Walking through the neighborhood :)

Walking home for lunch today after our first snow of the season.
I had to stop and take a picture of the sunlight around my neighbor's houses across the street with the crunchy leaves still poking through the fresh snow. Another subtle reminder of why I live here :) 

Chicken Stock..ready for soup season!

I had been keeping a couple chicken carcasses in the freezer the last few weeks - any time I do anything with chicken, I'll wrap and save the bones until I've got enough to make a batch of chicken stock. I supplement the bones with chicken hind quarters I buy from the deli counter at the grocery store. After the meat has cooked through, I'll strip it from the bones, keeping the meat and returning the bones to the pot to finish simmering. All-in-all, it's about a three or four hour process, but it's so incredibly worth it.
In the pot I've got my chickens, three heads of garlic chopped cross-wise, three yellow onions chopped into quarters, a handful of carrots and celery stalks, a couple bunches of parsley and thyme from the garden, whole black peppercorns, and kosher salt to bring out the flavor.
I brown my ingredients before covering them with water - it adds a little more flavor to the stock and lends a deep brown color. Homemade for sure! :)

Because I use a large pot designed for canning/jarring to make my stock, I end up with SEVERAL quarts for the freezer. The last time or two I've made it, though, I've taken the added step of simmering the stock after pouring it off of the other ingredients but before packing it up for the freezer. It seems to concentrate the flavor that much more...plus, it ensures I'll actually have room for all of it ;)
And not a minute too soon! After I finished this, I gathered up the leaves from the yard and burned them in my vegetable garden. I had used up everything in it for this year, so was ready to clear and prep it for a new season next year. And wouldn't you know it, only a few hours after the fire died out, we had our first snow of the season!

Getting buttoned up for winter :)

Yesterday was a pretty productive day around the house!
A few days ago, Lady Friend and I had started planting spring flowering bulbs, but didn't finish before the sun started setting on us. Yesterday, I took the time to finish that project off, so hopefully the house will be surrounded with all kinds of tulips, allium, narcissus, and crocus come spring time!
There was also the more mundane chores of catching up on laundry, mowing the yard, and straightening up around the house, but I also cut back the rest of the moonflower, hosta, and other perennials..I even pruned the Limelight hydrangeas outside the solarium!
When that was done, I decided I'd spread my cutting board and wooden kitchen tool 'collection' out on the bed of my truck and give everything a good sanding. Over the course of the last year or more, they've become scratched, stained, dull and dry, and they needed some attention. This dark, round, end-grain board actually had a few separations around the edges - the combination of sawdust and the penetrating moisture from the Board Cream tightened everything up again. Good as new, and ready for winter cooking!

Nobody lives here without paying rent..

If last year was the Year of the Bat, 2013 will be the Year of the Mouse.

Not in the ‘Chinese New Year’ sense so much as in the ‘Things That Are Temporarily Living in My House’ sense.

Yes, last night – while brushing my teeth – I learned that there was a small mouse in my house. Specifically, in my bathroom. By my foot.

After trying to quickly think of something I could use to catch the little guy, I decided I’d be better served by trying to brutally kill it instead.

Rather than go to bed, I pulled on my coat and shoes and headed across town to Wal-Mart for a midnight mouse trap trip. Of course, now that all the traps have been set (10, to be exact), I’m wondering if I did the right thing. Not in terms of animal cruelty or anything like that…no, eff that. No I’m wondering if this mouse is heavy enough to trip the trap..he’s only about the size of my thumb..

Anyway..this is my life. I’ll report back soon enough if anything other than my finger gets snapped in one of the traps.

Don't unpack, buddy..

Snow, snow, and more snow

This is my driveway after running the snow blower three times in the last 24 hours..

Icicles

Snowy Day

Woof..
So, the nighttime picture was actually from a couple weeks ago - we had a December snowstorm that was kind of pretty. Then we had THIS snowstorm last night that wasn't so pretty. Rain leading to snow which means icy roads and lots of delays. It would be an awfully nice snow day if I didn't live to close to work.. :S