Canning in Winter?

Why yes we did do some wintertime canning...probably more for the enjoyment of the process and the company than the actual product. But I can't wait to make some scones because this lemon curd is going to be divine!

After the ketchup debacle (Anya's take) this was so, so simple! and quick! We zested some lemons and squeezed some juice.

Then quickly moved on to cooking it with eggs and sugar until it was thick. Then we processed it in a normal stock pot. We didn't even need to overwhelm the stove top with the giant canner!

We ended with these adorable little jars of lemon curd! Now they just need cute labels and a basket of scones! YUM!

We LOVE Treats!!!

We love treats around here so we made LOVE treats tonight!

I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave and then stirred them until it made smooth chocolate.

Then everyone got a piece of wax paper to work on. I spread some of the melted chocolate on a pretzel stick.

Everyone got to put their own sprinkles on. We used Wilton's Valentine's Day sprinkle mix.

We slid the wax paper with the pretzel onto a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Then Viola! they were read to be eaten! Everyone liked them so much we made some more to share with our friends on our play date tomorrow!! Ssshh! Don't tell the Monroes, it's a surprise!

Snow Cream

I remember when I was little I always loved making snow cream. I thought about it when we started getting snow, but now that I'm the mom I just think...yuck, it's probably all contaminated with exhaust fume particles and other grossness. Last night I heard Gus on the phone with Mimi saying "Eat snow?!!? Eat snow??!!?" His face was all squished up with his head cocked to the side, clearly convinced Mimi had lost her mind. I promised we could eat snow in the morning. So when I noticed the downpour begin I rushed out and grabbed some good clean snow before it was washed away and turned into nasty gray slushy sludge.
My mom's old recipe called for 2 eggs and a lot of milk. I didn't really want to make THAT much and I don't really want to eat raw eggs in these modern times. So I hunted for a smaller recipe. This is what I made.
Snow Cream:
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups CLEAN snow
mix the milk and sugar and vanilla until dissolved, add to snow, mix, mix, mix until nice ice creamy consistency.

This is Gus' face right before he announced it was too cold.
I am sad to report the rain in washing away our hopes of a 3rd day of being snowed in. Facebook has been overrun with people complaining they want the snow to end so they can get out of their house. I am happy to report we stocked up on the necessities, didn't lose power, and have apparently created a much cozier, comfy home than everyone else. We don't want to go back to regular life so soon! Kyle was really hoping for 3 snow days off from work that would result in an unexpected 5 day weekend. We've really enjoyed this extra time with no time limitations to play games, have light saber battles, bust out the legos and wedgits for building frenzies and watch movies. Except for the occasional need to restock food we could happily stay in our house forever!!

Blizzard 2012

After a lot of fanfare and hype we finally got snow. I was getting kind of annoyed that even Sirius XM was telling me about how much snow we were having when we still had nothing to show for it. But it finally began around 2am Tuesday night/Wednesday AM. We woke up to about 4 1/2 inches in our yard.Right off Gus was having a time of it. He kept saying "Mommy, this hard, walkin' too hard." Eventually he got the hang of walking through the snow. But at first I was afraid he was going to insist we go inside before he even played.

They shoveled for a little bit.

Reese was really having fun. He especially liked stomping around making footprints in the snow.

While Daddy had some energy left he swooped Reese around on the little mini sled thingys. When Gus saw Reese got snow all over his butt and legs when he slid, Gus declined to give it a try.

He also declined photos. He said "don't don't don't take picture, Mommy," but I took it anyway and got this squeezed closed eyes pose.

Reese was doing some major hopping around in excitement to build the Fortress of Solitude.

See that red cooler? It was supposed to be the mold for the snow bricks. The snow wouldn't come out, so we scrapped the fortress idea.

We moved onto building Frosty the Conehead or Jabba the SnowHut.

We survived the blizzard of 2012 without nearly the snow that was promised. We're hoping when we wake up there's a BUNCH more!!!

Happy 2012!!!!