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... 

Glad to be in Texas..grin

I got some pics in email this morning from our son in Michigan... After 60 in. of snow this winter, they got almost 12 more inches last night... ouch!

This has to be my favorite pic .. ;) ... Looks like DDIL and kitty aren't minding it too much!

And in this one, it looks like a nice slice of white icing cake..lol

How's that for the first day of spring?!! ;0)

Winter 2

This is not quite, but is almost, the scene we saw through the office window yesterday morning. This is from the southwest, but the sunrise was so pretty and pink that it glistened off the snow after it got a little further up. We watched the snow as we had breakfast and blogged and in general played on our computers yesterday morning.

Love the little heart that formed in the grasses by the front door... the icicles were dripping. By noon the snow had mostly gone...dropping in huge clumps to the ground as we watched from the office windows. The temp warmed up and we were in the hot tub by 4pm and stayed for about an hour.

This morning the sun is shining very brightly and the only snow left is along the steep south bank of the meadow and down in the valley where the cedar trees have shielded the ground from the sunlight.

Texas weather...wait a minute and it will change!

Winter?

While everyone has been counting the days to the spring planting of petunias, nature shows her sense of humor once again. We usually get this snow in February, but most of the old timers will never jump in and plant until after Easter.

This is what we went to bed to last night. The bright orange glow peeping through at mid-left is a street lamp in front of our neighbors house...visibility is quite poor.

This is what we got up to...grin This poor shrub is usually about 8 feet tall. We had between 4 and 6 inches of snowfall overnight. The early morning sunrise with all the snow and icicles glistening was really pretty, but already at 9:45am it is melting and falling to the ground. Lovely while it lasted.... (I'm real sure the folks sloshing along on the road in front of the house on their way to work didn't think it was quite so aesthetic...grin)

Snow! Snow! Snow!

It's still snowing this morning. The thermometer on our back porch shows just below 40 degrees F., but all the weather info says it's around 28 degrees F. I believe the weather. Cold out there.

This picture was taken yesterday evening around 5pm or so. The snow was still barely floating to the ground. I knew I had better hurry to capture it because it would be gone in an hour or so... hahh! This morning it's still here and more is falling ever so softly. The birds and squirrels don't seem to mind at all and minded even less when I snapped them chowing down this morning.
As we sat there this morning watching the squirrels, chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, wrens, titmice, woodpeckers, cardinals, purple finches and yellow finches ... I have to admit to being amazed. We have been here 3 years now and when we moved in there was not a bird anywhere. All these trees and not a sound of a bird. DH has made such a difference... all the days of feeding and watering, buying pizza pans to audition as feeders, stealing my frying pans to use as feeders, building squirrel feeders. I think I'll keep him...