Welcome to February!

It's been a relatively quiet, icy cold, snowy kind of week here in western Newfoundland.We are in the middle of a polar vortex apparently! So, other than a 15 minute daily walk around the senior's community, I only ventured outside to get milk and visit the library.It's just a wee little library here, but of course, they can bring in titles from other libraries in the province.This week, I picked up a few DVD's: I liked Elvis;Uncharted was neah! But I really liked News of the World with Tom Hanks.My daughter sent me a German advent tea selection which I've really, really enjoyed; they are not as acidic as some herbal teas I've had, and the flavor combos are wonderful.

Sadly though, I took a big chip out of one of my favorite pottery mugs.(I cried ....but was grateful that it was my 50 cent purchase and not the $45 Xmas gift.)I ate some good food this week though: Tuesday was breakfast-for-dinner with the crispiest bacon, sweet, delicious molasses baked beans and multi-grain toast with lashings of butter, as the Brits say! Yum!Also delicious was a newChicken Pad Thairecipe I tried.

It's hard to find some ingredients here in rural NL, but this recipe uses things almost everyone has at hand.It calls for 1/4 cup of ketchup in the sauce, and I found the taste of the ketchup really came through, so I think I'd use less next time.Also, I doubled the amount of peanut butter.

It doesn't taste like a true pad thai; but it's a really good substitute and quick and easy.I'll definitely make it again.Yesterday, my sweet tooth got the better of me, so I tried these trail mix cookies.De-Lish-Shus!I followed the directions re dropping tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheets, but they must have BIG tablespoons.

My cookies were smaller than their photo; but it also meant that I got 2 doz rather than 1 doz cookies.And that's okay with me.When I baked my second batch, I flattened them slightly, so I got a slightly different cookie, more crisp than chewy.

But it was a good recipe.(So good, that I've had to freeze the remaining for fear of inhaling them and ending up with a bigger tummy ache than I have today.Oops! Oink, oink!)Happy February everyone! A belated "Rabbit, Rabbit"; and I hope you're staying warm where you are and that you're eating well!Namaste!