HAPPY SNOW DAY!

Here we go again! Another snow storm! This one is going to continue on and off until tomorrow! At 10:00 AM, I took this picture. I walked to the middle of my lawn where it was flat so it would be accurate. The ruler says 10 1/2"! YET if I look across the street, those neighbors only have about 6"! They own trees, I don't!

I'm so tired of shoveling. I need and want a snow blower. With Scott away, Alyssa's bad back and PJ at work, it's all me doing the shoveling. Mike usually does my sidewalk but he's at work today.

Today was such a gloomy, rainy, yucky day. I decided to clean off the desk in my dining room where I keep my plants for the winter. It's the only sunny spot in the house. They're all bunched on the top of the desk because I have too many plants and not enough space! Hidden behind the still beautiful Poinsettia is my orchid. As I went to move it I noticed that one of the buds was open and in full bloom! To me... this means Spring isn't far away!!!

This past weekend was a very busy one when I came to de-cluttering. I cleaned out my craft closet last week and I was waiting for PJ to cut a piece of wood to make an extra shelf to put in the closet. I needed to reorganize my scrapbook supplies because they were taking over the room. I still had some stacking bins from my last job. They were closing up shop and the boss gave them to me for my scrapping supplies. It worked out great that I'm friends with that boss!
I think it turned out pretty nice. I can now actually SEE what I have and start using things that have been hidden! Now I need a few more closets because this is just the tip of the iceberg!!!!

Yesterday was NOT a good day for baking! Andrea invited a few of us over to her house for breakfast today. I decided to make a Jewish Coffee Cake. It's a great recipe that we got from PJ's cousins about 30 years ago. Everyone up in Bristol, CT (Polish town!) make this cake or the all did back then. It calls for a tube pan. The only tube pan I have left is a heavy cast iron one that makes the shape of a rose out of the cake. That would look pretty to bring to a friends house I thought! I decided to also make one for PJ to bring to work. I love to bake but don't want the results in the house. The workers appreciate free food so why not!
I got everything mixed up and put the tube pan in the oven. I then started to mix up the ingredients for the second one. I had everything in the bowl except the vanilla. I grabbed the vanilla (or what i thought was vanilla) and just eyeballed one... two... teaspoons of the vanilla. I looked at it thinking how come the vanilla isn't brown? Then the smell hit me! It was Anise! I quickly tried to scoop it out but it kind of soaked into the sugar, flour and eggs so there was still some in there. Oh well, maybe this will make it even better even though I hate Anise!
I made sure I let the pans sit for 15 minutes (like the directions said) before taking the cakes out of the pans. The one with the Anise came out easily and was a nice looking coffee cake. The one in the rose pan... it didn't want to budge! Finally i got 1/2 of it out and had to wrestle with it to get the rest out! What a mess!


I decided to bring the Anise one to Andrea's house. It will be all friends so if it's that bad, we'll have a few laughs and throw it out! PJ, Alyssa, Dave and I each had a piece of the ugly yet good tasting cake. I wrapped up the other one to be all ready for this mornings breakfast. I got online to check my emails and found out that today was canceled! It's going to be Friday!!! After all of that. I don't know if I should make another one for Friday, just not in that pan or just go for something else! It is delicious though!

This weekend we went to the MARDI GRAS on the Cayuga Wine Trail. We had so much fun! I posted the full story on my Adventure blog... http://mamazukesadventures.blogspot.com/
First we checked out out piece of property... it looks like it did last winter! There's a few more lots for sale including the one right next to ours.

Wegman's REGULAR EVERYDAY price of milk!!!

We started out at Six Mile Creek and continued on from there, sampling the food and wine.

We thought this year there was a lot more people in Mardi Gras attire than last year. We need to step it up! You get a different string of beads from each winery. We added some from last year as well.

Seneca Lake...

We had such a nice time. Our next event is in April but we may have to miss it! BUMMER!

Yesterday we had quite a blizzard. All of the schools closed, PJ had to be at work at 4 AM...
The morning had quite a few inches on the ground. There were nice breaks in between the snow where you could actually get your camera out without it getting wet!

PJ was able to come home at 5PM to sleep for a few hours before going back at midnight. That's his car this morning. He took my car back to work because he couldn't find a gas station open to get gas for his car!

Mike helped me get out this morning. PJ's car was plowed in and I had to get out! This will sound so not me but i had to get to my hairdresser appointment! I took some pics while going through the neighborhood. This was a few blocks away. The sun was shinning so nicely on that tree but it didn't show in the picture.

My block

I put the ruler on a flat part of my front lawn... 13 1/2 "!!

We're supposed to be getting a lot of snow tomorrow so I ran to Walmart to get some batting for the quilt I'm making for Quilts For Kids. Tomorrow would be a perfect day to finish it.
I finished the top layer. Now I just have to layer the back, batting and front together, quilt them together and then do the seam bindings. The last part is kind of freaking me out. I've never done seam binding before. I found some you tube videos with directions so hopefully I'll be able to pull this one off!
Alyssa and I had a delicious lunch today of Szechuan Lettuce Wraps. The recipe is on my blog.
http://mamazukecooks.blogspot.com/

I'm so happy that The Saints won the SuperBowl. I would have loved to be in N.O.'s last night just to experience the craziness. Scott didn't get to experience it. He spent the night in the library doing work! We had our PoBoys for dinner. They were delicious (recipe will be on my cooking blog http://mamazukecooks.blogspot.com/ but boy did I have heartburn during the night!

Today is Superbowl Sunday. I'm not a football fan, as a matter of fact, I despise the sport. This year though, I will be watching. Peyton manning deserves to win and probably will but I will be rooting for the New Orlean's Saints. Had I just been a typical tourist while in N.O.'s, I wouldn't feel this way. It would be just like any other city that we may vacation in... you enjoy yourself but don't really get a 'feel' for the people. N.O. was very different. We met and spoke with a lot of people that live there. We learned about their culture, the people and the cuisine. We saw the effects of the hurricane, water lines up to the roofs and roofs with holes punched out from where they escaped from the floods. The people are so warm hearted and united in their spirit of their community. They are such positive thinkers and want to enjoy life, not just exist. I've never experienced that anywhere else in my life. For those reasons, they have found a special place in my heart. I will always love that city. The people are the reason that I will be rooting for the Saints today. We will be having Shrimp PoBoys for dinner and maybe I'll whip up some Gumbo if I have time. If the Colts win, at least a fellow New Orlean's town boy still won. Peyton Manning is from N.O.'s and his family still lives there. So, all I can say is Geaux Saints! WHO DAT?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYndtqa9K0

Today I decided to make my favorite sauce, Tomatillo Salsa for my Chicken Enchilada's. I just love this sauce. It's so fresh, healthy and just plain ole YUMMY! It's so easy to make. My house smells so good right now!! I posted the recipe here: http://mamazukecooks.blogspot.com/

I have a new buddy that watches over me every night when I cook dinner. Huckleberry sits on the top of the booth seat that is in between the kitchen and living room and just watches... and watches. I used to have a vase with some branches in it but he started to eat all of the leaves so I moved it. That's when he started to make this a nightly habit.

I took a walk yesterday to the post office. I had my camera with me so I went a little bit further and walked around part of Twin Lakes. It was very quiet and a little creepy walking around alone so I left fairly quick! Usually there's a bunch of ducks swimming around but they were no where in sight. I guess they were hiding in a warmer spot.

There was a lot of ice around the shoreline.

It was pretty neat how the ice formed circles around the branches of the bushes.

There's 2 swans in the far distance.

It was cool to see the duck footprints on top of the ice. It looked like fossils.

I was very happy to get home. It wasn't a long walk but my face was killing me from the cold!!!

Last night PJ and I went to Ellen and Vinny's house for a BBQ. The last time we saw them was 2 summers ago at Stew and Lisa's Atlantic Beach Cornell reunion get together. I don't know why but there wasn't a reunion this past summer. HUM?
We had a nice time reminiscing about the past, updating with the kids whereabouts etc. When it came time for dessert, Vinny put out mugs from the Cornell Hort Dept. PJ was so impressed with them... kind of like a 'must have'. It turns out that Ellen and Vinny went up to Cornell about 15 years ago and bought some of these mugs as a Horticulture Dept fund raiser. They use them all the time! I can't belive they aren't chipped! So now I'm on a quest. I want to find a few of these mugs to get for PJ for his birthday or just some other time. I have become friends with the Hort Dept Web developer over the years chatting about our Alliums! He has beautiful gardens on his property and a blog with such interesting things. http://www.remarc.com/craig/. I love his Bloom Day Scans. Interesting! Anyway, I'm going to send him a pic of the mug and see if he knows if any more are hanging around for the last 15 YEARS or where I can get some!