Let's talk about the weather. Or not. (And a Winner!)

Seeing as how the weather community seems to feel the need to name every single storm - major or not - I have decided to name this arctic siege "Genghis".   I feel as if I have dropped into a frigid abyss and I can't get out.  And let's not talk about my ducks.  Or the Himalayan Mountain Range of Frozen Chicken Poop in my coop.  Or my levitating dachshund.  Or my electric or fuel oil bill.  This leaves me with not much to talk about.


So, let's not talk about the weather.


We can talk about what we did while we were held captive inside all weekend.


We cooked.  We knitted.  We became addicted to the Grocery Girls podcasts.  We got a year older and felt every bit of it.

My best friend on frigid mornings.

The only problem (well, one of many) with living in a 'cool' house, is how to drink your coffee hot in the morning.  If I start knitting, I tend to let the coffee sit and it's cold at 2/3 full.  Not pleasant on a balmy morning of -18*.  I've taken to making my coffee in my Thermos travel mug.  This baby keeps my coffee HOT for hours.  I lurve it.  I managed to get Sylvie's leggings off the needles and into the mail on Saturday, along with a couple of Bad Santa gifties.  On my way to knitting my Poison Candy self-striping socks, I got waylaid by a lovely skein of yarn that had been languishing in my sizeable stash.  This year, I have decided to challenge myself to learn new things and I am knitting my first-ever pair of patterned socks off of a chart.  Ergo, my Monkey Socks:

The yarn is from Knitpicks

It is fun - who knew?  While I was hunkered down on New Year's Day, waiting for the temperature to reach the single digits below zero, I was surrounded by mounds of fleece blankets, from which, intermittently, erupted gurgles, snorts and snores.

PB in full-swaddle-mode

I apologize for the poor quality - it was taken
across the room at 3AM - If you squint,  you can see
Lovey's little eyes peeking out from above her beloved
Lamb Chops Christmas toy.

Slimmie only leaves his self-warming bed nest for potty breaks and meals.  Besides trying to keep everyone inside and outside from freezing solid, I tried a few new-to-me recipes.  There was One Bowl GF Banana Bread - Delish!  The addition of oats made for a very tender and moist loaf - you cannot tell it's gluten free.

Then there was sweet potato flat bread.  Meh.  The flavor was mild to the point of non-existence and it was so rubbery that, if you bit down hard, your dentures would bounce.  There will not be a repeat performance.

I also made fried calamari for the first time - but there are no photographs because it was late yesterday (after late afternoon chores that, normally, take a half hour and took two hours because - EVERYTHING WAS FROZEN) and I was knackered.  It was a gluten free recipe that wasn't bad.  I order it out every chance I can (if it's gluten free) but had never made it.  I missed the part about marinating the squid in milk overnight to tenderize it, so it was a tad chewy - but nothing like the rubber mats that were sweet potato flat breads.  I baked brownies for the barn and managed to get a half-can each of wet cat food down my barn cats' little gullets before it froze.  Jiminy Cricket.


I also made this:

Preserved Meyer lemons

And filtered this:

Cassis

I hope everyone is holding up under Genghis.  From the forecast that I glanced at - before it dangerously depressed me - we have yet another bout of Genghis coming later this week and through the weekend (sure, why not?), then we are back up to the low 30s.  In the meantime, Peanut Butter wants to leave you with this sage advice:

That's a laugh, coming from him - I put his remaining sweater on, turned my back and he had pulled his front legs in - turtle-style -  which rendered him unable to walk.  He was lying on his side, looking balefully at me until I released him from bondage.  Gads.

**** ANNOUNCEMENT ****

The winner of the Einkorn cookbook is Charade!  Please email your mailing instructions to me and I will get it in the mail!