We've had a remarkably cold winter in the delta this year with many evenings in the low 20s and bright fires blazing in our fireplace. The winter has been gray as well with rain when the weather crept up above freezing leaving the grounds soggy with deep mud. I've been trying to will spring to come by not knitting on sweaters and spinning Neapolitan colored yarn and knitting brightly colored socks, and I thought I was having some success in forcing Spring. We had a few days in the 60s. One day, it we even hit a high in the 70s, then this weekend happened and I forgot all my wishes for warm spring flowers and weather. We had snow, and not just a little bit, but a good 6 inches of powdery white beautiful snow.
The snow was perfect for throwing snowballs
and making snow angels
and sledding, it was especially wonderful for sledding. Italian and I marveled at having two snows this year and thrilled that one of those snows spanned two days giving us plenty of time to enjoy it.
When our fingers and toes were frozen solid, we hustled back inside and warmed ourselves by the fire. Before this weekend, I was wondering where we would store our left over firewood until next season. After this weekend, firewood storage is no longer an issue. We built a lovely fire and sat next to it, huddle together as we watched Muppet's Treasure Island. I knitted away on the second sock of the Trekking yarn I loving refer to as Clown Barf. The skein is not the prettiest in the world, but it sure does knit up into a super cute basic stockinette sock.
Besides snuggling by a roaring fire sipping coffee and hot chocolate, the snow made me want to cook and cook and cook. I pulled a whole chicken out of the freezer and for the first time ever, I roasted a chicken, and it was fun. Between the
The Joy of Cooking and James Peterson's
The Essentials of Cooking, I muddle through trussing a chicken and identifying the proper cooking temperature for the bird. Although the chicken took much longer than expected to cook, partly due to the cook turning the oven off instead of turning the temperature down, it still came out yummy and golden. We also had plenty left to make a big pot of stock, which will be used for making a classic Southern chicken 'n dumplings dish. Watching the stockpot also gave me time to try my hand at making pizza dough. The dough did not rise nearly as much as I expected, but hopefully, it will still taste good. I'll let you know later in the week when we finally make pizza.
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