Saturday 5 March 2011

Another Wintery Post

Another Snowy Day

I am relishing the thought of a snowed-in weekend.  Peter will pick up his food in his AWD vehicle and Leonard will dig me out on Sunday.  I will put two more coats of polyurethane on the little table and chair set for Victor, and his parents will come and get it Sunday afternoon.

So the whole weekend is one in which I am buffered by weather ... the only real demand on my time will be to shovel the steps by Sunday afternoon.

What will I do?  Dunno ... but I have a bunch of movies, several books, a couple of new painting projects, and lots of food and firewood, so I have enough to keep me happily occupied.

I don't have any wine ... but that's not a real problem as I have been off wine this past while ... not totally off it ... but just not as interested in having a glass with dinner every day.  It may have something to do with breaking my meal cooking and eating habits since I started preparing meals for Peter.  If I am preparing meals at 9 a.m. there is a different atmosphere than there is at 5:30 or 6 ... it is part of my workday rather than the beginning of my recreational time. I also tend to eat strange meals at odd times.  This morning, because I was putting the finishing touches on Peter's fare, I ended up eating tortellini with Bolognese sauce and a bit of spinach cooked with sweet onion.  Yummy!  But not really a breakfast.

This week, Peter's menu is:  
* tortellini with sauce and salad
* gingerale pork chops with raclette potatoes and asparagus
* chicken stew with corn cobbler and brussel sprouts
* meat loaf with roasted medley potatoes and green beans
* Moroccan shrimp with spirited rice and spinach

Plus ... date bread, pumpkin cake and rhubarb stewed with other fruit and topped with yogurt, strawberries and maple syrup.

We are both eating well.  The raclette potatoes are wonderful ... and fattening ... you pre-cook some potatoes, toss with olive oil and put them in a baking dish .  Then you sprinkle on ham bits and cover with thick slices of mozzarella or raclette cheese and bake at 350 ish for about 20 minutes till cheese melts.

I am still reading about the plasticity of the brain ... and concurrently a memoir by Kurt Vonnegut's son who was/is a schizophrenic.  The brain is an amazing thing ... powerful ... frightening and wondrous in turn.

I wanted to post a photo of Victor's little table and chair but my software won't cooperate.  Will do so when I can ... I like it ... and I especially like the fact that it got me interested in painting again.  It has been a while.

My class this week was fun.  Pauline demonstrated how to make saffron rice and chicken with cheese and cream and then we studied about food while our dinner baked in the oven.  When it was ready we stopped the lesson and went into the kitchen and ate a great meal ... complete with salad and wine ...a fun evening.

This coming week Azra is going to teach us a Yugoslavian craft.  It is fun working with talented friendly women ... they tell me this is their only time in the week that is just for them ... unrelated to family or work ... just a relaxing leaning time with people they like.  Sometimes groups just jell perfectly ... aren't we lucky when it happens?

Have a great snowy weekend ... and let's hope that this is our last burst of winter!

3 comments:

Barbara Carlson said...

While you are comfy in your house with your projects and cooking (cheese over potatoes thing sound wonderful...will try it!), John is getting dressed ("a part-time job" he calls it) in all his layers to go out and stomp through the snow-ice-snow layers to set up his easel in the woods, despite threats of another 3-5 cm. He didn't go out yesterday but looked yearningly out the window a few times.

I stay warm by the computer working on my "Postcards from a Secret Universe" series using scanned found objects -- I now have 2727 of them...

Your chair/table look cute: you are making heirlooms.

Oma said...

Better in than out ... my road is untouched so far ... and I just came in (exhausted) from shoveling a cursory path from my front door up the 39 steps to the parking area. That snow is wet and heavy! I called Leonard and he said he would get here around 1:30 and would have the road cleared and sanded by late afternoon. I promised cake. Then I called Victor's family and warned them about the conditions.

By the time they get this from my house to theirs it will have a story attached ... so maybe it actually will become an heirloom!

Postcards sounds intriguing! And all in multiples of 3 or 9 apparently!

Barbara Carlson said...

They aren't postcards you can mail but but 9 x 12 images, quite surreal but based on reality -- the reality of my objects that tell me what I can do with them.

John called from the woods and take walking was hard, but not how much snow there was. I does smell wet outside, tho, with the hint of spring air now that the temps are getting higher.