Since our weather pattern has once again changed to better reflect the reality of winter, it makes sense to structure our meals to reflect colder temperatures, and nothing speaks comfort food like soups or dishes that resemble soups. Like, for example, fish chowder.  That's a staple for winter days, but I haven't made one yet this winter and yesterday seemed as appropriate a time as any, given the high for the day was -6C, and overnight it dipped to -16C.

 

 

So chowder it was. I used sole for a change, and small-sized shrimp. For a change I also put mushrooms in with the chopped garlic, onion, celery and used tiny fingerling potatoes, without cutting them since they're so small. And just before adding the fish, in went frozen green peas. Before serving the chowder I always line the bowls receiving the chowder with sour cream, rather than use milk. The flavours meld beautifully.

 

And for my money, a fresh garden salad prefacing the main course works well in this instance. Today, I'll do a riff on that, with bite-sized deboned, skinned chicken thighs in a mushroom gravy to be served over rice. Yes, mushrooms. Well, they were on sale and I couldn't resist, though Irving isn't fond -- to say the least -- of mushrooms.

 

 

And since today is Friday, my usual dessert-baking day, another concoction I haven't made in a while. Cheesecake. I had some fresh cream cheese and supplemented it with what was left of some older cream cheese that's been in the refrigerator for too long, though it was still good. Blueberry pints were also on sale a few days back, so I decided to bake a white-chocolate cheesecake and top it with a brandy-flavoured blueberry glaze.

 

Eventually we got around to thinking about our afternoon ravine hike. Snow was gently falling, but so lightly it could never really accumulate. Still, just the very fact that we were in the midst of falling snow is cheerful and it certainly goes a long way to brightening up the perpetually dusky forest interior.  A cold day, at -5C, and heavily overcast.

 

 

Unlike yesterday's sunny and briskly cold day, the landscape was evidently wanting in the opinion of others living nearby the ravine within the greater community. So we didn't see many others out, nor their doggy companions, and were left with the not-unpleasant impression that the forest was ours, all ours, this afternoon.