How to Tell When It's Really Cold Outside

1.

The water vapor in the pellet stove exhaust is actually visible.  That thing is so efficient that it normally only has visible smoke on startup.

2.

Both the pellet stove and the boiler need to run in order to keep the house comfortable.  (Technically the boiler would do the job just fine by itself, except that family members on the 2nd floor would be wearing shorts while the folks downstairs would be wearing sweaters.  Oh, and I'd have to own a very productive oil well to pay for the fuel oil.)

3.

The dog actually does his business outside in a timely fashion rather than looking like a wooly statue sniffing the breeze for 10 minutes before finally pooping.

4.

Dog poo must be removed quickly from hard surfaces like sidewalks before it freezes in place.  (Although a few frozen turds might discourage the neighbors from dragging sleds down the sidewalk when it snows.  It is quite annoying when they do that, because it glues the snow to the concrete.)

5.

It becomes necessary to knock over the ice stalagmite that forms below the next door neighbor's furnace exhaust before it grows so tall that it blocks the exhaust.

6.

The cars don't start very well, and once they do it takes at least 15 minutes of driving before the heat works.  The heat also gets left on maximum temperature for the whole trip, and passengers suddenly think lap blankets are stylish.

7.

You can make seafood, chicken soup, ribs, whatever you desire without making sure that trash day is the next day.  Trash in the outside can doesn't stink, because it's frozen solid.  However if you live somewhere with bears and other predators, you'd better have tamper proof cans.

8.

Meal planning includes thoughts of which things will take a long time to bake, thereby heating the house some more.

9.

It is really cold outside when the cat is not at all interested in sneaking outside and can't decide whether to sleep in a bed with the electric blanket running, on the hot register, or on the couch in front of the pellet stove.  Poor Duke - so many choices, what will he do?  What am I saying?  He's a cat; he'll try all three, and then try to climb into the clothes dryer just to be annoying.

Lost in Translation

So I made a recipe from hubby's mom.  Her family originally came through Holland, after having left Scotland a long time before that.  The spelling might have changed a bit since its origin.  In the recipe, these are called Smote Ballen.

I tried an online translator, and apparently the second word may have been misspelled with an a instead of an o.

So for your dining pleasure here are some lard balls.

or if you type it in as all one word smoutebollen, the translator comes up with a more polite term beignets.

Smoute Ballen (Dutch Doughnuts)

1 cup scalded milk

1 envelope yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

1 1/2 cup sifted flour  (Don't forget to sift; it needs to be fluffy.)

2 Tbs. sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. lemon flavor

1/2 cup raisins

Cool milk to lukewarm, dumping in the sugar, salt, and raisins helps.  Add yeast and mix.  Add remaining ingredients and mix until a smooth batter that can be dropped from a spoon is formed.  Cover and let raise in a warm spot while heating the oil.  Fry in hot oil, and dust with sugar and cinnamon (approx. 1/4C sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
 

Sometimes I Wonder

 who all the people are reading this blog.  Or is the blog traffic just all bots?

In case a real person is reading this, hello out there.  Winter has returned and covered the yard in snow again.

The Packers lost the game, but it was interesting up to the very end.  Funny, Amazon had exclusive rights to broadcast the game, but it was actually shown on local TV stations too, probably because of the rule about when the stadium is sold out, the game has to be broadcast on TV in the areas from where the teams come.  The resolution on the computer screen was better than on the old Sony trinitron.  Funny thing though, for some reason the internet transmission lagged what was broadcast on the airwaves by a few seconds.  The announcers were pretty lame too.  Perhaps I should have muted the audio and turned on the radio to get a decent announcer.

More Weather & Stuff

 It's been rainy and warmer than usual for about the last week.  Winter weather will return in time for the Packers vs. Bears game on Saturday.  It will be a snowy mix up here, but probably more rain in Chicago.  (Nobody really wants a repeat of the ice bowl.)  Somehow Prime Video managed to get exclusive broadcast rights, so it is unlikely that the game will be shown on any local stations.  Hopefully the local internet suppliers' servers will be able to handle the volume of traffic they will get tomorrow evening.

Weather - ick

 I'm not sure which is worse, cold and snow or warm-ish and ice.  We're experiencing freezing rain tonight.  It is supposed to get above freezing during the daytime, but I will still probably have to dip into the salt supply to make sure the sidewalks de-ice completely during the daytime.

Last week we had several days with snow flurries, which amounted to just enough snow condensing out of the air to be annoying/require scraping from the public sidewalks - city ordinances and all that jazz.  I didn't clear it all from the blacktop driveway, because it just wasn't enough to bother clearing.  It is one of the few times that I am glad that I didn't shovel most of the driveway, because it is actually less slippery where there is some snow base.  Blacktop with a thin coating of ice is no fun, and ice storms are why the ski poles and the spikey metal strap on shoe cleats are parked in the entry.  Even Hunter the dog was having trouble staying upright on all fours tonight during his evening potty break.  Hot dogging generally resulted in running in place, followed by slipping, and skidding - a look of "You didn't see that; really I meant to do that."  All that was followed by a much more sedate walk back to the house.

Hubby spent some time in states farther south before we married.  He described Missouri's approach to snow and ice as "God put it there; He can take it away... (in His good sweet time.)"  I guess that was how I was feeling about shoveling last week.

Hope you all are warm and well, and that you have a Happy New Year!