Bloody hell. Right now I am assembling a GSD list so that I can hibernate and cook for a few days. The forecast is calling for -23°C (feeling like -40°C) overnight tonight and not much better tomorrow so I’m choosing recipes that will give me reasons to have the oven on all day. I feel like our house is going to need all the heat sources it can get! And oh yeah, it’s Valentine’s Day. Truly the kind of weather to just stay home and cuddle under every blanket we own. With whisky.

“The only bubble in the flat champagne of February is Valentine’s Day. It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine’s Day on February’s shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed.”
― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Intrepid Canadian souls that we are, we spent Friday the 13th with friends in a pub where I drank too much wine had a really great time except for each time the door opened and we’d get blasted with arctic air. Now I’m nursing a wee hangover with tea and Nutella on toast and thinking that this latest snowfall of fat, fluffy flakes would have been really pretty in December.

Jeff has two gigs today, one this morning and one this evening, so we’re going to wedge our laid-back Valentine’s plans into his free time today – I’ve been promised a good hangover-busting feed-up at a nearby diner for lunch (my love knows me so well!) and I’m thinking of what to make for a late evening meal. As for keeping that oven engaged, this weather practically screams out for roast chicken, roasted vegetables, some of which will be made into soup, and I have 3 overripe bananas on the counter meeting up with my craving for banana bread. Not a super sexy menu – although I’ll probably grab a nice bottle of wine or something fizzy.

Since this post is more about surviving the winter blahs than celebrating Valentine’s Day, I might as well tell you about the awesome cold remedy I turn to whenever the slight cold I’ve had since December threatens to turn into the real deal. It’s like Neo Citron, only with way less sugar, tastes good and is sort of on the Slow Food (aka real food) continuum. Brew a cup of Twinings Lemon & Ginger tea, add a teaspoonful of honey (especially if you have a cough), and as much bourbon as you like. Drink it as hot as you can manage to take advantage of all the steam. It’s pretty delightful. Then just turn on Netflix, wrap yourself in a blanket and dream of April.