The Rest of the Snow

It's thawing outside and the snow is melting/melted.  Finally.  We made the most of the white stuff and had some fun while it was here...  Here's all what we did:

How deep did it get?  Here are before and after photos for our kimchi pots. 

Now you see them...  now you don't.  They are still on the ledge but are completely covered!

Sarah went out to "test the waters." She confirmed it was deep and cold.

What we did to entertain ourselves.... 

We painted the snow with food coloring and a spray bottle

We played in the snow with our neighbors

We put our ramp building skills to the test to help the girls sled down the driveway. 

Did you lose power?

Yes, we lost power for about four days...  but we had fun with flashlights and camped out in front of the gas stoves. 

We also escaped to places that had power to just get out of the house...  We took the girls to the Tacoma Children's Museum and played for hours.

 And when we got home, the power was back on.  This morning it was back to normal, with the kids going to school, Ronnie going to work, and me putting the house back together. 



Sweet Or range Mar mal ade!!!!

That one is for you, Kim G.  :)

About a week or so ago, I bought a box of oranges from our Bountiful Baskets CSA.  Ronnie brought them home and then proceeded to needle me about my plans for the 35+ pounds of oranges we now had in the fridge.   I looked at him and said I was going to make some orange marmalade.  But first I needed to learn how to can. 

A few days ago I made some apple butter and tried out my hand at canning.  I did all the research I could about how to can. What I found is if you can boil water, you can preserve food.   The apple butter I made was really yummy.  Then I went one step further and put them in the water bath, just like my Southern Living cookbook and Ball handbook told me too.  To my surprise, all four half-pints sealed up nicely. Score one for the novice. 

With my confidence built, I set about looking for the right orange marmalade recipe.  There are so many out there but they are all just a little different.  Some use pectin, some don't; some want you to use a candy thermometer, others just want you to look and watch; some are all orange recipes, others mix citrus.  I settled on the recipe from the Southern Living cookbook using a technique I found on the internet.  Then it was just on to finding time. 

Well, we're in Snowmageddon, Ronnie is home from work, and cooking oranges makes the house smell divine so is there a better time than now?  We peeled, sliced, diced, cooked, strained, and boiled our way to success so far as we can tell.  We can't declare victory just yet because it takes a while for marmalade to set up, a minimum of two weeks so far as I can tell from my research.  But it sure was tasty - tangy and a bit sweet.  Just like we like it!  

Bubbling away (left), cooling after processing (right - my apple butter is there too)

 
Next was to fill and process the jars.  We had enough for four half-pints plus a bit for the fridge.  We put them in the canner and all but one sealed up.  No big deal, we just stuck it in the fridge. 

Making marmalade does require using some of the peels, but not all.  So, we made orange peel candy out of the rest of the peels.  The girls helped chop up the peels and in no time we had a tasty treat for our pantry as well as some orange-infused simple syrup. 

 

Tasty byproducts 

All in all it was a successful morning!  And we have some spreadable sunshine waiting for us in our pantry.  I just have to be patient enough to let it gel. 


More info on making your own:

Orange/Citrus Marmalade recipe:  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-citrus-marmalade-50400000109479/  

Orange Peel Candy:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/candied-orange-recipe/index.html

USDA site for canning:  http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

fu·tile [fyoot-l, fyoo-tahyl]

adjective

1.  incapable of producing any result; ineffective; useless; not successful: Attempting to clear the driveway was futile.

2.  trifling; frivolous; unimportant.

 

So, I shoveled the driveway yesterday.  We have a very long driveway but I did it in about an hour.  I removed most of the snow-slushy mess so we wouldn't have a sheet of ice when we did decide to venture out.  That path is wide enough for my SUV to fit down, plus I shoveled a path for Ronnie to park his car in the garage..  Pretty darned proud of myself considering I didn't grow up shoveling snow. 

 

And then we woke up this morning to about 8" of snow that fell overnight.....  

 

 

Like a friend of mine suggested, looks like I have some more work to do.  

Snowmageddon Crafting Day

We have snow! We've spent our MLK weekend playing in it, building a snowman and having snow ball fights.  It's been a lot of fun...  but what do you do when you wake up to:

1 - more snow on the ground;
2 - school being cancelled;
3 - the forecast looking like this:

and 4 - two kids who have been "together" for three days straight?  Well, I declared yesterday and today crafting day for us.  Holly needed to complete a recycling project for Girl Scouts, and I had a few things in mind for that plus all the supplies and a captive audience.  So we got to creating away. 

First, we made pencil/art supply cups, something I saw on Pinterest.  We used tin cans as our main recycled item (Ronnie made them safe by punching down the sharp edges).  Then we glued scraps of paper to them.  They turned out really cute.  I have a drink carrier around here somewhere to keep them in and the girls will have their art supplies ready to go at a moments notice. 

 From this (left) to these (right)

Next up was a project I had seen done in NOLA a few years ago: making a bag from an old t-shirt.  Holly needed a new Girl Scout bag, so we took one of her camp shirts and turned it into one.  To do this all you do is cut the sleeves out, cut the neck out, and sew up the bottom.  Employing yet another Pinterest idea, we took it one step further and added her name and a design using a bleach pen.  It is a really cute tote and fits her Brownie binder perfectly! 

 

Front of the bags (left) and the back (right)

All really cute projects and all it took was a few minutes, since we had the materials on hand.    Here are the links to the Pinterest how-to's we used to guide us. 

Happy crafting!

Tin can art supply holder: http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/craft-room/store-small-craft-supplies/#page=4

T-shirt step by step:  http://www.instructables.com/id/FASTEST-RECYCLED-T-SHIRT-TOTE-BAG/

Bleach pen t-shirt designs:  http://showtellshare.blogspot.com/2011/02/bleach-pen-tshirts-stash.html

Snow Pretty!

We woke up to a beautiful layer of snow this morning!  Why is it that snow makes things so pretty and serene?  Even watching it snow is so peaceful.  Now, I'm sure my attitude toward the snow is going to change in a few days as we have a pretty massive storm off the coast.  But for now, I'm enjoying the white stuff falling from the sky.  Snow beats rain any day of the week in my book.  Here are some pictures from around our house.