It occurred to me yesterday that it's been quite some time since I made a dish for dinner that was once a favourite. Yesterday seemed as good a time as any to correct that gap, and I set about making a savoury onion pie. It's fairly easy, not that many ingredients, just takes a little time, but the result is worth the effort. I started out with a plain pastry crust comprised of flour, salt, Crisco shortening, lemon juice and ice water.

The filling has few ingredients but they complement one another. I used four onions thinly sliced and two garlic cloves chopped, stirred them briefly in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, thyme sprinkled over and cranked a good amount of peppercorns over, then let it cool. I sliced up four tomatoes, and did the same with old Cheddar. Then I rolled out the bottom crust, fitted it into a pie plate, spread the onion mixture over the bottom, then added the tomatoes to cover the onions and sprinkled sweet basil over the tomatoes. Last came the cheddar cheese, covering the tomatoes and over that went the top crust.

It was baked in my little countertop convection oven at 350F for 35 minutes and we were ready to eat, with crisp little baby cucumbers alongside, and sliced fresh peaches from Chile for dessert. The pie is best with a really flaky crust, and that's just what this one came out as. A treat, but not one you'd want to repeat too often. Tonight it's chicken livers dredged in spiced-up breadcrumbs, mashed sweet potato, and steamed broccoli. with Moroccan minneola oranges for dessert.  

Typically, Irving will enjoy the first and the last; the items in between not so much, though he'll eat the yam, and some of the broccoli. The chicken livers are high in iron and that's important for his diet. Now I've got to think of how I plan to use the yeast bread dough I've got sitting in the refrigerator waiting for me to brainstorm it into baked shape.

The weather has moderated, we had a high of -4C today, sunny in the morning, overcast in the afternoon when we went out with Jackie and Jillie to the ravine for our usual daily tramp through the woods. New snow had fallen last night, though no more than 7cm. While we were still eating our breakfast this morning our neighbours had been over shoveling our porch and walkways. Which they insist they enjoy doing. What can I say?

 The snow that fell last has a silky quality to it, so it's slippery, and ascending the ravine's hills comes complete with sliding episodes. Which is fine for us, just takes a little more energy to attain the top when you experience that proverbial 'one step forward, two steps back'. What a visual treat it is viewing the landscape from all angles as we proceed along the trails. 

Newfallen snow lightly padding the earlier snowfalls render a wonderland appearance that's truly breath-catching. There's a sheen on the snow and a sparkle irrespective of the overcast perspective. Branches and boughs are thick with snow, some of them bending gracefully to the weight. A slight breeze penetrating the forest loosed snow from its perch now and again and we watched as a galaxy of tiny stars fluffed through the air, dispersing on the forest floor.

As we rounded the completion of our circuit and approached the creek for the final pass over the last bridge there was a tiny commotion below as we saw a bird lift off from the edge of the creek where it had been perched on a fallen ranch, to fly to the trees above. A robin. Which should have migrated in late fall, but decided to remain in this cold climate. It isn't a complete stranger, every year for the past decade or more we've seen robins, sometimes singly, sometimes in little groups, in the ravine and most often close by the creek. What they are able to find to eat puzzles us; dried berries, seeds, fruit. As live-eaters these options don't reflect their dietary preferences.