Thursday, January 10, 2008

It's Raining....

Lots and lots of rain. Pouring, in fact. Such is my day.

It's absolutely the kind of day that should be rain soaked. Work has been nothing but a disaster, my cough is nagging, and I can't get the temperature right in this house AT ALL.

Do you all have these days? Where it's not an obvious disaster, just a thousand annoying leeetle *things* that are making you crazy? That's today. I'm working on it.

Let's talk about the things I'm focusing on to improve this mental rain cloud...

Birds.
*I have no pictures to aid me in this, it's a phenomenon that it impossible to convey on film*


Thanks to the birdfeeder my Aunt Martha gave us for Christmas, my backyard is now Wildlife Central. Y'all, seriously, I cannot believe how many birds I get back here at one time. Today was the record holder (in the rain? I guess so!), as a flock of doves showed up in addition to the dozens of nuthatches, titmice, chickadees, cardinals, finches, and woodpeckers I have back there at any given moment. My yard is apparently the Grand Central Station Snack Bar of Blue Meadow Lane, and I'm loving it. I'm even a little obsessive about it, Matt is never here at peak feeding time and he just doesn't understand (no matter how relentlessly I describe it to him). It's amazing. Good call, Aunt Martha.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiny Things.
My parents went on a trip to Europe this fall, and so several of our Christmas gifts from them were things they brought back with them. One of these was this box of the tiniest, most amazing looking chocolates from Brussels. I am in love with them, so much so I haven't been able to *eat* one yet. They're too amazing! Anyway, I took pictures to imortalize them, in the hopes that I will be able to eat them soon.










~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sauce.
The Funk that I've been battling was stubborn and annoying, but not so bad that I didn't feel like cooking (I know, most of you don't understand that statement--I can't help it, being too sick to cook for me is like saying I was too sick to watch TV). So, instead, I wound up making The World's Richest Mashed Potatoes, an insane batch of Sausage Gravy and Hominy, and yesterday, slow cooked all-day Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs.I've made plenty of quick sauces, and doctored jarred sauces, but this is the first 5+ hour sauce I've ever made. We had giant second helpings at dinner last night, and I still packed up several quarts for the freezer. Man, I love having a second freezer


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I feel better already. I think I'm going to make some soup.
Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.
What time are you all coming over for dinner?

3 comments:

Sunday Grant Photography said...

i love making my homemade sauce. LOVE IT! i just finished up all ours that were in the freezer so i need to make more. i will never buy jarred again!

CortneyTree said...

For a year or two we've been trying to cut out so much high fructose corn syrup (impossible to get it all, it seems like it's in EVERYthing, even most bread!), and Newman's Own was just about the only jarred sauce that we both liked and that didn't have HFCS. Now, I won't ever worry about it again, I'd rather make one giant batch of this to keep on hand! I threw in a couple of pork chops to stew along with the meatballs, and OMG, soo good. I was always worried about it being bitter, or burning it, or having it not get thick, but I'm not scared anymore :)

KatieKate said...

alright, ladies... bust out the homemade sauce recipes. I was just thinking about that this afternoon when I had zero sauce left and needed a good standard recipe I could throw in the freezer. Did you hear me thinking or what?

Cort, we've got squishy mud down here to go along with your no good pouring rain day...