Around Here

Around here it's been quiet but busy -

I really want to write up the tutorial for a blanket I created "the Rainbow Trellis," but I just haven't gotten to it yet.

Here are a few snapshots from the past few weeks....

Had breakfast out (him, chocolate chip pancakes - me, food with much smaller sugar content!) with #4 child before taking him back to college.

Visit to my friend Madeline (we've known each other since we were in Kindergarten together) in Gettysburg.  I haven't seen her for two years! Much too long!

Madeline owns two houses that are right on the Gettysburg battlefield.  The homes are on opposite sides of the field.  We left her house just before dusk to take a stroll through the National park.  We basically just had to step outside her door and were right on the park's property - so cool.

The sun was setting just as we left the house and we had the most amazing light show.  I only had my iphone camera, but I think you can get the feel of the beautiful scene and gorgeous light as the sun took its plunge behind the horizon.

 After our walk, we drove over to the 200 year old farmhouse that she owns on the other side of the park.  She rents it - but it is the cutest little place with it's original floors and timber beams.  From the master bedroom with cathedral ceilings, it is possible to sit right between the windows and see both the sunrise in the morning and the sunset at night.  Beautiful.  It was super cozy.

 Before the holidays I started in on this Cozy Stripe blanket along with Lucy at Attic24.  It a giant!  I used many bright happy colors or acrylic (worsted weight).  It's a gift for us, here at home - just a cozy blanket to snuggle beneath during the winter months.  As soon as the kids went back to college, I pulled the blanket back out and attempted to finish it.   Here it is in progress.

 Living in the suburbs outside of a major US city, you'd be surprised how much wildlife shows up in my yard.  Can you see the big hawk in the tree?  He comes often.  We also get raccoon, foxes, deer, blue jays, cardinals, squirrels, chipmonks, etc.... it's a very well visited yard.

We've also had a stray cat living on and around our porch since this summer.  Until this winter, I basically greeted and petted him and provided him a little bed on the porch chair, but when the temperatures dropped very low, I let him in a few times and I've bought him food.  He comes every morning for food, sometimes coming in, sometimes not.  He follows us all around the neighborhood when we take the dog for a walk - he's just 10 feet behind.  We've named him Milkshake.

We think he'd like to call our home his own.  What does it look like to you?

We've had some snow off and on.  This past weekend we had dinner out with friend and then went back to their hot tub and sat outside in the heated water with snow falling on our heads.  The next morning, I forced myself to sleep in and ignore the shoveling that was needed - I'm often the first one up on the block, clearing away the snow from my walks and my elderly neighbor's.  The snow was still there when I got up.

Speaking of snow - the first of the flakes started falling again this morning.  It's supposed to continue through tomorrow.  Our forecast where I live is currently 12 - 24 inches.  It's supposed to be 30 inches a few hours north of us in NY.  It looks like all my kids will get snow too - but a more manageable 3-5 inches for most of them.  I've got all my shovels lined up on the porch, hubby has the firewood piled high, we've done a little grocery run and there are plenty of indoor projects for when we get stuck inside.

Until then, I'll walk the dog and enjoy the limited light that comes through the windows between bouts of snowy clouds to light the tulips by the window.

Oh yeah, and the cozy stripe got it's last row of stitches this morning - a bit of a border left and then I'll do a reveal.

Keep checking back for the Rainbow Trellis blanket pattern - it just might happen soon!

Roasty Toasty

This post title has nothing to do with the roasty toasty feeling I got when we FINALLY had our first fireplace fire last night (It was 61 degrees F on Christmas eve! so the holidays didn't see a single fire).
I also woke up this morning to the first snowfall of 2015.  It was just starting to salt the yard in white when I woke up and it's continued all day tho. with minimal accumulation.

And, it's quite cold now - truly feels like winter.

What I actually mean by Roasty Toasty is a bit of kitchen talk here.  Do you roast? I mean vegetables?

To me, roasting veggies is like the cooking secret that makes superb vegetables seem almost too easy. If in doubt - roast it out!  I mean, I roast every vegetable I can and when I serve it the reviews are nothing short of rave.

What do I roast? Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Onions, Garlic, Broccoli, Zucchini, Eggplant, Squash, Potatoes, Peppers (yes, I know, some of those things are not technically a vegetable).  But seriously, there is no better taste than a roasted veggie.

I am not a big cooked carrot lover but roast me some carrots and I could eat a bushel.

Don't know how to roast - well here are few tips:

TIP#1: keep it simple
TIP#2: there aren't many rules and those that there are can be altered
TIP#3: don't be afraid to try
TIP#4: roast different types of veggies separately because some cook at a different speed

Last night I made roasted carrots, potatoes and onions to accompany our salmon.

Here's what I do:

Grab some carrots.  I find skinny ones work best.

Give their tops a chop.  I use my kitchen scissors.

Give them a little bath to free them of any excess earth.

Add them to a baking pan.  I have used cake pans, pie pans, cookie pans, jelly roll pans, etc.  I find they do best in metal.  I have also started using parchment paper and they work well on the paper which saves a bit on the cleanup as well.

Drizzle them with oil.  I'm sure you can experiment with oils, I tend to use Olive Oil.  And they don't need a ton, seriously just a drizzle.

Give them a bit of flavor.  For the carrots I simply ground some pepper and then ground some pink salt.

Since I also did potato and onion, I'll show you those as well.

Peel the onion and give it a rough chop.  I cut my potatoes randomly and try to keep the sizes similar.  I don't bother to peel the potatoes unless the outside is really bad looking or they are a bit older than they should be.  And any type of potato does fine - these are organic redskins.

For the onion, it was just oil and a tad bit of sea salt.

For the potatoes it was oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and a little dash of granulated garlic powder.

(by the way - the potatoes do well with all types of experimental flavors - I love to do them with curry powder or mexi-spices - just add whatever goes nicely with your dinner, I'm sure it will work).

Then, just pop them in the oven.

I usually put mine on convection roast but I've also done just the bake setting as well.  If I have to cook something other than the veggies at the same time, I adjust to make it all work but for the most part I roast at 425F.  I'd say 400F to 450F is all good.  I also try to keep the roasted veggies etc on the top rack but when I use convection it really doesn't matter.

I try to keep like veggies together because potatoes take longer than zucchini for instance and if they are all mixed together, it's harder to pull out the ones that are done.

Timer? Well, I rarely use one.  I just look at them from time to time.  I do usually pull them out about 10 minutes in and use a metal spatula to give them a shuffle and flip them over a bit.  I'd say around 20 mins is average, a bit less for zuchini, a bit more when it's potatoes.  And by the way- the browned and burned bits are super yummy so don't worry about them.  They add to the flavor!

At the end of their cooking time they should look a bit like this.  These guys all cooked for about the same time which wasn't much more than 20 mins.  And bonus that the salmon took about the same time in the rack below.

The dinner was DELISH and so easy!

Hearts aBrewin' amidst the Snows

 Woke up Sunday to find this little curled up fur ball in my bed - she snuck in when no one was looking and was very still and quiet.

Ran some errands Sunday afternoon just as the first few snowflakes began to fall.  We were expecting an inch or less.  The sidewalks and streets coated up pretty fast with the cold temperatures (it's been well over a week since we've seen temperatures over the FREEZING mark aka 32F).

Headed out in slippered feet to check the progress - yep, just a coating.  Off to bed.

6am - awoke to find more than a coating had fallen over night.  Instead it was 3-4 inches.  Fortunately no school delay or cancellation.  I didn't even bother to get out of my pjs, just started a pot of coffee, made a school lunch, popped a pair of boots on my rainbow sleep socks and headed out at 6:40am to shovel.

I was not alone, a few other neighbors were out, clearing away - again.

By 7:20am hubby and son had headed off to work/school and I was clearing the snow from the final car, preparing for my own departure for BE Fit exercise class.  I hadn't been to class in over a week so after an hour of shoveling my own property and the neighbor and the driveways, sidewalks and cars, I wondered how my muscles would cooperate for the class!

Climbing out of the car after exercise class I gazed up at the brilliant blue sky and dark green pines and delighted in the cotton balls that hung from every branch.  This had been a light and fluffy snow, just enough to cover the grey ice with white fluff and make it look all pretty again.  The sun was out and I was warm from the class (a great class which I did manage to get through quite well).  Added some color to my cheeks...

Treated myself to some citrus water.  I love my new (scavenged and free!) citrus juicer.  I've been doing lemon, lime and clementine and adding the mixture to my ice water - very refreshing after a workout and it feels so summery!

Tho still below freezing, the sun was really doing its work on the sidewalks and the streets were almost back to black!

The tulips and daffodils on the mantel were blooming with flourish - enjoying the warmth of the house and the sun.

And OH MY LUNCH.  YUM. YUM. YUM.  toasted taco shells with refried beans, sharp cheddar from the farmer's market, shredded spinach and cabbage (way easier to keep fresh and crisp than lettuce), topped with some homemade guacamole - delish.  YES!  I ate it ALL and wanted more.

This morning (Tuesday) I headed off to running group.  It had been two weeks since I'd run - for a variety of reasons and only one of those reasons being the weather.  I wasn't sure how I'd do.  I was slow, there were hills, it was cold but I did it.  Three miles, slow - mighty slow.  But hey, I was out there.  When I returned home I saw two things... clear streets and more sunshine!!!  

Checked my weather app after the run and saw it was 20F degrees!  That's 12 degrees below freezing on the Fahrenheit scale.  It was a cold run but by the time it was over I was well thawed out and sweaty even!  Hmmmm what's that little red exclamation point, I think I'll click on it and see.  Yesterday, the weather report said we had 2 inches of snow coming Wednesday night.  OH MY!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  6 to 10 MORE inches, with a layer of sleet in the middle, heavy, icy, branch breaking, power killing ice between the bouts of snow.  OH MY.  Coming tomorrow night and sticking around all day and night on Thursday.  UGH.

Well today I will just enjoy the sunshine filtering thru the windows and the flowers popping open with power!

OH... and a bit of something red pink and heart-ish happening on the hook.  I have a plan, for Valentine's Day - which is not only Valentine's Day but my 25th ANNIVERSARY!!!!  I hope the roads are clear and the power is on and the public transportation is running on Friday cuz Hubby and I have some plans.

Oh yeah, one more little thing happened last night - I went to my last ever swim meet.  Child #4 of 4 competed in his last diving meet - and the whole dive team even did a swim relay just for fun - they didn't do half bad.  It was a fun meet and certainly an end of an era for the Jenkins clan.

senior posters

son Sawyer w/ girlfriend and her sister

senior Sawyer send off with parents

the seniors and their coaches.

TATA - stay warm.  Sher