Lemony

Last night for dinner I made Tuna Croquettes. This is another Alton Brown recipe that we love to put together. There is something about his show, Good Eats, that makes you want to try foods outside your normal routine. Neither of us ate much tuna before, but after discovering this one, we realize it can be tasty too. The nice thing about this recipe it is doesn't taste "tuna-y" and it is easy to make.
This last batch I made, after starting to assemble the mix, I realized I was short a few ingredients. It sounded so good, I decided to forge ahead. The onions I dropped as I had none. My lemon I had was bad, so that was out too. I didn't want the croquettes to be flat in the flavor, so I added a few chopped leaves from the lemon balm plant. And, don't cringe, but I also sprinkled in a dash of lemonade mix, to boost the lemon flavor. (Sorry Mr. Brown!)
To my relief, they still turned out delicious.

Movie

We saw the movie Avatar yesterday. It was pretty good. While the general story line wasn't anything too original, the portrayal, scenery, and the characters were really unique. The CG is also excellent. The movie is a little over 2.5 hours long, which I usually don't like long movies, but this film didn't feel that long.

whiter

Well the storm blew through and we ended up with about a foot of snow on the ground. Heck of a first snow for us. Wednesday morning greeted us with blowing, drifting, and un-plowed roads. We passed a stuck semi and a pickup in the middle of the road on our way to work. Luckily our car was feeling sure-footed that day.
So the past few days we have been digging out. My shoveling muscles are sore.

chores

Zachary and I are both off from work today and this morning we were busy with getting the chickens and sheep ready for the snowy winter ahead. Nothing like trying to get things done outside, as the first flakes of an incoming snowstorm is blowing in...

Our young hens were fascinated by the white stuff, and the commotion we were causing in and around their coop. We walled their coop with hay bales on the outside to cut down on drafts.
The sheep quarters we inspected as well. They have plenty of clean fluffy bedding to stay warm in. Zachary made a strange discovery in the sheep building. He found a dead red fox. It was one of the ones that we have been seeing around the farm. It was 3 legged, as one of it's paws were missing. The fox has been lurking around the chickens lately. We don't know why it died in the sheep building. Maybe it was sick? Or maybe the sheep attacked it? Very strange. I guess it is one less fox to bother our chickens. I would put up a picture of it, but I am sure not everyone would like to look at a dead animal.

Zachary and I get our weather from NOAA. We have a joke amongst ourselves about the little pictures they use to describe the weather forecast. Our favorite and most scary picture is Thursday's. We called it the "huddled mass". When that picture pops up, you don't need to bother to look at the description.

And to update our snow storm moving in, it now a blizzard, with 8-14 inches expected and gusts up to 45mph. It should be an interesting drive into work tomorrow morning...

Ready or not

The forecast for our area is bringing us about 8 inches of snow Tuesday/Wednesday. It will be our first blast of winter for the season. We'll see how this forecast delivers. We are looking forward to the transition to whiteness.

Pretty Eggs

In between baking cookie sheets of our favorite cookie tonight, I was washing eggs. We had almost three dozen in the fridge and I was prepping them for Zachary to give to one of his co-workers tomorrow. He takes about 2 dozen off our hands each week. Thank goodness he loves fresh eggs! It helps us keep ahead of the eggs. As a nice return, he and his wife give us homemade pita bread. It makes a delicious food circle. :-)
I thought the eggs looked neat all laid out, drying on the towel. It really shows the variety in the shades of brown, speckling, and size.

The cookies turned out nicely. I made half with chips in them, and the other half chip-less, with a touch of kosher salt sprinkled on top. (Thanks for the salt tip Julie!) I don't know if Zachary and I are weirdos in the chocolate chip cookie eaters realm, but we don't like very many chips in cookies. That is why we do half with them in sparsely, and the other half without. Anyone else out there like us??

Holiday Games

We had a nice thanksgiving with the Sorenson side of the family on Thursday. All of us gathered at my parents house for food and fun. Besides our food contribution to the meal, we brought up 2 sets of Cornhole game boards we recently constructed. My parents wanted 2 sets of game boards for the winter in Florida to play with their friends on the beach. Cornhole is a bean bag toss game.
We made an USA vs. Canada set and a Wisconsin Badgers vs. Michigan Wolverines. The family played with the boards during Thanksgiving, and a competitive tournament developed. Our nephew Jordan was the champion for the afternoon, with Zachary as runner-up. I bet there will be a rematches to come. Zachary and I were discussing making a set for ourselves, perhaps Alliance vs. Horde, Axis vs. Allies, or something else nerdy I would imagine...
As I write this, the game boards are on their way to Florida for the winter with my parents. Lucky boards!