And there was no solar gain yesterday at our off-the- grid house...so no baking, no running the vacuum, no using the washer or dryer. Lamps... only one at a time. Remember to turn off bathroom light when you leave. After days of sunshine and record high temperatures we are back to winter. It is dark early with the clouds obscuring the mountain top. Hoping my bare naked flower beds will survive without their protective mulch which I had already removed.
All my very well read literary friends assure me I will love it. Not sure exactly how to take that..Love it because it is really good or love it because I wouldn't know any better? It has been favorabley compared by at least one reviewer to Madeline L'Engle's, "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" which was a favorite of mine as a young adult, although my own children found it disturbing and refused to hear more of it when I tried to read it to them before they were probably old enough.
I am resisting the pressure to see the movie before I read the book, partly because I HATE SEEING THE MOVIE FIRST, and partly because I am sure my imagination will create a world that will be my very own.
I do have a stack of books waiting, however, so will choose one of them if our road is treacherous tomorrow. I just finished the book I mentioned in yesterday's post, and while it may not win any literary prizes, I thought the theme of transformation was well developed, and I really began to care enough about the characters, that I was sad when the book ended, which is always my standard for recommending a book.
Plus the descriptions of what was cooking, were delicious enough that I am planning to make some of the recipes.
This is what I am taking to a friend's house on Saturday (found not in the book, but on Pinterest.) originally from the April issue of House and Home but I found it at My Little Bungalow Blog with some good tips the author of this blog discovered while making it.
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| Asparagus and Cheese Tart |
Green chile stew on the propane stove top requires no electricity so we had that for dinner. The oven, on the other hand, requires constant electricity to stay lit, so no yummy cheddar cheese biscuits to go with the stew.
And sure enough, Tuesday morning we woke up to 8" of snow that turned into a foot of snow by noon.
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| Took photo at 8" |
OH MY GOD. Look at that snow. That's more snow than we had all winter long!
ReplyDeleteWould love to know how you make your green chili stew. Is it various peppers, tomatillos and pork?
Steve, Heather is probably busy at church the rest of the week so I thought I'd let you know how we do green chile (it must be spelled with an E here in NM) stew. Only pork--usually shoulder/butt-tightly sealed so juices don't evaporate and roasted low and slow til falling apart tender, roasted green chiles, a little onion and garlic, diced potatoes, the de-fatted pork juices with enough water to make a fairly soupy stew. Oh yes, salt to taste. Of course, there are lots of variations on the recipe. I think some folks might put in tomatoes too. It is the most perfect thing to eat on a snowy day with a nice hot flour tortilla.
ReplyDeleteNew Mexico chiles are mostly Anaheims and can be anywhere from very mild to cauterizingly hot. Most of the canned ones are on the very mild side They are quite addictive. We are required to bring frozen chile when visiting Camille! Tomatillos don't ever appear in traditional New Mexico cooking which is very different from Tex-Mex or California style. Ours is heavily influenced by the Native American Pueblo cultures here. And of course we think it's vastly superior!
I have no recollection of the book you are referring to, but I enjoyed the Hunger Games. A very quick read. Saw the movie the day after I finished the book. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The relationships weren't developed in the movie the way I think they should have been. It was certainly interesting to see how differently the worlds were visualized. My vision was very different than the movie. One interesting thing was the diversity of people in the movie. I had all the characters in the book visualized as anglo, but the movie did a great job of bringing in all different ethnicities. I especially loved Lenny Kravitz (super attractive!!!) as Cinna.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, that snow!!! Strange weather, indeed. I hope your plants survived.
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