Weathering the Storm

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Valentine's Day! We're not doing anything to celebrate today, but we have dinner reservations for Sunday. I'm just hoping we can get to our downtown restaurant choice. 

It was a miserable day of weather yesterday. Smitty could scarcely believe his eyes.

He demands an explanation for these apawminable conditions.

By noon yesterday, we had about three inches of accumulation.

The freezing rain didn't start until last night. There was just a little more snow accumulation. This is how it looked this morning.

But remember that view from my window yesterday? This one:

This is my view from the same window this morning.

The downstairs windows were protected by the eaves overhead. The window where I'm sitting now is in a dormer, and so there is no protection from the eaves. This window and our bedroom window took the full force of the blowing and falling icy mixture.

Okay, so that made it a good day to stay inside and sew. I quilted the horizontal sashings for the Vintage Linen quilt. When I'd finished with those, it felt like a good time to stop.

Now, I've rotated the quilt 90°, and I'll quilt the vertical sashings today. Tomorrow, I'll quilt the border, and then it will be ready for binding. I left it needle down, and this is where I'll start today.

From there, I headed into the sewing room, where it's nice and warm. I drew the pattern for my "Circus" quilt for the third time. Third time's a charm, right? I wasn't in the right head space to start on this, but I will start on it today.

Probably, I'll institute the one-hour rule for the time being. The biggest challenge with these collage quilts is getting started. They can be completely engrossing once I've made some progress. The first part can be challenging. It helps me to know I'm only assigned one hour to work on it. I can go longer, but one hour is my minimum effort.

Smitty and I discussed the fabrics I'll start with. See those doors behind him? That's where our furnace and water heater reside. That's what makes the sewing room nice and warm on a cold day.

After we'd made some fabric decisions, I was dismissed. Himself would like to take a nap, if you don't mind. And even if you do mine, just get out of here.

It was getting close to time for me to start on our side dish for last night's dinner. Mike was barbecuing some steaks. A long time ago, I tested a meat marinade recipe for America's Test Kitchens. Since then we marinate every kind of steak bound for the barbecue. It's that good. You can find the marinade recipe right here. 

I might have chosen a better weather day for Mike to be outside barbecuing steaks, but I kept myself warm inside making these Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatoes. I've linked to the recipe there, but know that it originally appeared in Fine Cooking magazine before the magazine ceased publication. (Sniff.) 

It's easy enough to do, but it pays to plan ahead. I used baby red potatoes for this. They're first boiled, then cooled a little, then smashed, then drizzled with oil, sprinkled with salt, and then roasted. If there's a convection option on your oven, they're even crispier that way. I think these would be good with a little sprinkle of parmesan cheese too. It could be added when they come from the hot oven.

So today is looking a lot like yesterday. It's a good day to stay inside, and certainly its preferable if you're not trying to fall down and break a bone. On the other hand, Lewis Carroll says you only regret the chances you didn't take. As for me... hard pass on the chance to break another bone.

I'm heading back to my slow-stitching now. There's just a little left to stitch on the second of three blocks. Probably I'll start on the third one this morning. After that, more quilting, and I'll get started on the "Circus" quilt. A walk on the treadmill should be safe enough, and there's one very easy housekeeping chore. I keep telling myself I'm going to spend some time familiarizing myself with the Milepost for our trip to Alaska. It's made it as far as the coffee table in the living room. There's even a highlighter pen lying there for my use. We'll see if I do it today. Feel free to start a betting pool if you like.