Staying Warm

I feel rather Hobbit-ish though.

 We've been having real winter weather here for the last week, with temperatures of about -20 typical of our days, going even colder at night.
My absolute best tip for surviving a cold winter?  These Glerup wool shoes for wearing indoors.  I can't believe how nice they are.  I bought this pair, the Glerup "shoe", a couple of months ago and I love putting them on as soon as I return home.  They are so warm, yet breathable, and the soles don't slip while I'm running around the house.
The wool is felted and so it's very thick, and they are made in Denmark using a combination of Gotland and New Zealand wools.
You can find them at this Canadian website (although I did first see them on the LLBean site, where they were quite a bit more expensive, especially factoring in exchange, duties and taxes).
This, like all my posts, is not sponsored, I just had to mention them as a public service! ( I also want my Middle Rascal to go to the link so I can buy her a pair for wearing around her graduate residence, go have a look Sweetie.)

Coats, well this is another issue entirely.  I really should invest the money in one of those awesome technical parkas like a Canada Goose (which is what Middle Rascal wears) or a Moose Knuckles (Ole Rascal just bought himself one of those, very sharp).  Just yesterday we bought a North Face parka for Lil Rascal.
I just can't do it for myself though, I really love coats in wool and bright colours, pairing them with black outfits accessorized with scarves... so I do a lot of layering.  Two sweaters at the minimum, heavy socks, a silk scarf covered with a wool or cashmere scarf, wool berets and lined gloves.

Brora and Boden coats.

 Winter is also not the time to worry about being skinny, it's the time to eat lots of good fats and vegetables.

This was my lunch on one of the coldest days this week: sautéed spinach with new potatoes and a whole avocado, sliced and covered with lemon juice and hemp hearts.

It's meant to warm up today, to a balmy -8!
How have you been dealing with the cold winter?  And if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, please do tell, is it already getting quite warm?  Are you expected to have a very hot summer this year?
Wow, I feel like a typical Canadian, obsessing over the weather.
Stay warm, or cool, depending,
xoxDani

Cinnamon and Ginger

 I really like the colour of the underside of these dried magnolia leaves.  Don't you think it's the exact shade of cinnamon sticks?  Dried bits of stuff in this large vase are the perfect easy centrepiece for the piano in the foyer, requiring no upkeep whatsoever
The orange tree is another story, I had placed it on our bar cart during the holidays and sort of forgot about it.  I'm a terrible plant-owner to be honest, I never should have brought this orange tree home.  I doubt it will make it, the way it's been ignored.  I finally noticed it yesterday afternoon and gave the poor thing some water, and moved it to this sunnier location.  Fingers crossed for it!

I did another gym session yesterday and before I left the house I put together a bit of homemade granola.  I've been trying to incorporate hemp hearts into our diet: they are super high in protein and in omega 3 and omega 6, making them a terrific post-workout boost.  Mixed with some oats and almonds, and eaten with fortified almond milk they would also make for a densely nutritious breakfast.

Homemade granola is so easy, and in my typical slapdash fashion I don't do any measuring while concocting mine.  For this  granola I used approximately 1.5 cups of hemp hearts, 2 cups or so of oats, and 1 cup of sliced almonds.  I stirred through a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground ginger.
On the stove top I heated up about 3 tablespoons of maple syrup with a tablespoon of olive oil, then poured that over the lot, giving it a fairly good stir before spreading it out on a parchment lined baking sheet.

 I baked it at 325 for about 15 minutes, just until it was perfectly golden.
I don't care for dried fruit in granola for some reason, I prefer it rather plain.  But I did add some chopped apricots to about half of this granola before packaging that up for Middle Rascal to take with her back to school.  You could also add raisins, dried cherries or blueberries, whatever you fancy.

If you're on the East Coast I hope you've been surviving the Frozen Bomb Cyclone.  Yesterday at the gym Laura and I saw an old friend of ours with her Uni aged daughter, she won't be getting back to school in Halifax this weekend by the looks of it, it seems many flights were already being cancelled.
Tuck in and stay warm and safe Tooties!

Happy Friday,
xoxDani

Slapdash Baking

 The truth is I'm not much of a baker.  Bakers need to be very precise, measuring and weighing and paying particular attention to pre-heating the oven, timing the baking etc.  I prefer to bake things the way I cook: slapdash, with room to improvise and without paying much attention to measuring.
So an easy apple strudel is pretty much my perfect baking "recipe"!
I had some Granny Smith apples lying around and beginning to look slightly worse for the wear, so I peeled them up and chopped them into chunky slices.
After a quick spritz of fresh lemon juice I stirred cinnamon sugar into the whole lot: basically about 3 tablespoons of sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

 Meanwhile I prepared the thawed phyllo dough, layering five sheets on top of a layer of parchment paper with generous brushings of about a third a cup of melted butter (for plant-based diets melted Earth Balance baking sticks work really well).

Topple the prepared apples onto one end of the prepared phyllo dough.  Then you've got the fun part: grab the full end, pull the dough up all around the apples and roll to the other side, tucking in the whole way.
You'll want the seam of the roll to be underneath the strudel on the parchment-covered baking sheet.

 Brush with whatever remaining butter you have, then sprinkle the whole thing fetchingly with more cinnamon sugar.

 I baked this strudel for about 20 minutes in a 350 oven, but my La Cornue convection oven is super hot.  Your oven might need more time.

Voila you have a gorgeous strudel, perfect for dessert on a winter evening!

The finished strudel.

I leave you with a picture of our neighbourhood in the deep freeze.  It's been so cold yet also quite beautiful, the light is low yet bright.
Today it's time to re-stock some cupboards, so I'll be out and about procuring supplies.  Then this afternoon Middle Rascal and I are off to visit with one of the Lauras and her older daughter (who's also home on a break from Uni), we'll have cocktails together as they discuss school and life, and Laura and I will remember them running around at age four and five, playing with their "habitat animals" and sidewalk chalk!
Enjoy your day today, maybe you'll do some slapdash baking?
xoxDani

Paisley and Leopard

 I did some slapdash sewing and found new life for my antique wool paisley throw.
The throw is very dear to me because I bought it from Ellie's store, and those of you who were also fans of Ellie and her wonderful blog Have Some Decorum will understand the special qualities of this paisley.  Special because she herself chose it at a brocante in Paris!

Ellie was a big fan of paisley in decorating, and this piece in particular was quite old with a lovely tassel trim.  I used it as a tablecloth for about a year, and then as a throw for this little sofa, but alas Scout had her way with it and it developed a couple of significant holes.

What would Ellie do?  I think she would have kept on using the paisley in decorating in some way, so I've made pillow covers, two quite large ones, out of the best bits of the fabric.

 They really suit the feeling of this room, it is the small bedroom in our house, on the second floor, that we use as MrBP's dressing room.  The room is filled with tweed and books and an ancient rug that MrBP's great-grandfather brought back to Vienna at the end of the first world war.

 I have a portiere hanging in lieu of a door, which while not an excellent choice for a bedroom works perfectly in this kind of space.

The shelves are filled with books and also boxes of ties and baskets of socks and boxer shorts!

Speaking of books, tonight I'll be going to the Christmas potluck for my Fun Bookclub.
I belong to two bookclubs, one serious and one fun.  Why the distinction?  Well for example, the December bookclub for my fun club is a potluck dinner with lots of chatting and laughs, and a book exchange game.  We don't read a book to discuss for this event because let's face it, it won't be discussed anyway.  This bookclub is made up of women who have quite serious jobs, a few psychotherapists, doctors, a woman who runs an estate business, another who sits on various quite serious sounding boards.

My serious bookclub is smaller and made up of women (and one man) who are my closest friends, but we always discuss the book in minute detail and if one hasn't read the book you might consider not attending!  For our December bookclub we're reading a book about the hospital at the centre of Hurricane Katrina (Five Days at Memorial), not exactly a light read.

 I love both of these bookclubs and I'm quite glad they're so different.  It makes for a fun change!

I'm planning to dress up a little bit tonight, and by that I mean wearing my leopard shoes (well, changing into them once I wrangle my snow boots off) with my black outfit.

I think that leopard, like paisley, is a neutral!
Do you belong to a bookclub, serious or fun?
I'll be spending the morning outside with Scout, we've had our first significant snowfall overnight and it's a winter wonderland out there.  We'll go to the park and run around like little kids (or at least Scout will).
Enjoy your day today,
xoxDani