Somewhat Back to Normal

I've watched so many cooking shows, that I could have a meal plan for a year now.  I also watched lots of gardening shows, and I am so ready for spring - fresh herbs, fresh veggies, sunlight and hard work.  I also watched a fun show about poultry and poultry shows.  I saw some very unique chickens and ducks.

Speaking of chickens, my chickens are all okay, but I think I will invest in a cheap tent and bring them into my garage if we ever have emergency cold temps down the road.  I had many frozen eggs that didn't make it.  I can live with that.

Thanks to this polar vortex - finished set.

Better Prep ~ Writing Muse ~ Jesse

Hubby couldn't find his thick socks when the cold arrived, so I loaned him my thermal thick socks.  Later I found another pair - note to self - buy a few more pairs for next winter.  I also ground the coffee beans in advance, just in case the power went off.  

Something else I did - filled every bucket and pot with water just in case.  That way I can also hand wash Hubby's long underwear and socks for work - note to self - buy extra pairs of long underwear for the both of us.

We are running electric heat, along with the wood stove to prevent frozen pipes.  If we stay here, we'll be looking into alternatives to electric heat.  I'm not looking forward to getting the electric bill.

Recent breakfast (chocolate chip buttermilk waffles with real butter and real maple syrup, and organic bacon), but lacking eggs and potatoes.  I am conserving those ingredients for other meals during this cold blast, and saving the bacon grease for one of them.

While making breakfast, I suddenly got a surge of inspiration to write again (hasn't happened in a long, long time).  I literally dusted off my dinosaur of a laptop and tapped away.  boy it felt good.  The laptop is missing buttons and the one to open it is broken in half, but she works. and I know there is a book inside of my brain somewhere.  Not sure if the cold weather forcing me to stay in was my muse, or just knowing I can't go anywhere and I can really relax was.  I am grateful it returned.  

I spent most of my day curled up watching TV, crocheting, layered in two pairs of flannel PJ's.

I watched so many cooking shows, I hopped out of bed from my comfy zone and heated up the kitchen by baking coffee cake.  That was before we put a drizzle of whiskey butterscotch sauce on it.

I had heard that the USPS halted service, but not to our area code.  I had to layer up just to fetch it so the wind didn't blow it away.  I feel awful for the USPS people who have to work in this weather.  I can do without my mail for a few days.  And by the way, the only thing in my mailbox was a magazine.  All those layers for a magazine.  Sigh.

The most frustrating part of this weather is not so much dripping the faucets, it's taking the dog outside.  I don't know how any of you do this in colder temps.  It takes me so long to get Jesse's booties on, sweater, coat and scarf.  Without the booties, he'd get frostbite.  I keep praying they stay on until he's ready to come in, and so far so good, and thankful I have the booties.  They have rubber bottoms, so they are completely waterproof, but he slides all around on the ice.  Poor guy.

Friday we woke up to a windchill of -20 (temp -8) degrees.  We were lucky on Wednesday to only reach -28°F, considering predictions of possible -50°.  Windchill Thursday was -27°F. 

School is delayed today, as of now.  We are getting a bit of snow now.  Rain later in the week.  

Crock-pot Beef Burgundy with Homemade Noodles

Although we love Beef Stroganoff, we love beef burgundy with homemade noodles and mashed potatoes as well.  Here is my recipe (all organic ingredients or home grown and homemade ingredients):

First:  Thaw a quart of homemade onion soup from the freezer.  To make the soup, see the blue ball book for the recipe.  I make this when onions are harvested, and I use a mandolin to slice all of my onions.  This soup comes in handy to use for a soup start as well, for corn chowder and other dishes.

Add the quart of soup to the crock pot, and add the following:

2 lbs. of stewing beef, cubed and tossed with 1 Tbsp or so of flour
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced*
1 tsp. salt*
1/2 tsp. marjoram, dried
1/2 tsp. thyme, dried
black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups burgundy wine
*(Salt if your soup hasn't been salted)

Cover.  Cook 8-10 hours on low.

I like to thicken this a bit with arrowroot powder, but it's up to you really.

I boil my homemade noodles, drain them and simply toss them into the crock-pot just before serving.   I have also found non-gmo/organic noodles at our grocery store.

We serve it over mashed potatoes (3 lb. of organic white, with 1/2 cup homemade yogurt, 1-2 minced cloves of fresh garlic, and salt).

*for mushrooms, if you don't have fresh on hand, you could use 2-3 cans of organic mushrooms, drained, or re-hydrate some dehydrated mushrooms as well.

Our beef was very tender.  The photo is store bought noodles for this meal.  I use homemade noodles more often than not, but Non-GMO/organic noodles are available in most stores now.  I really need to restock my noodles.

Hannah Sweet Potatoes ~ Polar Vortex ~ New Scarf

Not the best picture, but I never got sweet potatoes made with our sloppy joes, so I made them with the spinach/parsley pesto pasta.  I wanted beets to go with this dish, but you all know we had a terrible garden year.  Anyway, those are sweet potatoes in the photo.  Strangely, I was able to buy organic "hannah" sweet potatoes - a creamy potato that turns yellow when baked.  They were so good too.  I made them on a baking sheet with olive oil, brown sugar and cinnamon.

I also made the Beef Burgundy, so a post will be written soon to share. 

As for the weather?  Nasty.  Surprisingly, the car started, so Hubby is off to work.  I was hoping he would be home, but there are many cars on the road today.  So many businesses, schools etc. are closed today.  Including restaurants, the postal service, Amazon delivery trucks and more.  But no, my husband is essential to where he works, so I am praying the guys and gals there are not outside today.

I crocheted Jesse a new scarf, since his Mom lost his first one.  It's essential to keep him covered today, and it won't be a fun day.  I have to wait for daylight so I can make sure his booties stay on.  It's pitch dark out there and our pole light is not on (too cold). 

My only job today is to keep the pipes following and the fire going.  Stay warm and safe, for those experiencing the same weather as us.  We will have wind chills at a record breaking low.  Right now at 6:45am, our wind chill is at -22°F.

I keep hearing noises outside, but like I said, it's pitch dark.  I will try to look around on my way to the barn later.  The barn door froze shut yesterday, but I squeezed into another door.  I'm praying I can get in there today.  It's gonna be a very rough day here today.  And tomorrow.

It cracks me up when family, who lives in the city gives me advice (living in a farm house out in the middle of no where) on how to prep for this weather....bwahahahahahaha!  If they only knew.....like to bring in the barn cat and advice on burning wood in the wood stove when they don't even have one. Oh my land...ha ha ha ha!  

Arctic Blast Moves In ~ Crochet/Knit bucket list

The news continues to warn us that if we are outside longer than 10 minutes, uncovered skin can get frost bite.  I'm not sure I can get to the barn, take care of the chickens and get back inside in 10 minutes.  I guess we'll be finding out.  My eyeballs are gonna hurt.

Of course the Mom in me, took to calling some of the kids to be prepared for frozen pipes.  The apartment complex that two live in, has this problem.

Barn kitty Aurora hanging out on the sofa with Jesse.  They all get along, even with Tiger.  

To keep warm, I am cleaning and tidying and just organizing where it's needed.  The movement will help warm this gal.

On the hooks:

...and getting marked off my "bucket list" for crochet/knit projects.  I am finally, finally getting these cup coasters off my list.  I think they are gorgeous, and can't wait to get them all made.  I've had this pattern on my list for a few years now, and this winter weather finally gave me the chance.  There is hope for more on the list.

There have been some positive vibes from this cold weather:

1. getting more inside work done
2. getting more crochet/knit items done
3. getting more time to write and read

Oddly school is not even delayed, however Michigan has declared a sate of emergency for tomorrow.

Happy Homemaker Monday

I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.  


We got more snow, so the wood is buried.  We will forever, never forget to stock up this summer.  We both agree, last year was very tough on our family emotionally, and physically we just went into hibernation with grief.  We do realize now that maybe staying busy would have helped us much more in more ways than one.

We made a call, fired up "Big Red" with a jump (too cold out to work on her), and headed out for a road trip.  Back home with a load of wood.  We will have the worst cold weather here in 4-5 years they said.  It's also the anniversary of the blizzard of '78 when we had 1 inch of snow and 10 foot high drifts due to the wind that year.  I do remember some of that.  Mom filled the bathtub with water and a boil advisory was on.

They are predicting 3-7 inches of snow today, but Daughter's school was not delayed or closed.  I'm predicting the let them out early today.

They are now saying we'll get wind chills of -39 to -50°F in our state.  I'm so worried about the chickens right now.  We also haven't seen the stray "Leo" that would come to our house to eat.  I am worried about him too.  Wednesday will be our worst day yet.  We literally just thawed the pipes and woke up to the hot water frozen, so doing dishes today will be oh so fun. Not.  Meanwhile our electric bill is skyrocketing.  Lord help us all.  We may purchase a propane heater (aside from the one we borrowed) as a back up.

Yesterday I got my very first manicure.  Daughter is being trained in school and I was her practice person.  I'll admit it feels strange to have polish on (I only use non-chemical polish and not very often due to the work I do around here).  She was pretty proud of herself, and I found out I can book appts. with her at her school.  


On the breakfast plate. . .
Bagel and Coffee


The weather outside . . .
I think I covered this in my intro...ugh


On the to-do list . . .
-dishes
-laundry
-winterize the coop more than ever (toss straw down to make sure their feet stay dry, put plastic over their ramp door and look for another heat lamp)
-sweep floors, vacuum
-put trash out (I missed last week due to drifting)
-Clean one bathroom
-dinner prep
-make homemade shampoo



On the menu . . .
In no particular order-
-Homemade pizza
-Beef Burgundy(Crock pot, recipe will be posted soon)
-Biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs
-Meatballs and hot pepper mustard sauce, quinoa, broccoli
-cabbage/sausage/potatoes
-Tuna and noodle, steamed broccoli
-homemade sloppy joes and sweet potato fries
-spinach/parsley pesto pasta and a veggie
-waffles (for this weeks breakfast), sausage
Snacks - hummus, deviled eggs


Reading . . .
Same book - Snow, Stars and Wild Honey


On the TV . . .
We finished The Ranch, as well as You (which by the way was very creepy).  Now we are stumped on what to watch next.


What I am Creating . . .
Pot holder set and more bookmarks.  Pictures to come soon I hope.  


From the camera . . .

We literally ate this in bed watching netflix yesterday.  Mmmm...so good.

One of my simple pleasures . . .

Slipping into PJ's around 3-4pm, with crochet, a beverage, the TV, and a dog at my feet during cold winter nights.

Prayers . . .
To be honest - for my chickens/rooster and our stray cat Leo (and our entire state we live in).  We have never had these predicted temps.

A Bit of Deep Cleaning ~ Flourless Brownies and Homemade Whiskey Butterscotch Sauce

Unexpectedly, I deep cleaned under my kitchen sink.  We have had issues with the faucet since the last freeze, and I had to empty the cupboard for Hubby to get under there.  Oh man, did I find some odd items.  Most of my house was deep cleaned over the holidays, but not this cupboard.  That's done now.  I'm just praying we fix the sink issue prior to Tuesday.  We are going to be having the worst freeze this winter from Tuesday to Friday.

Although not the best photo, I whipped up a dozen flourless brownies (from Family Circle - Flourless Brownie Sundaes online).  I don't make these to avoid flour, they just taste wonderful with....

A glob of ice cream and drizzled with homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce.