Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Monday the 10th day of October, 2016.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone.

It is snowing here in Edmonton.

Very fine snow.

As soon as I am finished my cup of coffee I am going for a walk with Mr. Alvin.

That fine snow may turn to much heavier snow as the day progresses.

Yesterday with the sunshine it was quite nice and we so enjoyed our walk.

I am so grateful to have had a wonderful long weekend.

We were not able to go and have a Thanksgiving meal with the kids due to my son-in-law having the flu and icy roads.

But we will get together next weekend for a meal.

My ear became unplugged this morning and I can once again hear properly.

I am so grateful for that.

Yesterday I decided to go through my fridge and pantry and use up more things making Carol’s Thanksgiving.

I whipped up a batch of cookies that I fondly named “Carol’s Thanksgiving Peanut Butter Pumpkin Raisin Cookies” and also “Carol’s Quinoa

Thanksgiving Casserole.”

My neighbour tasted the cookies this morning and agreed they were yummy and I gave her some of the Casserole to take home to try.

I am very pleased with the end results.

Considering I just threw them together.

To give you an idea of what was in the main course:  Cooked up in separate pot some Quinoa.  Also some carrots in a separate pot.

I sautéed two large yellow sweet onions, garlic, pepperonis, large tin of diced tomatoes (crushed),

previously made black bean burgers that had been frozen – cut them into small bite sized pieces,

spices: three of my favourite spices:  cumin, turmeric and coriander and chopped dried cranberries.

After all it is not Thanksgiving without the cranberries.

simmered away …..

threw in can of sweet corn niblets.

Once everything had simmered and heated through.

In large bowl threw in the cooked quinoa and then the pot of goodness.

Mixed together.

Now I may have missed something as I was just tossing things together as I went.

My favourite way of cooking.

If I have something that I knew would work I just tossed it in.

The combination of the black bean burgers which fell apart and became this rich amazing backdrop for the sweet onions, corn, spices and tomatoes.

It was so good.

It tasted like Thanksgiving.

Well as I figured the snow has already turned to larger flakes so I should get this show on the road.

I hope that on this day …. this Thanksgiving that you try something new.

Use your imagination.

I should have posted some photos of my dishes.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Special Hello to: all my family and friends all over the world, have a great day.

Always, Carol and Alvin

 

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Sunday the 13th day of December, 2015.

Twelve days until Christmas Eve.

It is snowing here in Edmonton and the sky is completely filled with snow clouds no sunshine to be found.

The sun did not shine yesterday either …

Temperatures remain warm.

I see more shovelling in our future.

Yesterday was an awesome day at my house.

Started by sharing a cup of coffee with my neighbour ….

Ended with a cup of tea before bed.

In between the elves were making jewellery ….. earrings and necklaces …… chattering and laughing ….. they even stopped at the store …. did some laundry …. and lots more.

My daughter and I had a great day ….. so wonderful to spend the entire day with her ….. it was very late afternoon when she left our house.

Alvin and I enjoyed a walked last night but the wind did get up and that was chilly.

Today is going to be a more calm day in our household ….. wrap some gifts ….. deliver some cards ….. shovel some snow ….. stuff like that ….

 

I do have to share a story from yesterday at the grocery store.

My daughter dropped me at the grocery store while she ran to do another errand.

While she was gone I did my grocery shopping.

The last item on my list was “cranberry sauce” ….

I looked high and I looked low and down every aisle.

Finally I asked a young man in the produce aisle and he said “Are you sure you do not want these ones and pointed to a bag of fresh cranberries?”

I said “no thank you, I would like the canned ones.”

I asked him if he knew where the canned ones were and he said let’s go and take a look at the inventory sheet at the end of the aisle.

So on we went.

He then directed me to aisle 7 – canned goods.

Not there.

So I looked by myself for a while.

Finally ended up back in produce and I found the young man again … told him that I had not found them.

I found it hard to believe that cranberries would not be front and centre this time of year.

But they were not.

So we began our quest to find canned cranberries.

We stopped at the cashiers and he asked another young man ( I said we should ask the girls?)

I kind of thought it might have been a guy thing …. you know ….

But alas, I did not mind following a nice young man around the store or two.

This other young man said “yes” I know where they were and the guys ran to grab the cranberries with me in hot pursuit.

Literally in hot pursuit …

I temporarily lost them … but found them….

Voile …. they found the cranberries.

Guess where …. at the end of one aisle ( I cannot remember the number ) on the very bottom corner shelf.

There would have been no way that I ever would have located them.

I should have found the manager and asked why they were tucked away at this time of year and to rave about these young men.

I will remember for next time…..

But I left the store with the cranberries that I really wanted ….

Thank you to two such great young men …. most especially to the one who never gave up and gave the best customer service ever.

 

What a glorious day that I had ….. spent time with two young men at the grocery store and with my daughter.

The evening was quiet and relaxing just chilling watching the movie “Tomorrowland” with another cute guy “George Clooney” …. and Mr. Alvin, of course.

I was so tired almost feel asleep during the movie…..

Tonight I am SKYPING with my sister ….. YAY ….

 

Happy Sunday and remember you receive what you give …..

 

Special Hello to:  George Clooney …… just because…

Always, Carol and Alvin

 

P.S.  just looked out the window and the size of the snowflakes have grown … they are HUGE.