it's been a pretty gorgeous winter so far!

well...we are in the middle of our winter and have had staying snow for over a week now. it's been really pretty tho!



check out some of these gorgeous and Helga-approved skies!



even when it's cloudy, the sky is still so blue!



our staying snow isn't really the right kind of snow for making snowmen for JUGM and Senior's boys but if we get the right kind of snow, i promise we'll make some for the boys! anyway, we did the next best thing and made snow angels. we made them for Max as he likes snow angels!

and of course, we made snow ice-cream - deelish!

 

and some yummy chicken teriyaki!



the sauce was divine and was a new recipe for me. after about a week or so i decided to make it again but this time added toasted sesame seeds - it brought the teriyaki to a whole new level of yum!


 
 
 here's a beautiful bone-in pork shoulder - the glaze was to die for and the meat just fell right off of the bone. we'll definitely be using this glaze again!

love on a plate i'd say!

which after a couple of days was made into some yummy homemade pork and beans!

do you love roasted artichokes? i do. jambaloney not so much. but he'll let me have a treat every now and then and eat them with me.

i also love quinoa salad - so tasty!

as i mentioned yesterday, i have spent the last several weeks organizing our seeds and getting ready to start seedlings once we get our greenhouse built. it will give us a great early start to our growing season and will also allow us to grow a bunch of our own food over the winter as jambaloney is finaggaling a way to heat the greenhouse during the winter. that means we will be able to grow a ton of fresh herbs even in the winter. can you say 200 pots of parsley, sage, dill, lemongrass, coriander, mint and chammomile? (and just as an aside - have you ever had sage tea? it is the most gorgeous and soothing tea! we love it!). having access to fresh herbs in the winter will take us over the moon.

we are also building a big giant cold frame at the front of the greenhouse to be able to have beet greens, kale, swiss chard, turnip greens and spinach all winter. lots of good food there.

being able to grow our own health-giving food during the winter will really cut down on our food costs and that is always a good thing! we will still can, dry and freeze a bunch of our produce but having greens and herbs fresh from the pot/ground is such a delight! i am so excited!

but alas, we are still in the throes of winter. it has been a nice winter so far - no terrible storms or anything and not much snow that stayed. we still have to get through March though, knock on wood. however, it's hard not to appreciate winter and all of it's beauty when it looks like this:

my sweet Helga will love these pics. i hope that all of you enjoy them too!

time for me to go. jambaloney is out gathering fallen trees with the atv. we will spend the next few sunny days stripping the limbs off of the trees and cutting them to appropriate sizes to make stakes for bean and pea teepees and stakes for peppers and tomatoes. this year we plan to really kick it in the garden. this is going to be so much fun!

(p.s. - PioneerPreppy - i'll send jambaloney down with the atv to get that snow!!!)