And the table is set

We’re having a potluck multicultural Thanksgiving for 12 at our house and I’ve got it all ready to roll. I hope! 

That’s the turkey in the background underneath the big blanket. It’s resting.

Where’s Isla?

More Riverdale Deer

This lovely doe was placidly grazing while I walked by in the trail Monday. 

Yukon Winter Mornings...

It is with great pleasure as winter progresses and the light gets less and less... that Christopher and Isla get the chance to see beautiful Yukon sunrises each AM after we have walked Sarah to work.

It's very warm here today... 7 degrees Celsius is the high.  You sure Climate Change isn't real?

The Riverdale Deer Herd

On my walk to work this morning through the very quiet new fallen snow what should I hear but a scrunching, scratching noise. I stopped in my tracks and looked up to see part of the Riverdale deer herd. 

For those who don’t know, a Riverdale is a suburb surrounded by green space here in Whitehorse. There is an urban trail linking Riverdale to downtown called the Millennium Trail. The trail is bounded On one side by the Yukon River. That’s where I walk and where the deer seem to bed down. 

For the hunters out there, no bucks, but they must be around because there was a fawn from this past year. 

Annual Visitors

Each early winter we get a couple of days in our yard when Bohemian Waxwings come to visit and eat all the berries and crab apples left on our trees and bushes...

Huge flocks of these birds roam our city neighbourhoods for a month thrilling us with  their songs and beauty.

The Long Weekend Cooking Show

It’s been a wild weekend of cooking here.... Yesterday I cooked just about every vegetable that we had in the house - parsnips,  zucchini, brussels sprouts, green peppers, red peppers, orange peppers  This was after I made a leek dish from the October bon appétit magazine that we had with fried free range eggs for breakfast.

Today it was lamb liver pate, sautéed lamb kidneys,  cassoulet, fusion pork ribs. Don’t worry, we ate left over vegetables to ward off scurvy. 

The weather turned cold and I’ve woken up thing about cooking every day. 

The fusion pork ribs were amazing. The leeks not so much. The cassoulet and pate are waiting for tomorrow. The kidneys were delicious right out of the pan. 

Selbu Mitts Finished

Thank goodness for long weekends! I got them done. Most complicated mitts I’ve ever knitted. I’m selfishly keeping them for myself. 

Winter Bacon

We have had an exceptionally lovely fall, which fooled me into thinking that I had more time to do fall things – like making this year‘s bacon. 

And now here is a public service announcement from my husband: 

“All bacon contains pink salt, which is a nitrate, which in combination with the meat in your colon is a carcinogen. Also, don’t believe the nitrate free labels because they use celery salt which is a natural source of nitrates which achieves the same carcinogenic goal“.

Which is why I started making our own bacon. For some reason public health authorities think that the risk of botulinum poisoning from improperly cooked bacon is higher than the risk of colon cancer from the nitrates which stop the botulism from developing. Anyway… My bacon just has salt, sugar and spices no nitrates. There is an investment in time and care. I started the process on Sunday morning and had to flip the bacon every 12 hours in the fridge. Last year I used a wet brine from Fergus Henderson’s nose to tail eating. Unfortunately that was too salty for my taste. This year I used the advice I got from people and a few recipes I saw online and I went with a one to one sugar to salt ratio.

Free Water

Isla enjoys a drink and a swim like all right minded dogs. She’s been denied this the last week or so because the water had become ice. This morning it was all melted back into its proper form as far as she was concerned. 

Yukon Order Of Pioneers - YOOP Tea and Bazaar

The annual tea and bazaar will become part of my own seasonal  round of activities I think. It is exactly right with tea cups and finger sandwiches and sweet little nibbles. I’m so happy I went! 

Technically it is the ladies auxiliary of the YOOP who puts it on. A few decades ago a feisty Dawson City woman tried to join the YOOP and get turned down how do I know? She went to court to try and get in. She lost, but the case is interesting reading.