It was three years ago (already) that the ugly utility pole out by the pond was removed and our wires were undergrounded. We haven't had any significant power failures since then, whereas we had several in the preceding years. Once we were without electricity for about five days because high winds blew down a tree that fell on the wires.
I see from looking at old photos that the weather then looks like the weather now, so all is normal. It's wet and gray here now, but not cold. Most of my photos from the end of January in past years have been of food and cooking projects. The kitchen is where the color is in wintertime in France.
Above is a kitchen photo from Friday. I made a pot au feu — literally "a pot on the fire" — in the slow cooker for Saturday's main meal. Beef, onion, carrots, turnips, and potatoes, with spices and herbs. One of the nicest side benefits of a boiled dinner is the good broth you get for making soups or whatever over the following few days.
Well, the Western Reserve is wet and gray AND cold...But nothing lasts forever. The ingredients you have for your pot au feu look like my favorite kind of food....
ReplyDeleteLovely thought Ken...
ReplyDelete"The kitchen is where the color is in wintertime".....
but not just France....
most of the Northern Hemisphere to the north of the Alps, I would hazzard!
And in our Summertime...
the Southernmost Southern Hemispericalz will have their "kitchen stove colour"....
Every country has wintertime comfort food recipes...
and you will be echoed in your endeavours all over today...
this being Sunday, 'n'all!
I would have made the pot au feu for today's lunch except we got invited out by neighbors. Speaking of color, imagine the whiteness of the whole northeastern coast of North America today, from North Carolina to Massachusetts.
DeleteAs predicted, the snow stopped falling late last night. Even though we've had strong winds there was, fortunately, no power failure, so far. Now, I am snow bound, but since there is nowhere I have to go in the near future, I can wait for the thaw! I don't know if we broke any record, but it loks like we were very close.
ReplyDeleteSnow totals varied from 18 inches in parts of Arlington, 25" at the National Zoo in the District, and 30 or more inches in Manassas and places closer to the Blue Ridge. That's what I've read in the Post.
DeleteThis from the Post:
Delete10:45 p.m. update: NWS just put out an updated list of storm totals. Here are some of the biggest ones:
North Potomac, Md. – 36.5″
Leesburg, Va. – 34.0″
Point of Rocks, Md. – 32.0″
Centreville, Va. – 30.8″
Damascus, Md. – 29.0″
BWI, Md. – 29.2″
IAD, Va. – 28.3″
Parkton, Md. – 28.0″
Columbia, Md. – 27.7″
Northwest D.C. – 25.0″
Bailey’s Crossroads, Va. – 21.0″
Greenbelt, Md. – 20.5″
DCA, Va. – 17.8″
National Harbor, Md. – 17.0″
These amounts are CRAZY!
Deletechm, glad to see you are still warm in DC. Same here, I'm happy to say. According to the snowfall map on the NY Times, the biggest snowfall was in West Virginia north of Winchester VA--42".
ReplyDeleteKen, a pot roast is my favorite beef dish. I can't remember if you prefer to brown the meat?
I did not brown the meat this time, and I like it this way. The carrots, onion, and meat held up to five or six hours of cooking in the crock pot, but I steamed the turnips and potatoes separately toward the end of the cooking time for the roast.
DeleteKen... so, you just put the meat in (whole, like that?), and pile the carrots and onions and bay leaf on top, and cook for 5 or 6 hours on low? Do you add any liquid at all, at first? I just don't ever have success with this type of thing, and I'd really like to know what I should do to tweak my method.
DeleteI put the carrots and the onion, whole, in the cooker first, and then I laid the meat, also whole and not browned, over those. I poured in a combination of broth (veal in my case but chicken, beef, or vegetable are possibilities) so that the meat was almost but not quite covered. Then I cooked it as you described. With bay leaves, black peppercorns, and 2 or 3 cloves...
DeleteThe colors are lovely, those carrots must have been massive ! Don't you just love crock pots ? I never used one until I moved here and got 2 for gifts :)
ReplyDeleteAbout the snow .. I live just south of Albany NY .. Kinderhook / Chatham area .. we got no snow !!
I think I am ok with that though.
I imagine! We had sunshine and a relatively spring-like 50°F this afternoon. Plus a nice lunch of roast venison at our neighbor the mayor's house.
DeleteOh, by the way, I chose really big carrots because I figured they would stand up to the long, slow cooking better than small ones would.
DeleteKen, your capability with the slow cooker inspired me to try my hand at it. Last night I made chicken cutlets meunière from the NY times blog. But I stopped it after three hours (and it was lovely), since I thought nothing would survive the four to five hours the recipe called for.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look for that recipe. Sounds good. Like you, I'm not sure chicken needs to cook as long as beef, veal, or pork does.
DeleteHere it is :)
ReplyDeletehttp://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/the-minimalist-chicken-cutlets-meuniere/?_r=0
Hi, I read you and Walt every day and I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT IT HAS BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE THAT POLE WAS REMOVED!!!!
ReplyDelete