Snow Day Vegan Ginger Cupcakes

We're having a snow day in Madison - the snow started last night, and some things canceled, but the really heaviest snow started this morning, and it's still coming down. We shoveled about 4 inches before work, and just did about another 8, or who knows, 'cuz it drifted, after dinner.

The Madison Schools are closed; they even closed the University, at 3:30 - and Mark just told me that there were places where the snow was up to his knees on his walk home.

I came home about 2:00, and shoulda done some paperwork-type stuff I have hanging around - I'm supposed to write up a meeting I attended, close to 3 weeks ago, and I also should finish my forms for foster parenting. But I talked to John and he & Megan were enjoying their snow day, watching the Office on DVD, lying in bed drinking coffee and eating Milk Duds, so that inspired me - I ate some chocolate, drank coffee and watched a movie on DVD, Zach Braff's Last Kiss. It was a little too much of a combo of silly and intense - lots of scenes of people having earnest relationship conversations, and the music's not as good as Garden State. It was filmed partly in Madison, there was a big wedding at a fancy house out in Maple Bluff (might've even been the Governor's Mansion) but once the fun of looking for Madison scenes wore off, and I couldn't recognize any of the extras, I bailed.

I tried out a recipe for vegan ginger cupcakes, as an experiment for the next one-dish dinner. I used my favorite Mollie Katzen gingerbread, left out the egg, and used soy yogurt instead of dairy yogurt called for in the original. Rach and I talked about doing a drizzled frosting on these, but they sank a bit in the middle, so I made a fluffy frosting with vegan margarine & shortening and lemon juice. As many times as I have made this gingerbread, it still surprises me - I think there are too many acidic variables with yogurt, molasses, and the baking soda - sometimes it is the most easy to work with batter, sometimes it explodes (or sticks, or sinks).

Joys of winter

John & Als' dad is visiting from California, and John came up from Milwaukee to hang out with him for the weekend, so naturally, Friday night we got about 8 inches of snow, pretty wet stuff, and from 6:00 pm Saturday night on we were under a blizzard warning - supposed to get 7 to 14 inches of new snow. It was whiting out, and coming down at like 1.5 inches per hour, but unfortunately, it warmed up overnight, and this morning there were about 8 inches more of heavy wet stuff to shovel, and it's been sort of raining/snowing all day. The blizzard's off now, but there is still a winter storm warning, 2-4 more inches.

We got up and shoveled here at home, (the novelty for John & Al's dad fast wearing off) and I did just the sidewalk at the supper club house before noon. By the time I got back over there to finish up, there was a layer of slush/water on the bottom. It was like cutting snow blocks to build an igloo, plus there was no place to put the removed snow - I was hoisting shovel loads of heavy wet stuff like 3 feet to get them to the top of the snowbank. I would never have been able to punch through the plow drift at the foot of the driveway if a guy had not come by in a pick up with a plow blade and did two passes and pushed a bunch of the snow to the side - I still had to dig, but at least I had a place to put the snow.

I've sort of been pretending that we're snowed in, foodwise - I made simple lasagna last night because I had everything I needed in the fridge, with cheese focaccia and salad from leftover lettuce in the vegetable drawer.

Lots of cars are completely plowed under, much deeper than these on my street, where they only do one pass of the plow.

Snow, snow, and more snow

We got a foot of snow Friday morning, and another 4 or so yesterday. I feel like all I've been doing is shoveling, and struggling to finish grading my students' final papers. My renter is in Texas, so I have two houses to shovel. And this morning, it has turned bitter cold; I had to take Kaylah to work at the mall at 6:45, and it was barely light when I got back. I've been taking iPhone pictures of the snow.

The winter that wasn't

I still think the Green Bay Packers took our weather to Seattle, back in November - they played a Monday night game out there, and some people got snowed in in the parking lot. And the Seahawks beat them, too - I think it was one of those games where they squandered a good early lead. My brother and his daughter even had a snow day, no school; they've been skiing and my fool brother has been biking in the snow, and ice. 'Course we got a snow day in Wisconsin, too, not long after Seattle's, when the storm came east, but only in Milwaukee - they even closed UW-Milwaukee - only about 4 inches of snow here in Madison.

In 2006 in Madison, we got almost 3 inches of snow in November - normal would be almost 6. There's nothing out there now, and December was this endless procession of highs in the 40s, lows in the 30s, no precipitation, or else rain. This week, the week of january 8th, we had some really bitter cold winds, but now today, Thursday, it's 36 degrees. And oh, yeah the lake is still open - I've only seen ice fishermen out there once ...

Snow Day!

We really didn't expect too much snow, because the forecasters had been carrying on way too much about how bad it was going to be. It started last night at about 8:00, and by morning there was only about 4 inches on the ground, but the sky was dark, dark, dark, and they closed the ciy schools - which never happens - they close the outlying communities all the time, but not in town.

After I shoveled the driveway and walk for the first time, the snow started again. By the time we shoveled again at 1:30 or so, there was at least another 6 inches, and I think it is still coming down. I found the state Dept. of Transportation road conditions weather map, and there are some highways out there that they have actually categorized as "Impassable" - most of the state is "snow covered and slippery". At work the windows got all covered with snow, and really made it seem like blizzard.

It was real heavy stuff for shoveling, but the reward was hot chocolate and grilled cheese.

Buried Future, Withering Youth, Unprotected Sex

We haven't gotten much snow in the last two weeks - we had the horror of rain on top of 2 feet of snow, right after Christmas. We got a few inches of new snow, but not enough to cover up all the grey melted and re-frozen stuff, then we had an ice storm, and got glazed with a nice thin sheet of ice, last Saturday night.

Today at noontime, I walked up State St., kind of a dreary day, and the ground was grey packed frozen snow with lots of cigarette butts. There were flyers advertising an upcoming show taped to kiosks and lamp poles, and the three bands are called Buried Future, Withering Youth, and Unprotected Sex. On the trip back down State, the young woman walking in front of me was wearing some kind of leggings under her mini skirt, I'm sure made from some extremely long polymer substance, but that looked like flat black rubber. It was all entirely too punk rock, even for me.

"Should we talk about the weather?"

In the words of the R.E.M. song, talk about the weather is superficial party chatter, but what else is there? (and I also just found out - shouldn't be a surprise, I guess - that I always loved the ease of simply Googling a song lyric, and now all the sites that provide lyrics are selling you ringtones to stay afloat).

Anyways, here in WI, on Friday night and all day Saturday, it was in the 40s and we got rain on top of 2 feet of snow. It was disgusting - my basement leaked, and all the high white snow banks turned grey. There was billowing fog, and I was worried about my kids, flying back from CA.

Last night I looked out the window before I went to bed, and the rain had changed to snow, and there was about an inch of new flakes covering the nasty grey. From a high of 44°, the temperature dropped to 22° overnight.

Probably the worst part, though, is how exhausting all these rapid weather changes are, to me anyways. It's like going through entire winter, freeze to thaw, and then doing it all over again (I know, I was kvetching about this already).

But also, superstitious as I am, and especially with the kids traveling, it's also all about wondering just how weird it's really gonna get - what could happen next? The power was out all up and down one of the major thoroughfares in Madison yesterday morning - no banking, grocery shopping or latte sipping could be done. And I never heard for sure, but it must've been weather related. People were stranded in airports all over the country. And today, my iPhone didn't work - AT&Ts network was out.

It's creeping me out. Still, the sun on new snow this morning was certainly a comfort - looked just how WI in winter's sposed to. Kinda like this walk for coffee on Christmas morning, back in our last winter.

The grinding down part of the winter

So here it is February, really cold today and yesterday & last night, though "warm" last weekend, 35ish, so all the snow is frozen, icey and grey. It's supposed to be warmer still this weekend, and maybe rain - I've heard a lot of people mention how excited they are for the "nice" weather - I think I'd rather have snow and 32 degrees, than rain and 44 ... but that's just my curmudgeonly self. I always feel like that in late winter - when the snow starts to go, I want it back to cover all the ugly stuff up, kind of like wanting to keep on wearing your heavy sweater to cover up your winter flab.

I'm waiting for plumber, because Mark's been unhappy with the water pressure in the upstairs apartment, and has even collected a little baggie of grit to show the plumber, in an attempt to figure out what's up. I had a real breakfast, oatmeal with dates & banana and the luxury of 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, yummm, because I am out of 2% milk. I didn't take pictures, but it looked a lot like this bowl of oatmeal from last February -
Eaten out of the same bowl and everything.

I think I wish I lived in Seattle, where they are debating the ethics of non-paying guerrilla riders - of which my bro is one - crashing a fundraising ride put on by a bicycle lobbying group (or really, my bro's ragtag crowd has their own ride, that they do pay a fee to be in, the same day and place as the bigger one)

... not sure which camp I'd fall into if I did live in Seattle, but sure seems to me like the .83rs have a better sense of humor.

I think, if I was there, I'd probably pay the $30 to the advocacy group for the bib, and not wear it.

Ice and snow

I'm sitting at the computer listening to gobs of ice fall off the roof. It's nice and sunny out, 25 degrees and fair, and I have been thinking about going for a walk, but I am still feeling not quite up to par. I want to plan spring menus, shake off the winter doldrums, and cook lots of food for my kids, but in reality, Al's in Madison, but off at a movie, Mark & Ethan are running errands, and John is in Milwaukee, not scheduled to be back here until next weekend - in other words, even if I want to cook, not many eaters around. And I think John's not-girlfriend, who had gone home to Iowa, has finally got back to Milwaukee, because he hasn't been calling me so much since Wednesday.

I'd like to make a stirfry, with a sweet sour sauce from Mollie Katzen, and cashews; and mac & cheese, but Mark seems to want to go to a movie, and I'd sort of like to go the Steven Sondheim's Follies, at the Union Theater tonight.

So mostly I'm trying to make the most of my Saturday, and trying to figure out how.

After the flat last Friday, this Friday (yesterday) Al got the car stuck in the snow - about 3 blocks away, in front of my walking friend, Pat's, house - on a bad turn where people get stuck all the time. When Al called to tell me he was stuck, he only had to describe his position for about 10 seconds, and I knew exactly where he was. Brad, Pat's husband, and a passing runner helped, but even with 2 people digging and 3 people pushing, the front wheels of the front wheel drive car were stuck going down hill, so I had to call the auto club again for a tow. The big truck with the flashing lights turned out to be great dinner theater for Pat's and their visiting friends' kids - the only downside was that my stomach was still way too iffy for the cocktail or wine they offered while I waited. And I really didn't feel up to the salmon and green salad with beets and goat cheese either - not to mention the fact that I still have a gigantic bag of salad greens leftover from Monday's dinner, the majority of which is probably going to end up in the compost.

Here's snow pictures from last week's Saturday a.m. walk to the Willy St. Board retreat.

Linens

Months ago, I emailed a friend of mine who is a screen printer to see if she'd like to custom print some linens, tablecloths and napkins, for the supper club house. Today, on the way to work, I took a few shots of dead branches against the snow that I think might work for borders - but the big snow is melting fast - it's 43 out there now - and some plants that looked good to me on the walk home last night were already too melted this morning, and not enough contrast against the no-longer-new snow.

Snow Day

So last night we got about a foot of snow. There were blizzard predictions, tho - high winds and whiting out and drifting - most of which did not happen because the snow was too heavy and wet. It's 27° out there now, supposed to keep dropping, (it has been all day) and a high of only 7° tomorrow. Everyone freaked out and the Madison Schools and the university announced they'd be closed today by 10:00 p.m. last night. The buses aren't running, most streets are not plowed. Mark shoveled for three hours this morning - I got excused because of my thumb. I have a blue cast now; came home with it yesterday afternoon.
I made the ruggelach dough and pecan bars so far today - and waffles for breakfast at 1:00 when Mark was finally done shoveling. The cast is actually more comfortable than the splint, there's no big piece of metal jabbing my palm like the splint. It's also more secure - I feel more like it's in the right place and I won't rehurt myself. But I don't quite have an oppose-able thumb on my right hand - I can't really clamp my right index finger and my thumb together. So I am fucking awkward, or as Mark so much more kindly says, "you're not fucking awkward, your cast is fucking awkward."

The saga continues

John & Al were 'sposed to be coming back from San Francisco today - they were scheduled to arrive in Milwauke at something like 11:47 p.m.

We had a couple of sketchy plans for how they'd get back to Madison, including I'd drive a car down there and leave it in the long term parking for them - but it was going to have to be the VW bug, since tat was the only one they had keys for - which is not as good for highway driving in the snow or otherwise as our other Volkswagon, a Passat wagon. And I was reluctant to commit to the three hours or so this maneuver would cost me, especially because I had a dinner party at the supper club. (they're lingering over wine as a write; the coffee pot had some kind of deadly malfunction ...) One alternate plan was that they'd take a cab to John's apartment in Milwaukee and I'd get them in the morning. And we also were holding in reserve the idea that the dinner party would wrap up by 10:00, and I am only about 5 minutes from the I-94 on-ramp, so I could just run down and get them.

This is what has actually come to pass - we got about 5 inches of snow in Madison yesterday, and something like 65% of the flights in and out of Chicago O'Hare canceled - so when they got to the San Francisco airport, their flight out was already so delayed that they would've spent the night on the floor of the Minneapolis airport.

So now they are re-booked on the duct-tape & chewing gum airline, American, leaving S.F at 1:00 a.m., through Dallas, and into Milwaukee at 10:30 tomorrow. Even though it's American, there's no snow between Frisco and Dallas, and Dallas is an American hub. So chances are all the flights will go - knock wood.

Meanwhile, idly searching the Internet Archive while waiting for my diners to pack up, I found a recording of the the Dead playing Robyn Hitchcock's Chinese Bones, with Suzanne Vega singing. huh - never knew about that before.

Snow day - windchill day

We finally got our snow day here in Madison, and it's actually a windchill day - early this morning, when they were deciding whether to close school, it was -16, with a high of -1 (what it is now, at 3:00 in the afternoon) forecast.

When it double-digits below zero, even the Madison schools close, because it's too cold for kids to stand and wait for the bus, let alone go out for recess on the playground. They use this National Weather Service chart - at -15, with a 10 mile an hour wind, kids could get frost bite in 30 minutes, so they did not want to risk it.

Tomorrow it's supposed to go all the way up to 8, and maybe even snow, so we'll be back at school tomorrow.

Oddly satisfying

This week, I've been using up party leftovers - starting with simply eating stuff like cocktail meatballs and wienies in poppin' dough for lunch - and proceeding to poppin' dough pizza topped with the canned pizza sauce I bought to go with the stromboli, that we ate on Sunday night, late for supper, after I packed cookie boxes all afternoon (and it was a different climate back then - rain).

Monday, I think it was, I made a pasta with broccoli sauteed in white wine (several open bottles of wine left, of course), some pureed butternut squash (for the Cafe Flora-style Quesadillas, I used the necks of the squash, cubed and roasted; I baked the bulbs of the squashes at the same time and got about 1 1/2 cups of good puree), a little cream, and lots of parmesan cheese.

On Thursday, when everyone in Madison was in crazed snow warning phase (kinda like what my brother experienced in Seattle a few days before), though the foot of snow did not actually start falling until about 1:00 a.m. Friday morning, I had a women's group meeting at the house, and they had a lovely spread: Heidi's onion dip with chips and crackers and carrots, beauty heart radishes and a handful of grape tomatoes; hot artichoke dip with toasted pita triangles (both dips left from the party, but I added a little onto the volume of each); a torta, made from the last of the marinated goat cheese, ricotta, pesto and what was left in the jar of juliened sun-dried tomatoes; banana bread sandwiches with cream cheese; a fruit platter with the pomeganate I never put out; and of course, a cookie platter. Oh, yeah and a little baked Brie with cranberry chutney inside that puffed up quite nicely even after being stored in the fridge for almost a week, and looking dried out - I brushed it with water all over, to soften up the puff paste so it could really puff. I took most of the food over Wednesday night, so I could bus on Thursday - and cleaned up when I went over to shovel on Friday.

Friday I made peanut noodles with a topping of crispy tofu with finely sliced leeks, radishes, celery and peppers, polishing off the last of the peanut dip, and the last of the dip veggies.

And somehow, I have also been able to construct platter after platter of cookies to take to events like the two tough meetings I had, the one Tuesday night that went way late, and I had to drive home in snow, and Wednesday, midday. On Saturday, I even sent off one last cookie box to John & Al's dad, so the kids don't have to cram cookies into their luggage when they head for California tomorrow.

Getting into the holiday spirit

I think while I was battling sticky cookie dough in my kitchen last night, my brother was battling snowy & icy roads, biking home from work, in Seattle.

And I had some vague notion to use this comparison as the setting for weaving together a couple of trains of thought that I have been having this morning, starting with how I am having trouble getting into the spirit of the season, and enjoying my self-inflicted cookie-baking madness, maybe because we did not have quite enough eaters on Thanksgiving, so I am seeing some of the food go to waste, and it's 60 degrees and rainy here, so not only dreary, not cold enough to make the vestibule of my house the perfect cookie storage temperature, and so on, with a litany of ills. Also the contrast of my struggle in the warm kitchen vs. my brother out in the snow seemed to parallel my also self-inflicted, re-ocurring inferiority complex, when I read other people's (including my brother's) writings on their blogs, and they seem to have so much more depth than my own shallow concerns ... of course this morning I was reading a food blog by a published author, not that a whole lotta crap doesn't get published, but still, more writer's chops than me.

But I just checked back with Dave, and they are having a snow day today, so it all seems a whole lot more simple - they just got lucky, and are having more fun than us, today. And their football team beat ours last night, too, even though the snow was supposed to be to the Packers advantage. We got Seattle weather (60, grey, and rainy), they got Wisconsin's (27, partly cloudy, and snowy).

Winter wonderland

It was just great to be in a place where it is actually winter, instead of this pseudo-March weather we have been having this month - everyone at the cabin hails from Minnesota & Wisconsin, and we've all been missing real upper Midwest winter weather this year - we had such a promising December, lots of snow, but then it just petered out and January has been nothing but rain and grey. Tho we did get a dusting of snow down south last night, while we were Up North (where there's 2 feet of snow on the ground).

Here is the view out towards the lake from the cabin (with a silhouette of the new bear lamp, a fabulous example of Up North kitch) and the dinner table on my night to cook - glimpse of the stew in the background, and I wish I had one of those rolls right now.

Winter crankiness

Yesterday I never really had dinner, I ate handfuls of marshmallows and chocolate and almonds, both before a meeting I had to go to at 6:00, and more when I got home at almost 9:00 pm.

I thought today would be better, I would have a more gracious and serene life, but no such luck - I ate better during the day, yogurt and granola and fruit, and when I got home from work I shoveled snow & ate a few cracker sticks with peanut butter, then I drove - that was my mistake, should have walked - to the UPS place to send off a return with a prepaid label, and then went to the bank to do a deposit. It was a little slippery and there was too much traffic, and no one could drive in the snow.

Then even though I made a great, healthful sounding dinner - whole wheat pasta with herbs and toasted bread crumbs, and salad - it was eaten in between a phone call from John - he lost a glove, and has no groceries, and UPS won't deliver his new hard drive - and trying to make Al's iTunes work, and answering email from students. I made taco meat & tacos for Al, so that also made it harder to actually sit down and enjoy my pasta, plus I felt guilty 'cuz John has no food.

And the cat figured out how to fish stuff out of the trash on super bowl Sunday (she got chicken wing bones and kale stems on Sunday), so that has made her even more cocky and up on the counter trying to steal food - so every time I ran downstairs to baby sit Al's computer, I had to cat-proof my meal, and that's just when I got to the eating part - she was trying to grab herb stems from the sink, and lick the colander I drained the ground beef in, and I got so confused I ran water into the drained fat and had to let it congeal in the fridge overnight before I could wash the pot and throw the beef fat away.

If I said I'm having my period, I could use that as an excuse, but even that's not strictly true - I have been pre-menstral for like 3 weeks, and am only just finally spotting a little today - more joys of perimenopause.

Now it's 9:30 and I should be snuggy on the couch with some cats watching TV with a cup of tea, not still in work clothes, typing at the computer, with my stomach not quite right, and dry skin, and cold feet.

John's going to be 20

Last year around this time, John was home for spring break, and got his wisdom teeth out. I remember writing about cooking mac & cheese because it was soft enough for him to almost eat.

Tonight I made sort of a birthday dinner for John, but no one came to eat it except him and me - beef stew, biscuits, and brownies with a mint chocolate glaze. He might have been able to eat this menu even with last year's teeth. Everything was good, but the web page for the yoga lunch is prettier, and I sure would have liked to have more eaters.

Turning 20 is kind of a rip-off - there's nothing you can do that you could not do at 18. The only benefit is that you're not a teenager anymore, and I'm not sure that's completely a benefit. As Al's ex-girlfriend Cecelia said, you have to start being more responsible when you're not a teenager anymore.

20 might be better than 51 1/2, or at least the way I am feeling at 51 1/2 - and at this time of the year - I have been having that "nothing's quite right" feeling; I'm wasting my time not having enough fun. I guess I am just a spring hum-bug, as Mark said this morning, and it is true - when the snow first melts off, and it hits 60 for the first time, but it's muddy and dirty, (and my basement leaks) I really don't feel as uplifted by spring as I think I am supposed to. I get irritated by everyone saying. "It's so nice" as soon as it warms up. I like to reply, "well, yes, it's warm" or even "we could still get more snow".

And John came in totally trashed at 1:30 a.m., having driven himself home, shit - so the b-day dinner didn't work in that regard either. He got his notice for his court date for the grafitti charges from last July (Mark said, "Justice delayed is justice denied", true) so I guess John had an excuse for drinking, or else he's got turning 20 blues, or spring hum-bug, too.

Grey Christmas

White Christmas, bah humbug .... this is the view from my window today.

In Wisconsin, we're having a grey, slushy Christmas, with rain on top of about a foot of snow. The big winter storm is dumping tons of snow on Minneapolis & the Dakotas, but it's mostly north and west of us here in WI & IL, where we've been getting ice and rain and wintry mix. The National Weather Service called it a "complex" storm system; the best description we've heard so far was a reporter on NPR yesterday, who called it a "variety pack of nasty weather".

We heard that NPR reporter when we were on the exit ramp from the Beltline around 5:00 p.m. yesterday, about 10 minutes from home. Even though I stressed and worried, the travel back from Chicago turned out just as Mark (the optimist in the family) predicted - we missed the worst of it, and were driving in just plain rain, not ice. When we got to the train station in Harvard, the car was sheathed in ice, but it was so warm - 36 or 37 degrees - that the ice just slid off the car. The car was stuck in its parking spot, but because there were 3 of us, I drove and mark & Ethan pushed, and we got out pretty shortly. One of the tires was low, but 2 gas stations and 5 quarters later, we were on the road.

And we are having a perfectly nice little Christmas - waffles cooked on Mark's new waffle iron that I gave him for breakfast, with bacon & fried apples. Beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, and trifle for dinner. And Lora Brody's ruggelach for snacks. I'll add more pix after dinner.

The ski trip that wasn't

Observe all these feet -

without skis on ....

that's the part that wasn't -

We all still got to go Dorla's family's great old cabin, on the shore of a lake in Northern WI. And it's still a beautiful place, and I love all the people who were there, and we ate lots of delicious food - Mike & Cynthia grilled on Saturday night, brats & chicken & tuna, with a side dish of chard and sweet potatoes, with curry spices, and cardamom rice. Mary & I made buckwheat pancakes and cornmeal-cranberry ones, with fried apples and that Willow Creek sausage for Sunday breakfast. And all these feet are on a hike we all took, after that Sunday breakfast.

Besides there not being any snow, my car broke down on the way up. It has a history of warning lights that go off, but all that is broken is the computer chip that runs the light, not the mechanical thing it is supposed to be monitoring .... so naturally when the oil pressure light lit up I said, "oh, fuck off" and drove about 30 more miles, after consulting with the guy behind the counter at the gas station I first stopped at, where I checked the oil and put in a quart, who was just a random guy, no particular expertise; my sweetheart, who knows the car, by cell phone from his son's hockey tournament; and finally a salesman at the VW dealership in Wausau; we all agreed it was probably just the light ... but the engine started acting weird, and I had to get off the highway right away - the car got towed back to that VW dealership in Wausau, and Dan came down from the lake house to take me up to the cabin.

And of course last night it snowed like hell, and has continued on today - so snow for driving in, rather than skiing.