We made a goal at the end of 2020 to start to make an effort into dining together more.

Our current lives as a family doesn’t lend itself to the traditional ‘family dinner’ every night, but we do find joy in eating and experiencing that togetherness through the creation of food, atmosphere and conversation.

It seemed the best way around this was to pick a handful of recipes out at the top of the month and make sure that we make the effort of enjoying those meals together however and whenever we make them. It also means that during the times we are busy, we can fill in with our fav meals or our go to healthy fillers (salads, smoothies, oatmeal etc)

As a sampling
For the month of February we settled on the following:

DINNER

Spicy Pesto and Asparagus and Ricotta Pasta with Crispy Prosciutto
Phone Box Red Wine

FIKA / COFFEE BREAK

Linzer Cookies

We also choose a new / seasonal recipe for:

Breakfast
Lunch
Happy Hour
Dessert

Doing this at the top of the month allows us the freedom to go with the flow of our week, not put too much pressure on when we can have a sit down meal / dining time together, but it also gives us the motivation to find ourselves in the kitchen with music on and enjoy the foods of the season.

Let’s just say that this month was a lot of chocolate, and decadent recipes.

Thanksgiving comes early in Canada,

which has always slightly bothered me. In part, because I do like the idea of celebrating Thanksgiving closer to Christmas as our neighbours in the States do. Almost as if it was marker for the start of the holiday season.

Thankfully we are blessed to be Canadian and thus we cannot change the early nature of our thanksgiving long weekend.

A few traditions we have been working on as a family each year.

1. Write a list of 100 things we are thankful for.

2. Have a autumn themed brunch.

3. Do an age appropriate thanksgiving themed activity (colouring pages this year)

4. Take an autumn walk (if weather allows)

Within those activities there are the obvious spend time with each side of our families and generally, enjoy quality time together.

This year we were sick, so our plans had to shift a bit. We gave thanks for how 2019 has been growing and challenging us. No matter what trials we have journeyed through the year, we have so much to be thankful for. Seeing how quickly Zoë was able to rhyme off all the things she was thankful for brought us into a place of centred-ness, reflection and celebration for everything we have.

Even if we do have an early Thanksgiving, I believe it is the perfect heart, mind and soul preparation for the Christmas season to come.

Thankfulness is the beginning of everything.
Like a prayer before a meal.
A donning of a jacket,
lacing up of boots before a walk of exploration.

Thankfulness is a precursor.

Being back in a functioning kitchen is everything amazing.

I ADORE food and especially, find solace in baking. We haven’t had a lot of time to relish in our kitchen yet, but slowly we are getting back into a normal and healthy cooking, baking and eating routine.

Being that it is summer and we are still on a hectic schedule, I am trying to utilize our kitchen for a bit of fresh food creativity. Quickly whipping up a cream cheese filling for strawberries and doing a quick scan of toast ideas on Pinterest that can utilize our fresh fruit has been a great way to ease back into our love of ‘kitchen life’.

I am beyond thankful to have this new space and am anxious to have more time in it. Time has a way of flying by when life is happening.

When the tired and busyness kicks in, I take a deep breath and think of autumn blended soups, waffle brunches and all the Christmas baking that will be happening in here sooner than later and it keeps me going into a new week.

& onward we go.