Snow? What Snow?

The weather forecasters did it again. After warning for two days that we had a 90% chance of snow over night last night and a 100% chance of heavy snow today . . . they seem to have missed their mark. Again.

We woke to no snow this morning. High winds though and I kept thinking that if we had some snow with the winds, it might look something like an old-fashioned blizzard.

The temp has been waffling around 32-33 degrees all day. And we have had some light snow coming down for a few hours now but it melts as soon as it hits the ground.

Snow is sliding off roofs and icicles are dripping. I sure hope all this doesn't freeze and make an bad imitation of a huge ice skating rink for us to navigate on.

I suppose if the temperature drops, we could get some accumulation of snow yet, but for the time being, it's just very damp, windy, gray and bone-chilling cold out there. Nasty.

And drat and dang, my raised garden bed frames are starting to poke up through the snow we got a couple of days ago.

So don't be worried that the Peas are having to shovel their way out of the house to do chores. It'll be more like we'll be having to dig out our mud boots to slosh through the slush!

Another Snowstorm Warning

We're expecting to get some more snow starting later tonight and all the way through tomorrow (Wednesday) until 6 p.m. But I can't help but wonder if anyone really knows what's going to happen because depending on the source you check out, we're told to expect 4 to 14" by the end of the storm heading our way. Hmmm, would I want to shovel 4" if I had the choice or 14"? Quite a bit of difference, wouldn't you say?

Chicken Mama, who seems to have a knack for reading radar weather maps, says most of the storm and snowfall is going to be south of us. (Frankly, I'll be a little disappointed if that is what happens.) I guess we'll just have to wait to see what actually comes to pass.

But juuuust in case, Papa Pea went to the farm today to pick up fresh milk and cream . . .

. . . and we filled the wood box on the porch . . . um, ah, plenty full!

A short while ago, I got a new post up on my quilt blog. Go take a look if you would like to do so.

See ya after the snowstorm!

The Lowly, Lovely, Iron-Filled Lentil

In the comments section of my post earlier this morning, Sparkless over at Madness from the Brink of Insanity said she could use a good lentil soup recipe. I'm almost positive I posted this recipe a year or so back, but do you think I can locate it? Nope. (I know . . . here comes another lecture from my dear daughter on the wisdom of labeling my posts. Bad, Mama Pea, bad. Sigh.)

I had never even seen a lentil until I married into my husband's family. His mom cooked them often because a niece of hers who stayed with them frequently when she was growing up had been diagnosed as anemic and told she should eat a lot of lentils for their iron content. Whether lentils are nutritious or not (they are), I found I loved the taste of them and have enjoyed them prepared in many ways over the years.

But back to the soup. This recipe is super-easy to throw together, very flavorful and I make it often. It freezes well so I always make a giant pot of it and store it in quart containers in the freezer. The original recipe was found in "Laurel's Kitchen," the 1978 Edition, and I've adapted it a bit. I've probably gone through about a ton and a half of lentils in the past however-many-years making this soup.

LENTIL SOUP

2-1/2 cups lentils
10 cups water or vegetable or chicken or beef broth
(Its' still a yummy soup made with just water.)
1 medium chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 carrot sliced
1 rib of celery sliced
1 medium potato cubed
2 tablespoons oil or butter
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons salt
Good sprinkle of black pepper
2 teaspoons vinegar, apple cider or wine

Put all of the ingredients except the vinegar in a large soup pot, bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, stirring now and then until the lentils are very soft, about 1-1/2 hours. Remove the bay leaves, add the vinegar and serve. Serves 8-10.

This soup is excellent served with homemade croutons.

Being from "Laurel's Kitchen," it was originally a vegetarian recipe, and a darn good one. But if you want to add ham chunks, sliced sausage (as ours had today much to the chagrin of Chicken Mama [the non-meat eater] who popped in for lunch) or some other meat, that's fine, too.

If you have any left to reheat the next day, the flavor is even better.

Sparkless, I hope you give this a try and that your family likes it.

Glorious Monday

Although I didn't get to go the twenty miles down the road to meet with my friends for a morning of hand work because the roads were not in very good shape (whine, whine), the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day with all the new snow.

Who wouldn't be energized by all that beautiful solar energy streaming in through the windows?

This was taken plowing our driveway this morning. All in all, we got about 11+" of snow. Not a great huge amount as far as snowstorms go, but the largest amount we've seen this winter.

On the way plowing out the driveway, four or five deer bounced across in front of the truck. Then about two-thirds of the way back in on the driveway toward the house, these guys were spotted in the woods. They didn't move a muscle when I got out of the truck, and walked around to the back of it to snap their picture. They sure are beautiful critters, aren't they?

Papa Pea is still out finishing up the hand shoveling. I hear him on the roof as we speak. I've got lentil soup heating on the stove for lunch. I think I'll make some croutons, which he loves, to go with the soup.

Some Snow!

No, we're not snowed in, but we did get a nice amount . . . finally! We have somewhere around 7" with a bit of drifting. It started snowing about mid-morning and looked as if it was going to stop right about the time it got dark, but now at a little after 7 p.m. it's snowing again. According to the forecast I just saw, we're to get maybe 2-4" more by 2 a.m. at which time they say the snow will be over.

It was coming down so hard early this afternoon that we lost Internet access for several hours. I guess the signals just couldn't see to plow through the snowflakes!

This was taken through our living room window around noon time. The temperature was in the high 20s all day so it's a wet snow and with the wind a lot of our windows are plastered with snow.

The white ground area in the right half of this picture is where my raised garden beds are. It's the first time this winter they've been totally covered.

The kitchen window over the sink is tucked in a little nook protected outside on one side by the entrance to the back porch and the wall of my pantry on the other. It hardly ever gets any snow in there but you can see how much snow the wind blew in today. The window box outside the window has evergreen boughs stuck in it for winter decoration and they are covered. To the left is an old plastic thermometer, and it's nearly hidden by snow, too.

We went out between 2 and 3 p.m. to do some preliminary shoveling of paths, cleaning off vehicles and getting in wood.

Above is a shot into the woods on the road back to the wood shed.

And another taken in the same area. A real winter wonderland with the snow coating and clinging to everything.

I can hardly wait to see what the scenery will look like by tomorrow morning. Snow, snow, snow. Yippee!

It's Not a Miracle, But Close

I just finished putting a new post up on my quilting blog. (Quick, someone get Karen some water. I think she's fainted!)

As I stated in the post, even though I've wanted to get back to doing posts over there, I've hesitated because of fear that I wouldn't be able to do a good job of posting with regularity.

All I can say is that I'll do the best I can because I miss sharing my quilting with all of you and miss seeing what you've been doing in the way of hand work.

So if you're interested, take a hop over to Mama Pea Quilts and leave a comment so I know there are at least a couple of you still interested in my quilted meanderings. (Get it? Meanderings? Quilted meanderings? Pretty bad, huh?)