Doing a Bit of Cooking

Thursday Feb. 3, 2022... Cold, cold, cold.  There is now 5 1/2 inches of snow on the ground with ice crunching underneath the feet as we try to take the dogs out.  It's a pretty useless effort since neither one of our little poodles likes the cold at all. So we are sitting in our chairs for the most part watching the fireplace and being totally glad to  have it. 

Yesterday I made a large "soup".. I'm not sure exactly what to call it.. lol  Hamburger stew and to this one I added Ranch Style Beans... Lovely!  Tastes a bit like taco soup, but much more subtle.  Yum .. 

Jerry decided he wanted a pumpkin pie so I found a recipe for a butter pie crust.. my first.  Not my first pie crust... first butter crust.  It is truly wonderful. Can't seem to find the recipe I used ..but..sigh... this one is almost just like it.   Perfect Pie Crust ... give it a try!

Feb. 4, 2022... Several years ago I found a "tip" on the internet about how to sharpen knives if you don't have a sharpener.  The original idea was to run the edge of your knife around the top of a stoneware crock while turning it over and over.  I've seen my grandmother do this many times over the years.  Since I don't have a crock sitting on my counter, I turned over one of my coffee mugs... worked perfectly.  I do this often now. 

Well, the snow is still with us. The sun is out today but the temp is barely supposed to reach freezing.. it's 11 degrees right now.  Probably not much melting happening today, but maybe a little.  Hoping for enough to allow the doggies a place to go do their business! 

Have a great day today.  Drink lots of hot whatever you drink... I would say hug all your family and friends, but with Covid everywhere that's maybe not such a good idea.. but virtual hugs are ok... 

A New Year

Well, the New Year has started like the old year ended... with me erasing my entire blog post thinking I had already posted it on my laptop... but no... didn't happen.  

Anyway... I learned a long time ago that New Years resolution thing was not a happening thing around here... usually lasted about a week .. or at the most, two.  But there is one thing that I hope I will continue into this year.  I found a blog a few years ago on another blog that I was following and it was called (and still is)  The Simple Woman  .  I found it very calming and decided that while I did not want to join the group that she has, I did want to try something similar.  I did for quite a while and found that my day started much more smoothly as I found so many things to be thankful for and it caused me to pay attention to my life today and not what was yesterday or tomorrow.  I will try to do something similar here. 

It has been so very cold here for the past week or two.  We have enjoyed the fireplace immensely. 

Sam (apricot) and Katie (black) enjoy it as much or more than we do.. lol  The last 3 years have not been easy for us and these two lovelies have made all the difference for us.  Watching them play, running around chasing a ball or just hugging and loving on us has absolutely made the days pass easier. 

The groomer we take them to always puts a little triangular bandana on them and when we get home we have to take them off or Sam will choke himself tugging on it.. So Hubs was cutting Katie's off and also cut off her collar!  So I am now working on a collar for her until her new one comes in.  Have it about 1/2 done and trying to figure out how all the hardware goes back on.  We'll see if I'm smart enough to get it done.  :)

Hugs to all. Stay warm and enjoy this day.  

Winter's Blast

It's been very cold and icy for the last several days here in North Texas. They are calling it an arctic blast.  We get them every so many years.  There's lots of staying inside, schools closed, businesses closed.  It's very hard on several of the small businesses here that are trying to make it day by day and this long period of inactivity is putting some in very dire straits.. It's difficult to even imagine the hardships for the people who have no place to go or are caught in their cars and vehicles along the roadsides.  Our heart goes out to them.

The ice began to drop (not snow... ice) on December 5.  Very softly.  As I took this photo there was just the tenderest kiss on my cheek as the tiny drops touched me.  Each spearmint leaf is totally encased in a thin icy sheath .

By sundown the sleet/ice has drifted to 6 inches deep just outside our front door.  It is so strange to see so much white and ice with not one single icicle... The ice fell and the temperatures were so cold that there was no water to drip and form the icicles.. 

This is that small mound of ice the next morning.. December 6.  We cannot get out our front door.. or the back door where another smaller drift of ice has accumulated. 










The streets are covered in a sheet of 2 to 3" of ice.  So is everything as far as a person can see in every direction.  Officials have been begging everyone to stay off the roads.  Vehicles have been piling up all along the main roads and our county (and surrounding counties)  was totally unprepared for a storm of this magnitude.

Today is December 9.  As you can see the drift at the front door has dropped about an inch.  My sweet DH tried yesterday to chop it out some so a person could squeeze between it and the door, but this is solid ice and will require more tools than what we have. (You can bet that will change!  :))

The good news is that the sun is shining today.  And what a glorious sight it is.  The temperatures should remain above freezing for the entire day.  Hopefully most of the ice will be gone by evening.

As for us, we've been toasty and warm.. for which we are extremely thankful.