Well there is plenty of talk around town about the massive snowstorm this past weekend. Ottawa won, with a total of 56cm (22 inches) of snow in the span of 2 days. Take THAT, Toronto! :-P

We are a mere 38cm (15 inches) short of the all-time snowfall record for an Ottawa winter, 445cm (14 1/2 feet) set back in 1970-71.

We happened to live in Ottawa back in those days too, and today I asked my folks if they had any photos of that winter. Unfortunately their photo albums did not offer up any pics, but they did find this nifty certificate that our family received as a token of our outstanding survival skills that year!

I’ve been asking around town and the general consensus is, we’ve come this far, we might as well go all the way and try to beat the record! So, bring on another 30 or 40cm of snow, Mother Nature! We’re Canadian – we can totally handle it, eh?

Here are few more snaps my parents took around their house:

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I just had to post some photos of the snow we have here in Ottawa. This past weekend’s storm dumped 56cm (22 inches) of snow on us. We have had 404 cm (13.2 feet) of snow this winter so far, making it the 2nd snowiest winter on record. The snowiest winter on record was in the winter of 1970-71, with 445 cm (14.5 feet) of snow. I was born in the winter of 1970, here in Ottawa, so I don’t really remember it much but my parents sure do!

I thought I’d share some photos I took with my phone this morning. It’s a hell of a lot of snow. We have literally run out of places to put it. And we are getting more at the end of the week.

Looking down our street

It might look like I drove INTO the snowbank, but no, it
was a mini-avalanche. I think the snowbank is trying to eat my car.
Before I cleaned it off, you could only see the front fender.

The green arrow is pointing to my neighbour. You know you are in Canada when you have to shovel your roof.

This is our back yard. The fence on the right side is 6 feet tall. The one at the back is 7 feet tall. This snow has not been touched by us, it’s literally that deep. Somewhere under there is an inground swimming pool. I fear we may never see it again.

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It’s another ridiculously cold and snowy day in Ottawa. I was talking to a guy in Arizona the other day and where he was it was 82 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 Celsius and yes, I had to convert that in the Google Calculator. I’m so metric.)

It’s completely unfair and I can’t wait for winter to be over. There’s part of me that would like to just wallow in self pity about it but my new enlightened point of view (thanks to “A New Earth“) has taught me that wallowing is never a good idea. So instead of dwelling on the crappy weather, I decided to stay inside and cook a pile of food for the freezer.

I headed out at about 7:30 this morning to hit the grocery store. Loblaws today was surprisingly busy considering it was so early and there was 15cm (almost 6 inches, yay Google!) of new snow on the ground. I was a woman on a mission. The recipes of the day? Cabbage rolls, vegetable soup, beef stew and cherry chip cupcakes. That oughta keep me out of self-pity mode for a while.

It’s 12:30 and I’m about half way through the process. I’ve decided to leave the stew till tomorrow and focused this morning on the soup and the cabbage rolls. This afternoon I’ll probably make the cupcakes, but they are easy. So I’ve managed to have a pretty productive day so far, I’ve got 50 cabbage rolls, a big pot of yummy, healthy soup and I’ve gotten caught up on some tech stuff too.

I thought then, I would share with you my perfect day indoors – complete with recipes!
As I was cooking I was listening to net@night with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. The first show put me on to Friend Feed, which is kind of a cool tool that lets you tap in to friends’ internet travels via Twitter, Flickr, their blog, etc. And it also gave me more information about my new favourite video player, Viddler, which we are experimenting with at the office now for one of our TV series. More info on that to follow soon!

Now for the recipes. Thom Allen twittered me to ask what cabbage rolls were. I assumed everyone knew what cabbage rolls were! I think he is in Utah. Maybe they don’t have cabbage rolls in Utah? Well, here’s the recipe, so all you Utahns can be introduced to one of the most delicious and inexpensive to make foods EVER!

Suzemuse’s World Famous Cabbage Rolls
(makes about 50 – perfect for freezing!)

2 heads of green cabbage
3 lbs medium ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup of Minute Rice
salt and pepper
6 cans condensed tomato soup
1 large can all-purpose tomato sauce

Fill a large stock pot with water, add some salt and bring to a boil. With a sharp knife, cut around the core of the cabbages so the leaves will loosen in the water. Carefully add the whole cabbages and cook for at least 20 minutes, or until the outer layers start to peel off. Meanwhile, mix the ground beef, onion, garlic, rice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Don’t be a wimp and use your hands for the best result.

Use tongs to peel off individual cabbage leaves and drain in a colander. Take one cabbage leaf and trim off the tough spine. Place about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the beef mixture (a smallish handful) in the cabbage leaf and roll up, tucking the ends in as you go. Place the rolls in a large roasting pan.

After the first layer of rolls, cover with 3 cans of tomato soup and 1/2 of the can of tomato sauce. Repeat for second layer of rolls.

Bake in a 350 degrees oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until the sauce is piping hot and bubbling.

Suzemuse’s Soon-To-Be-Famous Vegetable Soup
makes a whole pot! Also good for freezing!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1/2 red or yellow pepper, diced
(you could use green peppers, but I HATE green peppers, so don’t tell me if you do!)
2 handfuls of frozen chopped spinach
1 can of red kidney beans
1/2 cup brown rice
2 cartons organic vegetable broth
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, sautee onion, carrot, celery, peppers and spinach in olive oil about 15 minutes, until tender. Add in the kidney beans, brown rice, thyme sprigs and broth. Simmer on med-low heat for about 45 minutes, until delicious. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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