When I was growing up, Mary Moore was a household name among the womenfolk.
Mary (Allen Clark) Moore, born in Hamilton in 1903, was a Canadian food writing legend. From 1928 to 1978, she was a nationally syndicated newspaper food columnist. Her columns, which appeared in as many as 25 daily newspapers across the country, were clipped and used by thousands of Canadians…
… Moore was known for her heartwarming, highly personal recipe columns, in which she dispensed cooking advice and also encouraged her readers to take a long walk each day. *Exerpt from thewhig.com
I remember both of my grandmas and my mom faithfully clipping the recipes from Mary’s column and either pasting or handwriting them into a notebook.
Many of the main dishes and desserts I enjoyed in my youth came directly from Mary’s weekly newspaper offerings.
When the first edition of her cookbook was released in 1978, I purchased a copy.
To this day, it’s my all time favourite cookbook.
In its pages, I can find recipes I remember my mom, my grandmas, and my friends’ moms and grandmas making. There are even recipes my high school home-ec teacher used in class.
As I gently leaf through the ingredient stained pages of this well-used and mightily worn hardcover book, I’ll come across a familiar recipe and smile with a fond memory.
One such recipe is Mock Marzipan Strawberries. My maternal grandma made these every year at Christmas and made them as table favours for my wedding.
I now make them as well.
These are mine
Straight from the cookbook:
First editions of this cookbook in excellent condition now sell for $200 CDN. My book is far from even good condition, but even if it was in excellent condition, no amount of money could purchase it.
On yesterday morning’s power walk, there wasn’t a breath of wind, which resulted in stunning mirror reflections on the river.
Because I didn’t want to slow my pace, I didn’t take the time to adjust the exposure on my iPhone camera before I took the shot.
The result was a slightly more washed out photo than what I had hoped for.
Our province’s motto is “Land of Living Skies”, so my goal in many of the landscape images I capture here at home is to honour that motto.
In addition to not taking the time to adjust the exposure, I didn’t wait until there were no vehicles passing by. I don’t mind vehicles in a landscape photo that showcases reflections on water, but only if the vehicles themselves are also in the reflection.
A bit of post processing brought the photo to how I envisioned the scene. I first removed the cars using the eraser in my phone’s native photos app. I then took the photo into the Lightroom mobile app for minor adjustments to exposure and colours. I added a wee bit of vignette at the end to draw more light to the main subject. Within less than five minutes of simple editing, I was able to achieve what was in my mind’s eye for this scene from yesterday morning (feature photo).
In some instances, I edit out telephone and power lines. This time, the lines were also a detail in the perfect reflection so I left them in.
I was seven years old when Ray Conniff released the song that has lyrics true to this day.
Happiness truly is “different things to different people”, as the iconic and familiar lyrics state.
When we sold our condo and started renting a condo from a friend, I was dismayed that the oven in our rental was completely unpredictable in terms of temperature and sometimes was so far out, that I couldn’t risk using it. I was especially distressed because my fussy French macarons need predictable and accurate oven temps.
Despite how much I insisted, hubs was against letting our friend/landlord know. He didn’t want us to be “those” tenants.
Finally, last week, I decided to risk hubs’ ire for a day or two and called our landlord. I worded it that I thought he’d want to know because every year, things get more expensive to replace. He agreed 100% and said that from here on in, if anything at all stops working properly, he wants to know immediately.
My new stove (feature photo) arrived the day before yesterday and everything works perfectly.
After I made his fave oven-prepared dish for dinner, hubs was ok with the situation, and decided that maybe we need a new fridge too 🤦♀️.
One of my favourite cold weather comfort foods is chili con carne. People seldom use the full name anymore and have shortened it to chili.
Although this dish was originally Tex Mex (from the border area of Texas and Mexico), I can recall my mom at home in Canada making her version of it when I was a child. Mom always called it by its full name.
In researching chili for this post, I was surprised to learn that the dish was introduced to eastern Canada in the early 1900’s. I wondered, given the distance, how that could be? Further reading explained that a group from San Antoniointroduced it at a chili stand at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This explained a lot, because Chicago is much closer and Canadians were very well represented at that fair.
There are many variations of this hearty meat stew, and I make it a bit differently each time.
The one in my feature photo has carrots, red bell pepper, button mushrooms, onions, celery, and three bean varietieswith the lean ground beef and diced tomatoes. I prepared it in my Instant Pot, as I do all of my soups and stews. Pressure cooking has a way of locking in and enhancing flavours, which is key in one-pot meals.
We like our chili either over a baked potato, or with a side of toast.Sometimes I garnish it with shredded cheese and/or sour cream.
If you eat this dish, what sides do you enjoy with it? I’m always looking for new ideas.
I used the Touch Retouch App to clean up the bowl. As I did this, I recalled cooking competitions on TV, and how the chefs always wipe the edges of the dishes and bowls before serving.
By doing this task digitally, I was able to finally realize why that’s done.
Here’s the dish before cleanup.
Much more appealing with the dishing up smears removed, I think. Do you agree?
After walking the same six streets over and over againin our south Texas park for the past six months, I’m loving being back to our walking/biking/hiking trails here at home in Sask, Canada.
There’s just something about the trees getting ready to leaf out, the fresh air, the river, the variety of trails, and the familiarity of home that makes my morning walks here at home so peaceful, meaningful, enjoyable, and special.
The winding trails are always inviting Bridges over the Souris River are plentiful and varied in design Our city does a great job of path management and maintenance The river views from the many bridges are always peaceful and groundingOne of the many bridges on this trail – one day I’ll make a post about all of themYou always wonder what’s around the next bend
This week, Healthy Choice gourmet frozen steamer bowls are on sale at our local Co-op supermarket.
I recalled liking these many years ago, so decided to pick up a few today.
Wiki says this about the brand:
According to ConAgra’s official corporate history, Healthy Choice came into being after then-ConAgra CEO, Charles “Mike” Harper suffered a heart attack in 1985. Forced to dramatically alter his diet, he came up with the idea of a line of healthier frozen foods.
Hubs is away at a poker tournament this afternoon, so I decided to make one of these for my dinner.
I wasn’t disappointed. The meal was colourful, flavourful, and the exact right amount for the lighter evening meal that I prefer. The chicken was tender and juicy, and with a 4 minute microwave cook, the noodles were the exact al dente that I like.
An added plus is that the WW Points for this meal weighs in at only six. That’s a small number of points for a satisfying meal.
Yes, btw – I’m back to tracking my food again withthe WW App. In 2018, I lost 40 lbs by following the WW smart points system. For a long time, I maintained the loss with a few minor ups and downs in weight, no tracking, and exercise only. I’ve recently regained a few lbs that have been more resistive to leaving me, so back I go to tracking.
Yesterday morning, I looked out my balcony door and saw that the snowfall from the previous day was completely gone. I donned my winter coat and enjoyed my first outdoor walk since we arrived back home.
At just above freezing, it was a chilly morning. In spite of that, the air was clean and fresh, and after a couple of city blocks to get to the river boardwalk, I realized that I had bundled up a bit too warm. Now I know what to wear when I head out for my walk today.
After walking up and down the same streets of a south Texas RV Park all winter, the riverside walk was most welcome, and even though the water will be muddy for a while yet, the ice is completely gone.
On my way to the boardwalk, I ran into two gals from my hometown who I’ve known all of my life. Yes, it slowed my average power walk pace, but our 30+ minute visit catching up was fun and enjoyable.
Each and every negative had a positive side that was stronger. Don’t you love it when that happens?
First off, my feature photo isn’t mine. It’s from the blogger I’m shouting out today.
For some time, I’ve been following a recipe blog named “The Wholesome Spoon”
Lex, the author is a young, midwest USA Mom who creates recipes that are easy to follow and have ingredients most of us have on hand or can easily access at our local supermarkets.
I’ve tried many of Lex’s recipes and every one has been a hit with both hubs and me, as well as with our friends and family.
I’d highly recommend that you check her blog outhere . You won’t be sorry.
Radically Retired 