winter, writing, food

In my last post, I talked about winter hibernating because we were due for a big snowstorm. We did indeed get that storm, but not quite as much as they predicted. However, that storm must've triggered winter vibes to the Powers That Be because now we're getting slammed. It's been nothing but snow, ice and cold since then. Here's the front of my house yesterday morning before I shoveled. The snow was wet and heavy with a layer of ice underneath from the ice storm two days ago. Not fun! Not that it ever is.

The backyard looks pristine and peaceful with the snow, but don't let that postcard look fool you.

Temps are dropping down to -9F tonight with high winds, which means blowing and drifting snow. Then comes another big snowstorm Sunday night into Monday. On top of it, record-breaking cold will follow the snowstorm all next week where wind chills could be -40 to -50F.

This past Sunday night was the Blood Wolf Moon. Did any of you get to see it? Of course, it was bitter cold here but I was excited to see this event, so I bundled up like Nanook of the North and went outside at 10:40 PM to watch. I was wearing leggings underneath Brian's flannel-lined LL Bean jeans, a scarf over my face, thick socks on my feet stuck in very warm fur-lined boots, and a parka that came down to my knees. I stayed nice and toasty and the black winter sky was beautiful with the blood moon and the visible stars. My cousin in Tacoma, WA saw this photo of me and she was like, "Stoppp! How do you guys stand it there?!" I told her us Chicagoans are hardy people. And I guess we shrug it off as just another winter. But yeah, that air really does hurt our face. (And we complain about the weather a lot.)

While I've still been in hibernation mode, one of the things I've been working on is my writing. I'm taking a writing workshop in Chicago hosted by my First Best Friend, Cin who is a rather famous Chicago writer, poet and author and I'm also taking an online class from Jennifer Louden. I normally don't carve out a lot of time to just write. I'm learning the importance of giving myself permission to do so. The support of the other women writers in Cin's workshop are a great support. Of course, so are the women in Jennifer's online classes (there's a closed Facebook group and sometimes Jennifer does a live video chat), but it's so much better meeting with other writers in person.

I had a taste for quiche for breakfast lately but I didn't want the calories and carbs that traditional quiche offers, so I made a crustless one. It's just eggs and cheese whipped up with sauteed veggies and baked. I would've loved to use baby spinach or broccoli in this - it needs something green! - but I was out of both at the time. This dish isn't as rich as quiche since it doesn't have any milk or cream in it, so maybe this is more like a frittata. Whatever you want to call it, it's healthy and good. You could even make this for a light lunch or dinner with a lovely tossed salad.

I haven't baked in a long time, but when I saw a photo of the most delicious-looking chocolate chip cookies I'd ever seen on Instagram, I had to look into the recipe to see what it was about. You can find the recipe here on the Cookies and Cups blog. It's unique in that instead of using traditional white flour, it uses both bread and cake flours. They also highly suggest chopping your own chocolate instead of using chocolate chips. That way the hand-chopped chocolate chunks and shavings get dispersed into gooey globs of chocolate all throughout the cookie. From reading the comments on this blog post, I found out this is an original recipe of David Leite, which he had published in the New York Times. However, Leite said he developed the recipe based heavily on one from Jacques Torres.

This recipe was a bit labor intensive, especially with hand chopping a pound of dark chocolate - and then you have to wait at least 24 hours to make the cookies as the dough has to sit in the fridge - but I have to tell you, these were the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. They're obviously not a quick go-to cookie, but when you want something really special, this is the recipe you want to pull out. They're thin and crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle.

Have a great weekend, everyone. I wish I could say I was going back to hibernating, but I actually have a busy weekend. 

Counting the days 'til spring...

christmas recap

It was a lovely Christmas season around here, starting out on the 22nd at my First Best Friend's house. Ten of us ladies gathered for our Winter Solstice dinner and holiday celebration. We do this at the start of every season and these Circles are always one of the highlights of my year.

I told my First Best Friend that walking into her beautiful home is like being enveloped in a big hug. It feels safe, peaceful, welcoming and loving. She said that was the best compliment she could ever receive about her home. 

Christmas Eve was celebrated here at Comfy House with extended family: My mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece, cousin and two sisters-in-law. I was too busy to take many photos, but I like this one I captured of my mom, niece, and sister.

Tim came over Christmas morning and the three of us spent a couple of hours hanging out in the living room, eating breakfast casserole, drinking coffee, opening presents, and just hanging out. Phil is always especially missed at times like these. It should be four of us on Christmas morning.

Of course, the kitties got some presents from Santa, too ~ new catnip toys. There's a matching "naughty" toy go with this "nice" one, but I let Tim take that one home for his roommate's wild and crazy kitten.

Tim and his new Planet Express hoodie...

Brian looking at one of his presents (with Monkey looking on)...

Brian gifted me with several lovely gifts, including this sterling silver necklace from Blue Nile. (Cat hair not included.) I've told Brian numerous times that I have enough jewelry and don't want anymore, but he loves buying me special pieces (especially from Blue Nile) on occasion. Who am I to argue?

Later in the day, Tim went back to his place and Brian went to the nursing home to visit his dad. It was just me and the cats at home and I was alright with that. It felt good to put my feet up and just relax.

As I say every year at this time, I'm glad the holiday season is over. I took down all the Christmas decor on the 26th because to me, Christmas is over ~ and by that time, I'm tired of looking at all of the holiday decor. I know some people follow the Twelve Days of Christmas philosophy and I do get that, but I'm not one of those people. 

When Brian and I were packing all the Christmas decor back up, I took the time to go through the leftover decor in the storage bins (the stuff I didn't use) and ended up donating so much that we're down to two storage bins instead of three! I've slowly been putting the house back together these past few days and I'm loving the cleaner, uncluttered look.

Hope your holidays were wonderful!

a beautiful home ~ and a quiet Mother's Day

 Yesterday afternoon I drove into Chicago to attend my VFF's (Very First Friend ~ we met when were were barely 4 years old!) girlfriend's dinner. I left my house a little early so that I could do some shopping and sight-seeing in the city, but traffic going down there was worse than anticipated, so I didn't end up with much time to look around. Driving down Clark St. in this certain section of Chicago, I saw so many stores that I would've loved to browse in. I found a parking space, got out of my car, and it was like my head was on a swivel. So many cool looking stores and cafes on corners and good smells coming out of restaurants. This area is definitely on my day trip list. I only had time to go into one store - a huge resale shop where I found some great treasures! I'll save that for another post.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some of my friend's house with you. I've talked about Cin on my blog before and showed some photos of her house, but each time I visit there are different vignettes depending on the season. I love her house. It's warm, inviting, beautiful and charming. Just like she is. By the way, Cin is a professional poet. If you're interested in taking a look at her web site and what she does, click here.

 How I would love to have windows like this in my house! Look closely at the arrangement on the buffet. Cin incorporated her son's Lego creations into the vignette. :-)

The table is beautifully set for our dinner. More details in this room I love: the original light fixture and the built-in china cabinet (little bit showing on the left).

Part of the charming kitchen. There's a chalkboard wall to the right with the door to the basement and then a recessed nook where the fridge is.

Open shelving on the kitchen wall...

Standing in the kitchen looking the other way... great space for Cin's little guy to play while she's preparing a meal. I love the brick floor and the wood ceiling. 

 

It was a quiet day here for Mother's Day. Brian doesn't cook, so instead of making me breakfast, he went to Panera to get me an egg souffle. He texted me to let me know the line was out the door! Poor guy waited in that long line only to find out that the souffles were all gone. He was off to work a couple of hours after that. Tim had to work today too, so the day was spent by myself. It was cold and rainy and just generally yucky today, so I took a long, hot bath, did some yoga, read a little bit, did housework and puttered and organized, then treated myself to Chinese food for dinner. Haven't had that in ages. It was really good, but my tummy felt yucky afterwards. I'm not used to eating heavy, greasy food. After my stomach was settled a bit, I took a walk around my neighborhood for some fresh air and exercise. I also called my mama to wish her a Happy Mother's Day and to have a chat. We'll be seeing her in person later this week.

Mother's Day is hard for a lot of people...for those who have lost a child, such as myself; or have lost their mom; or for those who have lost their wife/mother of their children. A male friend of mine who lost his 36-year old wife about eight years ago to cancer, posted on Facebook yesterday that he hates Mother's Day. When his wife died, she left behind their six small children. On top of it, he also lost his mother to suicide many years ago. So I can totally understand why he feels the way he does. If you're so inclined, click here to read a wonderful article ~ "For Those Who Hurt on Mother's Day".

My beautiful boys...Philip Thomas (forever 21...you can read my dedication to Phil at the top of my page) and Timothy David.