Big Snow Coming? Happy Valentine's Day!

 

From Boise Channel 2 News

Big Snow Coming?

This winter has been pretty disappointing to me, since I love snow! Only an inch or so, here and there, then melted too fast. Maybe not this time! Three storms stacked up back to back, with largest one this entire winter. Here's hoping!!! Will keep you posted! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hubby Dave's birthday was last week, and now the big love day! Here's a peek at some of my decor-

Thrifted vase and flowers

Vintage jar with thrifted apples and hearts, beads are new

Little wooden love blocks from the dollar store years ago

Making Irish Ballycotton Fish Chowder & Spotted Dog Soda Bread

Photo from cookbook 

Making Irish Ballycotton Fish Chowder & Spotted Dog Soda Bread-

I'm part Scotch/Irish and have wanted to explore some traditional cooking.  I'd run across some recipes by the author Rachel Allen with some really classic Irish Family Foods, but ones that were a bit healthier-

I bought a used copy of her book on eBay. After browsing a bit the first one I decided to try was her Ballycotton Fish Chowder (named after her village).  I really liked the fact it didn't have just dairy is the base for the liquid since Dave and I have to take it easy with dairy products. It has a lot of chicken stock in the chowder, but no chicken flavor. This was actually a fairly inexpensive dish to make. I did use some smoked salmon that I found on sale, ditto some small salmon fillets and the Whiting fish I used is also pretty reasonable. We already had some bacon in the freezer, milk, fresh herbs and potatoes. I made a double batch so we'd have some leftovers. I was really tempted to put in some finely diced celery and carrots but decided to follow the recipe instead. This is hands-down the best seafood soup I have ever made ! It was actually pretty easy just a lot of dicing of the potatoes. Really wonderful flavor, cook's pretty fast since you're cooking small pieces of fish. The recipes pretty flexible too.  I used Whiting because it was easy to find but you could use the other recipes listed like the Pollock, Haddock or Cod listed. Garnish with crispy bacon and fresh herbs! Nice on a chilly night! 

 I also wanted to try Rachel's recipe for Spotted Dog Soda Bread  which is basically Irish soda bread with raisins. Hers is a little bit different because it does not use any butter, which is very traditional. Instead she uses an egg. I did substitute 1 cup of WW Pastry flour for the white flour, a little healthier! Next time will use just the WW. The bread had a nice crunchy exterior and very, very moist inside. It also keeps really well. I had a slice today with my morning tea break and it was great! I'm looking forward to trying more of her recipes. 

Independence Days Challenge

 

Independence Days Challenge-

There's a big winter storm coming in. I saw the forecast for the Sierra Nevada mountains:

6'-7' of snow and up to 90 mph winds! CRAZY!!! Stormy, but no snow here, but quite a bit in the mountains, up to a foot or more. We're having high winds, very cold then now up to 48! It's been very gray and I am ready for either some snow or springtime!

Too early to plant out here though the ground still really cold and hard. So here's what we've been up to lately! We've been busy-

1. Plant Something-

Too early but I'm thinking about starting some seeds soon.

 

2. Harvest Something-

We've been getting a nice steady supply of fresh eggs from our new hens! I have been giving my kids some of the extras. They are so good!!! 

3. Preserve/Store Something-

Bought some local Artisan breads at the grocery outlet and froze them. Stocked up on some cheese's and fish. 

 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-

Save quite a bit of money buying our new electric tea kettle instead of replacing our Keurig. We are using up the Keurig pods up by putting the contents in a mesh coffee filter inside a bamboo tea strainer. Dave does drink coffee so he's working on those. I'm strictly black tea! I bought him some fresh beans today! Cost Plus had a nice selection. 

 

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-

I have a new Irish fish stew recipe I'm going to dry along with some Irish soda bread. I made some Irish soda bread with currants recently but we'll make the more traditional with raisins. I bought a new cookbook on Irish cooking that looks really great! I got a low-cost used copy on eBay-

I'm also going through some recipes through a library book that I got on cooking in the Alps-

I decided to buy some British tea treats for something and different. I had been eating a granola bar mid-morning on work days and got really bored, plus they are so overpriced. Not that enthused to make my won. I thought tea biscuits might be up my alley! Here's my first batch. I bought some Green/Jasmine tea (couldn't find locally) great with Asian food! 

All from The English Tea Store

The Hob Nobs are addictive! The Highland Oat Crackers great with a little cheese. Mega Creams cookies are really nice. The "world famous" Eccles Cakes, stuffed with raisins and currants, were disappointing. Off taste, may try and make my own version. 

The second batch of treats I found at Cost Plus World Market today. I bought more biscuits, mustard, and made in Britain beans in a light tomato sauce. It's a traditional food, canned beans in tomato sauce, and many people serve them on toast for breakfast! It seems to be a tradition from WWII during food rationing, for protein. They're not the U.S. barbeque beans with a lot of sugar. Will report back on the flavor. I found Maldon's Welsh sea salt, after I saw this on a travel show this morning, crazy find! 

I decided to start doing more whole grain baking lately. It's getting hard to find some whole grain Italian Breads and we're trying to eat less processed foods. I found some recent recipes so we'll try those and share the ones that come out well!

 

6. Build Community Food Systems-

Nothing yet too early for farmers markets.

 

7. Recycle/Re-Use-

I went through our holiday things and donated quite a bit. Also donated some extra kitchen decor, bedding and a few other things. Bought several things on eBay and at local thrift stores. With covid I have not been going to thrift stores nearly as often. In my last post you can see all the cool thrift store items I got recently Thrifting Scores x 3!

 

8. Skill Up-

I learned recently about the history of the Union Jack Flag in the United Kingdom-

Info here Wikipedia.org

I'm part Scotch-Irish and had recently been looking into making some traditional British foods and snacks. I hope to go to the UK someday and see everything!!!

 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-

I have a house plant that really needed a new pot and some fresh soil since it was failing after about 10 years-

For a couple bucks I bought a new pot and a fresh bag of potting soil. I replanted it and put it in the kitchen where we get a little bit more sunlight-

I also bought another plant and pot at the same time. Now in my office-

Another plant I bought a while back I finally transplanted into a fun steel pot I bought it Ikea months and months ago. It's nice to have a couple of plants in my home office! 

I read that having plants in the workplace actually increase your productivity by up to 15%. Wow I should tell my boss how exciting! I am so bored with my work I cannot even begin to tell you. I'm hoping to be cross-trained soon because my brain is just bored and my work is too repetitive. 

Pretty soon we will be doing some dormant oil spray on our organic apple tree. Then we will do some Copper spray on our organic Peach tree to limit the rust disease. 

With our first Covid stimulus check I had bought some insulated curtains for my office.  I realized I needed to tie them back otherwise it was a little too closed. I just use some string at the time and kind of forgot about it. I finally bought some minimal burlap looking ribbon, goes with the fabric okay. I bought a couple of cup hooks and put those in to have something a little bit nicer than push pins. A pretty cheap upgrade-

At the same time I also bought some cranberry colored ribbon to replace the string on my Christmas quilt's rod. Already packed away so you'll see it next year. I found at a thrift store, added a rod on the top and hung it-