A Life, Lived

Travel Tuesdays - Bologna at Christmas

Continuing with my traditional rehashing of the year we spent Christmas in Italy.

Our second stoop was in Bologna.

Putting up the Tree

This meme is so accurate. We will experience this today when we drag the tree upstairs to put together and decorate.

Advent Calendars

An Advent calendar is a special calendar used to count the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Since the date of the First Sunday of Advent varies, falling between November 27 and December 3 inclusive, many Advent calendars, especially those that are reusable, often begin on December 1, although those that are produced for a specific year often include the last few days of November that are part of the liturgical season. The Advent calendar was first used by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries.

We always had an Advent calendar when my sister and I were kids and we would take turns fighting over who would get to open the door and eat the piece of chocolate behind it. It was a tradition that has really caught on in recent years and now you can find Advent calendars for almost anything.

Here are our Advent calendars this year:

I have two cheese ones. If I had purchased a wine Advent calendar life would have been perfect! :-)

The two chocolate ones are for Paul.

Of course we bought Advent calendars for the cats. We hadn't intended on buying two but you can see from the one on the right happens when I buy a package containing freeze-dried liver bits and don't hide it away immediately. I know, bad Jerry. In my defence, I had to go to the bathroom really badly. By the time I had finished washing my hands the damage was done. Of course I had to buy a replacement which might have been their Machiavellian plan all along.

The countdown is on . . . the stress is rising!

Christmas stress for cats . . .

Travel Tuesdays - Venice at Christmas

9 years ago (my lord, how is it that long ago?) Paul and I spend most of December and the first week of January in Italy. We visited Venice, Bologna, Florence for short trips and then stayed in Rome for the remainder of our time. European cities go all out at Christmastime.

Here are some shots of Venice at Christmastime.

Keep this in mind as the holiday entertaining season approaches . . .

Cat Psychology

Cat owners know this to be true!

We're Getting Ready . . .

It is difficult to believe that Christmas is one month today!

I will say that trying to stay on top of the Christmas preparations as a retiree is a hell of a lot easier than when I was working! I don't know how parents manage it. It's no wonder the festive season is so damn stressful for so many.

Last week I was focused on making cookie dough. We now have logs of dough to slice, tubs of dough to scoop, and dough to roll and cut as we need it throughout the holidays. It sure makes things easy!

Each one is labelled with cooking instructions to I just have to pull out what I need, slice (or scoop or roll) and bake. Easy peasy.

I also made Christmas cakes.  They are in a cool spot, wrapped in brandy drenched cloths, waiting. I made a large cake this year that I plan on icing in the old English style. I mean, if you have time in retirement why not try new things?

One thing that has NOT changed in retirement . . . I am still challenged by food colouring and end up with more on me it seems.

:-)

 

 

Travel Tuesdays - Florence

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a friend of ours is flying to Florence today for a short week away. Her husband died a year ago. With the anniversary and Thanksgiving all coming quick an escape to lovely Florence seemed to be just the ticket.

It probably comes as no surprise that I follow a lot of folks from Italy on Instagram. One of them was posting pics of the light displays over the weekend. Paul and I took these pics when we were in Florence in December a few years ago.

These are the type of lovely sites that Sandi will see.

Maple Mustard Salmon

Salmon is a strong flavoured fish unlike other fish with no flavour to speak of at all. Because of that it holds up well to sauces and marinades with a more robust flavouring. This maple Mustard Salmon recipe, originally from the folks behind Becel, is a good example of that.

Full confession. We do not use Becel. In this recipe you're asked to use Becel Buttery Taste. Now I don't know what that is but in my books if you want buttery taste you use butter. Which is what I did.

This dish comes together very quickly. In fact the oven took longer to heat up than everything did to come together and cook.

We both thought the taste was wonderful.

I had some extra sauce leftover so I tossed it with some roasted veggies that we had on the side to complete the flavour profile.

If you're looking for a quick weeknight meal this is a good option for you.

Maple Mustard Salmon

1 lb(s) (500 g) salmon fillet, bones removed and cut into 4 pieces (or use 4 fillets)
¼ cup butter
¼ cup (60 mL) pure maple syrup
4 tsp (20 mL) Dijon or grainy Dijon mustard
1 tsp (5 mL) low-sodium soy sauce

Preheat oven to 425° F (220° C). Arrange salmon in 8-inch (20-cm) baking dish.

Melt butter for 15 seconds on high in microwave. Combine with mustard, soy sauce and maple syrup.

Pour mixture over salmon. Bake 12 minutes or until salmon flakes with a fork. Serve hot with extra sauce over the top.