Merry Christmas!

Season's Greetings and all the best for the coming new year, 2012!  Have a safe and wonderful holiday season.

That's a photo of a small cypress tree I have on my dining room table.  Its foliage is of a lighter green than the tree in the dining room window.  That one needs repotting and is from last Christmas.  I'll do both of them in January or February.

Back east in southwestern Ontario I bought a little Italian Cypress tree before Christmas in 1999.  The foliage was a blue-green colour but I haven't been able to find that colour here on the west coast.  The tree ended up being repotted twice before it was left with the new owners of the house when I sold the property.  Anyway, before all that I had the tree outside the front door from the spring to autumn and brought it inside in late September (the winters were too cold to keep it outside).  It was set in the front bay window over winter and even dressed up a bit for Christmas.

So, this afternoon its off to get some laundry out of the way, three loads of it, and then I'll start supper, which today is duck leg with cabbage along with some potatoes.  I've had a German recipe for goose legs with cabbage since the 1980s (perhaps earlier) and use duck legs instead since they are easier to find unless you purchase a whole duck or goose.

I start off by softening finely diced onions in a large pan using olive oil (this time it will be butter since I'm out of the other).  Then I brown the duck leg with the skin side down first and then brown the other side.  Then I add diced green cabbage (I am using Savoy cabbage this time but you can also use red cabbage).  I add freshly boiled water to that, enough so it doesn't burn  and then slow cook it on low heat until done.  This time round I am also added some Riesling wine, a white from the Mosel River in north-western Germany.  If the wine is good enough to drink, its good enough for the stew pot!  I am also adding a bit of honey and some white wine vinegar to make the cabbage dish sweet and sour.  If I had more coming, I would add more duck legs to the dish but since its only me this evening, there is only one leg.  I use sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season the cabbage and have salted boiled potatoes with that when its all done.  The German dish its adapted from is called Gaenseschenkel mit Schmorrkohl.

Enjoy the season.  Have a safe and wonderful time! - V