Monday, December 16, 2013

snow day update

here's what we woke up to this morning:

 

a brilliant blue sky and about 10cms of snow...15cms in some places!

here's some really yummy pizza that we made yesterday during the blizzard:



that's your standard combination with a firm homemade crust, homemade tomatoe sauce with a ton of our own dried oregano, a ton of pepperoni, green pepper and mushroom - deelish! oh ya, and a ton of mozzarella!

we also made what i call kymberz mediterranean pizza:


the sauce is garlic-infused olive oil and a ton of oregano. the crust is super thin and crisp. on top is thinly sliced tomatoes and sliced black and green olives. finished off with feta cheese, mozzarella and parsley - yummeh!

after we ate our pizza, jambaloney headed out with the atv/plow to start clearing the driveway. but then the darn thing stalled halfway down the driveway. jambaloney was then going to get a chain and attach it to our truck to haul the atv/plow back up the driveway but our dear friend d was just driving by. our friend d has a winch on his truck and offered to pull the atv down the driveway and over to his place next door - his son is an atv genius and could take a look at it and fix it for us. jambaloney came up to tell me what was going on, i threw some pizza into a container for jambaloney to give to our friend d and his wife e and they were off. they got to our next door neighbour's house and between jam, d, and his son n - they got the atv/plow off the truck and into the shed. we were expecting that our neighbour's son n would come into town in the next day or so to fix the atv but this morning at 11am we get a call from our friend - she says come and get the atv as it's fixed already!!!! jambaloney called back and apparently our friend d got up this morning and started working on it and got it all running tickedy-boo. jambaloney headed over to pick it up with a bottle of rhum as everyone here seem to be rhum drinkers! the only prob was, last night i made jambaloney a hot toddy and used an ounce of that bottle of rhum....normally we have a few bottles on hand to bring to people when they invite us over!!!

anyway, our friends didn't seem to mind that an ounce of the rhum was missing and they thanked us for both it, and the pizza last night. it gives you really good piece of mind to know that your friends will drop anything to help you. our friend d had been working in the woods for probably 10hrs yesterday, and on his way home when he stopped to help jambaloney with the atv/plow. and i just know that he got up this morning and went straight out to the shed to see if he could fix our atv/plow right away. and he did.

i hope that he and his wife e enjoy some of that rhum tonight when they both get home!

anyway - here's the maniac out plowing the driveway on our fixed atv:


he loves that thing! i guess i can understand why!

20 comments:

  1. Gotta get the plowing done. It's like a law of Nature or something, Snow does't belong on the drive!!!

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    1. PP - getting the drive plowed is important if you have somewhere to go before this friday (chase the ace in fourchu)...but you can sometimes let the snow be and let mother nature melt it in the next 5 days before you have to leave the manor. or, you can be you and jambaloney and have to get out there right in the thick of the storm and break the atv/plow. one of us is right...and i am pretty sure it is me!

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  2. Replies
    1. Mr. Smythe, Sir, you have a memory like mine...of times when neighbours always helped each other. thank goodness we moved to this rural area of this tiny island where people still remember that. thanks for your comment, Sir.

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  3. Please, please....can you post your crust recipe?

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    1. Tewshooz - i just sent jambaloney to go get the recipe - here it is:

      1.25 ounce active dry yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast)
      1 teaspoon white sugar
      1 cup warm water (110f OR 45C)
      2 and 1/2 cups bread flour
      2 tblspns olive oil
      1 tspn of salt

      1. preheat oven to 450F (230C)
      2. in a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water
      3. let yeast mixture stand until creamy and doubled, about 10 mins
      4. stir in flour, salt and oil
      5. beat until smooth, use a wooden spoon and then your hands until a smooth ball appears
      6. let rest for 5 mins
      7. turn dough out onto lightly floured surface
      8. pat and roll into a round
      9. transfer crust to slightly oiled pizza pan
      10. spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15-20 mins...you'll know when it's done when the edges of the crust are golden brown and the cheese on top has a crust
      11. cool for 5 mins, in it's pan, before cutting and serving

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  4. Ack! I got shivers just looking at those pictures! Sunny and 62 right now, warming up gonna be close to 80 Friday. Now that's my kind of winter! Nibblin' on sponge cake, watchin the sun bake all of those tourists covered in oil... : )

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    1. ack buddy...no offense but you are one of them sheared texan chickens - bahahahahahah! oh buddy, so sorry but i just couldn't help myself!!! mmmm...sponge cake...that's some good eatins"! sorry 'bout all of them tourists!

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  5. kymber...I think I gotta make a pizza real soon. I got some fresh peppers waiting for me to pick in the greenhouse and have many jars of pizza sauce canned and a ton of mozzarella made from my goats milk.. If Papa Bear hasn't ate it all I think I have some pepperoni. Now I'm hungry. Gonna go eat another Christmas cookie!

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    1. Mamma - i can't believe that you still have peppers growing - i am soooo jealous!!! and don't even get me started on mozzarella from your own goat's milk - i sooo badly want goats!!! but we are waiting until we get the gardening thing nailed down completely! i hope that you make some pizza real soon. much love to you and yours always...and as always, kiss that Marine for me! xoxo

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  6. Since I got a baking stone for making pizza in the oven many years ago, I can probably count the number of times I have eaten purchased pizza on one hand. There is just no comparison with homemade pizza.

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    1. Ed - apparently from everything i have read, pizza stones are to die for! we got 2 of them but they just don't work in our tiny, barbie-sized oven! it just doesn't get hot enough. so we still use regular wilton pizza pans. someday tho, when i have a regular sized-oven, i will use the pizza stones. and you know it buddy - nothing compares to homemade pizza!

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  7. Pizza is my favorite food cold in the am left over or hot at lunch/dinner.

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    1. Rob, buddy - why am i not even remotely surprised at your comment? bahahahahah!

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    2. I love to eat cold pizza left over. Why reheat?? I enjoy the Red Barron Brand Breakfast Pizza. I could live off of pizza. When we do home made it brings the whole family out to the kitchen.

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  8. Sweet Kymber,

    Hey there girl!!! It's been a while, sorry about that. I'm going to send you an e-mail tomorrow.

    I love having good neighbors/friends who help one another. We have an older gentleman who helps us out with vehicle issues, and we help him out with all kinds of stuff at his home. He's a sweet little guy who lost his wife several years back. Enjoy your neighbors/friends, I know they will enjoy the rum :-)

    Pizza, gosh I haven't made homemade pizza in a while. This will be something to place on my menu for the upcoming week. Your pizza looks delicious, I love both types. There is no other pizza better than homemade!!!

    Sending love to you both.
    Your Friend,
    Sandy

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    1. hey Sweet Sandy - no worries at all - you have been one busy girl this past few months. and you have held it together for yourself and all of the others needing your love, help and support. i got the email and will respond shortly.

      Sweet Sandy - i never knew that you could have such neighbours as these. growing up on this island, everyone helped everyone. but then i moved to the city for 25 yrs and can honestly say i never knew any of my neighbours!!!! it is nice to be back and be shocked that people will drop everything to help you out of a bind! i am glad that you help your elderly neighbour and that he helps you - you deserve it for all of the kind things that you do! as for the rhum, i hope that they tied a real good one on last night - bahahah! that's cape breton speak for getting drunk!

      i am with you on homemade pizza - nothing compares! i hope you make some pizza this week. i promise to make you a ton of pizza when you come up! whatever toppings you desire, my friend!

      much love always being sent back to you and yours from both of us! and hugs too! xoxox

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  9. I will tell you a true thing. One way you have me beat all to pieces is the cooperation between friends, like the atv issue. For thirty years I have made it a point not to get help from anybody, and to do everything I possibly could for myself. But now, at 61 and with my son grown up and gone, that is more difficult to do. It isn't that there are not people here that I could have been friendly with, I just flat chose not to. I completely lack your socials skills though, you and J are good with people. Have I ever told you my story about my boss deciding I should get a notary public seal? I went to the court house and they said I had to get two people who knew me to sign an affidavit saying I had been in the county for 2 years. I had been there about 20 at the time. But I couldn't , for the life of me, think of anyone I knew that well.

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    1. Harry - as sad as it sounds, when we lived back in the city, we never knew any of our neighbours! and we couldn't rely on anyone except ourselves. when we moved here, it was winter of 2010 and we hid on the mountain for 6 months knowing only 3 people here who helped us out greatly! our friend s told us that the community knew that there were people "here" but as we hadn't ventured off our little mountain, no one knew if they should come up and greet us or not. many of our friends said that they wished they had have come up after they heard of all of the crazy things that happened to us that winter.

      but once we went out, they all greeted us with open arms, welcomed us, brought us into their homes, treated us like family...we couldn't believe how warmly we were welcomed as people here are very insular, and although polite to everyone, unless you can trace your ancestry here back to 6 generations, you are always going to be a stranger!!!!

      Harry - you would love these crazy folk and they would love you! you need to plan a trip up here to see it with your own eyes.

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  10. It looks beautiful out. I'm still in Indianapolis area, waiting until the freezing rain and snow move through before heading home for the holidays. Here it's just pouring, but north that will turn to ice, and I'm not going to risk Barkley or myself on the drive yet. Once Dad is passed, and hopefully that is not soon, and I have some vacation days to myself, I'd love to come up.

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