Friday, April 8, 2011

Snow in April

This is ridiculous.  Snow in April.  We woke up to the white stuff this morning and it snowed a bit during morning chores.  The rest of the morning alternated between snow flurries, sun (not much of that), sleet and hail.  Lovely, don't you agree?   I'm sure my basil is toast.  Apricots - kiss any fruit goodbye.  But, it is pretty and the animals were all very wound which was entertaining.


Brett and Kersey doing their morning greeting ritual.

Tell me, does this look like an old gimpy dog?  She was running around like a youngster.  She LOVES snow!


I guess Kalvin couldn't be bothered to shake the snow off his blanket.

Flash thought licking snow of the pipe corrals was a good idea.

Jackson agreed.  They licked the rails clean.


And why is this bottle of shampoo at the bottom of the slope?

Instead of in the bath bucket?  Kersey!!  Thief dog... gloves, shampoo, sweat scrapers, dust bins, brushes of all kinds...

The afternoon was mostly sunshine with a few scattered showers.  The snow was quickly gone.  But it remained cold, in the upper 30s, so we stayed close to the wood stove.  I made stew for dinner - it seemed like that kind of day.  I tried a recipe from a cookbook Brett gave me for Christmas - so it's a French stew (daube).

 Here's all my prep.  Beef, veggies, wine, brandy... This is gonna be good!

Brown the bacon.

Remove the bacon and brown the beef in the bacon fat.

Remove the meat, add onions and shallots.  Cook until soft.


Add carrots, parsnips and garlic. Stir.  Deglaze with the  brandy.


Add an entire bottle of red fruity wine.












Throw in the bouquet garni, cover and put in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.  Now I'm trying to control my stomach which is growling because the house smells wonderful!!  


8 comments:

  1. The snow does look beautiful, to bad about all the damage it is causing your plants.
    Supper looks delicious!

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  2. At least it wasn't tons of snow. I bet you're dying for spring. It was eighty degrees today here with outrageous humidity. I love spring/summer but I need some adjusting time before we jump straight to that kind of heat lol. :)

    Dinner looks delicious.

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  3. Yum! I love it when you show us what your cooking. It's inspiring. My old dog loves the snow too. Go figure! We didn't wake up to snow, but we did wake up to frost. Then we had a beautiful sunny day with blue blue skies. It was a good day.

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  4. Great post! The snow looked beautiful and all the animals did not seem to mind. Thanks for posting another great recipe...outstanding photos. I'll bet it tasted as good as it looked in the preparation. Weird...out there it was in the 30s and almost 50 by evening here.

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  5. Your dinner looks really tasty - and so does snow apparently! ;)

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  6. It looks so different and pretty to see the snow on top of green leaves. I can't believe you're having snow in California!
    I love the picture of Brett and Kelsey.

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  7. So sorry about your snow and the havoc it wreaked on your garden--but that dinner looks like quite the consolation prize.

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  8. Oh, I wish you could attach smells to your post. I bet that food does smell so good!!

    The snow is gorgeous, albiet sad that it will hurt so many of your plants. I love watching the animals get wound up about a blast of cool weather, too :)

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Thanks so much for commenting!