Our Family "Cold Comfort Kit"

While everyone in our house is blessed with exceptionally good health, we are still occasionally felled by the odd cold virus. I prefer to avoid using over-the-counter type cold remedies for a variety of reasons (including the fact that they're fairly expensive and they make me feel weird). I have found a few gentle low tech/natural remedies keep us quite comfortable while we're on the mend. Here is what I keep on hand for soothing a raging cold:

-a big box of tissues with lotion (these are pricey; I keep them squirreled away so they only make an appearance when they're really needed- the last box lasted me at least 2 yrs!)

-hard candies with vitamin C to help sooth sore throats

-a hot water bottle

-eucalyptus essential oil for steam inhalations (see below for instructions)

-epsom salts (add to a hot bath to ease muscle aches and soreness)

-thyme and honey for homemade cough syrup (recipe below)

Usually, these simple solutions, combined with lots of hot tea and soup (and lots of napping under warm blankets) are enough to see us through a typical cold without feeling too miserable.

Eucalypus Oil Steam Inhalation (to relieve nasal and sinus congestion)
Boil about a litre (4 cups) of water and carefully pour into a heat-proof bowl (such as Pyrex). Add about 6 drops of eucalyptus essential oil to the water. Drape a large towel over your head to form a tent and carefully lean over the bowl, keeping a few inches away from the water. Stay under the towel for as long as is comfortable, taking short breaks if necessary. Aim for 10-15 minutes or so total.

Thyme and Honey Cough Syrup
I have found this to be more effective than over-the-counter cough syrups. Honey should not be given to children under the age of one.
In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup water and 1 tbsp dried thyme. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn off heat. Let steep for 15-20 minutes. Strain the liquid into a jar (I use a small canning jar) and add 1/4 cup honey. Stir until honey is completely dissolved. Take 1 tbsp as needed.

Lentils to the Rescue!

I'm finally back from my holiday blog-break. Now that the new year is underway, it's pretty likely that either your budget or your body is trying to recover from the excesses of the holiday season. Fortunately, since lentils are both cheap and nutritious, they can help out on both counts. Here are a couple of my favourite quick and easy lentil recipes - you can have either of them on the table in less than 1/2 an hour! Both of these dishes are great paired with your favourite cornbread recipe.

Sausage and Lentil Stew
This is a great way to stretch 2 sausages to feed four people It's still plenty filling and hearty because of the lentils.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 large or 2 small carrots, chopped
1 cup red lentils
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 Oktoberfest style sausages, cooked and chopped (I use a Bavarian-style turkey sausage)
1 tbsp Braggs or Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp dried parsley

In a large saucepan, saute onions and garlic in oil until tender. Add celery and carrots and cook until they start to soften. Add lentils and broth. Cook for 10 minutes (until lentils are nearly soft) then add tomatoes, sausage, Braggs and parsley. Simmer over medium heat until carrots are tender, adding water if needed to keep stew from drying out. Serves 4.

Quick Lentil Soup
The ingredients for this are very similar to the stew, but the lemon and spices give it a bit of a different flavour. You could add some leftover diced meat to this if you want to make it a bit more robust. Extra leftover vegetables make a nice addition as well!

1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups water
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup dried red lentils
1 tsp cumin
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp dried parsley

In a large saucepan, saute garlic and onions until tender. Add carrots and cook until they start to soften. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and cook until lentils are soft. Serves 4.

Need Last Minute Christmas Ideas?

Make It From Scratch Carnival: 'Twas the Week Before Christmas Edition is up. Go check it out for some great last-minute food and gift ideas!

Winter Wonderland

We finally have a serious amount of snow! It started falling late Saturday night, and by Sunday morning there was lots of shovelling to do. The boys put on their snowpants as soon as they woke up yesterday and ran outside to romp around in it with their friends.

They hit the toboggan hill with their dad later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it had started to rain by then and everyone got really messy and wet. I took the dog for a nice hour long walk in the rainy sludge so we were both soaked too! I thought the snow was going to end up disappearing but thankfully the temperature dropped later in the day so there's still lots of white stuff on the ground.

After we came in and dried ourselves off, it was time for some hot chocolate. We go through a LOT of hot chocolate during the winter, so I'm thankful I know how to make it cheaply. I use skim milk powder, with a teaspoon of cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons of sugar for each mug. A pinch of cinnamon adds that little "extra". I top each mug off with a few mini-marshmallows if we happen to have some around.

We all snuggled under blankets and thawed out watching Back to the Future II - it's been quite a while since I'd watched the BttF movies so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We took a break from the movie long enough to get some bread in the oven (thank goodness I had made up a batch of Refrigerator Bread Dough late last week) and a batch of lentil soup bubbling on the stove. Hot soup and bread fresh from the oven - the perfect meal after a day spend outside frolicking in the snow!

The boys burned off so much energy playing outside all day that they are still sleeping right now at 10:20 a.m.! I'm sure when they do finally wake up they'll be ready to head right back out to the toboggan hill.

Frugal Hostess Gifts (at last!)

This post (which I initially promised to deliver way back on the 7th) has now become long overdue! In hindsight, I shouldn't have figured I'd have any time to blog with our very busy Thanksgiving weekend and its aftermath.

Above is a photo of Hostess Gift #1: Pumpkin Butter & Pear Chutney. Both of these were homemade (the chutney was properly canned, the pumpkin butter I just put in a canning jar to match). To make the labels, I cut up an old brown kraft paper gift bag and (for the white) an old greeting card. I trimmed all the edges with my fancy-edge scissors, and tied the tags on with raffia (one package of raffia lasts approximately forever as far as I can see!) You can't see it in the photo, but I also cut circles out of wrapping paper and put them under the screw-cap lids of the canning jars to cover the canning (snap) lids. I brought this to my brother-in-law's (wrapped up all proper in a gift bag with tissue paper and ribbon), and it was very well received (as were the Baked Squash Casserole and Apple Crisp!) We had a great dinner and a relaxing visit with my hubby's brother's family.

The boys spent much of the time at their uncle's playing on the rope swing with their cousins. That is, when they weren't in the hot tub!! Yes, they were perfectly comfortable playing in their swimsuits at Thanksgiving, as we had summer-like weather both Sunday and Monday.

On Monday we headed to my brother's house (in the blistering heat and humidity of a 30 degree Celsius day - a new record for Thanksgiving!) Below is a photo of Hostess Gift #2: A Jalapeno Pepper Plant, Jalapeno & Banana Peppers, & Pumpkin Butter. The peppers were all from our garden, as was the plant. I dug it up carefully (leaving a few half-grown peppers still on the plant) and put it in a coffee can (these are very handy for a lot of gifting purposes, so I try to keep ours from ending up in the recycling bin!) I wrapped the peppers in cellophane and attached with raffia to the stake (an old piece of quarter round) supporting the plant. We also brought Oatmeal Dinner Rolls (this is close to my recipe) and Red Cabbage and Apple Salad (I used raisins instead of dried cranberries, and left out the nuts due to allergies). These were all very well received too!

All in all, it was a very satisfying and enjoyable weekend, full of good food and lots of time spent with family. Now if we could just finish off the (seemingly bottomless) bowl of cabbage salad...

Thanksgiving Harvest

We've been having some unseasonably warm weather this fall. Lured out by some nice warm sunshine, I managed to get some work done in the garden earlier this week. My tomato plants, far from looking like the season is nearly over, look better than they did all summer! It was so hot and dry in July and August that I struggled to keep up with their water needs. Now that it's been a bit cooler, they have sprung back to life with a vengeance! I think I might try bringing one of them inside in a large pot - now that they look so healthy I can't bear to let the frost take them!!

Although the overall vegetable garden yield was far from impressive this year (due to both the aforementioned weather and a bit of laziness on the part of the gardener - I never got around to planting a second timeline of anything!) I did fill a small basket with produce while I was out rummaging around. A handful of tomatoes (hubby loves those little yellow pear tomatoes!), about half a dozen each of sweet peppers and banana peppers, and a dozen or so jalapenos. If the weather holds out, I expect to get a bit more of everything before frost. The swiss chard is still going strong as well, and I harvested a bunch of that as well, to blanche and freeze for the winter.

In addition to our own garden harvest, I have also been trying to use up or preserve everything we've been getting from our CSA. As usual, we are inundated with squash! Since I still have a small mountain of frozen squash and and pumpkin in the freezer from last year, I am on a quest to find as many ways as possible to use up some squash and pumpkin so I don't have *two* seasons' worth in my freezer.

Since it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, I thought this would be the perfect time to go a little "squash crazy". We have been fortunate enough to receive invitations to not one, but two!!! Thanksgiving dinners this weekend. Tomorrow we are going to my brother-in-law's, then on Monday we are headed to my brother's place. This is the first year in many, many years that I haven't cooked the Thanksgiving turkey, so I am *very* excited.

But I digress...back to the squash. This afternoon I made a Baked Squash and Apple Casserole to bring to dinner tomorrow. It's the first time I've tried this recipe, so I hope it's good! I also made a batch of Pumpkin Butter (thanks to Dewey's Treehouse for the recipe!), using half squash and half pumpkin (I raided my frozen stash for this). This turned out very tasty and I am going to use this for part of my hostess gift for both dinners (more about my frugal hostess gift plans tomorrow!)

Between wrestling with all that squash, hauling around laundry in various stages of done-ness, and keeping two extremely hungry boys fed all day (hubby has been gone all day working - yes, on a Saturday) I am ready to get horizontal with my book, so that is exactly what I'm going to go and do now .