Forty Degrees

That's how much colder it is today than yesterday. It was 72 degrees yesterday afternoon. I had the windows open, it was humid and warm. Today it didn't get above 36 degrees and right now it's 32 degrees. Forty degrees colder. And it's windy. And I know for a fact that it's snowing in central Minnesota as we speak. They can keep it.

This morning I got the Chicken Tikka Masala into the slow cooker before I got dressed and before I did yoga. It smells spicy and good when it's bubbling away for four hours. It makes 8 servings so I had to make more brown rice because I put 1/3 cup of brown rice in every serving so all I have to do is make a vegetable and supper is ready. I confess that I buy 2 lb. bags of baby carrots and steam a handful of them in the microwave most of the time. They're the vegetable with the longest shelf life.

Once I had that cooking I got out the big skillet and made Hoisin-Glazed Chicken Breasts. Oh man, that smells great when it's cooking. There's star anise in the liquid that the chicken simmers in before you reduce it after the chicken's done and then you add sesame oil to finish it off. Mm, that smells great. Tastes good too.

Today's writing went pretty well. I started once the cooking was done and got this much down before I had to stop for my Women's Spirit Zoom with writing friends. Once that was over I dived back into writing and hit 1860 words. I'm very impressed that I've been overshooting the 1667 word goal every day so that when the day comes when I run out of words or time (and I will) I've got a cushion. Today the two B&B guests went down the beach to have supper so I got to write about food and wine.

I even managed to draw a little bit today. It was a people drawing day. In Sketching he called what he had there an audience so he encouraged changing people's expressions and clothes. I think all three of my people look like they're in a bad mood. I didn't mean for that to happen. Maybe I'll take another stab at it tomorrow and try to make them look happier.

Then I dug out the book How to Draw People since I am so bad at that. It's a kids' book from Weekly Reader Press and this artist is starting kids off drawing stick figures so I'm doing that too. Today's stick people are doing things like skating, throwing a football, crawling, and boxing. I looked ahead and the next page shows how to dress your stick people. That'll be good, they look a little cold.

At Friday Night Knitting I finished the Big Wool Cap 2 that I started last week, well, all except for threading the yarn through the remaining stitches, cinching it tight, and weaving it in. I'm counting it as finished just the same. Now I don't have anything on the needles so tomorrow I have to find something else to knit. Or maybe I'll just cast on another Big Wool Cap with the yarn I have left.

I realized this morning when I got out of the shower at 11 o'clock that I tend to do Investment Cooking in my PJs. The last two mornings I've gotten the slow cooker loaded up and plugged in, then segued right into the skillet recipe of the day. Now that the two slow cooker recipes are done the rest of the recipes require more attention. That's okay. If I do two of them tomorrow and two on Sunday, that leaves one to cook on Monday so I'll be done by Tuesday trash night which is my goal. Then I'll have 59 suppers in the freezer. Hooray!

--Barbara