Barely A Flake

Once again we were threatened with inches of snow and, once again, the snow stayed to the south and missed us. I don't think it even got below freezing today. I saw a few flakes in the late afternoon but nothing to speak of. Ah well, I'm glad that I don't have to go out and shovel.

Today was the first day of Investment Cooking this year. I had a hard time getting moving this morning so it wasn't until almost 11 o'clock that I got the slow cooker filled and fired up to make the Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Casserole. That meant that it cooked until almost 7 o'clock. Good thing I wasn't planning on having it for supper.

While that simmered away I baked three acorn squash cut in half. In a skillet I sauteed onions, then added garlic, cumin, salt, and cinnamon, stirred in chickpeas, water, and chopped raisins. That cooked for a while then got lemon juice and chopped cilantro stirred in. When the squash was done I slipped each half into a tall Tupperware square round and divided the chickpea mixture among them. I am definitely looking forward to eating those over the next weeks.

The Daily Practice today was all about leaves. Painting leaves from our imagination (although I think one leaf there in the middle looks like a pickle). I enjoyed it so much that I painted two pages in my sketchbook this afternoon and then painted two more loose pages tonight. It was fun and I really got into it.

The only drawing I did today was a page out of Drawing Cute of chocolates and a cup of tea. They were easy to draw and fitted my low-motivation day perfectly.

I got a new palette today. I didn't need a new one, I wanted a new one that I could fill with colors that I really use instead of the colors that a teacher said to use. Part of the morning was spent (misspent?) squirting paint into the little wells and trying not to get it all over my fingers and the quilt on the bed. I probably should have moved the whole shebang out to the kitchen table but I didn't and I didn't get any paint on the heirloom quilt. Whew.

I hope that I manage to get moving earlier tomorrow, get the next recipe into the slow cooker earlier, and figure out which other recipe I can make around my afternoon writing Zoom and my evening knitting Zoom. Maybe I'll set my alarm to make myself get up earlier although I purely hate the alarm.

--Barbara