Post-Holiday Recovery Plan

Post holiday time is always a recovery time for my gastrointestinal system. After a few days of eating my way from house to house through a flurry of rich food and relatives, cookie trays and cakes, holiday hams and delicious meat trays, I can see why most new years resolutions include some form of dieting.

But I don't want to be too rash all at once, so I like to balance out my leftovers with healthy things, like apple pie. Apples are said to keep the doctor away so I feel including it in a pie is healthy enough.

And along the apple theme, I have been enjoying some spiced hard cider as well. Cinnamon may reduce inflammation, have antioxidant effects, and fight bacteria according to webMD and cloves are used for everything from hernias to coughs and toothaches. Combine that with the high antioxidants in hard cider and I think it's on the verge of being a health tonic drink... well, until I top it with some whipped cream.

 

 

I'm also working on a winter greens soup. It's massively snowing out, but I lift up the big green umbrella of leaves to find a perfect stalk of brussel sprouts, sweet with frost and ready for the soup pot. I'll mix that up with some kale and a ton of garlic and white wine for a pretty delicious companion to a big glass of red wine. The combination will perfectly stave off the cold chills that whip with the wind as the snow flies.

So after presents have been exchanged, the Christmas lights get turned on less and less, the tree needs to find a new home.
I like to give the brave little trees one last hurrah. They gave their lives to brighten ours and so I feel it only fitting that they go out with a bang.
Now starts my yearly search for some sparklers. You'd think that I'd remember to plan ahead, but every year I forget.  But I still have a week to hunt for sparklers and gather old cut trees for our annual celebration Jan 4th. It should be fun.
The snow is still coming down at a very fast pace and the trains do seem a bit more magical when pummeling through the winter wonderland.

It's the end of December in Ohio and it is beautiful.