Anyone want snow? We have a bit to spare!

Oh my stars, has January been a prolific month when it comes to snow.  We're about an hour outside of New York City on Long Island and I just heard on the news that we right now stand as the snowiest January in history for Central Park (and most other areas around here) and with just .9 inches more of snow, this will be the snowiest month in HISTORY (well, since they started keeping track of these things)!!  All this week we kept hearing about a "disruptive snow event" on Wednesday but it just seemed like this would be the kind of storm that they could only properly predict close to the event itself.  Well, Tuesday night, they said that we would have flurries in the morning and then we'd have the afternoon with nothing and by rush hour, it would start up again and give us significant snowfall - 4-8" was the predicted total.  They couldn't have been more wrong.

So it started snowing around 9 am yesterday.  The snow that was supposed to stop at noon finally stopped at 4.  The "little to no accumulation" ended up being 4".  Then we DID have a lull for a little while only to have freezing rain step in around 9 pm.  By 11 pm when I went to bed, it was white out conditions!!  By now, they were saying that we should see an additional 4-8" of snow.  GULP!!  So off to bed we went.  I took my computer so that I could check for school closings (both my girls commute to college) and when I woke up at 3 am, I decided to check the computer - nothing for my girls but lots of delayed openings.  I decided to get up to see what I could see and I just about had my chin hit the kitchen floor when I looked out the front window.  My car is a Dodge Grand Caravan but it was looking more like the Sprinter - it was covered in no less than 15" of snow.  I could see the once bare driveway now had snow up to the top of my wheels!!  ALL of the trees were drooping heavily from the weight of the snow.  I went back to bed for a few hours and then got up at 5:30 to see the damage.  19" of snow.  Fortunately my one daughter's college was cancelled but the other daughter's was just a delayed opening at 10:30.  UGH!!  We figured we'd send her on the train but the problem was the train system had shut down!  Finally at 7:30, they too decided to cancel school for the day.  Thank heavens because it was 12:30 before our driveway was finally fully snowblowed, shoveled and scraped.

So, without further adeau, I'll share some photos with you.  The "before" pics were taken yesterday afternoon after the 4" snow and then of course the "afters" were taken today.  Enjoy the winter wonderland!!

My back patio set before and after (the poles above support an awning in the summer)

My street and mailbox - not perfectly the same picture but you can see the difference in the mailbox.  The second picture shows the snow plow that was stuck overnight as well.

My minivan in the driveway.  When the snow first started at 9, the driveway was complete blacktop.  That's our goal in the winter - to keep it as clear and safe as possible.  So you can see in the first picture, it's about 4" on the ground.  

The children's little picnic table in our backyard

 Now it's just a lump!  LOL

Just a pretty view of the backyard.  Those branches out there that are down to the snow are usually about 8' off the ground.

My two little ones, Robby (10) and Joanna (8) on the driveway.  You can see it's almost to their waists!!

No way!! It's been MONTHS since I posted!!

Wow!!  I didn't realize just how long it's been!  I thought it was since just before Christmas!  Oops!!  Well, I'll update on what's going on.

Not much.  Tee-hee.  Actually, I've been sick since before Christmas with some sort of virus that's causes asthma and I've been coughing all this time.  I went to the doctor a couple of weeks after getting sick and was put on an inhaled steroid and some cough medicine but the cough medicine didn't work.  The next week they tried an antibiotic and that didn't work.  I was finally beginning to feel a little better and then it hit again - the exact same thing!!  So off to the doctor I went again and I was put back on the steroid inhaler  and a few days later I ended up at the pulmonologist.  He put me on oral steroids last week and MAN, does that hurt!!  But it seemed to help a bit and when I saw him yesterday, he said I still have some inflammation and so to stay on the inhaled steroid for 2 weeks but if I'm still coughing to come back.  Today is a particularly bad day and I used the rescue inhaler 2x and it didn't seem to help for more than about 30 minutes each time.  This REALLY stinks.

I have a few new posts I'll be posting in the next few days.  They've been rolling around in my head and I want to get them out of here.  If anyone is still here, watch for them!  :)  In the meantime, I started another blog of just recipes.  It's www.cookingonthesound.blogspot.com  I have just a few recipes on there but I want to have one place on the internet where I have all of my recipes so I figured why not do a new blog??!!  So there you go.  :)

Menu Planning Monday

K - just sat down to plan out the week's menu since I have my order in with the delivery service Peapod and I can edit it until 3pm today.  It will be delivered between 9:30 am and 1 pm tomorrow and I need to be sure that it actually has what I need!!  :)  So I sat down with Bob to plan it out.  Here we go:

Monday - Roasted Tomato Pasta, bread, salad
Tuesday - Helen's Mac and Cheese, salad, cake (Bob's 50th birthday!!)
Wednesday - Boilermaker Tailgate Chili, salad
Thursday - Sauerbraten, Red Cabbage, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
Friday - eat out
Saturday - Honey Mustard Chicken, roasted red and purple potatoes, green beans
Sunday - after church - taco soup
               dinner - a nice big dinner salad with chicken, mandarin oranges, blue cheese, craisins and stuff

Now to go add the things I need to my order!

"What's For Dinner??" menu plan

So I sat down to menu plan and I have a plan but my guess is that it's certainly not going to reflect reality beyond, say, Thursday.  But that's OK.  I'm willing to be flexible.  :)

Monday - Taco Soup
Tuesday - Ham, corn casserole, scallopped potatoes, peas
Wednesday - Pasta with a crockpot meat ragu, salad
Thursday - Baked chicken with acorn squash, broccoli
Friday - BBQ Ribs, cole slaw, sliced tomatoes
Saturday - Chicken Pot Pie, salad
Sunday - French dip sandwiches, salad

The reason I'm not sure about the weekend is that we have to see what's going on with "plans & the weather".  I planned the ribs for Friday because I'm out all day between work and homeschool group so that will be quick and easy (the ribs are from the grocery store, precooked and only take about 15 minutes on the grill).  I have the ingredients for the chicken pot pie in the freezer so I can make that quickly and easily.  The French dip sandwiches will find me buying rolls next weekend but the rest of the stuff I have on hand and if we have a change in plans, I can easily bump that to Monday.

I have to say, I love having the menu planned for the week!!

Had our first "Outdoor Service" of Island Christian Church

This week the hotel was already booked so we had to find another location to meet.  Bob went and found a local park that had miniature golf, a driving range, go carts, laser tag and batting cages along with a great covered picnic area.  So we had our services there today.  Two days ago, I was sitting here on my living room couch at 9 pm sweating like a pig and needing to go shower before bed and today for our services, we all should have had our winter coats!!  Brrrr!!  But it was wonderful none-the-less and we had a great group of people there.  Today was Bob's first time preaching for the new church and I think he did a great job.  :)  Here are some photos to share:

Morning Glory Muffins

These are FANTASTIC!!!  Full of good stuff and SO great on a chilly morning.  They should sit for a day after baking to let the flavors fully develop but even right out of the oven, they are wonderful.

Morning Glory Muffins
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 cups flour
4 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup raisins, plumped in brandy or apple juice and drained
1 cup coconut, shredded
4 cups shredded carrots
2 cups shredded apples
1 cup chopped pecans
6 eggs
2 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients into large bowl (REALLY large bowl).  Stir raisins into flour mixture to coat well.  Add the coconut, carrots, apples and pecans; stir well.   In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil and vanilla extract then pour into large bowl with other ingredients.  Stir only until combined.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  Muffins should "ripen" for 24 hours for maximum blending of flavors.

Makes about 36 regular sized muffins.

Sandy's Pumpkin Muffins

I got this recipe a few years ago from a woman on one of the boards I go on.  It's a family favorite and in honor of the fall finally being here (it's not getting out of the 60s today!) and for our breakfast tomorrow on the way to church, I'm making Sandy's Pumpkin Muffins.  These are great and make a nice large batch (I just got 36 muffins out of the batter PLUS 12 mini-muffins.  Try them - you'll love them!!

3 cups sugar (I used 2.5 cups)
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup milk
1 3/4 cup canned pumpkin (one 15 oz. can) (**not pumpkin pie filling but regular pumpkin**)
Optional:  1 cup chopped nuts or 1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla well.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking soda.  Add to sugar mixture alternately with the milk until well combined.  Fill greased muffin tins 1/2 full with batter and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Makes 40 muffins