. But this time the roast was done after only an hour! Doh! Good thing C decided to check it or it would've been ruined.

Wrapping the roast into the shape of a goose is optional.

While the roast was roasting, we got started on the asparagus and prepped the bread for the bread pudding.

Fresh ingredients-palooza!

C also got the scalloped potatoes ready.

Get that thing in the oven already! I'm hungry!

C got the soup ready by taking the potatoes and the garlic she was boiling and blending it all up. You take that, add some cream then heat it up and the soup is ready!

Turn the blender up to eleven!

Toshiro looks on dubiously.
"What's the matter Toshiro? Don't like garlic?"

It's just about ready to serve dinner, so let's take the remaining cloves of garlic and mash them together with some butter, then spread onto sourdough bread.

Whoa, someone's going to reek after dinner... and for a few days after as well.

Scalloped potatoes are done. And the gravy's ready for the Yorkshire pudding.

There's actually asparagus under all that cheese and mushrooms.

C had never made Yorkshire pudding before, in fact most of the dishes we had she had never made before, but it turned out great! I, of course, have trouble toasting bread so this was quite a challenge for me.

"Is that going to be enough gravy?"

"Hee hee. Cooking is fun!"

We had a great time cooking. Some of our favourite times together are spent cooking simple yet delicious meals in the kitchen. By no means do we consider this supper a "simple" meal but we wanted to do something special for Christmas. And it was delicious!

Even the dogs helped out prepping the cookware for the dishwasher.

"Are you done with that spoon? 'Cause I can clean that off for you."

So after a few hours of cooking and sipping wine, it was finally time to sit down, relax and enjoy the great food.

Garlic soup with garlic bread

"Merry Christmas! Now let's EAT!"

We hope you enjoyed our Christmas Eve cooking adventure (a.k.a. Garlic Day Garlic-fest Feast) and we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or Hannukah or Kwanzaa or Day Off Work Day, etc.). Stay tuned next week when we have a go at New Year's Eve enchiladas (sans garlic)!

Until then... adventure!
R-

It's Wintertime

Hello from the wintery White North! It's been a while since we last posted anything so let's get caught up.

One of the first things our friends and family ask us is "How's the weather so far?" Well, on October 30th we got our first snowfall of the season and it hasn't melted away.

C watches the first few snowflakes coming down

Django says: "What the hell's happening to our yard!"

Temperatures are generally highs of around -2° (celsius) to -5°C and overnight lows dip down to about -15°C. We did have a cold snap around the end of November where we saw overnight lows drop to -30°C. Whoa.

Gulp! Still plenty of room to fall on that thermometer.

All in all we've probably gotten over 2 feet of snow over the past couple months. C and I are adjusting pretty well to it. The absence of any humidity at all helps and the fact that it comes on gradually makes it easier to get used to. Even though we're told it'll get even colder in January and February, we're relieved to not be "crying our little California butts off" here in December. Yet.

Backyard a la mode

"Whoa awesome! Our front yard's gone!"

It looks as if a crack dealer's car blew up in front of our house.

We just got the car "winterized" the weekend before we had the big snowfall. We got snow tires put on, the oil changed, anti-freeze put into the windshield washers and had an engine block heater installed. For those of you unfamiliar with engine block heaters (i.e. anyone from the United States) it's a device you plug in to any electrical outlet (120 VAC) and it keeps your engine block warm so it'll start later. You usually "plug in" when temps drop to -25°C or lower. I could tell when temps were hitting -20° that the car would have a harder time starting so I can imagine it not starting after sitting overnight in -30° cold. In most parking lots around town where people might be leaving their cars for more than a couple hours (like the university or the airport or the casino), you'll see AC power outlets for every parking space. Crazy!

"Honey, do you remember where we parked the car?"

C and I got all excited that we got icicles hanging off of our house. It's just like in the movies! Then we realized that we're probably getting them because there's something wrong with our rain gutters. Oh well. They look so charming!

Probably don't want to stand underneath those things, huh?

It's so cold and dry here that the snow stays powdery for the most part. Except on the rare afternoon when the temps poke above freezing for a few hours. Then the snow melts just enough to be able to pack it together.

Here C and Moxie are building a snowman. First they start with the testicle.

Shoveling the snow wasn't too bad during the first few weeks when it was still powdery and light. But after a couple afternoons of +2°C temps, the snow started to cake into big hunks of icy bricks which were not as easy to wisk away.

Once I figured out which end to use, shoveling became a breeze

The dogs of course love the snow. They love chasing each other around in it and romping through the snowdrifts. I just need to figure out a way to attach a snow shovel to them.

Moxie goes loopy for snow

The pups are getting bigger. We look back at pictures when we first got them and laugh and laugh. We just can't imagine they were ever that small.

Django at 2 months. Bwaahahahahahahaha!

They still need a lot of attention and love but they're so much better behaved than when they were little pups. They love playing fetch and tug-o-war and bite-the-snow-shovel. They'll turn 5 months old on Christmas Eve and they already know sit, lay down, stay (but not for very long), come, roll over, crate (when it's time to go into their dog crates for food and sleepy time) and go-get-me-a-beer. Well... we're still working on that last one.

"I can't feel my dew claws. Can I come in now?"

Allis the cat is doing well too. She's growing as well and likes to ambush the dogs and get them into trouble whenever she can. Although they wrestle and gnaw on and claw at each other a lot, they seem to be careful not to hurt each other. When the day is done though, they're all one big happy wolf pack.

"You can go eat when I'm done using you as a pillow."

"I wonder if I can fit your whole head in my mouth."

The other big news is that C finished her first semester of her MFA program! Woo-hoo! She did an incredible amount of work in that semester and impressed all of her professors. But I'll let her tell you all about it. She did a fantastic job and I'm really proud of her.

C trudges through the snow on her way to class. Luckily there aren't any hills in Regina.

For all of you Expression College students and grads who've had C as a teacher: One night after several exhausting, 12+ hour days of working on homework and preparing for her panel review with all of her professors, she said, "There's so much work. There's just no time for anything else. I'm working all the time. I don't know how those students at Expression did it." Ha ha! Payback's a bitch, ain't it?

Well that's enough for now. From me, C, Allis, Moxie and Django, we want to wish you all a Merry Christmas (Hanukka, Kwanzaa, et. al.) and a very happy, healthy New Year! Feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time -- adventure!
R-