Home again...finally!

After 5 days and 3000 miles I am back in Canada.  What a nice feeling to be home!  If it had not been -21C (-5F) I would have bent down and kissed the ground!

Thank you everyone for keeping tabs on me!  I love my blogging friends!  I am so frustrated without reliable internet.   Today I am in Calgary catching up on a few months of mail and errands.  Plus, I have a sister in town having surgery so I am glad to be here to help her out.  On Monday I am back to the little house on the prairie.

New experiences are wonderful but coming home is always exciting.  I don’t know if I have mentioned, but I am homeless at the moment.  I have sold my house in Calgary and now I have the task of finding a new house to call home.

In the meantime, I am living in a friend’s house in Neville, Saskatchewan.  I know, I had never heard of it either until they moved here.  It is in the middle of NOWHERE!  The village has about 10 houses, a post office and one grain elevator.  I am 37 km from a small city.   It is mixed ranching and grain farming in this area.

This is a picture of what I arrived to – freshly fallen snow.  This is the little house I will be living in for the time being.

Hey, I found an advantage to this cold.  Check out this Canadian champagne chiller!  It works really well and it was free!

I have no cell phone service or internet and I have finally figured out the satellite television.  This is quiet!  But I do have television!  Yeah for the Canadian Food Network – Chef Michael Smith is one of my favourite.  And Restaurant Makeover is another favourite program.

I had an overwhelming urge to make cabbage rolls.  This is the recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

Cabbage Rolls           adapted from The Joy of Cooking

Combine in a large bowl:

1 lb. lean ground beef

½ c white rice

1 large egg

½ c breadcrumbs

½ c water

1 carrot, shredded

1 onion, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Bring to a rolling boil in a pot large enough to hold the head of cabbage:

Water to cover the package

1 ½ t salt

With a small sharp knife cut the core out of the cabbage.  Cook in the boiling water for 4 or 5 minutes or until the outer leaves are soft enough to pull off.  Remove the cabbage from the water and remove as many leaves as possible.  Return the cabbage to the boiling water for a few more minutes.  Remove the rest of the leaves.

The cabbage can also be frozen for 24 hours rather than boiling to soften the leaves.

Trim off the back spine of each leaf so it will be supple and can be easily rolled.  With the core end of the leaf near you and the hollow side up, put enough filling to leave a 1 ½ inch space at each end.  Roll firmly and fold in the right end as you roll up.  Tuck the left end into itself, closing the opening.  Repeat until all the filling and leaves are used.

Coarsely chop the leaves that were too small to use and a half onion.  Sauté in olive oil until soft.  Add:

1 28 oz can of plum tomatoes, puréed, cut up or broken

1 c water

2 T brown sugar

Put this sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and place the cabbage rolls on top.  Be sure to fit the rolls in tightly.  If they are not covered in the tomato sauce, add water or stock to cover.  Simmer for 1 ½ hours or bake in a 350F oven for 1 ½ hours.