The other evening, the kids were playing outside, enthusiastically and energetically careening down our backyard mountain.
Alex overshot the sled and slid down on his face.
Monthly Archives: January 2011
If You Build It, They Will Sled
We had yet another snow storm – and no-school-day – this past Thursday. We awoke to somewhere around a foot of snow on top of all the other snow we’ve had this season.
Bill started mounding snow against the deck after the first major snow, and he’s been adding to it with each successive snow storm.
The kids have actually been skiing on it, but this past Thursday, they were all about the sledding….
First Stitches By Hand
Smoked Pork Butt – Of Bark and Smoke Rings and Shreddy Goodness
Yesterday, starting early, early, early in the morning, I fired up the smoker and placed a lovingly rubbed and injected hunk of pork on the rack.
You can read the first three posts about this day-long project here:
Smoked Pork Butt – Rising Before Dawn
Smoked Pork Butt – Charcoal Couture
Smoked Pork Butt – I’ve Got a Hot Butt (clearly the smoke was getting to me here)
Now, for the final chapter of yesterday’s labor of love….
FFwD – Chicken B’Stilla
Ohhhh, I totally forgot what day of the week it was. The snow days we’ve had over the last couple of weeks keep throwing me off track, at least mentally, and yesterday I kept thinking it was Sunday, because everyone was home, and so this morning I had no idea WHAT day it was, and plus I was up at 4:29 am to play with fire and pig meat and then make cheese, and then at some point today it suddenly hit me:
IT’S FRIDAY!
FRENCH FRIDAYS WITH DORIE DAY!
CHICKEN B’STILLA DAY!
Smoked Pork Butt – I’ve Got a Hot Butt
And yes, I’m suddenly an eight year old boy.
Or a twelve year old boy.
Or an eighteen year old boy.
Or a 26 year old boy.
Or a 40 year old boy….
Hm. Well okay, you get the idea.
Moving on…
Smoked Pork Butt – Charcoal Couture
Early this morning when I started the coals and injected the pig, I put this hat on.
And I have kept it on all day so far.
Somehow it seems I MUST keep this hat on for the duration of the smoking process.
Perhaps it will keep my head on straight.
Smoked Pork Butt – Rising Before Dawn
Sorry it’s blurry – I blame the darkness of 4:37 A.M. in the morning for that.
I got up this morning at 4:29 to start coals and inject a pork but with…well, part of me keeps wanting to say “moisturizer” but no, I didn’t inject it with a skin care product.
Let me try this again.
The Cookie Cutter Project – Cinnamon Squirrels
In case you can’t tell, they’re holding pieces of walnuts in their little cookie arms.
I was in the mood for cinnamon. And we’ve had our little squirrel friends stopping by for seeds and scraps of toast and stale bread a lot this winter, so I thought I’d use the squirrel cookie cutter for these.
I know – it’s supposed to be a project with my kids. But Sunday was a day of ice fishing and quilting, and we didn’t get the cookies baked.
So I baked them yesterday before everyone got home.
Potato Glass Noodles
Bill and the kids and I went to our favorite Asian market recently to stock up on a few things and get ingredients for a couple of meal ideas Bill had been kicking around. Part of the fun of shopping there (besides the fabulous butcher, “Tommy” who talks fishing with Bill) is finding and trying out new and different ingredients. Sometimes we’ll just see something and buy it, figuring we’ll find a use for it eventually.
This time around, while the kids were searching for chicken feet in the poultry section (yes, really), I noticed bags of these noodles on an aisle shelf nearby. I saw that these were made from potato starch, rather than bean starch, and they were kind of gray in color, and, well, they just looked cool.
So I had to get them.