Let it Snow

More of my decorating efforts.

I have finished. The garland and lights around the clock added some color to the snug. The living room gets all the attention, which just didn't seem right. I am now officially finished. Decorating, that is.

Leftover steak became a pasta dish for last evenings dinner.

And......this is what I woke to this morning. 

Very windy with about five inches of snow predicted. It seems we will have a white Christmas after all. I am happy about that. The equines will stay in the barn today, because of the wind. A slippery surface and hyped up horses don't go well together. No one needs to be hurt because a tree branch made a cracking noise and of course, horses have never heard that before.

Results

As I have mentioned before, it's been six years since I've done any decorating for Christmas. I only intended a tree. I ended up doing the whole deal. Surprisingly, like Mikey, I liked it. 

I have my son's Tonka toys and his Garfield. These things have much more sentiment for me than for him. He slept with his Garfield for all his young childhood. The stuffed basset was from a friend after Howard died. I think it all  makes the tree more festive and brings memories of all the years it was just the boy and I. Memories are part of the season, the good and the bad. These memories are the good.

I've also decided to make a Christmas dinner for us. A special dinner. Duck, escalloped potatoes, asparagus and a Gateau au Chocolat, alla Julia Child. I decided to dig into my memory and pull out my French cooking "skills". Since it's just the two of us, I won't be under any pressure. Something sparked my interest.

We had a light snow last evening with more coming overnight and into Thursday. It looks like it may be a white Christmas after all. That makes me happy. A man I used to know had a saying "happy wife, happy life". He may have been onto something.

*Mikey was a character in a tv commercial in the 1960s. He hated everything. When he ate something the other kids gave him, the kids all cried out " Hey, Mikey, he likes it!"*

Happy Birthday, Boud.😊

Humor 

What Can I say....Gatto

I decided to decorate. I have not done so since 2018, the last time we had company, and it was limited then. Gatto is much more interested in the packing than in the contents. He's a basic kind of dude.

The son sent me a text a couple of days ago saying he and his wife will visit Saturday. He will bring the food. This sounded fine by me. I'm sure the impulse to decorate came from knowing we will have company. It's amazing to me how much I have. Only about a quarter of it will be used. I think I may have had an over-the-top personality at one time. Now I'm more like an under-the-covers type.

I placed a pick-up order from Total Wine for 21 bottles of NA wine. They had twenty percent off, what's a person to do? It is the holiday season, afterall. Cheers!

Deep Thinking

I think about half of the US population knows we are heading for serious trouble. I also believe that at least another quarter of the population will come to the same understanding sometime during the next year. I thought a couple of days ago about the fact that we were the first modern democracy to form after the ancient Greeks. We have, for almost the entire time of our existence, lived with democratic rights, often flawed, but still intact.

This thought gave me hope. We are not "trained" for autocracy. There is no question in the minds of millions of people that we are heading into a period of just that. We are being told this everyday, by those leading the way. It likely will not stand. This is what I thought. I believe there is a strong chance my thought is correct. We aren't used to being told what to do and how to do it.

Now....after my deep thoughts. I made stock Wednesday and soup yesterday. We have been below zero fahrenheit for a few days and soup was perfect for the weather. We warm up some today and then warmer over the coming days. 

Try It. You'll Like It.

We are having a few cold days before it jumps back up again. I don't like the up and down. The weather gods do not care about what I like nor do not like. Meanies. We did have light snow overnight. Winter is my favorite food time of the year, so I will be posting too many photos. 

A friend made Giada De Laurentiis' sheet pan lasagna and told me he liked it. I decided to give it a try. I recommend it, it's simple and fast to put together and only takes about thirty minutes in a hot oven to bake. It can be prepped ahead of time, which I did, making dinner ready in a half hour. I used no boil lasagna noodles and didn't bother wilting the spinach, the heat and steam in the oven does that just fine. Give it a try.

Yesterday was an errand day. I ordered and picked up groceries. Mark took my truck into the tire place. It has dual rear tires and needs to be taken in periodically to check air pressure. The outside rear tire has to be removed to get to the inside tire. It's well worth having the experts do this. 

We are both trying to live in the moment, not thinking beyond now. For good reason.

Apples. Beans. Possums.

I had a good Saturday. I spent the day in the kitchen, baking, cooking, cleaning up and watching the last three episodes from the final season of the 2000's era TV series, Monk. You either liked that series, or well, you didn't. I think we liked/like it partly because Adrian Monk is an amalgamation of Mark and Sandra. We see it and we laugh, because, we see it. Monk is an extreme version, so don't worry too much about us. Seriously.

Ok, moving on. I made an apple galette the easy way, using puff pastry. Bill had brought me a large amount of apples, most of which I cut and froze. I had several sitting on the counter long enough they were getting soft, so...puff pastry rescue. Apple slicing and Adrian Monk, not bad.

Dinner was this very simple, very good casserole which I made with cannellini beans, bacon, onion, garlic and broccoli, And cheese. Lots of cheese. It's much better than you would think. So, so easy.

I have been having a new nightly visitor to the cat food. Along with the stray tabby we have a young possum, or opossum if I'm being correct. Even with the rat-like tail, they are so cute. It will watch me through the window with that adorable face. Let us hope this one doesn't show up one day with babies. Please be a boy. I would like to keep feeding the kitty. Not the poker kitty, the cute little tabby kitty.

I have nothing planned for today. It's a warm day, warm for us, and cloudy. Perhaps I'll think about dragging some Christmas stuff up from the basement. Or not. Gatto makes decorating an almost insurmountable task. I'm not sure almost belongs in that sentence.

Bright Sunshine. Cold Air.

It's been cold here for over a week, not getting out of the teens most days. We are in for a warm-up over the weekend, meaning we will lose the little snow we have. Back to drab. I kept myself occupied throughout the day. I set up installation of new wireless internet service. We have had one option since the beginning of internet time, going back to dial-up. Frontier Communications. The devil in corporate form. A new company started laying fiber optic cable a couple of years ago, but left the four houses on my street without. Why? Good question. They just finished adding us in last week.

Frontier had no competition, so they thumbed their greedy noses at those of us stuck with them. Very slow, very unreliable. I can't stream music anymore because the service pops in and out. For this mess they are charging $105 per month. This new provider is only 1G, but for us that is like a sonic boom. It will be installed next Thursday. There will be music in my house once again. For less $$$.

So....on a cold, extremely windy day I spent the rest of my day in the kitchen. I have become a hausfrau, whoda thought? I made a loaf of spelt bread and turkey and dumpling soup. The soup was lunch. I like my dumplings large. That way I can say I just had one. I also prefer them soft. I did a little ironing. Woo-hoo!!

Well, that's it on this sunny, frigid morning. The horses are out, the cats are snoozing and I am on my second cup of coffee. A brilliant start to the day.

Not Much

I know. I know.....food. We work with what we've got, right? Well, I do, anyway. Mark's lunch, his is much larger than mine. The last of the turkey sandwiches. Don't they say the messier the sandwich the better it is? This had to be a good sandwich. 

I made stock with the turkey bones and will use the rest of the turkey for turkey and dumplings. I certainly used "turkey" a lot in that sentence. I'll never make a writer. But I do make soup.

We've had a little snow and it looks more festive outside with it. I have another orange tabby showing up that I'm feeding. It looks young. So many cats roaming about. The rural people don't do spay/neuter, so.....you know. They kinda break my heart. 

We have appointments for our vaccinations today. We are a bit behind on this. Mark gets a reaction and was busy, so he couldn't have a day of feeling ill. Luckily, we don't get out and about much. Luckily at least contagents-wise.

Cats and Quirks

The two brothers are now spending most of their day inside. When temps are in the single to low double digits, Crabby Tabby figures he has options. Why not use them?

Mr. McCool with their sister in the background. You can see who the cat magnet is.You know, the guy all those decades ago who didn't want housepets. 

Yesterday was a good day. A bit of puttering in the morning, an afternoon phone call from a friend, who moved to Crookston, Minnesota (way up in NW MN), to join the teaching staff in Equine Science at the University of MN this autumn. It's a very long drive. She was making the drive after spending Thanksgiving with her family in the Twin Cities. We usually talk once a week, which is nice for us both. We talked about personal quirks, mine are a long list, which I will not bore you with. That got onto my talking about my things that younger people don't seem to value and what will happen to them. 

She is 26 years younger than I am. She told me she likes crystal, china and antiques. I asked if she would like it if I tagged those things for her. Whatever my son doesn't want, which would be most, if not all. She would. I've known her 17 years and would be happy to leave her these items that I value but are not valued by many anymore. I think she will pass on my enormous collection of plastic deli containers.

The Day After

Good Morning, Sunshines.

I am back, incase you noticed my absence. I needed to stay focused on the tasks in front of me and blogland tends to distract me. A few days before Thanksgiving my son said he had the day off and would be coming for the Big Day. It's always good to see him and this was unexpected. I dry brined the turkey, something I hadn't done before. It turned out very well. Matthew brought a crumble top apple pie, a perfect end to our feast.

We are now into winter, except no snow. It's currently 9 F/-13 C, with a high of 16 F/-9 C. The horses now have hay outside to keep them warm and happy and I will have a fire later to do the same for me.

So now the real rush of the season starts. I cannot say how happy I am to have all of that behind me. I hope all of my American friends had a good Thanksgiving day.

This is a small room. Two chairs, an ottoman and a cabinet with a TV. One end has a piano and the other a Duncan Phyfe style table. It took me all afternoon to dust, polish, sweep and vacuum. To be fair, I have always been slow, so it shouldn't be a surprise that as I have become an elder, and elder with pain and mobility problems, I take an entire afternoon. It could be said, what else do I have to do? That would be fair. So. At the end of my labors I rewarded myself with candles and a fire. 

I was also rewarded by a sleeping Frieda.

 

Ta-Da

And the winner is.......

ME!

I got it done. I did. The last time I cleaned this was early spring of 2020. That is rather evident in the first photo. As a recap; I purchased this fixture in the late 1970s from an antique shop in Minneapolis. My father wired it and I have moved it with me from home to home over the years. It's been hanging here the longest time of its life with me. I am not generally one for froo-froo, but that said, I liked it from the moment I first saw it and have not changed my mind. It's not overbearing. Somehow, the Wassily chair and the chandelier work together.

One more pat on my back. I got the kitchen light fixtures washed, too. Yes indeed, my back does hurt, but my self-worth jumped up a notch. Who would think that would make you feel better about yourself? ME!

Good Saturday to all.

Snow. Bread. Light.

I had a fairly productive day Wednesday. I finished the winter weatherizing I had left to do. I always wait until it's winter to do this for some reason. In the morning I decided to make bread, because....why not? Another loaf in the freezer. We got a light dusting of snow. I would like a couple of inches, just enough to brighten the landscape. We don't need the Thanksgiving blizzard we've often had in the past. Not so much anymore.

Since I seem to have a theme at the moment, let there be light.

I forgot to charge my camera battery, after realizing I had left the camera turned on and drained the battery. So, iphone to the rescue. The Canon would do a better job, but work with what you have. As I was boiling water for coffee I saw the light streaming into the room. The green glass was glittering, which of course the camera did not pick up. The softness of winter sunlight is soothing. Then, as I was walking back to the kitchen I saw the light, real, not metaphoric, on the hounds. An aside: I've had a lot of hounds. We call the basset Psychedelic Howard. 

Today will be more of the same-old-same-old. Catching up on what I was unable to do for three years. It is slow going but it's going. I may even get to that chandelier.

 It wouldn't be right to leave you without a kitty photo to brighten the day. 

Gatto is here to serve.

See the Light

More lovely light.

I've been struggling with the realization of what happened two weeks ago and what it will mean. Seeing this beautiful light filtering into a room lifts my spirits. I'm deeply, seriously trying to live the moment. It is so not me, but it must be my approach if I am to stay mentally and emotionally stable. Well, that may be a stretch for me.

So, keeping my weekly routine of Monday laundry, two loads washed, two more to go. Mark is on his second day of manure spreading, he has until perhaps 3:00 before we get rain. Tomorrow he will get the windows in the barn as we are going to go to normal November temperatures. The beasties would complain. I got the glass kitchen doors and the kitchen window washed yesterday. Suddenly it is brighter in there.

That's all the news for now. Another coffee and another load of laundry up next.

Life on the Farm

If there had been a rainbow yesterday I would likely be writing this from Oz. Can we say WINDY? It still ended up being a really busy day for Mark and a somewhat busy day for me. We had seven hay racks in the former indoor arena needing unloading. The hay guy and some of his family came to unload, so Mark was busy with that all afternoon. For those who don't know, a hay rack holds around 130 square bales. Next Bob will bring the round bales to get the beasties through their winter days outside. Bob has supplied my hay since about 2000. His daughter used to work here and travelled with me to horse shows. She was a lot of fun, that one was. She now has her own training business on her parents property.

I busied myself in the morning making potato soup. It's bland in color but not in taste. Some creme fraiche gives it zing. We probably have two more meals left.

I set to braising beef in white wine, onion, garlic in the afternoon. It became a stroganoff knock-off. I sauteed mushrooms to add into Mark's plate. I cannot stand mushrooms! Other than this, I did do some weather stripping, which rounded off my day. Then I finished a book.

Today is now Mark's manure day. Are you getting a picture of what life on a horse farm is like? 

Happy Sunday. 

 

I Saw the Light

I looked into the living room this morning and saw this light.

I wanted to use my Canon but the last time I did it wasn't turned off. So iphone it is. 

I have no actual plans for the day, which means I may accomplish something. I have weather stripping for the kitchen doors I should do while it's still warm enough. Mark was going to spread manure, you really needed to know this, I'm sure. It's too windy so that's not on the agenda today.

I wasn't planning to post today as I have nothing, but I saw that light, which did not come across as it really looked, and could not help myself. May you all have a good Saturday.

Friday

Someone is peeking.

This is what $55 looks like from my online Thrive Market order. I think this is about what normal now looks like, cost wise. I needed to add to the order for free shipping, so why not chocolate bars? Why, yes, thank you. I haven't used canned pumpkin in I don't know how long. My normal is to roast pumpkin for pie, but I didn't get one and it won't matter. Boud talked about dried cranberries and how she likes to use them. I saw these and bought them. I have shredded zucchini in the freezer, maybe zucchini bread with cranberries?

I did follow through on the bread front. I made two ciabatta loaves..

and four French loaves.

I had a productive baking day. We had the last of the ragu for dinner, it was three meals worth. I do like that. Reheat a repeat. We shall see what fascinating things I get up to today. Cat claws need clipping.....

 

I do believe the stress of the past several days caught up to me. I slept until 8:45 this morning. This is unusual, but I think I needed it. It's overcast outside, which helped me sleep longer than normal.

I didn't have any oomph yesterday, surely for the same reason. I pulled out my 1976 version of Better Homes and Gardens cookbook to make baking powder biscuits. I have several different recipes collected over the years but this is an old standby.

I use butter instead of shortening and a little more milk, otherwise I don't change it. Baking powder biscuits are basic. I like ciabatta rolls for sandwiches, I didn't have any, so I made biscuits. Quick, easy, done.

Years ago I was watching a TV cook, one who made easier, less fuss French food. Perhaps I should say, cuisine, as it's French. I will always remember something she said in a particular episode: the French consider bacon a vegetable. That was all the justification I needed for my love of bacon.

I'm still not up to par, mentally or emotionally, which is keeping me off the step ladder. I don't want to over-stimulate myself with joy in cleaning the chandelier. I think I'll make some bread, at least one loaf of ciabatta for the Thanksgiving dressing. Mark quizzed me yesterday on the supplies I have on hand for "his" day. Mark was born November 26 and has always considered, at least since I have known him, Thanksgiving to be his. I may make an actual apple pie instead of a galette. Maybe.

No matter what, never let the cat out of the bag. Just a reminder.

 

Slow and Steady

It's a crisp, sunny morning in my part of Minnesota. A balmy 31 F, we are about ten degrees above normal. It's been a mild November so far. Other than some puttering around, I have nothing planned for the day. Tomorrow I have chandelier duty scheduled. Mark has plans outside today and I think it's a good idea to have him in the house in case I've fallen and I can't get up.

Mark is the cat man. This photo is Gatto.

This fine fellow is Tabby, aka, Crabby Tabby.

Since it's become colder Tabs is spending more time inside. Blackie McCool is an almost full time house cat during the winter, Tabby not as much. Gatto likes to annoy Tabs. He leaves McCool alone.

Comfort

Comfort food is once again on the menu. I made a beef ragu for dinner. There's enough for two more meals, happy days! Pappardelle is under all that slow simmered goodness.

I suppose I should start my day. Who am I kidding?

Monday

Frieda appreciates the changing of the season. She loves, loves this particular throw, it is sort of her color. Maybe that's why. She also likes the large ottoman, where she is able to do all sort of contortions with minimal risk of tipping off. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that this bold little stray, who knocked on my door one November dusk, is five. Time doesn't fly. It soars.

I roasted a game hen for dinner, a one pan meal. Right up my alley. I'm planning to make a ragu today. It is the braising season and I do love comfort food. Don't we all. I am having trouble remembering Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Since I don't have company on holidays anymore it's sort of lost the glow. Mark's favorite is Thanksgiving, which is why I still do the whole routine, only much smaller. I do miss my father sitting back in the chair, hands on his stomach, saying "you outdid yourself". Things do change, children grow up, marry, have lives of their own. Matthew works at a boutique hotel, whatever that means, Monday - Friday, meaning he works on Thanksgiving. 

The mess of all three ferns got cleared away, the window sills were lemon oiled and the French door windows washed. I did a terrible job on the outside of the doors. Can we say, streaked! 

As it is Monday, the laundry equipment is humming. My one ingrained routine. If it's Monday, it's laundry. My eye is still on that chandelier. Stay tuned.

 

I Gave My Word

 As a person of my word, I am following through. I give you...

Cat

Food

The General Mondanity of My Life

I washed the French windows yesterday on the inside. I had done the outside the day before. Today I do the French doors. I don't mind doing all those rectangles, for some reason. I also brushed the dead leaves out of the three Boston ferns that spend the winter inside. If this is putting you to sleep, scroll upward and notice the cat is sticking her tongue out at me. About sums it up.

I Promise, the Last I have to Say

He hits it out of the park. Now, I'll go back to cats and food.

The Day After the Day After

Frieda and I mirrored one another the day after.

Dazed disbelief to......

 Collapse 

Today we carry on. What else can we do? I found a Stephen King book through Libby I thought I hadn't read but as I go through it I realize I had. I remember certain parts of the book as I come to them but I don't remember what is coming next. So it's like I haven't read it before. Stephen King felt appropriate.

I plan to occupy myself with keeping up with cat hair and dust. This also feels appropriate. A problem that just keeps turning up.

1776 - 2024

Not Only a Right But A Duty

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