Slower paced living

I am so lucky.  Today we are snowed in on our mountain, and everything we needed to do (individually and collectively) has been cancelled:  no school for C, no rehearsal for me, no flight in for M.  I check in with my city friends, and they are all fussing about snow plows and icy roads and closed highways.  The folks at East Mountain Library are Shoveling. The. Parking. Lot.  I don't have to worry about any of it.

That's one of the perks of being a 24/7 caregiver.  I don't have to go anywhere if I don't want to, and the only thing I have to do is keep the house warm and the food cooked.  Granted, it's a little problematic right now in the house, since we only have radiant floor heat.  The wood-burning stove is still an unfinished project, and somehow the solar heat doesn't work when there's no sun.

However, there is the casita next door, complete with full kitchen and wood stove.  So, I shovel the walks (which promptly needs re-shoveling), bundle up my friend, and install her with her book by the stove.

Then, I settle into some solid baking.  I start out with gingersnaps.  I find an Alton Brown recipe online, and recall that S swears by AB.  So, I give it a shot.

All I can say is, AB must be cooking at sea level.

However, messy and gooey as the cookies are (before I add more flour), they are quite tasty.  I approve of the addition of cardamom to the spices.  And, I have to confess that, not having a kitchen scale, I have to use the conversion formulas and cup measurements.  AB is into ounces, not cups.  I don't know why it would matter, but Gluten-Free Girl is also adamant that weight is the way to go, so there's probably some science behind it.  I don't want to blame AB and the altitude too much.

Once I am in the rhythm of cookie baking, I put together the fixings for granola, courtesy of the Tassajara Bread Book.  Since I am going to be using the cookie sheet (we only have one) for the granola, it gets set aside, once mixed.

Then, the lentil stew.  That recipe is in the Moosewood Cookbook.  Simmer rinsed lentils in stock for 4 hours.  Then saute garlic, onion, celery, carrots in butter.  Add to the lentils and simmer for another hour or so.

All I can say is, Moosewood cooks must ALSO have been working at sea level.

The 3 cups of lentils soak up the 7 cups of stock in one hour flat, and I'm adding liquid every half hour after that.  I add the saute mix after 2 hours, and turn the whole darn thing off after another hour.  A half hour before dinner I'll turn it back on and add the tomatoes and wine and spices.

Time to add another log to the fire and re-shovel the walk.  Now what?   Hmm, maybe I should rearrange the spices.  Sheesh, we have 5 containers of cumin.  Cinnamon sticks, whole cardamom and cloves....Ah, mulled wine.

We don't have apple cider to sweeten the pot, but, for future reference, Triple Sec does just fine.

And now the sun has come out, so I may try for a little sunset walk.  Forget practising, it's a snow day!