Three Shades of . . .

. . . blue - every picture from this morning was cast in a blue hue.

Nothing exciting to fill the post - just normal Monday activities.

I woke up to wind and snow. I knew the wind was still blowing, because all night long I heard it! When I looked out the window, the snow was blowing horizontally! Yikes - I usually never run on Monday and figured this would be no different. So out the door Sophie and I went for a walk.

The morning was eerily blue from the falling snow.

The lake had frozen. It won't be long before the ice fishing begins! More blue.

Sophie loved the snow, running around and rolling at every opportunity.

This was the first real snow of the season. Last weeks snow fall was more of a dusting, while this mornings snow accumulated to a whopping 1 inch. You would not have known that it was only 1 inch based on traffic! It was crawling this morning - it took me about 30 minutes to get to work, when a "normal" commute takes 15 minutes. Work was so work like! I only had 1 meeting, which is extremely unusual - for example tomorrow I have 5 meetings! I actually got quite a bit done. Luckily by evening, traffic was back to normal.

On the cooking front, we had left over Broccoli Wild Rice casserole and it was just as good warmed up. There is plenty for tomorrow also!

Enjoy the moments.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Where do you go . . .

. . . for new recipes? Various websites, or recipe books or a combination?

I have been following this blog for years - somehow in following various running blogs, I happened upon Jenna's blog, eat, live, run. I immediately loved it, her writing, her stories, she easily pulls you in.

Her blog has evolved over the years and is now my first place to stop for new recipes. I can honestly say that I have loved every single recipe I have used and I have used many, over and over again. You must check it out.

Last night I made the Spicy Thai Shrimp Skillet - here. Oh my gosh it was delicious. Her recipe included marinating the shrimp with Stubb's marinade - we used the Pork, which was nice and spicy (hot). The outside temperature was single digits last night, so the added heat was more than welcome. We made 2 small changes to Jenna's recipe, one was I added more marinade to the skillet and we made more brown rice (2 cups) and then served the shrimp and veggies over the rice. It was delicious. Here is a picture (from the left-overs that we ate today) and it tasted just as good).

This evening I made Broccoli Wild Rice casserole, HERE, not one of Jenna's, but from The Pioneer Woman and recommended by Jenna. Again it was delish, so creamy and good. I made a small addition of some chicken, but other than that, followed the recipe. It filled a good size casserole dish, so we will have leftovers for a few evenings.

All this talk about cooking got me thinking! I have been wondering if I could do my own version of the "Julie/Julia project" as a 2014 goal. In case you aren't familiar; Julie Powell began her famous blog, "The Julie/Julia Project," in 2002, at the age of 29. The blog chronicled Powell's attempt to prepare all of the dishes described in Julia Child's classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in just one year. 524 recipes in 365 days!

I have seen glimpses of the movie, but not in its entirety and have never read the book. Looking up information for this post, I see that most reviews are negative for both the book and movie . . . but I don't care, I love the idea of expanding my recipes and cooking out of my comfort zone.

Since I love Jenna's recipes, this would be a perfect goal for 2014! But how would I do this? She has far too many recipes on her blog which would make it impossible for me to get them all done in one year! But I think I would be able to cook all of her main dishes, currently sitting at a few more than 150, over the next year. Add in some salads, snacks, desserts, etc and we will be eating all of our food for 2014, compliments of Jenna's eat, live, run blog.

Now my biggest decision is whether to start now, or wait for 2014?

Since I made the Spicy Thai Shrimp Skillet last night and the Wild Rice casserole tonight, I am going to start now. I figure with vacations and other busy times, I probably need a head start!

My plan will be to reference the recipe (giving credit to Jenna) and comment on each one. This will give me another reason to blog on a regular basis.

Stayed tuned for my journey!

No running today - but we did head out to the dog park with Sophie at the end of the day. The winds were still bitter cold, but the sunset was beautiful.

Enjoy the moments!

Posted with Blogsy