January is OVER!

I am ready to be really excited about something! Anything! Please!

The first month of this year felt it dragged on and on and I am so happy that it's over. Just another 6 weeks until the official start of the spring. I promise to plant flowers, I promise to open all the windows, I promise to enjoy every warm day - just please, come, dear Spring.

I am not a winter person. Even in a mild Vancouver winter I long for June evenings and July mornings. I drink in the green and live of it.

I think that whomever had made a decision to make February the shortest of all months, was very aware of how tired you get of just the look of calendar in winter.

In other news, I made a dish yesterday that I think of as a typical family dish for me, but I never saw anyone else cook it. So I though I'd share. This dish is very simple. It's a kind of food that you cook in winter back home in Ukraine when fresh food is scarce. It's filling, yet not heavy food.

- 6 cooked, skin on potatoes (I chose yellow Yukon potatoes as they stay firm)
- small head of cabbage
- caraway seeds
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil
- 3 hard-boiled eggs

Boil you potatoes the night before, so that they are completely cooled down when you peel and cut them. I cut them into bite-sized chunks (not wedges and not cubes). Shred your cabbage. Add some caraway seeds. You want to start off your dish on a medium-high heat to get the cabbage and potatoes browned, but them let it sweat. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the cabbage is translucent and the popaties are getting just slightly mushy - it's time to eat :) I garnished this meal with chopped up hard-boiled egg. Both of my kids who never tried this dish before loved it and I realized that I need to resurrect some of the simple traditional foods from my childhood.