Miso-Marinated Cod in Broth

Apologies for being MIA, my laptop was on the fritz just before Christmas, so it only got fixed recently. Luckily, the awesome guys at Laptop Expert managed to salvage my files.

I figured I’d start off the new year with a healthy recipe – something that’ll work with those resolutions (if they’re still on the go)! It’s still warm, filling, and tasty, so it’s not one of those recipes that’s like rabbit food. It’s actually a New York Times recipe with a couple adjustments, and made with the assistance of my boyfriend.

Christmas Cookies

I’m a big Christmas baker. If I don’t bake it’s not Christmas. I’m not sure how this came about, but at some point I started making cookies to give away. Every year, I buy a cookie tin for each household in my family and fill it with a variety of cookies. I usually pick 4-6 recipes for the tins but this time of year tends to have lots of get togethers/potlucks/office parties etc., so I usually make cookies for those as well.

I know many people have a tried-and-true recipe that they make year after year, but I like using these tins as an opportunity to try a bunch of new recipes. I tend to pick these out in advance, to make life a little easier for the days leading up to Christmas. By planning it out, I can also make sure that there’s a variety of flavours, not just chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! (Not that all chocolate would be a bad thing… but it wouldn’t be ideal for some non-chocoholic family members.) The actual baking is usually accomplished in the 2 or 3 days leading up to Christmas because I used to bake in advance and freeze, but then I had a couple disasters!

Turkey Lentil Soup

You know those recipes that run in families? Lentil soup runs in my family. I only discovered this when I sat down for dinner at my aunt’s house in Scotland and the first course was a soup just like my dad’s. They told me that my grandma taught all of them how to make it. Since moving to Canada, my dad adapted the recipe to use up Thanksgiving leftovers, so I used turkey to make this recipe – but chicken works well, or you can leave out the meat entirely for a lovely veggie soup.