Winter Workout and Beaver Balls

I can't say it enough, I love my little house.  I sleep in peace, I have my dog Pounie and when spring comes I will have my own garden in my back AND front yard.  I think lawns are a waste of valuable gardening space.  This weekend we were back to normal -19 Celsius with the wind chill and about 10 cm of snow fell.  So Pounie and I were out cleaning off the driveway.  The air was crisp and clean, a great way to get some exercise.

Poppy my car covered in snow.

The composter still in use but slowly disappearing.

Pounie checking my work.

With the new house I splurged and got a satellite dish for the TV, well really had no choice if I wanted any TV at all up here.  I have been enjoying watching the food network which has inspired me to cook more.  I suffer from Celiac disease and cannot eat most grains.  I haven't had many cravings since I went on my celiac diet but of late I have had the desire for some Chinese food, shrimp balls in particular.  Chinese food is out because some is breaded and the rest has soya sauce that is made with wheat, who knew!  You can find soya sauce made with soya beans but it is more expensive and so the restaurants don't use it.  I have some and do make stir fries but never shrimp balls.  I found a recipe for a  tempura batter using potato starch.  I tried it out and my shrimp balls were amazing!  The batter puffed up beautifully and was tasty.  I had some left over and didn't want to throw it out but I had no shrimp left.  Then I had an epiphany, here in Canada we have a treat called a beaver tail. It is bread dough that is flattened like a beaver tail, deep fried and topped with things like sugar, cinnamon, chocolate.  Just delicious and often eaten after partaking in some kind of winter sport.  Along the famous Rideau Canal in Ottawa there are booths every where selling beaver tails.  So I dropped my left over dough in the oil and since there was no filling they puffed up but stayed a little flat.  I sprinkled them with sugar and cinnamon and I thought wow beaver balls!  They were scrumptious, I ate them all.  So much for healthier eating, well they were not that bad except for being cooked in canola oil.

Bon Appetit