Snow, Dinner, Slow Cooker.

Saturday night we went out for dinner, about an hour’s drive away, a little more perhaps.  On the way there we remarked how little snow was left, it had been chucking down rain all day which helped get rid of it. Matt said there was a forecast for some snow flurries later that night. Ha!! We left to come home somewhat early and am I glad we did, before we were a quarter of the way home it started to snow, not long after that the sidewalks were looking white, by the time we got onto the 401 which is the busiest road in North America, the roads were quite heavily snow covered, the snow was coming down hard and the wipers were icing up nicely meaning it began to be more and more difficult to see. Not to mention the odd truck passing by at speed and chucking up all kinds of stuff at our windshield. We finally got off the 401 wending our way through country type roads to get home. Even the main roads close to home, which are a lot busier and therefore usually clearer, were badly covered. We did pass a snow plow coming the other way. The hill leading to our apartment was totally white and once we got home the snow on our balcony wall was a good 2 inches deep. It spoilt what had been an enjoyable evening.

We knew we were going to be fed lasagna, but not really anything else. We ended up with a Caesar Salad, one of our favourites, lasagna and garlic bread, delicious and extremely filling, I couldn’t believe Matt had more, the first piece he ate was huge and he doesn’t have that big an appetite these days. Then my friend really impressed me, she served a lemon syllabub. Something I have never had the courage to try, it was very good, there was some left in the bowl which I cleaned up for her!!! We finished off with cheese and crackers and a drop of a very nice ice wine. It was a Cabernet Franc which she had picked up on a visit to a winery.

On Sunday I cooked the Flemish Beef Stew recipe which I published on February 3rd this year. You may remember I bought a new slow cooker. I had some difficulty getting it to work however; I eventually figured it out and got the food cooking. When it was ready, it was delicious, although I decided it would have been better if I had served noodles with as an accompaniment. As there is plenty more, that is what I shall do next time. Do try it, it makes a very satisfying meal. It was lovely to be able to take out the centre of the slow cooker to put it in soak which was the main reason I bought it. I had missed the suggestion of using Pam to spray the inside before using. I am sure it would have made clean up much easier.

As a tribute to my friend, here is a recipe for Lemon Syllabub. I found an English recipe which I was going to use, but they had a cream measurement with which I was not familiar. Mind you, I bet English (or European) cream would really be great for this dish.

Lemon Syllabub

Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup white wine

1/8 cup fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or to taste)

fresh mint leaves for garnish

lemon slices for garnish

Directions

1. Whip the cream and sugar in a chilled bowl, until the cream begins to thicken. Gradually whip in the white wine, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Continue to whip until light and fluffy, but not grainy. Cover the mixture and chill until serving time.
2. Serve in chilled parfait glasses, garnished with a dash of nutmeg, a sprig of mint, and a slice of lemon. Syllabub should be eaten with a small spoon, and savored.

Footnotes

• For Syllabub punch

• Continue to add white wine to the whipped mixture, until the mixture reaches a drinking consistency.

Have a great day