Soup Weather..

It's cold out (22f) and even the wood stove is just barely keeping up.  We've had to (Gasp!) turn up the oil heat to make up the difference.

Sometimes one needs to balance the outside heat with an inside warmth.  That's where soup comes in.  We are smack dab in the perfect 'Soup Weather'.  Especially a hearty and rich soup with plenty of sausage and good veggies.

There is a pot of Sausage and Cabbage soup simmering on the stove.  In a few hours, lunch!

Update:   Wife says this is one of the top three soups of her life.  Girl-child just swiped a second bowl.

12-2-24

W: 315.2                BS: 150

5:30 am.  Can't sleep.  

• Chickens
• Taxi 1
• Taxi 2
• Dishes
• Fire & Wood
• Soup
• ?

I do enjoy watching the fire, but this morning it's too cold.  The stove needs to be closed up and the fire regulated to put out *real* heat.

The first non-white appointed FBI director in history. A) Of COURSE the racists will be in uproar. B) Trump is the worst Hitler ever.

12-1-24 Daily log

W: 316.4                BS: 172

• Dishes
• Chickens
• Fire & Wood
• Fuel truck
• ?

I gave in and set the thermostat to 65.  Just feeling that 20 degrees this morning.

Yes, the woodstove does it's job, but.  I suspect it will be a snuggling under a fluffy blanket kind of day if she ever appears from the warm bed.  I know she was up to fill the stove a few times last night, and maybe bake a cake, so she's earned a sleep in.

Hungarian Goulash

 

Everyone remembers their first times.

This is the first time I have cooked Hungarian Goulash.  I can see why it's so popular.  A nearly perfect cold-day food.  Filling, warming, and satisfying.

It's really just a beef stew, but a more specific version.   I tried to stay in the spirit of the authentic dish but I can understand why there are a hundred different versions. This dish, as good as it is, is a wide open canvas for experimentation, which I will do.  This particular recipe though... I'm going to remember this one.

Served on a bed of Basmati rice (Out of egg noodles) with a dollop of homemade yogurt to calm the spices a little.

Todays edition of "I'm not cheap, I'm frugal!"....

 

I don't do a lot of deep frying, for reasons.  Once in a while though, I get a bug to make the things.  Turkey croquettes, hush puppies, Chicken Parm, etc.

One of the reasons I seldom set up to deep fry was a nagging feeling I was 'wasting' a lot of oil.  Even with several uses and straining, it only keeps for just so long. That's not a valid reason with wood-stove season here.

My favorite foolproof and rapid fire starter for the stove is already dirt cheap.  A 2 cent sandwich baggy stuffed with a handful of drier lint (saved all year) and soaked with a few tablespoon of cheap cooking oil.  This will light a wood stove 100% of the time and have it blazing in minutes.

Well, today I poured off the fry oil from my Dutch oven into a nice big bottle.  This used oil just became my 'fire starter' oil for the next month to come.