A photo update

The beauty of snow


The front of the house and walkway to the front door.
You can see my footprints in the snow where I ran to take the picture.


This is just after 3 hours of snowfall.



I thought this was pretty.




We still need to bring that furniture into the basement...OR find some covers.

I guess the horse is already out of the barn for this season, but it certainly was pretty yesterday.

SNOW!!!!RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!

The weather here has been wintry. The weather forecast for today had been "SNOW!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!" I laughed it off. Last night, ONE FLAKE floated down when I was out with Molly at 2:30am because she had a sudden craving to eat yellow snow. (That's another story)

So this morning. NO SNOW. I toss my head in disdain towards the weather forecasters. Dan and Naomi leave and head off to work and school. I go upstairs and get dressed to take the dogs for a walk. The snow starts to come down a little slow. It's just a dusting.

I bring them in, run across the street and clean up the gift Molly left for the neighbors in their pristine, white, snowy front yard, and grab the keys and go down the mountain towards town.

As I drive down the hill I'm really loving Dan's car. He took the Expedition into town, even though I scoffed at his optimism that we were going to have any kind of bad weather. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill the anti-lock brakes kicked in twice. I'm feeling a little nervous, and by now the snow is starting to stick.

I decide against running to the big grocery store and instead run to the high priced, small neighborhood grocery that has a great deli and always has fun things in their pre-made food case. ANYWAY, I go in, get some deli ham, and a frozen french bread pizza ( yes, I like those, but have to eat them only for lunch because they give me bad heart burn). I also grab some sour cream and cream cheese (if it turns into a real storm, we'll need that fat for body warmth, right?).

By the time I checked out at this place (and I was REALLY only in there for 5 minutes, tops). The snow was collecting in the street. My car tracks in their parking lot had disappeared. I headed up the street and made a left to get up the mountain. While taking that left, I SPUN almost a complete circle, and just drove up the hill as if I meant to do it.

Now, I'm getting a little uncomfortable as I climb the mountain, after having wet myself after that exciting bit of creative driving. Then I reach the point of no more forward driving. I'm not so thrilled with this either. I CAN SEE the street that I need to turn on to get into our little housing for goodness sake. So, I call my neighbors, yes the ones that I'm making the scrapbook for as a surprise for Christmas, and now you know why.

They drive down and pick me up, and Jim drives the car home for me, only he drove it back down the mountain, and around the other side, and then down to our housing area. As he made the corner, he saw a car slide into the ditch on the other side.

SO, to make a very long story short...

1. Warm weather before SNOW!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! Makes for warm ground.

2. Warm ground means snow melts before it collects.

3. Melted snow under collecting snow means ice.

Oh yeah. It's REALLY coming down, too... SNOW!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! (or at least make some coffee and snuggle in and watch the View. I can't believe that it's still morning!

On my to-do list today:
Finish scrapbook.
Wash laundry. Especially after my little adventure today.

So, at the end of the day, I am pleased to look back on my list. I did everything on it except do a load of laundry.
Not too bad.

I also made an excel spreadsheet of all of our spices in our lazy susan. I still have a couple cupboards to look into and log those spices. I think that I threw out about 20 bottles of old spices, or empty bottles of spices from combining partial bottles.

That feels good. I no longer have bottles stacked on bottles in that shelf. I am going to get some of those dot stickers so that I can see what's in the bottles by looking at the top of the container instead of pulling the bottle up and out to see what it is.

I think that we are total foodies. We have 84 bottles of spices in that one cabinet. It's totally off the hook!

And the list...mostly completed!
1. Shower! done
2. Feed dogs. done x2
3. Send in Penzeys order. done
4. Unload dishwasher. done
5. Plan out pages for the album that I'm giving to Lynn for Christmas. done
6. Wake up Naomi and have her do some chores...walk dogs, vacuum tv room and living room/dining room. done, done, done and then Danny and I walked dogs tonight.
7. Laundry. DOES IT EVER END? Gaah. I didn't even look at the laundry.
8.Lunch with Lynn. Done and it was wonderful.
9. Plan dinner tonight. ( I need to check out what I've got in the freezer first. If I can, I'm going to do a crock pot dinner so I can focus on scrapping.) We had pork chops and spanish rice.
10. Take Naomi to work and pick her up. Done.
11. Find ways to tolerate mr.grumpy pants when he gets home...he's fighting depression. done

My list for today

1. Shower!
2. Feed dogs.
3. Send in Penzeys order.
4. Unload dishwasher.
5. Plan out pages for the album that I'm giving to Lynn for Christmas.
6. Wake up Naomi and have her do some chores...walk dogs, vacuum tv room and living room/dining room.
7. Laundry. DOES IT EVER END?
8.Lunch with Lynn.
9. Plan dinner tonight. ( I need to check out what I've got in the freezer first. If I can, I'm going to do a crock pot dinner so I can focus on scrapping.)
10. Take Naomi to work and pick her up.
11. Find ways to tolerate mr.grumpy pants when he gets home...he's fighting depression.

A Recipe

Yesterday with all the snow, I just wanted something that reminded me of home. When I say "home" I usually mean North Dakota type home.

When it's all snowy and cold and shivery, I just want comfort food. I didn't grow up in an area of the country known for it's gourmet food. Since I've been with Dan, and have taken several series' of classes at Cambridge Culinary Institute, I've really learned how to cook and make food that's "ok" into food that is delicious!.

So here are two recipes. The first is the original. A good ol bland midwestern recipe.

Stew Meat and Rice

Brown the stew meat ( 1lb) in a pan. You can use a little flour on the chunks of meat first.

Salt and pepper the meat, and then stir in a can of Golden Mushroom soup.
Serve hot over white rice.


(Honestly, this is a nice, mild tasting comfort food.)

Now for the sexed up version:

Katy's Savory Stew Meat Comfort Food
Ingredients:

12-14 oz package sliced mushrooms
Stew Meat, sliced up into even sized strips or chunks
1 Can Campbells Golden Mushroom soup
1 shallot or 1 small onion if you don't have a shallot on hand
Vermouth or ANY kind of leftover wine from a previous meal
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Cayenne pepper ( a small, eentsy pinch)
1 quick shake or grating of Nutmeg
Pepper (to taste)
Kosher Salt (to taste)
Butter (1 or 2 Tablespoons...used only to saute' the mushrooms)

1. Saute' mushrooms in a large frying pan. I put a tablespoon of butter into the pan and let it melt while the pan heats up over medium heat. When I hear the sizzle, I put the container of mushrooms into the pan, and give them a quick stir. Then I sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt on them, and give a good grind of nutmeg over the pan. Nutmeg is a good trick to add to vegetables that tend to lose their flavor in a heavy sauce. In this case, the sauce is going to be the soup, but it works well with creamed spinach, too.

2. While the mushrooms start to cook down, I quickly mince the shallot. I said just one, but in my book, there is no such thing as too many shallots in a meal, so go for it. Use your common sense detector. When you finish with the mince (this should take less than a couple minutes), the mushrooms will be ready for a stir. Stir the mushrooms and add the shallots to the mixture. Let this cook for a few minutes until it looks good to you. You'll know when the mushrooms look done, they will have a bit of a liquid around them in the pan, and they will be an even browny looking color. The shallots will be clear by this time, too. If not, don't worry. It's all good.

3. Remove the mushrooms and shallots to a bowl and keep it warm. A small mixing bowl works, since you aren't going to do anything but put a plate on the top to keep it warm while you cook the meat.

4. Toss the meat into the pan. Give it a good stir and start shaking your Montreal Seasoning on top. This seasoning is WONDERFUL on steaks when you grill, so here's a quick tip...if you use a spice blend that you love when you grill, sprinkle that over the meat while it cooks instead of the Montreal Seasoning. I like this blend quite a bit if you haven't tried it yet. I season this as it cooks, remember it's cooking in the butter and juices from the mushrooms and shallots. So sprinkle a half teaspoon of seasoning on it, and let it cook for a while, then sprinkle more. Don't be afraid to taste the food as it cooks. I am one who tastes the juices more than the meats. Dan tastes the meat. It all works out in the end. When the meat is to the point of it being cooked to your liking, carefully put it in the bowl with the mushrooms and shallots. Leave all the drippings in the pan and the little nubbins.

5. Turn the heat up on the pan for just a few seconds, and then pour your alcohol of choice ( red or white wine or vermouth) into the pan ( about 1/4 of a cup) and scrape the pan with your wooden spoon. This is called deglazing the pan, and it makes for an extra layer of flavor and helps to carry the spices in the food through the cream sauce. You can do this with a little water if you avoid alcohol, but it's just not going to make your palate sing, and it's going to take a little longer.

6. Now, you should have poured the wine, done a quick scrape, scrape. This shouldn't take long at all, maybe 30 seconds. Now put the meat, mushrooms and shallots into the pan. Turn the heat down to low. Pull that tab on the can of Golden Mushroom soup. Use your wooden spoon to scrape it out of the can and stir it into your food in the pan. Take out your jar of cayenne or red pepper and give it a little tap over the fry pan. I don't use it for the heat, I use it for the flavor lifting. The vermouth does a good job of lifting the flavor, and for some reason the cayenne really helps. Now heat the mixture, I add about a 1/4 cup of water to the mixture to help it get to a consistency that I think is appealing. (Think thick gravy)


Serve over rice ( any type you like....I LOVE brown rice always... Dan doesn't) or serve over egg noodles or any type of pasta that you love to eat.

This is so easy. Don't let all my words scare you.

This passed the food snob test in our household.

I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!

As the snow softly falls, settling into a sweet sugary surface, I take a deep breath of air. I'm thankful for the beautiful, and changing scenes that I'm given on a daily basis here.

I truly love this place. More than I ever thought I could. I love the people who are friendly and kind, and the weather which is more than eager to present me with 4 solid, unique seasons.

Today I fired up the snowblower. We had more than a dusting of snow on the driveway, and I had a blast wrestling around Dan's big machine. I felt so freaking CAPABLE! I got the entire driveway cleared off, and then cleared the street down to the drain. I am so thrilled that I kept up my attitude of "getting things done". After I used the big, manly machine, I used the shovel and got what didn't get scooped up by the blower.

Aaaargh! I am woman, hear me ROAR!

Life, or something like it.

Today was one of those days.

You know, the kind where you get up and start on a project that you have been wanting to do for a while, and you have aspirations to get even more done than what you've got going?

Yeah.

So I wake up, and do a load of laundry, and then start cleaning the kitchen. I had a heck of a messy kitchen. So I clean the stove, and the counters, and unload and then load the dishwasher. I even manage to get the dirty liner from a longaberger into the laundry. I'm productive!

I start the oven on it's cleaning cycle. It's smoky and nasty smelling. I tell Naomi that when she leaves for school, that I need for her to put the dogs in the garage. I had this fear that smoke from the oven would make the dogs sick.

Anyway, I come home to the dogs in the garage like I expected, but also to ALL of our smoke detectors pulled down. I would have liked to have strangled my child. So, I put them all back where they belong. I go off to pick up Naomi for lunch, she left her lab book at home, and needed me to bring it to her, so I offered to give her lunch. We have a very nasty lunch a Quiznos. I take her back to school. I come home and work on my project, and then I have to go get her again. She's sick.

We come home, and she takes a hot tub, I finish the oven project, and clean up from my scrapping mess. I then make dinner, and am sitting here, in a stupor. Very nearly NOTHING is done, except for the oven. I am exhausted though.

Gotta love days like this. I am NOT going to be driving anywhere tomorrow. What she forgets at home, she forgets. I want to pull up the decorations that I want to put on the tree, and then start on another project. I REALLY want to get some other things done around here too.

Wednesday the electrician is supposed to come. I'll believe it when I believe it. They have been doing a good job of not showing lately. I'm sick of dealing with that stuff!