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    Gingerbread Waffles with Cinnamon Baked Pears

    Gingerbread Waffles with Cinnamon Baked Pears

    Gingerbread Waffles with Cinnamon Baked Pears

    Gingerbread Waffles with Cinnamon Baked Pears

    It’s beginning to look like the most wonderful time of the year! (See what I did there?)
    We put up our Christmas decorations a few weekends ago, and things are looking decidedly merry all around us.

    Like previous years, we had a tree trimming breakfast party; it’s a tradition now. It was pretty awesome, I whipped us up a batch of these jolly gingerbread waffles with cinnamon baked pears, and sang along to carols.

    We tried something different with our tree this year, we found an irresistible potted Norfolk Island pine, strung it with tiny lights and festive ornaments, and voila, we have a cute living Christmas tree.

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    Roasted Mushroom with Veggies and Crumble Topping

    Roasted Mushroom, Veggies and Crumb Topping

    Roasted Mushroom with Veggies and Crumb Topping

    I can hardly believe entire months have passed since my last post. I wish I could blame the lack of posts on busyness, but the truth is, I’ve been feeling a little unmotivated lately. I’ve also been preoccupied with other things (like learning how to edit videos and keep my houseplants alive through the cold months). It’s the ebb and flow of life, I guess.

    Naturally, I haven’t been cooking much except for really simple effortless meals. I wanted to share the recipe for this roasted mushroom with veggies and crumble topping which certainly falls in the effortless category. It couldn’t be simpler to make;

    grab a few caps of portobello mushrooms, slather them in pesto and hummus (or use your favourite spread), pile on some sliced vegetables (I prefer onions and peppers) and roast.

    It’s perfect for those grey autumn days when you can’t muster the energy for a big production in the kitchen.

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    Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream

    Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream

    Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream

    We’ve had quite the summer here in our little end of the world. It’s been long hot smoky bittersweet days filled with sunshine and adventure; a summer I won’t soon forget for its joyous and not-so-joyous moments.
    While we still have a few days of summer left, I thought I’d share this recipe, because our summer wouldn’t have felt complete without a taste of this mango coconut milk ice cream. We spent a few hazy sun-filled evenings making homemade ice-cream; the markets were overflowing with mangoes so we’ve made this ice cream a few times because I feel it embodies the spirit of the season.

    Have you ever seen a giant mango tree standing in the middle of a vast land with fruit hanging off long thin stems like Christmas ornaments? It’s such a beautiful sight. I love mangoes and I often wax lyrical about mango trees.
    I tell people that if spirit trees (like spirit animals) were a thing, mine would be the mango tree.
    I spent my formative years under mango trees, shaded from the sun; and the mango fruit saved me from going to bed hungry some days.

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    Smashed Lentils with Grilled Vegetables

    Smashed Lentils with Grilled Vegetables

    Smashed Lentils with Grilled Vegetables

    Smashed Lentils with Grilled Vegetables

    We’re in the deep haze of summer now. This is it.
    The sunshiny days we wistfully longed for during those dark cold dreary months, this is summer. Soaring temperatures have prompted a heat warning from Environment Canada, there are several wildfires in the region, and the air quality is poor because of all the smoke.

    This is summer; but I will tell you this: I’ve relished long endless sunny days, hikes in the breezy urban forest and perfect evenings on the beach watching the sunset.

    It is in the same vein that I am looking forward to a picnic with a wild bunch of meat and non-meat eaters this weekend; we’ve secured a secret spot, a meadow with beautiful wildflowers overlooking the water. I’m thinking of bringing this smashed lentils with grilled vegetables along for us ‘plants only’ folk since it’s quick and tasty and a little different.

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    Oh Father… Thoughts on losing my father

    The Tree

    Rundetaarn

    {Pardon me, this post is a slight deviation from my usual posts, but sharing this here is cathartic for me.}

    When your father dies, he takes your childhood with him. – Russian proverb

    I mourned the loss of my father years before he died. One of the things he taught me well was how to live without him.
    On Sunday when we got the call that he had passed away, I laid in bed waiting for that thing that happens to you when you lose a loved one to happen to me; except I don’t know what that thing is. Silence, a sense of peculiar sadness and a surge of hopelessness I hadn’t felt since the last time I lived with my father. Is this grief? Is there a word for a fatherless child? Because for decades, it hasn’t felt like I had a father.

    We moved from the city after I was born to live on a big plot of land in the middle of nowhere. My father built a tiny wooden shack on a patch of bushland and painted it yellow, that was our home for close to a decade. He farmed the land during the day and became my babysitter by default while my mom was at work and my siblings were in school. All my happiest memories of my father were from that time; this was also when we were dirt poor.

    For most of my life afterwards, I felt like I was a burden to my father; like if I wasn’t around, his life would be much easier. I was way in my teens the first time I realized I had lost my father.

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