Around Here

As most all of you know, if you live in Tennessee, we are in the midst of a bit of a cold snap.  This morning our temperature gauge was reading four degrees.  I think Shaun said the wind chill was minus twelve or something like that.  Cotton and Kitty spent the night in the basement last night.  It's not the tropics down there but it ain't the arctic either!  I debated on bringing Cotton in.  I know chicken's bodies grow somewhat accustom to the temperatures and she has her house full of hay and cedar shavings in her coop that she sleeps in but Shaun felt differently and knew I would change my mind and worry about her being out there.  So she slept in a dog crate just in case Kitty the killer got any funny ideas. 

This morning, I walked in the day care to fifty two degrees which still felt very warm compared to the outside.  In an attempt to warm the place up more I plugged in two heaters and got the temp up to sixty two after an hour or so which still isn't bad considering how crappy the windows are in the mobile home I call my work place.  When the wind was cutting from the north west yesterday with minus temperatures I could feel a slight draft from time to time.  There was also frost on the outside of the windows that I took complete advantage of with my camera and just have to share a few with you.  Funny how something so cold can be so beautiful.  

This ice was actually on the inside of the screen door.  It condensates regularly.

I claim to be a finder of feathers and feel they are put in my path at times.

When I looked at these I felt the same way.  They are wispy just like feathers only on one window. 

On The Menu

On The Menu is a new series that I am test driving.  I thought of it at the grocery when I found asparagus on sale for ninety nine cents a pound or bundle and instantly had a brilliant asparagus soup recipe pop into my head that led me over to get some heavy cream.  I tried to make my new topics easy enough for me.  This one is especially because I love to grocery shop, and cook and bake, and always have a plan in mind of a certain dish to hit our table.  This is where the blog comes in and the opportunity to share with you what I am so excited about making.  Lucky for me Shaun is a very willing participant when I am trying new recipes... except for the green smoothies... he's not really into that.  Here are two recipes that will be On The Menu at our house this week.

Asparagus Soup

Photo credit: from the blog Manger by Mimi Thorisson

I love asparagus.  I mainly like to prepare it along side a fish dish with rice until I found Mimi Thorisson's recipe on her blog Manger.  I adore her blog with it's stories and pictures and fabulous food and recipes.  She also has a new cookbook out that I am currently waiting for at the library.  The first time I made this soup... number one I made a mess trying to use my old blender and number two I also made big fat parmesan croutons to go with the soup and had some scrumptious venison summer sausage slices too.  With our outdoor temperatures dropping significantly this week this soup will be perfect to warm us up inside.

Peach Ginger Kale Protein Smoothie

Posted by fp Julia on Free People Bldg 25 blog

I will tell you this... it just took me forever to find the smoothie recipe floating back through my pc history for the last two days.  I knew I should have bookmarked it!  I knew it was before I went to the grocery store Saturday morning because I made a mental scan through the ingredients I had on hand and the ones I needed to pick up.  I love smoothies... especially green ones.  Remember my very own favorite green smoothie?  I don't make it as often as I'd like to mainly because the price of avocados goes out the roof when they aren't in season.  Right now they are about a dollar twenty five a piece.  But you can always get kale and frozen peaches.  The hemp I didn't have but a quick trot in the health food store helped me out.  I didn't get the powder... just the seeds.  I like to use them in my granola bars and on my breakfast toast and figured the blender would chop them up anyway.  

It's going to be a good week in the kitchen here!  

Paper Snowflakes

Since it's about to be frigid outside and since it's January and since I haven't finished decorating for winter at the day care I thought I would make up a batch of paper snowflakes to hang from the ceiling.  I've truthfully never been good at it.  I know you're supposed to fold paper somehow and cut out shapes.  But mine have always come out square with no points at all.  So I looked up an easy folding and cutting template and now... look out!  I can't stop making them!  I've made eight today and have the paper cut out to make three more.  You would think I would let the kids in on the fun, and I might.  Honestly, most of them are pretty good with scissors.  But with all the folding and thickness of the paper I am having to use my good kitchen scissors with these.  Maybe we'll come up with an easier fold for them to be able to use their own preschool scissors.  They are pretty excited and impressed with Mrs. Laurie's snowflakes so far.  So they should be pretty pumped when it's their turn.  

Here is the folding template that I am using.

Photo credit: kinderart.com                          

And you do need to begin with a square piece of paper.  I simply cut two and a half inches off of a regular sheet of copy paper.  We will always use the scrap around here.

Next I just looked up templates on yahoo images and found the rest.  This is so much fun!!

I honestly don't know what I would do without nap time!  It is normally when I get the most done!

What A Ride and New Year Goals

Goodness gracious and Happy New Year to you all!  I am still coming down from our four wheeling vacation!  After seven days of mountains and mud I was not ready to come home.  Our side by side mud buggy broke down on us on Saturday and then again on Monday so Shaun and I rode our buddy's four wheeler the rest of the week which was an absolute blast!  We had friends come up and go home and others do the same.  We ate good, played hard and made some memories.  I can't wait to do it again.  

So I didn't make a resolution list, so to speak, but I did make myself a list of goals in my journal to tackle in 2015.  I already feel that I am on top of a couple of them.  Especially the one about my blog.  I've been working and brainstorming about that one all day today which leads me to tell you that I am excited about a few changes to the blog here.  I figured out how to do a couple of things and have to go back through hundreds of posts to change a few things to make the changes happen.  It may make some things easier and make my little mind more content on how the blog functions.  

My goals list goes a little something like this.  

The last pic is after we got home and is about a fourth of the laundry we had.  I tell you... Katie Bug and our other feathered and furry friends were sure glad to see us when we got home.  Cotton Bottom is a little under the weather and losing feathers so I've got her on an antibiotic, proteins and watching her closely.  

I am excited about a few new blog plans.  Please be patient while the changes are being made and new series are being created.  I'd like to sit here and work on it all day but I've got chores to do and have already been sitting here half the day.  Thanks for sticking with me through the holiday break!