monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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And today it was sunny and a lot of the snow melted.
So today my sourdough starter was ready to use for breadmaking! It was all bubbly and smelled sour and yeasty, so I stirred in more flour and water, and let it sit in the warm oven - you turn on the oven to Warm for a couple of minutes and then turn it off, and put the 'sponge' mixture into the oven - and then I went out to do a couple of errands with Rich.
When we got home, the sponge had bubbled up beautifully, so I made the dough and put it back in the oven to let it rise. Eventually I baked the loaf on my pizza stone (I love that thing!), and we have been making sandwiches and toast with it tonight.
I saved a cup of starter to make another loaf next week. The starter can live in a jar in the fridge forever, as long as you feed it more flour and water every week. It's in a mason jar with a hole punched in the lid to let the gas escape. The directions said it's a live thing, like a pet, so I'm calling it Sasha.
Last night we were going to a little party at Kat's house, just to play games and meet her new boyfriend. She met him through an online dating service, and she says they have a lot in common. He seems pleasant, and he's nice looking, but she was having a few people over to meet him and check him out, because you never know. Like I said, he seemed pleasant, and he made a couple of funny remarks, so I thought he was okay.
I made a couple of dips and took some crackers and a bag of Ruffles (Ruffles make everything better!), and Rich and I loaded the food in the back of the van and set off through the country to Kat's house.
It was starting to just barely snow as we drove out of town, which was a surprise, since snow was predicted for today, but not for yesterday. We were using the Garmin, but Rich ignored its directions that were taking us on the back roads (it's a little faster that way). The roads are better if you stay on the main roads.
We got there, and it was still barely snowing, just starting to leave a little on the ground, but by the time we left, just three hours later, the snow was about four inches deep in the driveway. I grabbed the snow scraper and went around the van, brushing the snow off of the windows while Rich was putting the leftovers on the back seat.
When I had all the windows brushed off, I turned to walk around behind the van to get back to the passenger side, but my foot slipped, and I started falling! I tried to get my balance, but there was ice under the snow, and my other foot slipped, and I fell! Flat on my face in the snow!
I tried to get up, but it was so slippery I couldn't get a foot hold, and did I mention I was wearing a pair of black clogs with no socks? It was so sunny all week, that I hadn't been dressing for winter, just wearing my clogs (mules?), and no coat, either. Just a long-sleeved t-shirt with a sweater, and there I was, laying on my stomach in the snow, with no coat! And my feet were cold!
Rich must have wondered why I wasn't getting in the car, because he came around to the back of van and looked down and said, "What are you doing?" like he thought I was making a snow angel or something!
The he reached down and pulled me up, and I was covered with snow, all stuck to me and I was trying to brush it off (no mittens, either!) and we got in the car and turned the heat way up.
The snowplows were out, and while we were all still in the house, we had seen a plow go by and laughed at how ridiculous that was, to have the plows out for those few flakes of snow, but then we were out in it, and it was a lot of snow.
We were doing fine, driving through their little town, but then we were through the town and back out on the country roads, and missed the turn back on to what passes for a highway out there, so we had to rely on the Garmin and follow the directions through the back roads, which are winding and dark because there are no street lights out there in the cornfields!
The snow was blowing too, and we were laughing (but not too hard) because just before we left our house, we had been watching a TV show about Wicked Weather or something like that, and it had been about a huge blizzard that shut down a city for four days in the 70s, but it really wasn't all that amusing when you're driving home in a white-out in the middle of nowhere.
We got home safely though, and didn't end up in a ravine like Kim, so whew!
11:18 p.m. - 2009-02-14
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