“Baking is like washing–the results are equally temporary.”
Batten down the hatches! A storm is a comin’, and the Cape is going to get walloped, all the weathermen agree. They just can’t agree on how much snow. The estimates range from 8″ to a foot or more. It is supposed to start this afternoon which gives me time for storm prep. I filled the feeders earlier then made a shopping list. After I finish here, Gracie and I will head to the dump on a most non-traditional day then on to the grocery store. I need bread, one of those must get before the storm comes items, but such of the rest of the list is good for the soul, not so much the body. Chocolate is on the list as is coconut ice cream. If I can’t be in the tropics, I can taste the tropics and imagine palm trees and soft breezes.
The morning was sunny and warm. Since then, the sky has become that funny whitish grey color I always associate with a storm. It’s a still day. The dead leaves on the branches just hang without even a flutter. Even the birds have disappeared, probably somewhere sheltered jockeying for space. Snow, even yet to fall snow, makes the day quiet.
My house is clean, and I have no laundry to do. I can spend my day reading or watching movies or baking. That’s right. I said baking. I am a good cook and I am not being boastful, only truthful. I used to have dinner parties all the time and serve elaborate meals. Choosing a theme was first. Mostly we visited other countries, and my table decorating matched our destinations. I even made papier mâché buildings which I painted true to color. My onion domed Russian churches were the stuff of legends. The piñatas were colorful and covered in layers of tissue paper. For every meal I made a flow chart and followed it religiously. It began with the recipes I’d chosen and the ingredients listed aisle by aisle in the supermarket. Then came the two-day preparation. I started most of the dishes and stopped at a step which I would continue the day of the dinner. The last list on the flow chart was what cooked at which temperature for how long. Today, though, I will not be as ambitious. I’m thinking plain old cupcakes without fanfare.
Spring training begins today for pitchers and catchers. There will be a summer. I have hope.
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February 15, 2014 at 11:36 am
BRILLIANT – breakfast in Sochi as Maggie and I settled in on the sofa in the sunshine to watch the American hockey team slug it out with the Russkies in a true heavy weight thriller and win in the shoot out.
Take THAT…Putin
USA USA USA
February 15, 2014 at 11:50 am
My Dear Hedley,
I was checking the news when they mentioned the hockey game was live. I watched! The shoot-out had my heart in my mouth!
Go USA!!!!
February 15, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Kat, wasn’t it great ? As good a match as you could expect and appropriately bad tempered.
The shoot out was terrific.
Watching skeleton/luge and am jumping through all the live coverage.
USA USA….and GB 🙂
February 15, 2014 at 12:13 pm
It was great and greater and greatest! I just watched that poor American fall out of medal standing. The poor guy just covered his face in disappointment at the end.
I am going to get ready to go out with Gracie. We’ll continue live coverage upon our return.
February 15, 2014 at 12:18 pm
Kat, he was pretty upset, so I have gone to the CBC to watch Chick Curling – HOT !
Hopefully Gracie is getting a dump run, it is Saturday after all
February 15, 2014 at 1:55 pm
My Dear hedley,
Gracie got her dump run and a stop at the gourmet grocer where she got a special biscuit. It was a wonderful Gracie day.
February 15, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Just a doggie being a doggie.
February 15, 2014 at 2:02 pm
Gracie is a pampered pup, but I figure she deserves it.
February 15, 2014 at 12:21 pm
We’re having a storm here right now but with mostly rain and some snow but it’s too warm for the snow to stay I’m glad to say.
I’m a fairly good cook but a rather good baker. Now days I mostly only bake bread but the occasional cake or cookies do come out of my oven too. It’s a bit tricky since I mostly use my fire heated stove but years using it have made me rather good in controlling the heat in it 🙂
But I’ve never been the dinner party type but I did have porridge breakfasts for several years back in the days and that was lots of fun 🙂
What do You think of the Scifi series Continuum? They’ll start showing it here in early March and it looks interesting.
Have a great day!
Christer.
February 15, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Christer,
It is still 34˚ here so a bit warm yet for the snow. They did say late afternoon and it is so much darker out than it was.
I envy you your bread making skills as I never did do bread. I can do most everything else. I bought some yeast as I am itching to try to bake bread. You are my inspiration!
I didn’t like Continuum though I gave it a few episodes. It didn’t last long, only 1 season I think.
Have a great evening!!
February 15, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Hi Kat,
I used to be a good cook. I tend to make up my own recipes and try unusual combinations. Sometimes they didn’t work quite as brilliantly as I thought they would but a little tweaking would often save the dish.
Nowadays, I don’t want to cook or bake at all. If I cook, it’s usually something simple. If I bake it’s from a package. I’m currently very fond of Nestles chocolate cookie dough in the refrigerator package. I can break off just the number of cookies I want, throw them in the toaster oven and have warm cookies for dessert. Super easy.
Rocky and I have been out for a walk. It was so warm out (35ºF) that I didn’t wear a coat or sweater. We stood outside and chatted with the neighbor for a half hour before I got a bit chilled.
I just looked outside and it’s snowing. I’m in the 8 to 10 inch sector. Peapod is scheduled to deliver tomorrow between 8AM and 2PM. I hope it’s 2PM. I might just be shoveled out by then.
I’m beginning to dislike winter very much.
Enjoy the cupcakes. 🙂
February 15, 2014 at 2:01 pm
Hi Caryn,
I tweak dishes and hope for the best. Other times I follow the recipes, especially for foreign foods. I have cooked Chinese. Greek, Indian, Turkish, Moroccan, African (of course), South American, French and Spanish. My rule of thunk is not to cook anything I have made before. I have been either most lucky or I have kind friends.
I don’t cook from a package as I find it almost as easy as to cook from the ingredients on hand. I never thought of doing cookies that way. I like the idea.
It is above freezing here so it has yet to start snowing. I expect it in the next hour or so. Outside has gotten very dark.
My last Peapod was the day after the storm, but I do the late shift: 3-9:30. He made it just fine.
I with you in disliking winter!!
I will and thanks!
Stay warm.
February 15, 2014 at 6:00 pm
While I was packing to leave Miami this morning the weather was predicting a big snow storm for the Cape Cod area. I carried my light jacket to the airport because it was a little colder in Dallas than in Miami. I want to correct something I wrote the other day. I did find the ‘Little Havana’ neighborhood which was close to my hotel and the airport. However, Miami is without a doubt a bilingual city.
I can cook, but not bake. I can open a package of cookie dough and spoon it out on a cookie sheet and bake them. But actually baking something from scratch is not in the cards for me.
This has been a wild winter for most of the country including North Texas. The local TV personalities in South Florida were considering how lucky they were to be living there and not in Chicago or Boston. We will all get our revenge on them when the next hurricane blows in off the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean.
February 15, 2014 at 6:17 pm
Bob,
We’re in the midst of that snowstorm. It started slowly but it is rip roaring right now. The first snow flakes were huge and wet and everything is still slippery. Stay home says Governor Patrick.
I love places like Little Havana and Chinatown in Boston for the food. The best places are small hole in the wall restaurants where the local Chinese eat.
I figure baking is baking. I bake from scratch because I like to but if I needed cookies on the quick I’d grab one of those packages. My sister is the queen of cookies. She made from scratch sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day and does all the time.
We are in a hurricane zone, but luckily they have stayed down south and not ventured north. Besides, I would not want to spend summer in South Florida where the heat is horrific.
One of the weathermen standing outside by the ocean getting beaten on one side by the snow and the wind said it is the longest winter in his life. We all knew what he meant.
February 15, 2014 at 11:03 pm
It’s not the heat it’s the humidity. Florida is surrounded by water on three sides which means lots of humidIty. Dallas was like Phoenix used to have dry summers which made the heat more bearable. Since the Corps of Engineers built several lakes around North Texas over the last forty years the humidity during the summer has gotten worse. But, compared to Houston or Miami it’s not so bad.
February 15, 2014 at 11:35 pm
Bob,
I know all about humidity. I live with the ocean surrounding us in the same way it does Florida.
August here can be brutal. You sit, do nothing and still sweat, but it gets hot which adds to the misery.
February 16, 2014 at 12:08 am
Ack! The Weather Channel’s ace reporter Jim Cantore is in Chatham tonight! In meteorological terms, you’re screwed!! He’s a storm magnet. Hunker down and ride it out.
February 16, 2014 at 12:34 am
Jay Bird,
I already knew I was screwed. If you could see the trees bending to the earth from the weight of the snow, you’d wonder why more branches haven’t cracked and fallen. The snow is so heavy and wet and slippery.
I lost my cable for a few minutes but the lights are hanging in there. I’m keeping my heat up just in case.