Great Recipes Galore

This morning I was flipping through several cook books looking for a recipe for baked rice pudding.  I had a big container of cooked rice in the refrigerator, and I knew I had seen a recipe (somewhere) in one of my cook books for making rice pudding with cooked rice.

I did find the recipe I wanted without too much trouble.  But what I found so interesting (and not for the first time) was all the delicious sounding recipes that popped out at me as I skimmed through a few books.

When I'm bored with cooking the "usual" fare and hungry for something new, I've always found that just casually looking through a cook book gives me all sorts of ideas for new recipes to try.

Even though I've done it for fifty-plus years, I can't say I'm tired of cooking.  But I will admit to getting tired of (often!) eating my own cooking.  Side note:  I have a husband who does not care for eating out.  His standard line is, "Why should I go out to eat when I can have a much better, more satisfying, nutritionally well-balanced meal at home?"  (Boy, I obviously did something very wrong way back when.)

We've never eaten out a lot (obviously) but I will admit that doing so these days doesn't hold the appeal it once did.  Going to a lot of work and effort to insure the food we eat is of the highest quality and freshness, free of chemicals and other contaminants has always been very important to us.  Today when eating out, I'm never sure how the food has been raised, where it's been raised, and the conditions under which it's been prepared.

This brings me right back to needing to frequently try new recipes and ways of preparing our food.  And you know what?  There's no doubt there are some attractive, well-written, interesting, appealing cook books out there.

And I think I may own a couple hundred of them.  This is just one area in my kitchen where my cook books live.

If I never bought another cook book in my life, I'd always be able to find plenty of new ideas for food to prepare and serve.

I do know cooking can be a real challenge if you hold down a full-time job away from home.  Been there, done that.  One of my priorities in those days was to spend a portion of a weekend day cooking for the upcoming week.  With refrigeration, home freezers, crock pots and home canned goods on the pantry shelves, it's not impossible to have a week's worth of meals ready.

What have I been trying to say here?  When you get down in the doldrums of what in the world to make for the next meal, if you're just plain bored with cooking the food you set on your table, gather up a couple/few cook books, find some time to get comfy on the couch or in your favorite chair with a glass of wine or cup of tea, browse through the books and you'll be amazed at the new ideas and tempting dishes you'll come up with in short order.

Oh, and that recipe for rice pudding I tried this morning?  A real dud.  Ya can't win 'em all!  (Big grin.)

Wednesday Wordy Wanderings

Well, b-r-r-r!  We've been chucking wood into our stoves all day today, but I'm not sure we're gaining much on the Arctic air descending upon us.  There's a warning of dangerous wind chills overnight and into the afternoon tomorrow.  Snow showers and blowing snow (the blowing snow making travel dangerous) with wind chills of -35° to -45°.  Don't know what you would do, but we stick darn close to home in this weather.  Geesh.

We have so much snow on the ground that the wildlife, the deer especially, are struggling to get around.  Many people in our area feed hay and corn to the deer, but we don't.  However, in the past week we have been putting out some of our apples that are starting to turn along with extra beets and mangels.  We put them at the top of a snowbank at the curve of our driveway where a deer path passes.  We've been regularly seeing deer helping themselves to the goodies.

A week or so ago we heard that a lynx had been spotted close by.  Last week we lost three hens and a rooster.  The tracks in the snow were identifiable and not those of a lynx, but a bobcat.  (Lynx and bobcats are easily mistaken for one another.)  Yes, we feel bad about losing the chickens, but in a way it was their own fault.  They were ones that refused to go into the chicken house, and preferred (bird brains?) to roost in a heavily branched evergreen right by the chicken house.  We felt for sure they were going to freeze solid in the frigid nights we've been having, but Papa Pea got tired of capturing them every night (nearly impossible as they tried to outsmart him by roosting higher and higher) when they so definitely wanted to stay outside.  Now we don't have to worry about them freezing to death.  End of (sad) story.  End of our Icelandic breed of chickens.

I can't remember if I mentioned I was giving thought to putting batting in my spring shower curtain (and am too lazy to go back and check) or not, but since I've been looking at it for the past day or so trying to decide how to quilt it, I'm thinking I want to use some batting to give the quilting more definition.  I purchased a cheap economical low loft batting that will be even lighter (I think) than the Thermore I used once before on a shower curtain.  It's not nearly as dense (or nice) as the Thermore, but may just give me the results I want.  We'll see.

I have three messes projects spread out on my desk here and another one on the bed behind me.  I should try to clear them up before calling it quits for the night.  Or not.  Okay, I'll move the one on the bed to join the others on the desk . . . before I add another quilt to the bed for tonight.  We may need it.

Thinking Spring (Shower Curtain, That Is)

The weather today, up here near the Arctic Circle, is sunny but there is a nasty little wind picking up snow from all surfaces and recirculating it (with a vengeance) in the air.  We've hit a high for the day of 8°.  At least that's above zero, so we're thankful for small favors.  Because of the wind we do have a wind chill advisory in effect until sometime tomorrow.

It's been a great day for being in my quilt room, listening to an audio book and finishing the top of my new, quilted spring shower curtain.

Here's a picture of the finished top, being held up in my kitchen by a tall man with a wide wing span.  The curtain measures 65" wide by 71" top to bottom.

This closer shot gives you a better idea of the outer border print.

Now I need to back it with muslin and machine quilt it.  I've put batting in only one of my shower curtains using Thermore (which is a very thin batting) but even that made the curtain heavier than I was comfortable with.

After the quilting is done and the binding is put on, next come the button holes along the top where the shower rod rings will attach to hold it up, and I'll have a new spring shower curtain.  

I don't switch to my spring decorations until the winter's snow is well on the way to being gone.   This year there's no way I have to panic that I won't be able to get the shower curtain completed in time to welcome the spring time melt and warmer weather!

And March is our Big Snow Month!

Oooo, my back.

My neck.

My shoulders.

My arms.

I think my nose is frozen.

I know my fingers are.

There is snow inside my boots.

Inside my socks.

Inside my . . . never mind.

It is 4 p.m. in the afternoon.

I am finally done helping move snow outside.

Papa Pea is just "finishing up this last little bit," he says.

We did squeeze in a quick break for breakfast

somewhere around 11 a.m.

Now I could eat a bear.

If someone else would cook it.

I can hardly move.

I am really, really tired.

Send help.

How much snow did we get overnight?  I don't know.  Who's counting anymore at this point?

We think it must be somewhere around 12-14".   Although the winds along with the snowfall made some beautiful sculptures, they were like cement to move on the driveway and in the yard and on the paths.

Traditionally, the month of March is the one in which we get most of our snow.

Uh-oh.  Where are we going to put more snow?  No sense worrying about it.  It will all work out.

For now, I'm hitting the Arnica to sooth my aches and pains.  While hoping we don't get any more snow soon.  I need to rest a little before attaching my body to the snow shovel again.

All is well.  

We're warm and secure.  The pantry is full.  Our daughter will do more plowing for us on the driveway tonight after work.  Right now it's a narrow passageway out to the main road.  A bit like the bobsled run at the Olympics, but passable.  

All is well.

Sharing Some of Our Snow with You

I snapped these pictures when I was out doing some shoveling this morning.

That snow bank on the right is over six feel high.

The same snow from another angle.

Helloooo!  Anybody home?

Apples trees going under.

Most of these pictures are paths and areas right around the front of the house that we keep shoveled.  I should have given you a view of all the huge piles we've made with the snowplow.  I'll have to do that after our next predicted snow . . . which is supposed to be Thursday.  Eight to ten inches with high winds.  That may prove to be very interesting.

The way things continue to go this winter, we may still have snow on the ground in July.  (Did I just say that out loud?  Bite my tongue!)

On an Olympic Roll

Sitting and watching the Olympics sure has been profitable for me.  I'm finishing up some UFOs that have been hanging around for a long time.

This is a knitted hat for a little guy.  I have no little one in mind, but I'm betting I can find someone who would like it sooner or later.

Finished this little hat using the remaining yarn from two different skeins.  I was so close to running out of yarn that I didn't even have enough yarn for any kind of a tassel on top.  Do you think it looks okay without that little touch?  Both these hats are toddler size.

It seems like the second sock to this pair I made for myself took about ten times as long to knit as the first one.  Why is that?  I'm pleased with these . . . and they even fit!  The only thing I would change if I use the pattern again is to make the ribbing at the top wider.  I'm sure they are going to stay up with no problem, it's just that a wider ribbing would look better visually to me.

Only one more vine/flower panel to go on the spring shower curtain.  I started on the third one (shown in the picture) this morning at 9:15 and finished it at 12:15.  So now I know it takes three hours to do each one.  Amazing that it takes that long, isn't it?

Shower curtain isn't done, of course, but I'm so happy with all the little projects I've been able to finish recently.  Gee, if the Olympics were on more often, think of all I could accomplish!