So my whatever that is, cold/sinus/bullshit headache thing that I was fighting at the beginning of the week came back this morning with a vengeance. Bloody nose, ear ache, sneezy all of it. I stopped today and got some real Sudafed and am doing the neti pot and feeling better, but damn. Enough with this already!
It’s freezing here. Literally. The winter weather has moved into our area with crazy cold temps, freezing rain right now. I’m finishing my day working and answering emails from home sipping hot tea and planning on how I can recruit more Daisy/Brownies using our new partnership with Barbie. I know. What a job, right?
I’ve got to get the house clean/picked up as we are having our friends over tonight for food and fellowship. I’ve got a big pot of vegetable beef stew simmering on the stove, we’ll have spiced spiked cider and everyone is bringing their instruments for some singing afterwards. It’s just the kind of thing we need to keep us all cosy and warm and grateful on this pre-Thanksgiving weekend.
I usually cook by intuition. I rarely use a recipe to the T, or sometimes I combine two or three that I like. I pulled out my favorite cookbook and turned to Beef Stew and was surprised at how my recipe is really close to theirs. I did tweak a bit and take a few from theirs. It smells delicious. We’ll pair it with some delicious cornbread and a dessert and grownup drinks and it will be a grand night. I may even make a cranberry dish to go alongside it. The old geezer fella at my office told me he loves cranberry jelly with his beef stew. What’s not to love, I ask? I do have a giant bag of cranberries in my freezer. We’ll see how far along that goes.
What do you love to make/do on cold days like this? Do you have a go-to recipe? Activity? I’d love to know what it is…I’ve a feeling that this is only the first of a pretty cold winter ahead of us.
Misti Ridiculous 
It’s so cold out!! I just went out and gathered in all the remaining herbs from the garden – last bits of cilantro and some hearty sage leaves to be used next week!
Cold weather and hunkering down make me super productive for some reason…it always seems like I catch up on clutter cleaning, laundry, random cooking projects and knitting all in ways that writing a list can never accomplish!
Today I started with some homemade Irish Cream that will be holiday offerings for friends and family. And here’s the recipe I came up with after several attempts at it a few years ago:
Homemade Irish Cream
750 ml whiskey
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 cans evaporated milk
1Tbs instant coffee/instant espresso crystals (dilute in small amount of hot water)
8 oz chocolate syrup (I used half Hershey’s Special Dark today)
2-3 cups heavy cream
Whisk it all up in a large pitcher and pour into mason jars and refridgerate. It’s good the first day but after the flavors blend a week or so it’s really good. It will last a good 4-6 weeks in the fridge!
See ya later tater! 🙂
LikeLike