"WTF? Something is seriously wrong here."
"I found a little snow over here Princess."
"Maybe if we dig, we can find it."
"Nope. No sign of snow Princess."
"Keep lookin..."
Later at the farms:
"WTF? Who the hell are those guys? I've never seen them before here!"
"Hmm... something's fishy. The snow is all gone and these guys showed up."
"And it looks like they're a gang. They must have stolen the snow!"
"I found some here Princess."
"Do your job and guard it. I'm going after the culprits..."
I can't believe that our several feet of snow has completely disappeared in one night! It rained a few nights ago and there's nothing left but a few small plow piles. Sigh. And I still have at least three "snow" posts to type up. Gosh it happened so fast!
As I type this, there is an exciting lightening storm brewing. I love lightening storms. We rarely get them in California and when I came out here in July to house hunt there were a few down by the lake while we strolled at night. I was all, "Oh my God! There's a lightening bolt," at least 87 times to Mr. Wild Dingo. He's not phased by lightening and quickly grew bored with my awe.
On another note, in addition to French lessons and Juno's total hip surgery focus while we're here, I plan to teach myself to cook. I'm actually a very good cook but I only know how to use the darn stove top. I make a kick-ass Puttenesca sauce. Last week's Puttenesca for Mr. Wild Dingo's dinner party turned out rather unusual though because in my haste at the supermarket, when I couldn't find anchovies, I opted to use anchovy paste, but I mis-translated what was actually in the tube, some sort of vegemite. Can you say gross? Damn it, why doesn't everyone just speak and write in English? We used it anyway to give the sauce a little kick that Puttenesca is supposed to have. While I wasn't crazy about it, some of the guests liked it a lot.
When I learned to cook, I was a vegetarian. Now that I'm not, I still hadn't mastered how to use the oven to cook meat, though I recently learned to make Bolognese. This whole cooking with meat is a new thing for me. We didn't expect we'd be entertaining in this home but as it turns out, it seems we will quite a bit for Mr. Wild Dingo's colleagues. Most of them are meat-eaters. And every time the TravelMarx visit, I'm inspired to cook again. So they shared some of their best oven recipes to try. I opted for the easy one first: roasted chicken with veggies. But first I made the side dish:
Potatoes with red pepper and Kalamata olives in a balsamic vinegar sauce with onion, garlic, mint, oregano and parsley. Oh my God, I died and went to heaven when I tasted this baby. It's a keeper for a side dish.
Then the chicken. It came out perfectly cooked though I had to cook it 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for. It was tender. A little over-spiced with the rosemary, but very good. However, I have to nix this dish because it's too difficult to carve and eat for serving to dinner guests. Next week I'll try some boneless meats and fishes.
Tonight is left overs and a salad:
Caprese. My presentation skills are seriously lacking. But the oil used in the recipe will make up for it. It was a gift from the Travelmarx: freshly pressed (like literally the day they bought it, it was pressed). The oil is amazing. So heavy and rich, like buttah. Sadly they couldn't take it home with them and it has to be used quickly so I had to bear the burden of using it up for them.
Tomorrow night is a planned re-try of Bolognese. There are only like a million ways to make it. I haven't really made one that I love so I have to experiment. And the dogs don't seem to mind all this experimentation, especially since they always get the last bites of the meals.
So you had to go and post this and make the Mom all hungry for that potato salad. We don't get to have onions but she claims no salad is complete without onions - she thinks your dish looks so yummy.
As for snow, we can promise you that WE didn't take it:(
Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
Man that was a lot of snow to disappear so quickly!
The chocolates are a hit btw...
I do like roasted chicken, but don't know how to carve a bird to save my life and was so happy when I found this recipe. So easy, quick and cheap and YUMMY.
http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/09/easy-roasted-chicken-legs-with-olives-recipe/
Being that they are chicken legs rather than the whole chicken it makes serving much easier. When I cant find chicken legs I'll get just the thighs and its still just as good.
Your luxurious blanket of snow is GONE????
that's just not right.
(hey, toss us a hunk o meat, please.)
jack & moo
I bet the herd can tell you where to find some snow. 🙂
You hit a sore point with me - recipes! I follow the recipe exactly and it always seems to take longer (or shorter) than the time specified. I've checked the temperature in my oven and it's spot-on, but it still seems that the time is off!
LOL! Guard that snow with your lives!
Hugs,
Oh no snow - how sad, sigh. It will return... we are certain! Your dishes look absolutely yummy - okay. I'm starving. Please airpost summa dat delish looking food. And I think your presentation skills are fabulous!
xoxoxo
S and A and Mom
Snow thievery is just wrong - but those recipes clearly call for a couple of furry taste testers.
Your mom is cooking? Oh man! I am so there.
Is there nothing normal where you live? Snow one day, no snow the next. Thunder and lightening. I just don't get it.
Slobbers,
mango
YUMMEEEE! I love blogs with pictures of food! 🙂 It's aspirational, you know, since I'm such a lousy cook myself. Well, I'm a "hit & miss" cook - occasionally - VERY occasionally - I manage to produce something good but the problem is I never know how to replicate it! 😉
Hsin-Yi
That much snow disappeared overnight?! Yegads!
Ha ha! I'm just happy that I can make a lot of good stuff with the slow cooker! Now you make me feel likea total slacker. I suddenly really crave bruschetta and some fancy pasta! Darn you!
Now the husband wants Caprese salad... We're big fans of roast chicken because it's easy, gives us leftovers, and it tasty. But, like you say, not so useful for the dinner party thing... The Joy of Cooking is actually pretty useful (I think there is a 'new and improved' version with lower-fat recipes, too) particularly when it comes to cooking something totally out of left-field (it helped me A TON the first time I cooked prime rib; I didn't want to ruin a $30 hunk of meat, and the JOC saved my butt...). One question about cooking - what altitude are you at? I didn't believe in 'high-altitude' cooking until I moved to Utah, and discovered that being at 4000 ft. made a HUGE difference (in a bad way, until I figured it out).
No snow?!? Eeek. Actually, we got rain the other day, and I could swear my husband was going to cry. Luckily our ski resort is a few hundred feet above our house, and they got snow, not rain, but I swear I could see tears in my husband's eyes! 😉 We'll keep fingers, toes and paws crossed for more snow for you!
-Dr. Liz and family
Gosh, who knew your snow could disappear as fast as ours can in MerryLand [not that we've had any, yet, which is fine with us]. We figured once it snowed in CH, it was like the Rockies: you'd never see the ground again until Spring.
Abby would like to have a fence like yours: super easy to just slip out under the bottom. Guess Juno and Loki aren't diggers. Thanks to Abby, our fence is lined on the inside with cement blocks held down by steel re-bar, and there's an electronic fence on the outside of the actual fence. Some of the bottom of the actual fence is also encased in concrete.
Jed & Abby
Dear Juno and Loki -
The Wild Dingo Woman has some pawtential on the khooking front!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
geesh! last time i visited woo's bloggie it was a winter wonderland..woo sure woo didn't move again! no snow = BORRR-RRING! i'd put some in your back pocket & stash it in that new freezer.
your mom's going to be another julia childs. have you seen the movie julie & julia??
scratchies, no pass that yummie side dish ovah!
tula
Breaking news: Your missing snow has been found! It appears to be seriously heading our way...
Will trade you the address for a very good "huilerie" for the recipe for this potato side dish, hint, hint.
The same thing happens to the snow down in the "flats" around here. We once had a 6' dump of snow (I'm not kidding) which took a very very long time to melt up at my house at 8200' (even though it was late March) but it melted in a few days in Boulder. Can you say flood?
BTW, I don't "do" anything fancy to my photos. One of the things that I love about chocolate lab fur is how many hues it has in it. Different hues show up in different light. I am, however, using a new camera with better color depiction. Perhaps that's what you're noticing!
I can't believe they stole your snow! I'm outrages for you! --- Storm
Wow, I think your dishes are very pretty. I don't know much about cooking or presentation, but it all looks good to me. 🙂 I wish I enjoyed cooking. It can be such an art form. It would also make the chore of daily cooking not such a chore lol.