Land ho? Land NO. Eegad, it snowed a lot yesterday and it's raining this morning. I feel like I'm in some kind of apocalyptic winter world...oh wait...according to Hygge, I'm in a cozy winter wonderland and I need to take advantage of this day by cuddling under blankets with Alex right? I think I would be more accepting of that concept if this were January, not April!!! :) We make the best of things! I'll still be happy to cuddle, but I do miss being outside in the sunshine!
And poor Charlie is depressed again, she won't eat...well, she'll eat her banana pumpkin cookies, but that's about it. She just wants to lie in Alex's office all day on the futon. We know she needs to be outside and we're doing the best we can, but it's never enough for her. Once the snow starts to really melt and we get warmer days, I spend most of my day out on the porch and this summer I'll be in the garden. She's happy as a clam on those days because she's outside a good 12 hours a day. But winters are long for her, we just aren't equipped to let her stay outside all day. When we buy our place in a few years, a large yard, fenced in doggie area will be one of our first priorities! But I think that Charlie and I feel the same way about this long drawn-out winter! :)
Last night I made strombolis, have you ever had one? They are basically a type of calzone. Very delicious! I started with sauté-ing some onions and fresh mushrooms in butter, then added some sliced sirloin for Alex and sliced chicken for me.
I made my usual pizza dough and divided it up in two large rectangles.
The next step is to layer some shredded cheese on to the dough, then your meat filling, roll, seal, brush with melted butter, sprinkle with Parm and bake! I overfilled them and I had to really stretch out the dough to seal them, so they leaked a little...but oh so worth the clean-up for all that yummy filling! :)
Last night was Philly Cheese Steak and Philly Cheese Chicken Strombolis! Usually the Philly style cheese steak has green peppers too, but we can't digest them too well so I omit them. Alex wanted to try half with Cheddar and half with Mozzarella but usually you stick to either Mozz or Provolone. The last time I made a stromboli it had just Mozzarella and ham and it was so delicious! We each had half and have leftovers for lunch today. There is so much you can do with pizza dough and any type of filling!
For dessert I made the strawberry shortcakes! They were really good. Alex had a double-decker. We mixed the leftover strawberries into the whipped cream and we'll definitely be eating that today!
The dogs got lucky and licked the whipped cream off the whippers!
I don't have much going on today...just waiting for the nice weather to come back! I have a list of "shoulds" though...
1. I should wash the curtains...
2. I should dust the shelves and ceiling fans...
3. I should look at recipes for the next meal planning cycle...
4. I should this, I should that...
But I don't feel like it!
So I'll spend the day reading my Year Round Vegetable Gardener book. That's much more pleasing to me. Her book is filled with stuff that I didn't know about and I've been taking notes as I go. It's going to be a lazy day, but not a wasted one because I'll be learning much more about year-round gardening!
For dessert I made the strawberry shortcakes! They were really good. Alex had a double-decker. We mixed the leftover strawberries into the whipped cream and we'll definitely be eating that today!
The dogs got lucky and licked the whipped cream off the whippers!
I don't have much going on today...just waiting for the nice weather to come back! I have a list of "shoulds" though...
1. I should wash the curtains...
2. I should dust the shelves and ceiling fans...
3. I should look at recipes for the next meal planning cycle...
4. I should this, I should that...
But I don't feel like it!
So I'll spend the day reading my Year Round Vegetable Gardener book. That's much more pleasing to me. Her book is filled with stuff that I didn't know about and I've been taking notes as I go. It's going to be a lazy day, but not a wasted one because I'll be learning much more about year-round gardening!
Oh nooo ... not more snow.
ReplyDeleteGood for u to take advantage of the day. Too bad Charly diesnt do that ... or maybe she is ... maybe she is preparing her inner beast for outside season ;)
I gotta try thise strombolis...they look delicious !!!
Have a happy cuddly cozy day :)
Thanks sis, I think Charlie is kind of hygge-ing up her life at the moment, cuddling with her toys! :) I think she might just be keeping her energy and maybe losing a little of her winter weight for summer fun! :) The strombolis are awesome...so easy to make too. Hope you have a great day too! :)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly how you feel about the never ending winter....we usually have the snow until Easter or beyond so this is a little treat for us. But!! They are warning of snow for Sunday into Monday. Sheesh.
ReplyDeletePoor Charlie. So hard on a husky to not be outside - poor darling. Wonder if you played outside videos on your computer if that would help her? Or birdsong videos for her to listen to? Our husky Tor would never come in the house, but on those -45 nights and days when we dragged him in, he would pace, pant and look outside longingly. He would settle but man did it take a long time for him. So I get it, poor darling Charlie, I get it.
I think I want to come and live at your house! Those strombolis look DELICIOUS!!!! I have always thought they were worth much more trouble but apparently not! I am going to try your recipe for next week's menu list...likely a weekend because by the time I get home from work, I really don't feel like making dough. 5 a.m. comes early enough for me on a work day and after a day of hard grind I am just too tired; I shall leave it for the weekend to be much happier in my kitchen :) :) I guess the sky is the limit for ingredients! Provolone would be very posh in those!! I can't do peppers of any kind...they make my guts ache. And I am a weirdo, I prefer canned mushrooms over fresh. :)
Nothing wrong with taking a day of shoulds and turning them into you own shoulds. I hope the book brings you joy. I planted a planter yesterday of various seeds for herbs - basil, sage, thyme, cilantro, oregano, rosemary. I wonder what surprises I will get. I bought this planter and seeds as a package and wished I would have read the instructions thoroughly before purchase. I was under the impression that the planter had individual compartments for the seeds but nope!!!! So, its going to be a random herb filled planter! :)
Have a splendid day!
Dianna
Hi Dianna :)) I think that once I get into the dirt a little bit, I'll be okay with winter taking its sweet old time disappearing. I'm going to take the advice of my Year Round Gardening author and start my spinach and beets indoors this week. Since they're cold weather lovers, I should have something to harvest by end of May hopefully when I start planting the other lettuces and veggies. I'm trying to implement the ideas of a 4-season garden asap!! :)
ReplyDeleteWell, Charlie gets really bored very easily. But we found a great series on You Tube, you may remember it from childhood...Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I used to watch that as a kid and now Alex has trained Charlie to "come watch tv" with him. He spends an hour a day with her on the bed watching all sorts of wild critters on the screen...she's enthralled!! But also she loves hanging with him, so we did find her some kind of passtime! Otherwise though, she just wants to always be out. I wouldn't mind leaving her outside with Marlene on their ropes, but due to the loose dog issue, we just can't leave them alone for more than 5 minutes. That might be the doting "parents" in us, but we want to make sure they are safe. We've had to chase off loose dogs from the property more than once. At least in better weather, if I'm out there with them, I feel better about it.
Well actually I USUALLY use canned mushrooms when I make the Philly cheese steaks because they have a saltier flavour and go well with the other ingredients! But we had some fresh ones to use up. The strombolis just sound hard, but they are just basically a rolled up pizza! If you look on Pinterest, you'll get a ton of ideas. My next one might involve eggplant and some ricotta...Oh, I know what you mean, if my day is busy, I really am not up to making pizza dough, but yesterday I was so bored at home because of the weather, the kneading helped me release a little stress! :)
Oh, I've always wanted to do a "random herb filled planter"! Really. I love the idea of all the herbs kind of mishmashing together. I wonder how it'll turn out! I hope you start a little blog one of these days, at least to showcase the pups and your gardening efforts! I'll be your first voyeur lol!! :)
Strombolis! OMG those look SO good! Ah, poor Charlie. I can feel his pain. My herd gets such a case of cabin fever this time of year. Now we're faced with days of rain. Sigh. I had to laugh - I've joined the, "Oh, wait. I should by hygge-ing" group.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan :)) Ha ha ha...we ALL should be hygge-ing lol...it's like so many things IN THEORY they work, but sometimes life kind of puts a big damper on things despite my positive attitude! How about hygge with a little grumpy? That would work for me :) Actually today is going quite well. I have three of the six pets in bed with me and I'm in between blogging and reading about gardening. It's really relaxing and I do feel quite cozy!
ReplyDeleteMe again!!! If things sprout up in my random planter I would be happy to share the pics with you for sure! I actually did have a blog for quite some time but when I started this job 5 years ago, I had to let it go. This job takes all of my efforts and runs me ragged (can you say incredibly demanding) so I had to let it go. Made me sad I loved that blog!!!!
ReplyDeleteAre you on Instagram? My pups and some of my garden (and random other things) are on there! That's the best I can do without completely losing what little energy I have left! :)
Hi Dianna :) No, I don't have an instagram account, I like to keep my social media just here on the blog, otherwise, it's a bit much for me to keep up with. But I we do have an instagram account for one of our businesses in the making...I just went there and looked you up and I think I found you :) Is the first photo your two dogs looking out the window? I can view the photos but I don't post there personally :)
ReplyDeleteThat's me - you found me! Follow me when yours is up and running....or just check out the randomness. You will see the cutting board my brother made for me on there too! :) Let me know when your business gets up on there, I will follow and spread the word!
ReplyDeleteCool Dianna :)) I bookmarked your page, I'm not going to officially follow yet because our account is remaining dormant for now, but I'm able to see your photos without having to log on, so it works! Your cutting boards looks like mine!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI think you need to fly south for the winter then get back north about May. Lots of good food though.
ReplyDeleteHi Gill :) Maybe that's the secret...eating my way through winter! :) I don't mind winter, really, it's just by April it gets old. I don't think I could ever be a snowbird! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm having a lazy day too. Just got back from Manitoba last night and my ass is dragging. Wish I had some strawberry shortcake! That would perk me right up!
ReplyDeleteHi Debra! :) The strawberries were great, they were sweeter than I thought they'd be at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteMore snow? Oh, no! You just can't let go of winter, can you? We've had nice weather and sunshine so more of our snow melted again today. I'm thinking more and more about gardening!
ReplyDeleteI make a recipe from my mom that we've always called Stromboli but obviously yours is more "the real thing" than my knock-off. :o) Mine's just seasoned ground beef in a tomato sauce on a bun, mozzarella cheese over that, wrap in foil and bake. Yours sounds much, much better.
Your strawberry shortcake looks yummy! A taste of summer to come!
Mama Pea, I would GLADLY let go of winter. I've decided though that snow or not, I'm starting to garden this week. I already planted my basil, I"m encouraged by my green lemon turning yellow...and I'm going to start some cold weather crops indoors so I'll have something to harvest by the time I can really start planting seeds outside by the end of May.
ReplyDeleteActually I like the sounds of your stromboli, wrapped in foil and baked. I remember the days when I could eat beef and really, the one you describes sounds so good. I'm a sucker for anything in a hamburger bun, melted with cheese in foil...it's true! I go through so much foil because that's how I bake pretty much all of my meaty things.
The shortcake was surprisingly good - only because I expected those berries not to be very sweet. But I did soak them in brown sugar for a while so that helped!
I know what you mean about the dogs and being outside. We have to put up a fenced area, and we just haven't had the time or money. Now car repairs are setting us back after the recent medical bills. I know they need to be out and running around too. That food looks wonderful. I have some strawberries in the freezer I need to use up. Yum.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristina :) Right now we're basically just preventing other dogs from trying to come in. We put up a very wonky lattice board "fence" on the side of the property where the irresponsible weekenders live; the other side we were lucky, our neighbour has a fence up, and in the front, all we could afford was snow fence. The back is completely open, so at least we feel somewhat convinced that loose dogs will think twice before trying to jump our home-made fences. It's not full proof and we still can't leave the dogs loose though, especially Charlie who has wanderlust.
ReplyDeletePoor Charlie and I can see why.... your winters are really long! But you can prepare for Spring so when it comes you will be ready! Mine here comes too early for me and I am never ready! Feast or famine I guess.
ReplyDeleteThose stromboli's look so good! I love Philly Cheese steaks.....here I go again! I just need to eat healthy at least every other meal...right? LOL! I am so hungry now!
Hi Sam :)) I feel so bad for Charlie. The other two dogs are just fine. I try to stay out with her as much as possible though, she ate her dinner last night! We're trying to play more with her but sometimes she doesn't even want to get up. I talk to her a lot and have her follow me around as much as she will. Soon though, the snow will be gone overnight and we'll be wishing for air conditioners lol...that's how spring works here. We always have a really crazy heat wave in May, I hope we still get one this year, everything seems to be shifting a month later. Well Sam, you could make the Philly Cheese Steak filling (without all that cheese) and top it on some lettuce for a nice healthy yummy salad!
ReplyDeleteWe had thunderstorms today that caused flooding and then all of a sudden, the sun came out. I hope it comes your way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Starting Over, I hope we get that sun too! :)
ReplyDelete