Monday, February 23, 2009

"Nuff Said!

That is NOT a smile on my face, it's a grimace! Last night, we had another 12+ inches of heavy, wet snow. We lost power last night and the generator is sucking propane out of the tank at an alarming rate. The wind is picking up and I fear we will be losing more trees as many of them are bent to the ground from the weight of the snow.

We looked out the door this morning only to see the truck was covered and we had very little room to maneuver the plow in the dooryard. Fortunately, we have a wonderful neighbor who came over with his John Deere snow blower and helped us out.

Yesterday, knowing the storm was coming, we headed in to town to stock up on a few supplies. On our way back home, we passed a local fisherman who was selling Maine shrimp on the side of the road. The price was too good to pass up - .75 cents a pound. Wow! we thought. What a bargain and promptly purchased ten pounds.

Oh, but little did we know how much work we were in for. Maine shrimp are tiny compared to Gulf shrimp.

By the time we boiled, beheaded and peeled all ten pounds, we ended up with about 4 pints of a pound apiece. I'm not sure the juice was worth the squeeze, but they are pretty tasty with a bit of cocktail sauce.


Another project was making my own curry powder. I purchased the seeds and other spices online from Penzey's spices. We have been ordering our herbs and spices from them for years and have found the quality to be fresher and far above what one can buy in the grocery stores.

First I toasted the seeds in a large skillet......

fennel, poppy, black pepper corns, cardamom, brown mustard, cumin, coriander and chili seeds were toasted until fragrant but not burned. After they cooled, I added ground cinnamon, fenugreek, turmeric and ginger and then ground it all together in my old coffee grinder turned spice grinder.

The aroma in the house was incredible and the veggies vindaloo I prepared for lunch was delectable.

When there's 90 inches of snow on the ground outside, our home inside is always warm, aromatic and delicious! However, I think H and I are definitely contemplating becoming snowbirds next winter and heading south to be with our kids and grandkids.

Life is sooooooo good.

Hugs, Giddy

8 comments:

Kerri said...

Oh, good grief, look at all that snow! Losing power just adds insult to injury. It's a good thing you stocked up yesterday because the truck doesn't look like it's going anywhere!
It's a lesson in patience shelling all those shrimp, but I'm sure it was worth it for fresh shrimp at such a bargain price. Yum!
Your homemade curry sounds delicious too, and oh yes, I'll bet your house smelled delightful!
Do you think your snowfall will beat last winter's total?
Florida sounds good to us too after the frigid, strong winds and snow flurries we've had all day today. Not a great deal of accumulation though, luckily.
Stay as warm as you can, Giddy! Just keep knitting....

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hi Giddy !!! Love the pictures girl : ) ... thankfully by some odd event we have been bypassed by storms .. I think we are in for a gigantic one next month just so winter can get the last WORD in on us ? I laughed at the shrimp escapade .. and I'm so curious about the home made curry spices .. we love curry here too !

Anonymous said...

We got it too, Giddy. I shoveled this morning from 8 until noon, and went back out for a bit this afternoon.

Funny about shrimp, I used to love the gulf coast jumbos the best, but after all these years in Maine, I prefer the small ones, fried in batter. I am not one for plain shrimp, too much.

Spring will come soon, probably one a day or two ahead of the black flies, but it will come!

Anonymous said...

Florida just sounds better and better to me. Spent the whole day digging out!

Spring is less than a month away!

WiseAcre said...

Oh Jeeze. I hate to say it but I'm feeling better after seeing that. Now I can't complain about the couple inches of snow we got.

I'm tempted to make the drive just to get some of that shrimp. I'd have to bring our small chest freezer, rent a room with kitchen facilities and spend a couple of days :)

jenn said...

Yes, I'm fearing for my lilacs. I have 13 of them, all groaning under the weight of this latest snow. We had one massive branch come off of a maple and narrowly miss our garage, but that's been the only casualty so far.

It's the rain we've got coming Friday that has me nervous... where is all of this snow going to go if it melts that fast??

Diana LaMarre said...

As I started reading, I was thinking I bet Florida is looking good to Giddy for next year. LOL. We are under a strom watch right now until Fri a.m.

I don't think I can face another foot of wet snow!

What fun making your own spice blends. I can imagine how nice the house smelled while you were toasting them.

Giddy said...

Hi Kerri, yep, Florida is definitely on our list for next year. Both boys and the grandkids are down there and I'm tired of only seeing them for a couple of days a year.

Joy, our biggest snowstorms traditionally come in March! I sure hope this mess melts before that happens.

Sandra, right now, I'd probably welcome those black flies with open arms!

GL, It may say spring on the calendar, but we all know better, don't we?

WA, I'm glad I can give you something to be thankful for! Oh, the shrimp don't last long around here!

Jenn, we lost one big cedar, so far. I'm keeping fingers crossed for your lovely lilacs. What would spring be without them?

Zoey, I'm with you. Cannot even think of another foot of snow!