More Snow

For the second time in a week,

we got snow.

Not the 1 to 3 inches promised,

but it is white.

 Once again I went outside to take pictures

for my readers who miss the white stuff.

 The garden looks inviting even in winter.

 The echinacea have dollops of snow on the seed heads.

I don't clear out my garden in the fall

as I firmly believe in giving the wildlife

haven during the winter months.

The birds and small mammals need food and shelter from

predators and beneficial insects need vegetation

so that they can overwinter and emerge in the spring.

 

Something has been walking along the garden path.

Enjoy, my snow-loving readers!

P. S.  By mid afternoon, most of the snow had already melted.

It's a Dutch Baby, Baby!

I recently watched Ina Garten,

of Barefoot Contessa fame,

make Tri-Berry Oven Pancakes on

her Food Network show.

However, her recipe requires one to have

four individual gratin dishes,

which I don't.

I did know that what she made

were essentially individual Dutch Babies,

or oven pancakes,

so I turned to Alton Brown's recipe for a Dutch Baby.

 The players:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and divided
2 3/8 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 1/2 cup
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup half and half, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature

Toppings, not shown:
strawberries, macerated with granulated sugar
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a 10-inch cast iron skillet and place in the oven.  Set the remaining tablespoon of melted butter aside to cool slightly.  Wait 10 minutes before assembling the other ingredients.

Place the flour, vanilla sugar, salt, milk eggs, and remaining tablespoon of melted butter into the bowl of a food processor or blender and process for 30 seconds.  Carefully pour the batter into the preheated skillet.  Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown.  Cut, and serve with the macerated strawberries and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

 If you have a digital kitchen scale, now is the time to use it.  If you don't, then go out and buy one!

 Follow the recipe and carefully pour the batter into the very hot skillet.

 After 30 minutes the Dutch Baby was finished baking.

Serve with strawberries and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.*

This was a hit in the Foodie Household.

*Your favorite berries can be substituted, or maple syrup can even be drizzled over the top.

Enjoy.

I still think I'm going to try to find those individual gratin dishes, though.

A Snow Day

This has been a rare sight this winter.

This is only the fifth time we have

had measurable snowfall this season.

Compare that to last winter 

when it was snowing every time we turned around.

 I braved the cold temperatures and the wind chill of 4 degrees

to get some pictures for my snow-loving readers.

 You're welcome.

 I like the color of the sky here.

 I think the surprise lilies are surprised by the

cold and the snow.

 My grandfather's old push mower isn't needed right now.

Pattern play.

It's time to go inside and make some coffee and

get warm!

A Super Spread

Once again the Foodies celebrated the Super Bowl

with a Super Spread.

Despite the fact that we were just an hour away

from the Spectacle this year,

we opted to watch from home.

I apologize for the wait for this post,
but we lost Internet for a day
thanks to our router
and then I had other things going on and then
I had other computer problems,
yada, yada, yada.

But finally, here it is.

Saturday morning I plopped a pork shoulder picnic roast

into the slow cooker.

Kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and about

half a cup of homemade turkey stock went into the  mix.

This cooked at medium heat for about 8 hours.

Bonus!

It was on sale.

The meat was not quite tender after 8 hours

and we couldn't break it down into bite size pieces

using forks.

I decided to call it a day and popped the still-tough pork

back into the fridge and saved the juice in a separate

container and put that in the fridge as well.

The next morning the pork went back into the 

slow cooker along with a bit of the jellied sauce.

After a few hours, 

we were able to break down the meat into 

bite-size pieces.

Then I added my special BBQ sauce to the pulled pork.

Next up, the drunken mini sausages.

I threw in a dash of catsup,

a sprinkle of Tamari,

a soupcon of Worcestershire sauce,

a healthy splash of red wine,

a plop of compacted brown sugar,

a bit of grated onion and one garlic clove, grated.

I never follow a recipe for this.

Sauces are not science,

they are an art form.

And they drift in the winds and the whims

of desires.

What you like today is not what you will like tomorrow.

So taste, taste, taste.

Or you can follow the recipe.

Whatever floats your boat.

Next up is a hot cheese dip.

I started with a "pre-bought" cheese dip

and proceeded to Semi-Ho it, 

ala Sandra Lee, minus the seasoning packets.

I added a splash of sherry, 

a tablespoon of grated onion,

a tablespoon of grated sharp cheddar cheese,

and 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder to the cheese dip.

Stir and heat over low heat in a small slow cooker.

The sausages and the cheese dip are ready for 

the football fans.

I love this dual slow cooker that I got for Christmas.

And the rest of the food is set out.

Who cares who wins?

The food is good and the commercials are good.

Isn't that what is really important

about this day?

Oh, there are football teams playing?

Really?

Who knew?

It's All in the Details

My daughter-in-law gave me this lovely picture frame

a couple of years ago, 

but something has always bugged me about it.

Despite the fact that the resin frame is three dimensional,

it has always felt "flat."

I knew how to fix it,

but just hadn't gotten "a round tuit"* until today.

*a round to it, get it?  

 A very nice frame, but it can be better.

 First, I brushed on a watered-down acrylic brown paint,

before wiping most of it off with a paper towel.

This will dry within a matter of seconds.

Notice how this brings out the details.

You can stop at this point,

or you can continue on.

Next, I used my finger to dry rub on a metallic acrylic bronze paint

over the raised edges of the frame

to bring out more of the details.

And in a matter of minutes, 

this frame went from boring to outstanding.

Not bad for ten minutes work.

The Annual Eight Days of Ham - Part Deux

My dear husband received two hams this holiday season

and we've already been through one round of Hamness.

I got tired of the second ham taking up valuable real estate

in my freezer

so it was time to soldier through round two.

 This is a 14 to 16 pound bone-in fully cooked, smoked ham.

 I decided to cook the ham.

The company's directions suggest 10 minutes for every pound

at 335 degrees.

This came out to just under 3 hours of cooking time.

I scored the skin in a diamond pattern. 

I also poured water in the bottom of the roasting pan.

Then I poured a mixture of water, honey, brown sugar

and spice mixture (from the first ham) over the ham.

 After about 2 1/2 hours the ham is heated through.

By the way, for a roaster and ham this size,
I have to take a rack out of my small Jenn Air oven.

Le sigh.
Sometimes I feel like I am trying to cook in a child's play kitchen.

The ham is sliced and ready for plating.

Moist and tender.

And after cutting the remaining meat off the bone,

we have only 8 pounds, 6 7/8 ounces of ham left.

That is a lot of ham.

A foggy Morning and an Early Spring?

I awoke this morning to find that it was soupy outside.

It was a foggy day.

Or as a former neighbor had once 

convinced the Foodie Daughter when she was younger;

a froggy day.

 Visibility was 1/4 mile at best.

 Soupy.

 Heh, it's even foggy looking down into the garden from the deck.

 Later on in the day, 

once the fog had cleared out and the sun came out,

I ventured out into the garden.

The hellebore is beginning to bloom.

 The magic lilies and the lirope are coming up.

 The rhododendron are ready to bloom.

 The hyacinth are popping up through the ground.

 While some roses never lost their leaves.

And some dracaena never died,

despite the fact that they are tropical plants.

This is an unusual winter, to be sure.