St. Patrick's Day!

At our non-Irish household we had a pretty tasty St. Patrick's Day feast yesterday. I decided to make corned beef and cabbage at home for the first time. When I sent Joe to our local butcher shop, he came home with two hunks of corned beef. So we invited Joe's mom and his brothers. A good excuse to have fun setting the table.

My bread turned beautifully, too, for this occasion. (Thank you, bread god!)

I must say, the corned beef and cabbage was a big success. The boys even ate the veggies without complaining!

For dessert we had Black & Tan Brownies from a recipe that was tested and approved by Judy. The upper black brownie layer has Guinness stout beer. It's gotta be good, right? I even whipped up green whipping cream. It was fun cooking all around.

Girls' Day Celebration

This morning feels a little like the movie "Groundhog Day," a repeat of yesterday. Our driveway doesn't look like Joe had blown snow at all. After snow blowing and shoveling so we could get out of the driveway to go to get a few things from a nearby grocery store (4 blocks away), we stayed in. And I tried to cook a meal for Girls' Day with much limited supplies. I was even out of "nori" seaweed for sushi. Only saved by our first asparagus of the season. Somewhere far, far away is spring, we only dream.
Joe is cooking breakfast right now, before he has to blow snow to get my car out for work.

March Snow-- Totally Normal!

On the calendar in Japan, March 3rd is a Girls' Day, celebration of peach blossoms. Well, up in the U.P. we are buried deep in the snow, in the middle of another snow storm. After hearty breakfast we went out to clear our driveway to make more room for more snow!
We assessed about a foot of fresh snow overnight, at least, and more coming. Look how tall our snow bank is, compared to Joe and his snowblower.
Big smile, frosty smile. Snow blowing #1 is complete!

Much Anticipated Snow Storm

On this leap day we are expecting a pretty good snow storm. Thank goodness it's my day off. I'm prepared to stay in. For a change I whipped up a small batch of buckwheat pancakes for breakfast.
Mmmm.... Tomorrow morning we'll have extra oatmeal.
Finally around 10a.m. it started snowing. Yap, it's a steady snow fall.
The Duke (red Cavalier) and I are not going anywhere today... but there's a list of things to do, including much procrastinated tasks of small number crunching for my tax. Fun!!

Homemade Kimchi

Finally I got around to make kimchi yesterday. My very first attempt. I will have to see how this batch turns out... in a few weeks!
And we picked up a new/ used hutch for our kitchen to hide miscellaneous stuff.
Joe's finger is healing pretty good. The stitches have been out. He got his x-ray images on disc today and printed a couple, so we are going to get them framed.
Lastly, but not least, my paternal grandma in Japan passed very peacefully. She was 92 and died of old age. Thanks to my parents and brother back home, she lived at home till the end, without any illness. Though Joe and I could only send our flowers, we were assured that she had a very nice funeral service.
Well, my kimchi brewing, our lives go on. Can't believe February is almost gone!

Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day.
Since I had to work yesterday, Joe was in charge of cooking our special dinner.
Mmmm.... Joe's BBQ ribs, chipotle spicy version. So good!
For dessert I had whipped up bittersweet chocolate mousse the night before. Equally good!!
Today I have a day off. What to cook?? I'm thinking something Asian. A pot of Thai curry is on order for the rest of the work week. Maybe Pad Thai for dinner tonight.

Let's Post Prettier Pictures

Sorry we didn't update our blog photos from Joe's ugly bandaged hand pics sooner. Above is a much much prettier picture of my homemade bread. I've just started to try making this no-knead artisan bread regularly. In fact, as I type, a batch is rising, waiting to go into the oven.
Though no picture can do justice, here are some photos from the Winter Carnival at MTU yesterday.
Well, only one photo of ice/snow sculpture... because it was just so darn cold!! Maybe 12 degrees, snowy with wind gusts, wind chill of probably 20 below zero = I don't care who you are, it's COLD. We met with Phil and Judy who decided to bring along two young exchange students. These poor girls are going to hate winter permanently, I suspect.
Good thing we spent an hour and half to have nice lunch, then maybe 5 minutes to sort of see the sculpture outside. We most definitely enjoyed seeing the winter wonderland outside from the warm car.... The below picture of the mule wagon was taken through the car window.