Snowy Days

Since my attempt to be unproductive for a day over Thanksgiving break proved to be unsuccessful, I decided that I might have been setting my sights too high. A whole day? That's not exactly realistic. So, I decided to try for a smaller period of time. Friday night it began to snow. A lot. I think we're at fourteen or fifteen inches now. Before the snow hit my parents went to a Christmas party so I decided to take advantage of having the house to myself and I hooked my iPod up to the speakers upstairs, put Harry Connick Jr. on play, poured a glass of wine and sat. And I was able to make myself last an entire song. That's wrong, an entire song of doing nothing else but sitting and drinking a glass of wine. I'm also serious when I said I was able to make myself. Before the first song was over I started to stand up thinking, I need to do this, this and this, before realizing that the first song hadn't even finished. As soon as it was over, I jumped off the chair and ran around getting some things done.

One of those things was cooking. I turned this:



into these:



and these:



into these:



I got the idea from Kitchenist to shred brussels sprouts and stir them into a cream-based sauce, to serve with pasta. I decided to add some peppers to the mix as well since I had only eaten one other vegetable that day. While it isn't the best pasta dish I ever made, it was tasty and it's a quick, easy recipe for those busy days.



We had snow all day and our snow storm was quickly labeled a blizzard. I woke up this morning and pulled a loaf of bread from the cupboard to find that there was a slice left. Since we weren't planning to leave the house today, my mom decided to take advantage of the opportunity and bake a few loaves. I love homemade bread! I usually don't eat jam (lots of sugar and healthier ways to get the nutrients) but I decided that a freshly baked loaf of bread on a snowy day called for a spoonful of jam.



Towards the end of the snowfall I began taking pictures. This is the window in my (basement-level) room:



The little black dots by the street are mailboxes. You can also see the reflection of lights on the Christmas tree.



There are steps buried beneath the snow.



I've been watching Anthony Bourdain while working on my flashcards for geography. So far we've traveled to Shanghai, Malaysia, Sicily, Argentina, Uruguay, Romania, New Zealand and Washington DC. I should get back to that. Up next, Chicago. Let's see if he visits Billy Goats!