This has been an insanely busy, but also a really, really good week. The week started with a memo that Remembrance Day would be a stat holiday (a paid holiday), I went into the office twice, had a work day trip, and then we had a really pretty snowstorm on the stat holiday so there was no pressure to go anywhere or do anything, which is the only way I like snow. I sat inside almost all day, read a book for the first time in over a month and played one of those “light jazz and ambience” videos on my TV from YouTube, baked a coffee cake and responded to some text messages I had been lightly avoiding for a few days. I then shoveled snow for over an hour, but it was a good workout, and it’s satisfying when it’s done. It also meant that I allowed myself to eat bread and butter with my soup tonight because it made up for me sitting on my butt most of the day. It was a great unexpected holiday.
The first snowfall
I am the first to admit that I hate winter in general. But there is something so magical about the first snowfall of the year, this isn’t technically the first snowfall of the year, but it’s the first real one, the first snow day of the year. I think especially because it happened on a day that was an unexpected day off for me that I didn’t have any plans for that I got to just be cozy and enjoy it. I also love how quiet it gets when the snow falls. It’s like it muffles all the sound in the world and everyone stays inside. It’s so peaceful.
Midsomer Murders
So for my snow day, I nearly exclusively watched Harry Potter movies, but the rest of the week I would sit down in the evening with Inspector Barnaby. I only like this show with John Nettles as DCI Barnaby, there’s just something about his nephew? cousin? Inspector Barnaby, that just doesn’t seem quite right.
This Podcast Will Kill You: Beer for Thought
This is one of my all time favourite podcasts, Erin and Erin are an absolute delight and so intelligent. They approach science, science history, epidemiology, medical ethics, and gross topics with such joy and clearly have so much fun talking about disease. I listened to this episode with such perfect timing where I had just attended a webinar on the status of alcohol policy in Canada and then I switched from my laptop headphones to my AirPods and this episode was up next in the queue.
I actually almost changed it, because the chat and the questions in the webinar had gotten very heated about there being no safe consumption of alcohol, but I drink, I drink very moderately, and in my opinion, very healthily and safely. So I struggle with that debate, and I think that Erin and Erin covered the topic of alcohol from a public health perspective very fairly and in a way that many more people will be able to connect with and not feel judged by then what was happening in this policy webinar.
Slow Cooker Mexican Street Corn Corn Chowder
This is delicious, however I don’t recommend doing what I did and not starting it in the morning but rather, waiting until after work because then you will be eating dinner at 10pm. I was starving by the time it was ready.
This also actually tastes better the next day, and if you’re not serving it with jalapeños as a topper then I would definitely recommend adding some hot sauce, and more salt. I think I forgot about the potatoes in it and how much salt potatoes need.
I really wanted to bake on the snow day yesterday. I went though all my recipes trying to find something that I had the ingredients for and none of my normal baking recipes fit that build. I had no shortening, 1/4 cup of butter, and about a quarter inch of vegetable oil in the bottle, no chocolate chips, and about a tablespoon of cocoa – so it was a challenge. So I looked at the ingredients I did have and decided to google baking with Greek yogurt and this was one of the first recipes to come up.
I was nervous making it because it was thick, and it made a smaller amount of batter than I was expecting. But it turned out delicious, and very soft and was perfect for after snow shoveling.
I hope if you require emotional stability on this Friday you save listening to Red (Taylor’s Version) until after you duties are complete, and for the rest of us, happy emotional destruction. And to Jake Gyllenhal, may I suggest going into hiding for approximately 6 months?
Have a great weekend!
Laura
Thoughtful Millennial 