Snow Day

Dad making a path.

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Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Don't know if you can tell, but you can't even get down those steps in the picture there. The porch was covered, so there wasn't much on it. But once you look down the steps, the snow was up almost up to the railings. The snow drifted up to my butt in places, and I am fairly tall.

Lonely Snow Day

Aren't snow days supposed to be fun? I had an appointment down in my neck of the woods on Tuesday afternoon, and as I was driving east and about to jump on the main interstate, I considered continuing on to my home instead. I knew we were about to have a major snow storm, and I was positive we wouldn't have school the next day. Wouldn't it be nice to spend the day with my husband and stepdaughter? But I had to get back up to where I work, so that I didn't have to drive in the aftermath of the storm. So that I would be there already when we had school the next day. So that I would spend the snowday working on things for school/university that I definitely would NOT work on if I were at home with my hubby and girl. So here I am, stuck at my parents for day #2. When school was called off again, I actually teared up because I just really feel like I should be with my family. Especially considering all that is going on.
S is sick. Has been all weekend. J didn't get any sleep. He worked all night in the storm and then had to take our dog Roxie to the vet this morning. She had major surgery on her mouth, plus got lots of skintags removed. She ended up having to have 5 teeth pulled, too. They degenerated and were rotting. We are not getting the removed mass biopsied, as we would not invest in cancer treatment anyway. Missy, our other dog, became very nervous when she saw my husband come home without Roxie. (Can you imagine? "Hi Dad! Good to see you! So glad you guys are back! ....Wait a second......") She ended up making a mess on our living room floor awhile later.
Roxie is back home, groggy, with lots of scars. S is still sick, went to bed early, and was pretty crabby from what I hear. The best part about all this, though, is that our neighbors chipped in and worked together to clear our driveway and sidewalks while J was out and about today. They all know our situation and I think they were happy to help out (or they just felt obligated). When J told me that I was really moved...that is so nice. It also means something to me because it means that neighborhood is becoming more and more like....my home.

Venison, anyone?

So Jamie shot a deer this past season, and now we have cuts and cuts of venison in our freezer. Which is great! Except that I don't care for venison. :) I can tolerate the summer sausage, but no matter how hard I try, all I can see is the deer strapped to the roof of the SUV with it's tongue hanging out.
Today, though, I am trying a venison recipe. Jamie's grandma gave me some venison recipes, and I am trying a "Dutch Oven Garlic-Rosemary-Studded Venison Rump". After looking at the total cooking time (about 2 hours) and the directions, I am thinking this recipe is about 45 min. of prep time. After buying most of the ingredients (could not find cippolini onions?) I started. First step, crushed garlic. After looking up how to do this on youtube, I tried it. Took about 15 minutes to cut, peel, and crush 8 cloves. My hands were sore from pushing down "just so" on the knife and dragging it across the minced garlic until I achieved a "pasty consistency". Then more work, and finally I came to working with the roast itself. "Remove sinew/silver skin," it says. Easier said than done. I think we need new, more sharpened knives. My back began to ache as I was hunched over the sink. Finally, I said "good enough."
So, now, THREE hours later, my roast is only 30 minutes into its 2 hours of cooking. My kitchen is a mess. I have brewed several cups of buillon/beef stock, cleaned, peeled, and cut celery, parsnips, carrots, and onions, minced and crushed garlic, proceeded to shove that garlic (along with rosemary sprig leaves) into little holes in the roast, rubbed the roast with olive oil, along with several other unintentional things that caught some oil remnants, burned vegetables twice in the Dutch oven (who has time to wait for 'sauteed' items?), washed the pot out twice just to use it again....
Here's the best part - the recipe calls for red wine. Only a cup. Wanna guess how the rest of the bottle will be put to use? Mmmm-hmmm....so I grab a huge wine glass, pour some merlot, take a sip....only to see a dead spider in my glass. Wine has been spit out and I am back to the coffee.
Next time I will try an easy recipe, not one that is for a champion chef at a wild-game lodge. Maybe the George Foreman and some seasoned salt will do just fine.