A Little Exercise and Fresh Air

We got some snow this weekend and I shoveled. It was a solo activity because John is in MD, Justin is in FL, and Ryan is an hour away in PA with his own driveway to shovel. We got 6-8", but it's hard to tell since it's bare in some places and foot-high drifts in others. It's not nearly as much as they got at the NJ shore or in New England. My power's been out twice and the house was down to 50 degrees at one point, but it's on now, and it's amazing how much shoveling warms you up.

This is the view towards the street,

and this is looking down towards the barn. 

I'm not sure whose idea it was to buy this house with a stupidly long driveway, but presumably, I went along with it 32 years ago. Over time, we've purchased equipment to help with clearing snow, a snowblower, and a four-wheeler with a plow. But they are only helpful if you can get them started, which I could not. So I said some words and got out the shovels. Four hours on Saturday and another four to finish yesterday, but it's done. 

After all that shoveling, I just might bake a chocolate cake and not feel one bit guilty about eating a piece. I did get plenty of exercise and fresh air.

I hope your weekend was safe, warm, and dry!

Let's Try This Again

A week ago I wrote about selling our house in MD. It was an ideal deal, cash with no inspections, and we were thrilled with how easy it was.

But on Wednesday afternoon I got a call from our realtor (let's call her Debbie so I don't have to keep typing "our realtor"); the buyers were asking to be released from the contract. Debbie said that in 35 years she had never had a cash deal fall apart, but I guess there's a first time for everything. 

The situation was disappointing, but Debbie had already called the realtors representing two other potential buyers that we had received offers from to see if they were still interested. The potential buyer with the second-best offer was enthusiastically in. All we had to do was electronically sign the "Release From Contract" form and then sign a new contract with the new buyer. This offer involves the buyer applying for a mortgage, an appraisal, and inspections, so there are potential pitfalls, but it might also be more money.

It's funny that the buying and selling of a house can be so personal yet impersonal at the same time. When you list your house you agree to let strangers tromp through it, viewing where you live and disrupting your life. This is both personal and disconcerting. I have no desire to expose my life to strangers, nor do I want to pry into theirs, but I do wish I knew why the original buyers backed out. I'd also like to know a little about the next potential buyer's story, but I will probably never meet him. This is an odd business.

So we're trying this again; let's hope the second time's the charm!

Unraveled Wednesday

It's time to join Kat and the rest of the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday, with my never-ending Musselburgh hat. I've reached the point that knitters sometimes encounter, the one where you knit and knit and knit but there is no measurable progress. The tape measure has shown that I have two more inches to go before I start the decreases for several days now, but I have reached gray yarn so there is some sort of progress being made. I trust that I will knit my way out of the measuring tape black hole soon, and hopefully be able to finally show you a finished hat next week.

I finished a few audiobooks this week. The Yarn Whisperer and Knitlandia were pleasant listens while I went through things in NJ to take to Goodwill. I donated two carloads which is a good start to making room for things that I'll be packing up in MD next week. I also listened to The Guncle, which was a four-star book for me. I was afraid it might be a bit lightweight based on the cutesy title and cover design, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny, well-written, poignant, and full of depth and heart. The main character experiences quite a bit of personal growth and I'm a sucker for that in a novel. Up next, The Final Case by David Guterson. I hope it's a good book to listen to while I pack. 

What are you making and reading this week? 

Winter Sunsets

I took this photo of the sunset one day last week and thought that I had seen a lot of distinctively beautiful sunsets so far this winter. Looking back through my pictures, I found at least seven in just the last three weeks. I started to wonder if I was just noticing sunsets more often, taking more photos, or if lovely sunsets really occurred more often in the winter. It seems that there may be some scientific reasons for sunsets being better during the winter. 

NOAA meteorologist Stephen Corfidi says that the peak sunset season for the Northeastern United States is November through February due to several meteorological factors. Those factors are lower humidity and cleaner air. This allows more saturated colors to reach our eyes, and because twilight lasts longer closer to the solstices, sunsets also last longer. 

Clouds figure into the picture, too. Well-defined cloud systems are more likely to happen in the winter, and they can provide a backdrop for the setting sun and reflect the beautiful colors back to those viewing the sunset. 

I've simplified the explanation a bit because it involved words like "spectrally pure" (vibrantly colored) and "Rayleigh scattering" (the scattering of light by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation). But if you'd like to read more, you can read the original Vox article here. And for a real primary source, here is Dr. Perfidi's original paper (complete with further reading on the physics and meteorology of the twilight sky). 

Or maybe you don't need any further reading but just want to get out and view beautiful winter sunsets. Enjoy, whatever approach you take!

Daily Bread

It's been grey and cold this week, with sleet, snow, and rain. Weather like that always makes me feel like baking, and I've been thinking about bread since I made turkey soup for my BiL. I took it over to him after he had arthroscopic knee surgery last week, and when you have soup, you need bread to go with it. I didn't want to make something complicated, and since I have a case of Michelob that somebody gave us (but nobody here drinks it), I decided to make beer bread. 

I've made regular beer bread for quite a few years. It's perfect when you want a quick bread to serve with dinner, but don't have time for a yeast-risen loaf. It's especially good to use up beer that nobody likes to drink. My kids used to think they were getting away with something when I "let" them have beer bread.

As good and easy as beer bread is, the variations are also great. I made a loaf of cheddar beer bread to serve with some beef barley soup I made for us. If you happen to have swiss cheese on hand, swiss beer bread is also favorite of mine.  

For something a little sweet, I started with this recipe for cinnamon raisin beer bread and tweaked it a little bit, increasing the cinnamon to I Tbsp, increasing the raisins to 1 cup, and soaking them in beer for a while before adding them to the batter. Plump and juicy raisins are so much better than dry, shriveled ones.

I did have to try a small slice of both of these, just in case they didn't turn out. They both tasted just fine so I won't have to worry about serving sub-par bread to my family. The cheese was evenly distributed, but Paul Hollywood would probably have something to say about the distribution of the raisins. (Good thing he's not invited.)

I haven't tried any of these variations yet, but they all sound good to me, so I'm sure I'll be making them soon.

Guinness Bread Recipe

Apple, Cheddar, and Rosemary Beer Bread

Spicy Italian Sausage and Mozzarella Beer Bread

I hope your week is a delicious one!

Sold!

I keep getting reminded that the proper term is "Under Contract". Whatever terminology you use, we were very lucky to have sold the MD house in less than 36 hours. 

Last Thursday, the real estate agent listed it as "Coming Soon", and it became active on Friday with showings starting at 11:00. Within a few hours, there were 10 showings scheduled for Friday and five on Saturday.

We left MD early Friday morning before the showings started and came home to NJ. I went over to visit Ryan on Saturday and ended up spending most of my visit on the phone with the real estate agent and John, looking at emails and purchase offers on Ryan's computer. 

Ryan and I had planned to go out to pick up lunch, but we ended up getting it delivered. It seems that every moment is crucial in real estate, and nobody wants to wait an extra ten minutes.

I did have a lot more plants in the "breakfast nook" but took most of them home and will find room for these now that the house has sold. 

We received five offers, all of them above list price. Several of them had escalation clauses to frankly ridiculous prices since I don't think the house would have even appraised for what they were offering. But by the time I left Ryan's, we had a signed contract and it was perfect for us - above list price, cash, and no inspections. 

John is very sad to leave this garden but he's already got a new garden staked out at Ryan's.

John's last day of work before retirement is February 4th, which means he'll need to be in MD at least until then. I estimate that we've got three pick-up truckloads of furniture and boxes to pack and bring back, but that should be doable. We close on February 24th, and then our time with two houses is over. 

John is also sad to leave his beloved shed in MD, but guess what? He's already ordered one for Ryan's house. 

I've complained a few times (John says the word I'm looking for is "incessantly") about the drive and the numerous difficulties of living in two places, but I'm very thankful that selling the MD house has turned out even better than I could have hoped. 

Can I Get You Some Wine With Those Brownies?

Last weekend I decided to try the Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Flour I had previously mentioned. Some information that came with the wine flour mentioned supplementing a brownie recipe with this, so that's what I did. 

Here's the brownie recipe I used, but I'm pretty sure you could use any recipe or even a box mix:

1/2 c unsalted butter
1 c sugar
1/3 unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

2 lg eggs
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 c flour

I added 2 Tbsp of wine flour, mixed it all up, and baked it in a greased 8" pan for 22 min.

I didn't tell anyone in the family what I was doing because I wanted to see if they made any comments about the brownies tasting different. My family has never been shy about offering critiques if they think a new recipe tastes the least bit strange or even just not what they are used to. But I licked the spatula and thought the batter was delicious. 

This is what the brownies looked like when I took them out of the oven:

This is what the brownies looked like 20 minutes later: (and this was before dinner)

Justin finished the rest of them before he went to bed, so I think wine flour brownies were a success. He mentioned that they tasted especially good, but he thought that might be because I hadn't baked brownies for a while. Ha!

Finger Lakes Wine Flour says:

"Our Wine Flours are made from wine grapes grown in the Finger Lakes of New York. They are superfood powders that are meant to supplement your baking and cooking. Each pound is packed with fiber, protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. We harvest the wine pomace after the wineries press the grapes for their juice. The skins are turned into fine powders that are various shades of gold and purple. Our Wine Flours are meant to supplement your recipes with flavor, color, and nutrition. Please use our Wine Flour with other flours when baking as it is a supplement, not a substitute."

Besides Cabernet Sauvignon, they make lots of other "flavors", like Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, and Riesling. I think I might order a sampler next time and try Gewurztraminer in Apple Cake and Riesling in Snickerdoodles. This weekend I will be adding some of the Cabernet Sauvignon wine flour to meatballs and/or pasta sauce.

You could probably accomplish the same tastes by drinking a glass of wine with whatever you're eating, but this was a fun experiment (especially because nobody mentioned anything about a "weird taste".)