Wednesday, January 23, 2013

This, That and A Cookie Recipe for CR

Strip off that long underwear, northern Minnesotans, we've got a warming trend here!  (Said with tongue firmly planted in cheek.)  It is now 2 ABOVE zero at mid-morning.  Heck, we don't even need to fire the wood stoves now.  (Snort, snort.)

Actually, both wood stoves are s-t-u-f-f-e-d with ashes and I'm forced to let the fire in them die out so I can empty them.  It's not that I didn't do that yucky little task only a couple/few days ago.  It's simply that in the past few days we've burned about four tons of wood in each of them . . . and that makes lotsa ashes.  The stoves don't burn very efficiently when there is too much ash build-up so it's a necessary task that needs doing whether we want the house to cool down in the process or not.   I'm wishing I had planned ahead to have a turkey or ham or something that needed to bake in the oven for several hours to add heat in the house while the wood stoves die down.  Papa Pea gleefully suggested I could stand and bake cookies all day.  He's so helpful.

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Hubby and I have an agreement regarding who drives the eighteen mile round trip to get our raw milk products at the dairy.  I go from about April through October/November and he makes the trek over winter when the roads going there are frequently snowy or ice covered.  We haven't started a vehicle since our weather turned really frigid so I hope he doesn't have trouble getting one started for the trip today.  I think I'll have him get a little extra milk because I'm wanting to make some vanilla pudding (although he has requested I learn how to make butterscotch pudding -- anybody have a good recipe to share?) and I need to start from scratch in getting a new batch of kefir going.  Night before last I was taking something out of the refrigerator right before bedtime and dropped the full jar of kefir.  Jar smashed to a million pieces and a good amount of the kefir went under the stove and refrigerator.  Whadda mess.  (Isn't it amazing how much territory what seems like a relatively small amount of liquid can cover when it's spilled or dropped?)

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When our daughter eventually moves on to her next homestead, I may have to actually go out and buy some furniture.  For the past 30-some years, "my" chair for relaxing has been a recliner which is very comfortable but is a honkin' big thing that takes up more space in our small living room than we can afford.  Chicken Mama had a small glider rocker in her kitchen at Swamp River Ridge that she offered to me to "store" and use for the time being.  Turns out it fits me very well so now besides her very nice, comfortable couch, we also have this chair in our living room. 


Only thing I don't like about it is the rose/pink upholstery on the cushions.  Mama Pea does not care for rose and/or pink.  (Remember the fiasco in painting the pantry walls beige?  The same beige that looked decidedly pink when it dried?)  Dear daughter has given me permission to get the cushions recovered so I think that's a project I'll pursue.  In the meantime, I've covered up the rose/pink cushions with a quilt I made several years ago which, for the time being, doesn't look too bad.

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Well, I know this is mean and nasty, dear Carolyn, but I've rambled on so long here that I'm not going to include the Walnut Coconut Cookie recipe you requested in this epistle today.  I promise I'll get it posted tomorrow, okay?  (Don't hate me because I'm lazy -- and cold.  Gotta go clean out the wood stoves!) 

21 comments:

Carolyn said...

AAAuuuuugggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 Tramps said...

Same thing Carolyn said...
And thanks for the reminder to clean the wood stove. Ours is a cook stove and I have to clean ash in several areas and soot from another - lots of work. But the heat is so nice and I will be cooking dinner on it, too.

Jennifer Jo said...

Butterscotch Pudding for Papa Pea:

http://mamasminutia.blogspot.com/2009/03/saving-you-trip.html

Love,
Jennifer

Freedom Acres Farm said...

You are blessed to only have to go nine miles! Lots of people drive over an hour for the good stuff :-) Of course I only have to go about 200 feet but.... LOL

I thought there was a butterscotch pudding in the More With Less book but I just went and looked. Nope. Sorry. I've only ever done chocolate and vanilla. I'm so boring.

Sparkless said...

Stay warm Mama Pea. I moaned a bit just thinking about how long it would take to clean up your kefir mess. And since it's milk if you miss a bit your kitchen will stink to high heaven!
I'm not sure we could even find any fresh milk. Not many cows around our mountains.
I hope you can get your stoves cleaned of ashes quickly and the house heats back up fast.

Jenyfer Matthews said...

You will have to rotate cleaning your stoves or else you'll freeze! I too have been thinking up reasons to bake and hover near my oven but have not yet made cookies :)

Mama Pea said...

Carolyn - Didja get the recipe?

Mama Pea said...

2 Tramps - Envious, I am! I had a wonderful wood cook stove for the first 17 years we lived up here in Minnesota. Been without it for about that many years now and still miss it. Especially in the winter!

Mama Pea said...

JJ - Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear Jennifer! I will use it. :o)

Keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers.

Mama Pea said...

Freedom Acres Farm - We are especially lucky to have access to raw milk living way up here as we do. There is only the one family with this small dairy herd. I think we would be back in goats by now if we didn't have access from these folks.

Don't say vanilla pudding is boring. I could be happy with that forEVAH!

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - Yep, when the kefir went under the stove and refrigerator, I did remark that I was glad it wasn't summer time. We didn't pull the stove out so any that we didn't manage to sop up would have molded. Ish. It's so dry now in winter time that I think what I didn't get will just dry and flake. I hope.

Mama Pea said...

Jen - I usually do plan it so both stoves don't have to be cleaned the same day. But this plunge into the deep freeze of our weather threw me off schedule and both of them in the house (Papa Pea is in charge of the one in the garage) HAD to be done today. We survived, and it's nice and warm in here again now.

Anonymous said...

Kefir is on my list to try one of these days... but I don't think I want to spill it. Hope your stoves are crackling away merrily tonight, keeping you warm. I told my hubby how cold you said it was yesterday and he actually cringed.

judy said...

I have practically the same rocker but Devin just wouldn't;t leave it alone,its still in one piece except for the ties he ripped off and the cushion coming apart which I can now sew!I have the perfect butterscotch pudding recipe ,you go ,get in your car ,go to the store and down the baking isle or is it the junk food isle ,they have whats called "instant pudding" oh oh ,better scratch that ,I forgot for a min who I was talking to,Miss ,do it all by hand ,tastes better ,better for you .I'm not moving till May 1st.Put on that old record player and play some"Baby ,its cold out there"

Kelly said...

I made your chicken and dumpling stew last night, if you keep sharing these wonderful recipes you may end up with my husband moving in with you! I tried to tell him how cold it was where you live, he didn't care LOL!!! Try to stay warm ☺

Mama Pea said...

Ruth - As they say, we signed on for this weather when we chose northern MN as our home. I like to think the "adverse" weather conditions keep us healthy. (I'm still hoping they prove unhealthy for the ticks and garden pests though!) :o}

Mama Pea said...

judy - I have a picture cut from a magazine of a little toddler bundled up to his eyeballs and walking through new snow. The caption says, "Baby, it's cold outside!" I think it's time to tape it up on the refrigerator!

Glad you don't have to go through the moving process until warmer weather.

Mama Pea said...

Kelly - Your hubby won't even have to move since you can make the chicken and dumpling stew at home for him now!

You know you have to be careful being too good a cook though. It's really, really hard to get my husband to go out to eat (you know how much of a treat that is for the cook!) because he says he gets better food at home. (Arrrgh, what have I done?)

Unknown said...

I'm working on hubby to get a woodstove, I like the extra heat source. We had lots of trees, trimmings and lots of free wood on Craigslist. Buy a little and all set... Stay warm!

Mama Pea said...

Nancy po - Welcome and thanks for commenting! Boy, if you have a source for "free" wood, a good, reliable wood stove would be the way to go. There's no heat that feels so good as that from a wood stove. We're always amazed that we can heat our house exclusively with wood and have it remain so comfortable. (Well, except for that fiasco yesterday morning . . . :o]!)

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