comfort week, day 5: image

I came across this image on marthastewart.com after seeing Ingrid's comfort food post (the above soup) on Monday. The colours, the texture, the warmth of the food and the light all make me feel warm and cozy. I looked for other images, but this is the one I kept coming back to as best representing comfort to me.

Thanks so much to everyone for playing along this week! I've had a lot of fun, seeing the things that bring each of you comfort. Home and family are definitely recurring themes in everyone's posts, as they should be. Have a great weekend, and I'm definitely hoping to host some more weeks soon... I'm already thinking Spring!

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For the rest of Comfort Week participants, take a peek here.

comfort week, day 4: habit

One of my favourite comfy places in our house is our bedroom. I love that everything in it is creams and whites - it's very calm. I had the chance to take a few photos this afternoon while the sun was out, and when I thought about it, I have a funny little habit which has to do with bedding. If I'm wearing a jacket which has corners with the right texture (at the bottom), or a blanket in bed (usually a quilt) with the right kind of corner, I kind of flip it back and forth between my fingertips. I don't miss it if I don't have the right kind of corner handy; I just don't even think about it when I do, and flip away. The corners on the curtain in the picture are kind of the right kind, only not thick enough. I know, it's a little bit strange. For the story of the 'headboard', see here. How do you like my new duvet cover? Guess where it's from (washed and freshly bleached with Ecover's oxygen bleach)?

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See here for the list of everyone participating in Comfort Week. Tomorrow's the last day, and I still haven't decided on an image! I'll be doing the draw for the soap prize over the weekend.

comfort week, day 3: place

Once again, today's picture was taken by Adam. He's one talented guy. Oh, and this photo was published in Photosho magazine. Nice, eh?

I grew up in a community right on the ocean, in a house overlooking the wharf where my dad fishes from. He is a lobster fisherman, and fishing is the largest employing industry in this area. His dad fished as well, so I like to think that the sea is in my blood, as airy-fairy and silly as that may sound. You can see more, including some snazzy pictures I took a couple of years ago, here. So being near the water is my special place - I feel settled knowing that the ocean is there.

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To see everyone else's posts for Comfort Week, look here.

comfort week, day 2: home

My favourite place and thing to do at home. Thanks to Adam for taking the picture! Oh, and guess where the chair cover is from? And my scarf, and shirt, and pants...

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To see everyone's contributions to Comfort Week, click here.

PS - I just finished the blinds, and I think I like them! I'll take some pics tomorrow.

participants updated

I made a few changes (as requested, and when I noticed I had made a mistake) in the participant list, so it should be up to snuff now.

recipe-a-week #3: root vegetable and split pea soup & comfort week day 1: food

I decided today that ill-fitting socks which slide around in one's shoes are not in accordance with the ideals of Comfort Week.

A chicken pot pie recipe I make is my favourite comfort food. You can see the original recipe here. But I've posted it before, so I'm going to share a new recipe with you which I tried this weekend, was definitely comfort food, and it doesn't have any butter in it. Comfort food without butter? What? I'm also counting this as my new recipe of the week. (Incidentally, I have only been using my print recipes and haven't consulted the internets once so far since that post.)

Like some of the other participants, comfort food to me is often in soup form. And this one is a doozy. I've never had a vegetable soup with the flavour of this one - utterly delicious. Lots of parsnips may have been the ticket, or maybe the split peas - whatever it was, it was yummy. Phillip loved it, too. The recipe is from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes and is called

Root Vegetable and Split Pea Soup

4 cups water
1 1/4 cups chopped celeriac (I didn't have this, so I tossed in 1 1/4 cups of regular celery)
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped carrots
3/4 cup chopped parsley root or parsnips (I used parsnips, and probably more than 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup split peas
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
3/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

1. In saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add celeriac, onions, carrots, parsley roots, split peas and garlic. Return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, 1 hour.

2. Add broth and parsley. Return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes longer. Stir in salt and pepper.

I think this might also be delicious pureed, but I left it chunky so that Phillip could eat it a bit more independently. Oh, and I also added some cooked chopped pork that I had on hand. It's soup - completely open to variations.

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For a list of everyone participating in Comfort Week, have a peek here.

comfort week participants

This the post I would like for participants to link to in each Comfort Week post. I'm looking forward to having a look at everyone's blogs this evening - I'm excited that some of them are new to me. And I'm even more excited to see some new recipes tomorrow! The participants are:

Vickie, Annie, Amber, Jane, mothergoose, Alli, Ingrid, sunmamma, Barb, Austen, Teresa, Mitten Monster, Heidi, nahiacreations, myself, Andrea, Sarah and Sarah!

Let me know if you'd like to change your name or link, or if you see a mistake in the list above.

For more info on Comfort Week, have a peek here.

The bowl pictured was a Christmas gift from a sweet friend of mine, and was made in Quesnel, BC. Thanks so much, AC! It's beautiful.

comfort week : 2 things I forgot

If biscuits aren't comfort food, I don't know what is. I am so excited about how many of you will be participating! I'll compile the list of participants tomorrow evening, and if anyone wants to join part-way through the week, that's totally fine. (I'm pretty flexible!)

Last night, I thought of a couple of things to mention about Comfort Week:

1) if you don't have a blog, but have a flickr account or other web-based place to share, and would like to participate that way, that would be great!

2) please link back to the as-yet-to-be posted list of participants on each of your posts, so everyone who might stumble upon a Comfort Week post will be able to link through to all of the other participants.

I hope you're having fun thinking up some things to share! I can't wait to see everyone's contributions.

To see more about Comfort Week, look here.