Winter Snow in Hayden

We went out today to Hayden to check out the lake cabin. It started out a snowy day, and it snowed and snowed. I think once we got past Tobler's Marina there had only been about 6 cars. As you can tell there had been no plow through. It took us an hour to get around, slow and steady, but the pictures were fabulous! It was sooo quiet watching the snow fall and hearing nothing. We got around and came across some guy running his tractor through the driveway, so we were able to get down. Lucky us. We didn't have any intentions of going in the gate and drove up the road to try and see over the fence. We got out to browse, look and take pictures. Mike took the ones through the link fence, I thought they turned out cool. I walked back to the gate and found it unlocked, so I pushed my way in and trudged through the knee-hi snow, hiked up the hill to the cabin, and found the porch safe and sound. We walked down to the lake and found the bay frozen, more awesome pictures, and everything quiet. The last few are on our way back, with the storm blown over and the lake clearing. All in all, a fun, cold, wet, memorable day. You can also view them here in the Picasa3 Album, http://picasaweb.google.com/jamjmrr/December08?feat=directlink

Snow Day

There is snow here.......again. Mike once again is shoveling. It is becoming a morning routine, along with taking out the dog. Here is little Zeke, Richy's new dog. We are all adjusting in various ways. He is a spunky little guy, about 3 1/2 months old. He is still learning his name and we are learning the "potty-let-me-out" signals. Then, they headed to Mission Hill for some sledding. Kids everywhere, jumps and crashes. When they were sufficiently cold, hurt and tired they came home for some of mom's great hot chocolate! Yum, yum, YUM!

Richy, getting aerodynamic....

Logan, Becca, & Richy climbing up that big hill.

Pictures taken by my awesome dad. (Shhhh, he dosn't want credit.)

Orange Peel Candy

I was looking through one of my favorite food sites, foodgawker.com and came across a post from Hungry Cravings (I think her name is Lucy Vaserfirer). It brought back some good memories of my mother. She made these one year at Christmas and I have thought about making them again on and off through the years, but didn't know where to find the recipe. So, I fell in love with the idea of making them for memories-sake. I sent a link to my sisters and of course they knew right where the recipe was in the Joy of Cooking. Should have known, it was my mother's standby cookbook. But, I liked this particulatr recipe and they were fabulous! Candied Citris Peel 2 oz. citrus peel, cut into strips 1 cup sugar, plus more for coating Peel and remove as much flesh and membrane as you can before candying, blanching will take out a lot of the bitterness. Place the peel in a saucepan with 2 cups water, bring to a boil, drain. Repeat 2 more times. On the third time, bring peel, sugar, and 1 cup water to a boil and simmer for 16-18 minutes, or until the peel is translucent. Drain the peel and save some syrup for another use. (I added about a Tablespoon to a cup of hot chocolate, yum!) Spread the peels in a single layer on a parchment paper lined tray and let cool. Roll in sugar to coat. Keeps for about a week in a sealed container. I peeled 7 oranges, made about 2 cups of peel, filled my 2 cup pyrex measuring cup, and simmered in 8 cups sugar. Yikes, but so yum! I had some ulrtafine sugar that I rolled them in, but I think next year, or tomorrow, I will get some raw sugar. That might be yum, too. You can try this with lemons, lines, oranges, grapefruit and she even suggests kumquat slices. Enjoy if you dare! Happy cooking, Jenn

Ahhh, the snow

Well, I finally got these posted. It has been a real adventure the past few days. We even thought that church might be cancelled. It all started on Wednesday night, the 17th. It snowed steady and heavy for about 36 hours the first time. Wednesday night we shovelled about 10-12 inches and in the morning we had about the same. This is a picture of our backyard. In the 'V' of the tree on the right there is an old wodden birdhouse that the tree has grown around.

Oh, you can't see it? Sorry, it's under all that snow...hehe. The trampoline is normally above ground. I sent Mallory out with the yard stick and she snapped the next picture.

No joke!

This is my nephew Logan and Becca sledding from the road into the driveway. They had so much fun. I made a lot of hot chocolate that day, since school was cancelled, as was everything else in town.

The kids used the ladder to climb onto the top of the snow bank. 4 days later we are still waiting to bet plowed out. Mike has been helping a friend with his paper route with our 4-wheel drive. Melany actually got plowed this morning. Great weather for dad to come!