Thursday, February 25, 2010

Snow and Cooking

Yesterday, amid rumors of a winter storm hitting my neck of the woods, I took the check book and hit the supermarket. I loaded up on winter comfort food -- or rather, the ingredients for winter comfort foods. There is something about snow storms that makes me want to cook.

Sure enough, the storm hit. This photo is the view from my back door at about 9:30PM tonight.Those big white circles are actually snowflakes. X-Chromo had her first snow day of the year. I went to work, but came home bitten by an urge to cook. Fortunately, I work less than 2 miles from where I live, so getting home tonight wasn't bad. And I had a fridge, a freezer, a pantry cupboard full of ingredients. (Except for the chili, but that's another story.)

I decided to make lasagne. My lasagne. One of my Italian-American friends insists that what I make isn't real lasagne, because it contains veggies, but she's wrong.

I use (Molly-fy) a vegetarian recipe for stuffed shells as the filling for my lasagne. Unfortunately, my grocer has stopped carrying my favorite sauce-in-a-jar for making lasagne, soI had to use the sauce we generally eat on spaghetti. TV commented the lasagne wasn't as 'flavorful' as it usually was. The sauce is why.

I put on the water to boil the noodles, then opened a bottle of merlot to breathe. Yes, it took a long time to cook dinner tonight, but TV usually works late (and he wants to get out early tomorrow so we can see my niece in EDWARD SCISSORHANDS at a nearby theater, weather permitting), so between the weather and my mellow mood, it was the perfect night for lasagne.


The house smelled heavenly. Dinner was scrumptious. It was the perfect night for dinner from the oven.

I have lots of interesting meals planned over the next few days: Meatloaf with beets & sweets (sweet potatoes); a chicken and avocado crock pot recipe; chili.


I need to hit the supermarket again, because TV took all the chili stuff and worked with me to make chili at 10PM last night for his workplace chili cookoff.
He (we) came in second. After what I did at 10PM last night, I deserved first place if for no other reason than being "a good wife".

Right?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Celebrating My Birthday with Wild Turkey

My family and I went to my parents house in rural Upstate New York for dinner this weekend. As TV parked in front of the garage, we both saw a wild turkey under my mother's clothes line. X grabbed her camera and dashed out of the car to snap photos. By the time I took out my camera, the turkey had waddled around the side of the house.
My dad led me to my girlhood bedroom and there, where the house forms an "L", right next to the bulkhead leading to the old cellar, I found the turkey.
You can see the window sill at the bottom of the photo. Yes, this lady turkey was that close to the house.
I'll bet you thought I meant another kind of Wild Turkey. Shame on you! I drink wine.