scenic saturday

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wordless thursday

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more

We've had more snow.

Some of us are happy:

Others are not so thrilled.

This morning I tried to take a picture of LeShodu.

"Shodu, will you turn this way so I can take a nice picture?"

"No."

"Please? Just one picture of your pretty face?"

"NO!
and I will now press my face against this wall
until you GO AWAY!"

"Hey! You can take my picture! I'm a happy goat!"

(Unfortunately, Betula's attempt to get my attention by swiping me with his hoof is NOT acceptable. Sigh. Everyone is just a little tired of the cold and snow. They are getting restless, and this is a perfect time for experimenting with Bad Habits. Which I will be fighting in August if I let them slide now. So I can't. 

Are you listening, Bet?)

Ah well. It's mid-February. 

Time to bring out the heavy artillery against Cabin Fever.

Which in this case, is laceweight.

~~~~~

puttery kitcheny day

It's a good day for tea.

And puttering in the kitchen.

When it was still quite dark this morning, I saw a little shadow swooping up to the birdfeeder. Then another. Two juncos were breakfasting unusually early. Then I noticed the fine, dense precipitation. It was falling straight down but it was too dark to tell if it was rain or the kind of teeny-tiny snowflakes that couldn't possibly add up to anything but generally do.

I checked the weather report: 1-3 inches accumulation predicted by the end of the day. Hmmm. Pretty sure there was already 3 inches atop the bird feeder, and the sun wasn't up yet.

Sure enough, by the time we went out to feed a couple of hours later, Piper and I stepped out the door into 8 inches of fresh snow. The air was pleasantly warm though: 24F, which feels very warm indeed these days as long as the wind isn't blowing.

At 10 AM, the snow was still falling. The weather report now predicted 3-5 inches total by the end of the day. Step it up, weatherfolk. The sky is way ahead of you.

~~~

While Piper lounged and thawed her iceball leggings by the heater, I baked another fruit-topped teacake.
This one with dates.

I like to think every experiment in the kitchen is an opportunity to learn something. Here's what I learned this morning:
don't bake this particular cake with dates.

Each of those harmless-looking nuggets had the consistency of a very chewy pebble. They reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Pretty sure it wasn't something we think of as edible, though.

~~~

In another kitchen adventure, I tried to "zest" Meyer lemons.
I've never "zested" anything before, and to be honest, I'm not sure I've "zested" anything now. Does anyone know if I took too much of the rind along with the peel? I tried not to, but I just don't know. Please advise!

I also juiced the lemons with my Grammy's old glass juicer, thus justifying the allocation of cupboard space to this tool for another year. Maybe ten.

Some of the juice went straight into a peanut-ginger marinade for the tofu which is in the fridge at this moment, becoming wonderful. (Fingers crossed. This was definitely an experiment, and it is on tonight's menu.)

~~~

Oh, here's an actual Helpful Kitchen Tip!

Two, even. 

Gosh, maybe three!

First: I heard that a good way to cook a tougher piece of beef, is to put it in a pan with a can of peeled tomatoes, cover the pan, and bake (roast? poach?) it in the oven for two or three hours at 325F. Last week, I had a small slab of top round and I had a big can of Pomodoro tomatoes, so...I tried it. And I must say, after 2 hours, that chunk of meat fell apart before I could put a knife to it!

Second: as they worked to tenderize the beef, the tomatoes were reduced to nearly a paste, which soon became the base for a bonus pasta sauce. Very tasty! I've had "meat sauces" that tasted less rich and meaty than those tomatoes.

Third: when I decided to add some of the leftover cooked beef to a lentil stew, I wanted to chopped the pieces "across the grain" so there would be no long, stringy pieces dangling from a soup spoon. And as I was pondering the least-tedious way to orient all those small pieces of meat in order to chop them properly, I had a thought:

 

My super-deluxe kitchen shears! 

By which I mean, the pair of ordinary scissors I keep in the kitchen. One of my most useful kitchen tools, but this is the first time they were put to work smallifying chunks of cooked beef. Worked beautifully, and took next to no time. Snippety snip snip!

~~~

It's late afternoon, and still snowing. I just checked the weather report again, and can tell you with certainty that we are experiencing a 50% chance of light snow.

I hope you are enjoying the weather of your choice, wherever you are! And readers who are craving a good snowfall are very welcome to come on by!

I can offer a nice cup of tea, but - just between us? - 

you'd be wise to pass on the cake.

~~~~~

winter interlude

Pssst! Are you looking for

the Grow Your Blog Party post

and giveaway? It's right here!

~~~

We've had a little break recently: after weeks of bitter and paw-chilling cold, the past few days have been warm. Really warm: first in the teens then 20s then breaking 32F yesterday.

There has been much melting.

Piper and I took the opportunity on each warm day to spend some joyful time in the woods.

This is what it looked like the first day:

 And this is what it looked like yesterday:

There was still lots of ice and snow on the forest floor, but there were also many open patches, usually under hardwoods or along the woods road, where the sun had melted most of the snow. 

It was refreshing to see so much color again, and to smell the sun-warmed earth and the autumn-dried plants. A wonderful treat for the senses, especially since I knew more snow would probably be falling soon.

 

Since I didn't need to keep my mittens on (!!!) the camera never left my hand. More than once I spent several happy minutes in one spot, clicking and clicking away, without moving more than a couple of feet in any direction.

Piper finds such behavior baffling. She demonstrates this by eventually running full-tilt across my field of vision, only inches away from my body, and crashing through whatever plant or tiny landscape I am photographing.

And then looking back and giving me a huge happy grin.

Something like this:

Sometimes, I repay this hooliganism by asking Piper for a "Stand Stay" while I take her picture. Yesterday she stood on one of the big glacial erratics we visited many times last summer:

About 5 seconds of standing quietly...click, click, click...then I said, "Okay!" and she was off in one grand, blurry leap.

~~~

Now the cold is back, and falling snow is already covering the recently-exposed ground. Piper accompanied me on chores this morning, then headed straight back to her cozy bed. 

Makes me glad we seized the day(s)!

~~~~~