Wednesday, February 10, 2016

snow and stew

It's snowing again today.
Dara doesn't mind.

"Forget the snow," he says.
"Are there peanuts in your pocket?"

It has snowed for three of the past four days.
Tiny, tiny flakes. For hours and hours and hours.

Azalea catching snowflakes on her tongue.
(Not really.)
(Well, maybe.)

The total accumulation has been less than two feet (so far), but because it has gone on and on, the plowman has come twice. It's an expense, but after decades of not finding anyone reliable to tackle my challenging driveway, I am thrilled to be on this gentleman's list.

Once I asked him if he hates my driveway.
He was nice enough to say, "It isn't the worst one in town.
It is the second-worst."

I genuinely feel so much better knowing that!
~~~

There's been some Big Kettle cooking going on here.
I make a big pot of something simple,
freeze a couple of servings right away,
and then stretch the rest out over a few days
by adding something else to the pot each day.
It's a sort of Evolving Stew.

This ended up as red beans, rice, smoked ham, and cheddar.


This began as haddock chowder.
Then it became haddock/corn chowder.
And ended up as haddock/corn/broccoli chowder.
It was really good, every time!

I'm trying to always have something good, ready to eat.
It's the only way I will eat properly when I am tired.
And I really prefer good food to snacking.
But if I don't plan ahead a little bit,
and cook multiple servings of something good,
I'll rummage in the cupboard and eat crackers all day.
Or peanuts. Lots of peanuts.
I've been buying 5-pound bags of unsalted peanuts in the shell.
For the goats.

Would you want to look at this sweet, trusting face and say,
"I'm sorry, Betula. I ate all the peanuts."


Do you think you could? Really?
While he's standing patiently in the falling snow?

Let's look at that face one more time.


Right.

Time to make another kettle of stew!
~~~~~

22 comments:

  1. Stew & soup are the best. We make big batches and freeze a lot of it to haul out later on. Some of it we share with a friend who doesn't like to cook for herself. The ever-evolving pot of stew can last for days! Surprised to find out that goats like peanuts.

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    1. Most of my gang really love them - and they'd probably like them even more if I gave them salted peanuts in the shell, but I don't because I want them to eat their balanced free-choice mineral blend as their source for salt.
      And like people, goats change their taste preferences at times.Tsuga is the only one who doesn't care much for peanuts at the moment, so if she hasn't wanted one in a day or two, I switch back to carrot pennies for the daily treat so she isn't missing out. She loves carrot pennies. Well, everybody loves carrot pennies!

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  2. hahaha....thought it funny you showed your babies after the heading of this post ...and stew...

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    1. Did you think their names were Snow and Stew?

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  3. I love your pics of the goats in the snow. :-)

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  4. Great pictures of the goats. I'm glad the snowflakes are small.
    Lentils with a couple of bullion cubes, rice, and a few veggies makes a nice quick soup, and the leftovers are good cold.

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    1. That's a good idea - lentils cook so quickly!

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  5. Your dear goats with those pleading faces, I'm sure you didn't eat ALL the peanuts..... Hope the snow has stopped. Great idea for making a huge stew, I'm sure it makes life easier for you. Stay safe and warm.

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    1. Thanks, and speaking of staying safe, I hope you've recovered from your recent storm damage?

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    2. Still waiting for our insurance company to confirm we are covered for the repairs to be done. In the meantime we cannot do any repair work ourselves, we have to look at the awful mess
      You can never win with insurance companies, I wonder what they would do with out the general public as clients.

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    3. Perhaps they would open gambling casinos.

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  6. I do the same, when Jim is away, I make a veg stew and eat it all week, adding anything extra that takes me fancy. I have to confess I love seeing all your snow, although I know full well it's no picnic for you. No snow here, although we had a hard frost this morning and we had to settle for that.

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    1. I'd rather have three feet of snow than an inch of ice! :)

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  7. Whew, from the title I thought you were stranded in snow and were making the goats into stew! Betula actually looks like you DID just tell her you ate all the peanuts. That is quite a look, and I'm sure you hugged them all tight when they settled in for the past snowy evenings. Good plan with your stews made ahead. They look yummy and doubly so for a cold winter night. Glad you have someone to clear your driveway. I'm wondering what's so bad about it. No snow here, but it's dropped down to -15C in the mornings again.
    Wendy

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  8. Wonderful flow of photos: something cold, something warm. It works :)

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    1. You just described the rhythm of my life these days ;)

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  9. Thanks for answering my questions on the last post. And, I could never ever say "no" to Betula! I love the notion of the "evolving stew". It sounds nutritious and easy - my kind of cooking!

    2' of snow is a lot. We had a storm like that a couple of weeks ago, and it was followed by huge winds of around 50 mph, producing bottomless drifts. It warmed my heart that a local who usually charges for plowing driveways went around knocking on doors of people whose driveways looked impassable, offering to plow them for free. I am told that he and his buddy did about 50 driveways for free that day. It makes me believe in the human spirit to know someone like that!

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    1. Wow, that really is a huge and wonderful act of kindness!!

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  10. All your food dishes look wonderful! I'm existing on cheese and crackers but cheese is melted in the microwave...does that count as a hot meal? I'm using the Ranger to plow through the drifts and so far, so good. Be safe out there.

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    1. It counts as "cooking" in my book! When I go the cheese and crackers route, the most I do is put them on a plate.

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  11. I love that those sweet goats work for peanuts! ;-) And just when I thought the Cornbread Pudding recipe was end all, you've now made me hungry for red beans and rice, to go with it! Happy Monday, Quinn!

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