ksmith | Sunday morning, with dozing dogs

...and it's snowing lightly. Could wind up with 3 inches by the time it ends later today. May be shoveling later.

I think that after Wednesday's Snowmigawd, any amount less than 6 inches is going to seem trivial. But any additional stuff will add height to the walls of snow at intersections, and make it that much more difficult to see oncoming traffic. Temps are supposed to dip to single digits by midweek before slowly ticking upward again, so nothing will be melting anytime soon. Half of any given parking lot is given over to snow storage, and most two-lane streets are still shaved down to a lane and a half.

Oy, when this melts. I'm already envisioning the mud.

This weekend was apparently my time to screw up in the kitchen. I made chili on Friday using a recipe from the Real Simple site, and it didn't work out. The recipe called for 2 bottles of lager, and me being a beergoramus, I used what I had on hand, namely a porter that I didn't care for**. It overwhelmed every other flavor in the pot. I managed to salvage the mess somewhat by simmering for several hours, adding a tablespoon of sugar and a bag of frozen corn. The sugars offset the bitterness, but the other flavors settled in for a long stay, I'm afraid. The chili is edible, if I add some cheese and a dash of olive oil, but it doesn't taste like chili. Unfortunately, I made a big pot of the stuff, so I'm going to have it for a while.

Then yesterday, I made cookies. Chocolate espresso cookies, made according to the recipe on the Ghirardelli 70% cacao bar wrapper. The dough was simple enough to pull together, but I messed up in the baking. According to the recipe, you're to bake the things for 12 minutes or until the tops crack. Thing is, the cookies are made up mostly of butter and melted chocolate--there's only half a cup of flour for 2 dozen cookies. The stuff spread on the cookie sheet and puffed up, but it never cracked. Unfortunately, I didn't give up on the first sheetful until the undersides had already burned, so I'm stuck with some bitter cookies to go with my bitter chili. Even the cookies that didn't burn don't taste that great. They may have benefited from a touch more salt. Maybe I'll experiment with the recipe someday, but for now I think I'll stick to my oatmeal-raisin and ginger-spice standbys.

I'm almost afraid to delve into making dinner later. Yesterday I went to the grocery store that carries the good fish, and in addition to a nice batch of wild sockeye, I also managed to find a turkey breast that wasn't pumped up with 10% salt/sugar solution. All I have to do is stick butter under the skin and a thermometer in the center and roast it, but I fear that may be beyond my capabilities this weekend. I'll likely give it a shot anyway, though. I want the meat for sandwiches.

With a nod toward spring, I organized a small corner of my life yesterday and cleaned out one of the kitchen junk drawers. I have two, one filled with tools, teflon tape,and glues of various types, and the other filled with small kitchen gadgets, bars of baking chocolate, and appliance manuals. It were the latter got the cleaning, as it had reached the point where it was filled to the brim. I pulled out everything, cleaned and relined the drawer. Sorted out the manuals and recipe books, which I switched over to a manila envelope and stashed elsewhere. I now have plenty of room for rolling pins, microplanes, mixer attachments, and chocolate bars. Some small bit of accomplishment amidst the fail.

Research reading as of late for a story about faeries. “Meeting the Other Crowd” by Eddie Lenihan, a book of "true" encounters with the Fair Folk. Awaiting a couple of books in the mail, an Encyclopedia of Fairies and "Fairies in Tradition and Literature", both by Katharine Briggs. I hope they arrive in time because there are a few traditional bits I'd like to be sure of before I dive in.

I envy writers who can whip out a short story in a few days. I really do.

**Edmund Fitzgerald, which rates an A over at Beer Advocate for reasons I cannot fathom. It's one step above grocery store Guinness, imho, and that's being generous. Bitter as hell. No body. I should have known better than to cook with it, but I wanted to get rid of it. How they can rate it an A and Bell's Best Brown Ale a B+ is something I cannot understand. My regard for their ratings is pretty much out the window.

And for the record, I don't care who wins the Super Bowl. Won't be watching, not even for the commercials. But I was directed to this Super Bowl Volkswagen commercial the other day, and well, it's just adorable: