Vacation Day (for me)

 

Enjoyed a vacation day today visiting my nephew and twin sister in Wausau, while Bike man attended a State-wide water conference in Stevens Point.  I loved spending time with Tim and we even got to enjoy lunch at a place called Becca's Café!  I then headed back to Stevens Point later in the afternoon, just in time for social hour and the annual awards dinner at UW-Stevens Point.

 

I purposely seated myself in the chair with the chocolate cheesecake.  Looks good doesn't it?  Well, I was very disappointed as my homemade cheesecake is so much better than this commercially made cheese dessert.  It was kind of like cheesecake, only softer.  I ate two bites and then aborted my dessert eating.  Guess I'm just a cheesecake snob!

I'll be driving back to Wausau tomorrow morning to spend more time with my sister and her family, and then head back to Point to pick up Bike man and head for home.  After weeks of subzero weather, it's nice to get away and forget about the cold weather.  Oh it was still cold today, but just traveling to a different community makes it feel......different.  It's all psychological I'm sure.

The Need To Burrow

Why do our pets always like to burrow under the covers?  Manny's in heaven all warm and cozy.  As for the cat fur....let's not talk about that ok?

Mountain of Cookies

Came home to a mountain of cookies tonight.....homemade oatmeal cookies that is!  Very nice Bike man.  Of course I had to sample a cookie when I got home.  Great crunchy texture and buttery taste.  What a treat to have freshly baked cookies.  Love that lingering smell throughout the house.

Winteritis

I must be suffering from winteritis!  I haven't felt like blogging or sharing my wintry days with you.....I'm sorry friends.  Lack of running or snowshoeing has left me hibernating indoors at work and at home.  The main problem this winter is the constant north or west winds that adds the bitter windchill. I'm going to think positive about the winter conditions and look forward to warmer temperatures soon.

What tastes good on a cold, cold day?  Chili, of course.  Each batch of chili we make is always different....I never use a recipe.  Today's batch consisted of our own canned tomatoes, plus several cans of crushed tomatoes with basil, herbs and garlic, onions, carrots, black beans and pork loin.  Then I seasoned the chili with Penzey's chili 3000, red chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper.  And don't forget the Epazote!

Epazote is a weed (herb) grown in Mexico, Central & South America.  Supposedly, adding this dried herb to your chili recipe will help to relieve the flatulence-symptoms associated with eating lots of beans!  It's also used in many Mexican recipes such as enchiladas, quesadillias, sopes and tamales.   If you do some reading on Wikipedia about Epazote, you'll find some very interesting findings about this interesting weed.  So, I'm testing this out to see if my chili with black beans will be less gassy.  

Another -20 degrees below zero tonight.  My vehicle is once again plugged in so the block heater will keep my car engine warm for tomorrow's early morning start-up.  Thank heavens for block heaters.