More Snow? Really!

For some reason Mother Nature is pounding us with snow this winter, well not just this winter, this week! We got the 30 inches from Friday- Saturday and the area has still not recovered from that. Many are still without power from that storm, and the roads are certainly not clear --though this is no worry for the Forrester. Last night we started yet another blizzard, this one with high powered winds which make for some worry about whether we'll remain lucky to keep our power as we did with the last blizzard. (who gets more than one blizzard in one week?)

The snow started really lightly last night with a mix of sleet (delightful) which kind of made us feel like this storm wouldn't be so bad after all (calling for 16 inches). But we woke up this morning to a pure white view out the window, not because everything was covered in snow but because it's total whiteout. At times you can't see the house across the street or next door. The wind is crazy and Luli is begging to go outside. I haven't taken any pics yet of today, but I will. If you're wondering what it looks like though, just look at a piece of printer paper, or a white wall...that's pretty much it.

In our food news, we have continued to cook and eat well...Oscar's complaining of some gained weight. I made banana bread last night, and Oscar and I made a plato typico Honduran breakfast (pics to come on both) this morning. No one is going hungry over here. And that almond cake which I had good intentions of pawning half off on some neighbors, has been ingested in full by the Santiagos (with complaints about how much cake we're eating as he forks in another bite).

7pm and 11:30pm Snow Updates

At 7:00pm the snowgirl measuring stick is almost! The snow has continued to fall without letting up. We are supposed to get the majority of the snow overnight. As the evening has progressed the wind has picked up and watching the backyard has been amazing. Not only have we seen the snow just pile up but when the wind whips it's total blizzard. Various neighbors have been out shovelling periodically and we just figure it really isn't worth it. We have been keeping the heat pumps clear though.


In cooking news the almond cake is done, frosted and partially eaten. It's delicious so I'm going to need to find some neighbors to help me eat it! Otherwise the girls and I will be piggy out, and Oscar too but he'll moan about how unhealthy it is and who needs that with their cake!







At 11:30pm this is what our deck looked like, there is no sign of the snowgirl measuring stick. We also just packaged all of the tomato sauce up to freeze and eat this weekend. While I was typing we lost power for a bit, so the night should be an interesting one. Hopefully we won't lose it for a long period of time. But if you don't hear from me that'll be why! Wish us luck!

Cookies

While it's been snowing, I've been baking my Christmas Cookies. I baked a tray of cookies for Oscar co-workers and another package for Luli's cookie exchange for school, and we are left with about a gazillion leftovers. The picture is of the tray for Oscar's work, it's a sampling of what I made...chocolate chip cookie bars, raspberry pinwheels and lemon glazed shortbread cookies. The girls are eyeing them closely, they even asked to forgo their advent treat for a cookie!

Recent Baking, Cooking and Crafting

I'm trying to catch up on the bloggering, so I'm combining a few different things into one post...enjoy!

I've been baking a lot, Oscar says we're eating too many baked goods. I ask, is there such a problem as eating too many home baked goods? I'm using whole wheat flour, who cares if there are stickS! of butter, it's whole wheat! That's got to be healthy!

These are my blueberry muffins, as adapted from the Lemon Raspberry Streusel recipe from Virginia's Bed and Breakfasts Cookbook. They're soooooo good, and actually there is no butter, and I made them 100% whole wheat! Super yummy and I figure they're relatively healthy!

Then there was the marathon of baking I did for gifts to give to Oscar's co-workers last Thursday. I made three kinds of cookies whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, lemon glazed cookies, and raspberry pinwheels. I had the pumpkin choc chip recipe for a long time and have made it several times, this time I made 100% whole wheat and bumped up the spices, they came out great! I got the lemon glazed cookies and raspberry pinwheels recipes from the December issue of Real Simple. The lemon glazed cookies came out so excellent, they'll be made again. I made them all regular flour, why not? But perhaps my butter wasn't room temp enough because they didn't roll into a "log" quite like they should have, and thus some were more crumbly then they were supposed to be. The Raspberry Pinwheels were really easy (except all the chilling and starting them at 9:30pm) I made them 25% whole wheat, I was worried more whole wheat would make them difficult to roll. Anyway they came out super also. Apparently everyone at work liked them, because most didn't waste anytime eating all of the cookies I gave them before they left for the day! I also made mini loaves of zucchini bread and banana bread (100% whole wheat).

And that brings me to my cooking...I've been in love with baby bok choy lately! And for some reason my crummy grocery store will only carry regular bok choy. Oscar found this huge bag of baby bok choy at the Asian supermarket for really cheap and they were beautiful! I steamed them and spooned over a soy, ginger, balsamic vinegar sauce. YUM!

Lastly, Crafting! Both of Luli's "newspapers" as she calls them, ("Chirp" and "High Five") had recipes for making scented ornaments. 1 cup applesauce to 1.5 cups Cinnamon. They were really easy for both girls to make and are lovely smelling. Though I will say while they are drying (3 days worth of drying) the scent is a bit much. A certain someone has a sensitive nose for these things and banished the tray to the lower level bathroom with the door closed! Now that they are finished they are much more mellow, and I think our family will love them.

Peanut Brittle

Oscar has been wanting peanut brittle. Apparently he REALLY wanted it because he and the girls made it this weekend. I had planned on making it on Halloween. The girls were really adorable helping out as best they could. Everyone donned their aprons, and the little ones pulled up chairs to the counter and then stove area to help prep and watch Daddy stir. For a first attempt it came out pretty good.

Busy Saturday

This Saturday was a very busy day for us, but LOTS of fun! In the morning we went apple picking at Hartland Orchards with our friends. The weather was absolutely perfect for apple picking.The girls loved running through the trees, climbing the trees and picking apples. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch in the orchard and then Luli and Hannah were climbing the trees. They both got rather daring and tried to climb as high as they could. It was really adorable to watch them! Fiona really wanted to climb too and we helped her into a few branches.

After we picked enough we ventured to the hayride. I didn't expect to actually ride it because when Luli rode on a hayride at camp this summer she apparently freaked out the entire time. This time both girls loved it. When the hayride was over we filled up our apple bag with a few Fuji apples (we couldn't find those trees). The orchard was also making their cider right then so we watched the process, and then saw they were also starting the process of making apple butter...YUM!

We bought some cider and regrettably did not buy any apple butter.

We got home for naptime, and then immediately Oscar and I started work on the apple cake we were bringing to dinner at our friends Jeanine and Keshav's house. The cake was a lot of work but it was well worth it, not only did it look great, it tasted great too! We played on the playground with Abhi and wore all the kids out so they ate dinner pretty well. Poor Abhi didn't have an afternoon nap so he was very sleepy. Our girls did well staying up until 9:30pm, they were pj'd and toothbrushed before we left and fell asleep before we were out of the neighborhood.

It was a busy day, but so much fun!

Coffee Cake

This is an adaptation of the "Sunday Morning Coffee Cake" found in the Joy of Cooking. It's really yummy made as the recipe goes in the book, but I'm putting in my adapted recipe. It's really easy to make! I make it in my Kitchen Aid, I recommend you do the same as the final whipping is my new adaptation.

Grease a 9 or 10" round dish (I use a springform which works super for releasing it and serving). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl whisk together until blended: 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup plus 2 TBS sugar, 1 tsp salt.

Add and cut in with the mixer until the mixture resembles crumbs: 10 TBS unsalted butter. Remove 1 cup to a medium bowl (for streusel top).

Add to your mixing bowl mixture and whisk: 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda

Add: 3/4 cup buttermilk, 1 large egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 almond extract. Whisk until batter is smooth and fluffy 2 minutes, maybe a bit more. I accidentally mixed it longer with this cake and it worked out wonderfully. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

In your reserved bowl for streusel topping, add: 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, and 1 TBS butter. Combine with a fork until crumbly, then sprinkle over top of cake. This does make a lot of streusel topping, so you don't have to use it all if you'd prefer not to. Bake for 50-65 minutes, let cool in the pan for 5 - 10 min, then slide knife around edge and open your spring form, let cool on rack for 1.5 hours before serving.

That's it! Enjoy!