Two Tasty Meals

   I have become very bored with my own cooking during the pandemic and have been desperately trying to "up the ante" on meals recently. One day I made a lasagna using broiled eggplant instead of the noodles. Another good meal was a cabbage casserole, like cabbage rolls but much easier. I did make cabbage rolls too as the cabbage went on forever!

    Yesterday I had some Air Miles points to use so decided to splurge on scallops. They are an awful price here (I got four big ones for just under $10) as we are so far from the ocean, but my points covered that. Everything else I had in the house so it wasn't an expensive meal but Oh, so good! 

    I seared the scallops in butter, then cooked some green onions, mushrooms and red pepper in the remaining butter. Then I made a cheese sauce and returned the scallops and vegetables to the pan to cook a bit more. A final sprinkle of cheese on top and some green beans on the side made it all delicious and a very nice change. That was meal#1.

   There was quite a bit of cheese sauce left over (I always make too much) so I saved it and, this morning, made Eggs Benedict for breakfast. What a treat that was with orange juice and coffee. I skipped the slice of ham and just had it on toast but have to say it was delicious.  That was meal #2. Tonight is just some leftovers from the freezer as I have had quite enough treats for this weekend.

A Shock!

     I usually grocery shop on a Tuesday but was feeling a bit under the weather earlier week so put it off and went today instead. What a mistake! The place was just full of people - and this was at 8:15 a.m. - and even though it didn't take me any longer to fill my cart, I had a horrendous wait to check out. Usually I'm in and out in around half an hour but it was almost an hour this time. Never again!

  Seemingly there are some special discounts on Thursdays (I didn't see any) which is why it was so busy. I am so used to just walking straight up to the cashier early in the morning - I guess I'm spoiled! 

    Making yogurt overnight tonight in my Instapot. Yum!

Staying Pretty Isolated

    Daughter and oldest grandson came by today, ostensibly so he could clear my driveway of snow. I could have done it myself as it wasn't a big snowfall this time, but left it for him to do.

   They are my first visitors of the year (except for the appliance repair man) and I'm not expecting anyone else any time soon. I will be at their house in March for grandson's birthday and they will come here on Easter for our traditional leg of lamb meal. I see that isn't until April so maybe I will have someone else drop by before then. Meanwhile I am quite happy with my own company and will be even happier once the weather allows me to get out more,

   I did forget daughter came by in January with dinner for Robbie Burns birthday so this is actually my second visit in 2022. She didn't stay long as she was on her way home from work but we had time for a brief chat over coffee.

   So, at the moment, it is quite a solitary life chez moi. I'm hoping the fitness classes at the Senior's Centre will start up again in March and the number of infections and hospitalizations are going down. Dare I say "The end is in sight"? This feels like tempting providence - I read that Covid is rampant in deer populations, so who knows if another mutated version of Covid is lurking somewhere! 

Here We Go Again!

    This is what greeted me when I opened the front door this morning!

   Seemingly we got about 20 cms.  of snow. First I cleared the drive with the snowblower, then I shoveled the pathways. It was pretty cold to begin with (-12C) but I warmed up as I worked. The sun helped too and melted some icy spots. It got up to -3C later in the day so I went back out and tidied some parts I'd missed. All in all an energetic day!

From my kitchen window - the snow has pretty much dropped off the branches by now.

The pool is under there somewhere. The cover is really sagging with the weight of the snow. I hope it survives until the Spring melt!