There are few occasions when I consider a recipe I happen to come across in the newspaper worth my bother. There is always a weekly offering of recipes and I usually glance through them out of curiosity when they're published in the 'lifestyles' section of the newspaper. Some of the ethnic recipes are intriguing. Often their ingredients list is really unfamiliar and would have to be sourced at specialty ethnic shops, which is really no barrier if the recipes seem appealing enough, but most aren't to my taste.

On the other hand, there are times when I'll see a recipe that piques my interest for the combination of ingredients or the method of putting things together. That's when I"m intrigued enough to take some elements of the recipe, be it method or ingredients, and adapt them to my own store of knowledge. I may select just a few of the ingredients that I feel would make for an interesting combination to be used in dishes other than what the recipes are meant for.

I can't now, recall where I picked up a simple but really excellent coating for baking fish, but I'm glad I did. The coating is flavourful, piquant and serves to retain moisture in the fish while it's baking and it's become a favourite for me. The combination of fish and chips, both baked in the oven, is an appealing one. I most often use salmon, and the coating works wonders with the salmon.

We made up for lost rest yesterday by sleeping in this morning. Jackie and Jillie are always agreeable to sleeping in. But if and when we stir seriously and all indications are to their sense of awareness that we're on the cusp of getting out of bed -- not just physical movement but the conversation that flows between Irving and me, since they decipher the words such as 'time to get up' knowingly -- Jillie will leap off the bed and begin those characteristic sharp, short, light barks of hers as though to say, so what's taking so long?

Another cool, overcast, slightly windy day. It's the dampness that makes it seem colder than the temperature reading. But the days are much longer than they were two months ago, so there are no complaints from this quarter.

I decided I'd bake Purim cookies for tonight's dessert. The cookies in 'honour' of the wicked Haman who conspired to convince the Persian king in the 5th century BCE to slaughter all the Jews of the empire. A Jewish woman had won a beauty contest and King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) who had left his first wife was looking for another. Jewish Esther became the new queen and convinced her husband to countermand the evil Haman. The traditional cookies in the form of the stylized headgear worn by Haman, a celebratory event and a delicious memento.

There is so much snow on the street, piled up beside driveways, lofted on lawns, it's hard to believe it will be gone in a month. Once we have regular visits of warm weather as we move closer to spring. In the ravine the snowpack is huge. The trails have been well tamped down, but on these days of relentless freezing nights and milder daytimes the result is a thin film of ice over the hard-packed snow. It is dangerous to be there without reliable cleats strapped over boots to aid in navigating ascents and descents.

Soon the creek will be rushing forward in torrents of meltwater. The trails will wrest themselves free of ice and snow and instead they'll become boggy with muck, and slippery for reasons other than an ice slick. Hard to believe that in just a few weeks that monumental annual transition will begin to change the landscape once again.