It's beginning...

to look a little like Christmas!

At least we have lots of totes filled with Christmas decorations arranged artfully throughout the house!  We also have a couple of displays that look something like this:

By the time my head hits the pillow tomorrow night, all "non tree" decorations will be done.  Then next weekend we'll put the trees up.  It is such a chore just to get the decorations carried up two flights of stairs from the basement.  For some reason, Trevor thinks we have too many Christmas decorations.  Fortunately, this is my area of expertise and he does not get a vote in the matter.

Why am I decorating so early?  I need to have our house ready for one of my favourite Christmas traditions  coming right up on December 5.  Our family Christmas cookie exchange and potluck!!  I wonder if anyone would notice if I contributed Oreos to the cookie exchange?  I seem to be running out of time for actually baking my cookies.  Ah well, I'll get to them eventually.  Two batches = two nights, easy-peasy, right?

Kitchen Stuff

I may not have baked my cookies yet, but I did spend a little time in the kitchen today.  I made some gingerbread scones for breakfast and then pulled out the slow-cooker since we were going to be busy this afternoon.  I decided to combine a few recipes that I found for kale and potato soup.  We were happy with the result.

Kale, Potato, Carrot, Leek Soup

3 cloves garlic
2 leeks
1 onion
1 1/2 lbs potatoes
a handful of carrots
several leaves of kale
celeriac (to add celery flavouring, could substitute real celery)
8 cups broth (vegetable or chicken)
salt and pepper

1. Dice the onion and slice the leeks, saute with a few cloves of garlic in olive oil.  Add diced celeriac (or real celery).  When onions have softened, add to slowcooker.
2. Cut potatoes and carrots in small pieces, add to slow cooker.
3. Remove the rib from the kale, roll it and slice it thinly (same way you would cut herbs), add to slow cooker.  I think I used about 5-6 leaves.
4. Add broth.
5. Simmer all day (I used the low setting for most of the day but switched to high because there were so many potatoes, I didn't think they were cooking through).
6. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup.
7. Salt and pepper to taste

I grated some gouda cheese to sprinkle on top and we had some multigrain bread on the side.  We loved it (good thing because I have a humongous container of leftover soup in the fridge) and I was surprised by how filling it was.  The lighting is not the best, I think it was a bit prettier in person (is soup ever "pretty"?):

I also broke into the fruit supply from our farm box and decided that we needed to follow the soup with a strawberry-rhubarb crisp (with apples):

Weekly Workouts

My cold is officially better!!  I hit the treadmill last night after taking Cameron out for supper to celebrate report-card day.  I also had no embarassing coughing fits in Pilates this morning.

Friday - 40:00 circuit of:
   10:00 Bike P7,
   10:00 Treadmill,
   5:00 Elliptical (supposed to be 10 but the batteries died!),
   10:00 Treadmill,
   5:00 Bike P7
Saturday - Pilates 60:00