When the weather is cold, no others but these two seem to flower so happily. They are both giving color to our house in this very dull, gray season.

The pink flowered “new year’s plant” was started off from a 5cm (2 inches) cut I got from a friend, 6 years ago. Since they it grew a lot, as you can see. Waiting to bloom this season, sometimes it gives a second bloom of the year, off season.

I cannot get myself to toss away these great flower producing poinsettias even when they lose all they red flowers. Knowing that it is still alive, I kept one of them several years ago and it is still living. But only twice since then (might have been 4 - 5 years ago) it bloomed. Reading about them, I learned how to take care of them and will try it out this season. What they say is you have to keep them in an environment where the temperature is about 60F (15C), in a closet where it is also dark, giving enough water to keep the soil from drying out all the way. Basically you put it to sleep. Once the weather is warm out, you can take it out, give it a good, rich soil in a one size bigger pot and your plant will come back to life. Some say to make it flower you have to spend more afford; making sure it only sees 12 hours of day light a given day. Putting it in a closet is a good option. Keep your poinsettias alive!

This was a bag full of Christmas cookies given to us by our neighbor L. I am not at all a crafty person, but an idea to all of those handy ones out there.

I will try to blog in between, but if I cannot:

I wish you all a happy new year!

While making the apple sauce this year, the left over apple cores went into the freezer rather than directly going into the compost bin. Recently, we have been enjoying them as spiced apple tea, at nights. Especially when in need of a drink to heat you up, these were really easy to put together. The result is always satisfying even if the “exact” measurements I am about to share is not followed. You know the drill; you just whatever you have in this warm tea.

Recently I have developed taste for unsweetened tea, but for this one, somehow one looks for a sweetener. Our usual choice is the jaggery I have learned from dear Indira. Not only it improves the taste, but gives a nice color, too. Instead of buying the big cones from the local Indian store, I prefer buying the irregular shaped, small ones. This is way easier to deal with. ;) If you do not have a way to obtain jaggery, honey or molasses is another good alternative to sweeten your tea.

• 10 - 12 apple cores, with seeds
• 8 - 10 black peppercorn
• 2 inch long of cinnamon stick
• 8 - 10 cloves
• 1 - 2 inch fresh ginger
• 3 - 5 cardamoms
• 750 ml water
• 1 piece of jaggery or a teaspoon of honey

Bruise the peppercorn, cloves and cardamoms using mortar and pestle. Add to the rest of the ingredients. Add the jaggery if using, keep the other sweeteners off the mix for now, and add when serving. Boil on a very low heat about 30 minutes. Strain from a very fine cloth, add sweeteners if not already, and serve hot.

Above, the tea cup in the front has jaggery in it, but the further away has no sweeteners. See the color difference?