Dramatic Exit OR Entrance?



8am from my front porch

front steps-caution required

Although this is spectacular to look at, I hope this is just 2010 making a dramatic exit and not a debut performance for the new season. Winter is less than one week old, and boy is he making his presence known! We remain under a winter storm warning until the end of the day and may get another half foot of snow to top the 12-14 inches we have now. The snow I can handle. The cold is quite a different matter all together. At 15 degrees with a nice steady wind blowing, the wind chills outside are serious business. I am thankful that we are safe and warm this winter's morn. I pray that everyone else is as well.

So what does one do on such a day?  

mitten knittin' of course!

At the moment I have pair #3 on the needles. With five grandsons there is always the need for mittens. The last time I knit mittens for them there were only four boys. Knowing how boys are, I thought I would make them boy proof...a nice dead leaf color that wouldn't show dirt...and all alike to avoid disagreements...well, both ideas were terrible. Mittens the color of dirt and dead leaves get camouflaged too easily in the dirt and dead leaves where boys love to play. And eight mittens of identical color and only slightly different sizes make for a real mess when Mommy tries to match them up while four little mouths whine and eight little feet shuffle about impatient to go outside. So when I asked my daughter if the boys needed new mittens she put in a couple of requests...bright colors so they wouldn't get lost in the back yard...and different so mates were easy for the boys to find...Now why didn't I think of that? Maybe because I only had one boy! And he had such a wonderful big sister to watch out for him!

And when you need a break from mitten knittin'

Peanut and Caramel White Fudge EXPERIMENT

Well, then of course you take a coffee break...but coffee begs for company! This is the kitchen experiment from Christmas afternoon. A few weeks ago when we went across the mountain to Cades Cove, we stopped for lunch in Townsend at the Apple something cafe (good burgers)...which is attached to a gift shop... which has homemade fudge...which I just had to sample! I bought a 1/4 pound each of four different flavors. One of them was a white fudge with salted peanuts and caramel and we both loved it. I have been thinking about that fudge since, and trying to figure out just how to go about making it. This is what my Christmas experiment yielded...really good...but needs a bit of tweaking before I share the recipe...next time I will use more white chocolate and fewer nuts...if it works like I think it will the recipe will follow. But, rest assured this experiment will not be wasted! Although the results are not perfect, they are really close.

Break's over! Back to mitten knittin'...maybe just another 1/2 piece of fudge before I start...hmmmm