On Family

This past weekend in Alberta, we celebrated a unique holiday - Family Day. While every day should be 'family day', too often in our busy lives, we forget those who should mean the most to us - our families. I had the unique opportunity to share some wonderful family time and it made me appreciate just how much of a gift they can be in our lives.

We celebrated my father's 80th birthday this weekend - and it was all the more special because of the difficult year he has had this year with his health. But his sparkling wit and ready smile are back and was nice to again be able to share a meal and some laughs and even a few memories as we made a few new ones. Thank you Dad (and Mom!) for always being there for me and especially for teaching me the strength of family.

Enjoyed a different group of family the following day. It was a bit of a bittersweet get-together as we all joined to wish my cousin's son farewell as he left for his military posting in Afghanistan. Graham is just a little younger than my own son and it's difficult to reconcile this 'mostly' serious young man with the boy I remember from not long ago. I've watched him grow and turn into a young man whom I am proud to know. Good luck Graham, keep safe, and come home to us soon.

As my own family grow and moves on with their lives, we find less time to get together - but there will always be a home for them in my heart. I'd like to leave them, and you, with some words of wisdom from a very smart bear: "If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. I'll always be with you." Winnie the Pooh (A. A. Milne)

Comfort Food

I've been ill over the past few days with a rather nasty infection and spent a lot of time in bed. When I finally felt up to it, made myself a big pot of chicken soup in the crockpot. Now I don't know about you, but for me, homemade chicken soup is a definite comfort food. Guess it goes back to my childhood growing up on the farm and there being fresh chicken soup every day. Even better, in the summer, made with freshly picked vegetables. All lovingly made with my Baba's (grandmother's) hand.
(The picture is me in front my my Baba and Gido's farmhouse with my first car.)

Maybe that's what makes comfort food so special to us. It isn't the food itself, but the memories it invokes. Memories of our childhood, of being cared for, of being safe and protected. For some of us, perhaps it invokes memories of a special person in our lives who perhaps now is gone. It is well known that odour is a very powerful memory stimulant, so perhaps during the preparation, those odours invoke those special memories and feelings.

I would leave you with the recipe for chicken soup, but heaven knows, Baba never used a recipe for that. She had a few things she used a recipe for and one that all of us grandchildren loved was Sour Cream Chocolate Cake (only she usually make cupcakes out of it!)

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

1 ½ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cup sour cream
¾ tsp salt
2 ¼ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in
¾ cup hot water
1 ½ tsp vanilla

Mix well and turn into a greased pan. Bake at 325 F about 40 minutes or until toothpick in center of cake comes out clean. Alternatively, fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.

Enjoy! This recipe and more are the basis for Muffins and Megabytes our newest web initiative. How about sending me your favourite recipe?

I leave you with this wonderful quote from Robert Redford about another great comfort food: “Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better."