Cozy Warm

It is a day of cooking.  I started with putting together a big stew, made mostly from homegrown food — carrots, onions, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, peas, beans, yellow squash — along with beef, celery, rice, thyme, salt, and pepper.  I kept cutting and adding until the pot was full.

The onion skins, celery tops, etc. went into anther pot with a beef soup bone to make stock.  We'll simmer them both all day and see what happens.

As soon as the soup was done, I realized that we are out of bread, so I ground the wheat and made the dough.

The pumpkin bars I made yesterday, from a recipe in Simply in Season, were a big hit.  They were gone by evening.  I put another batch in the oven for today's snack.  We called them zucca bars. My two-year-old was so cute saying, "dat good, dat zucca bar."

It's been two months since I put that parmesan to age.  The book says to oil it to keep it from cracking.  Without saying a word, I handed the block to my daughter and asked her how it smelled.  She took a long whiff and said, "that smells like parmesan."  That's a good sign!  I rubbed it with olive oil and put it back in the cellar.  Next July we'll find out if it tastes like parmesan.

It been freezing at night but warming up during the day.  Our automatic waterer for the chickens had a layer of ice this morning.  Before letting the chickens out of the coop, my daughter broke it up enough for them to get to the water while the ice melts during the day.  Soon, we'll have to switch to the heated waterers, which means filling them every few days.  Last year we didn't have warmers so we took water out three times a day in the coldest weather.

Christina seems the same.  We are one week from her due date.  This morning as my husband headed out to feed the cows he said, "well I think I'll go count cows."    She'll probably be late, but we're still watching her.  We are down to three gallons of milk and one quart of cream in the freezer.  I'm hoping it'll be sooner rather than later.

Yesterday we entered the twelve darkest weeks of the year.  Here in Boise, we also deal with haze for much of the winter and it makes it even darker.  Today with the sun shining into the kitchen and the cooking stew warming the house, it feels cozy.  Thanksgiving this year will be special with so much harvest of our own.