Neighborly day and annual treats

There was sheeting rain Friday morning, washing away all the snow and ice, and finally I got out to walk, quick between storms.

End of the street looking left, clear blue visible 

Looking right, a lot of black, darker than it looks here. But note the complete absence of snow and ice.

Nice chat in the way home with next door neighbor about cars and his latest adventure with a dealer who thought he was an easy mark, and found his mistake, and his various buying adventures, resulting in three cars. He'd hoped to sell one but was dismayed at the price he was offered, so it's still here.

He introduced me to a new neighbor, Surya, actual name much longer but he said Surya is fine. Nice man. He bought the house so that's good. The owner landlord had let to some fairly sketchy people over the years but has now moved to Colorado and sold.  

And two more neighbors have offered me rides where needed.  I should have sold the car years ago!

Mike the Artist Contractor came over to present me with my annual peppermint bark and cookies and a chat. 

They're off to drive to their daughter's in Florida Saturday and the weather has blessed them. They drive because dogs, two Cavalier King Charles spaniels.  

For readers outside the US, it's quite a few hours from NJ to Florida, down a lot of the East coast.  They sometimes stop off in North Carolina to see his mother, pretty much on the way. From door to daughter's door is over 1,000 miles, a fair way.

And I got back from the walk about one minute before sheeting rain started up again.  Timing!

Happy day everyone.  Timing may not be everything but it doesn't hurt.

 

Mail and in person

Lovely mail incoming including SEEDS! As promised. All the morning glory seeds available around here are one season, and don't self seed. Lately they haven't even flowered. 

So these are seeds a friend collected and sent to try next year, a great thing to look forward to. Thank you, Ch.  Gary has been interested too, since he's been unable to get them going, but remembers his childhood garden with them all over the fences. Accompanied by a monarch. The seeds, not the fences.

Afternoon tea and toast with the mail, beautiful handmade card, thank you, C, and various greetings. 

Then, on Friday, my artist/contractor/cook/friend/neighbor came over with Christmas treats before they got on the road to visit family for the holiday.  

Glazed ham and peppermint chocolate bark. Homemade. I may possibly share but then again, life's short.

Later he came back, cleaning out the fridge of perishables before leaving for ten days, could I use this container of baby bellas? Since I routinely do, favorite mushroom, this was welcome. I'll add it to the ones I have for Christmas.

Thursday was about soup. I'd thought a large bag in the freezer was veg trimmings for stock. I found it was a bag of red onions. The little bag next to it was stock. The label had come off the big bag.

So I made a small stock, and rummaged around for other makings. Remember when I last poached fish in milk? I froze the seasoned milk, and yesterday brought two containers out to add to the soup.

Meanwhile I cooked a large handful of red onions and seasonings, including umami seasoning from Yeung Man Cooking, and turmeric, in olive oil, then blended it before I added the stock and milk, to make a cream soup. 

Seen here with a sprig of curry leaves, really good added flavor. 

I also had this soup with a slice of seedy toast and the spicy cheese spread. The milk base was great and there was the occasional little chunk of fish. 

Light snow and rain on Friday, so Thursday's walk was just in time.  It's amazing how your spirits lift from just a short while outside.

The current glove is now at the knitted cuff stage

And there was bed changing, laundry, masses of dishes, always amazing in a household of one.

I finished the Horowitz which I hugely recommend. He's so entertaining and you have to stay alert at all times. He darts back and forth, present to past, braiding real life with the fiction of the book, till you wonder which is which. 

I've downloaded a Horowitz audiobook to accompany my knitting, though I'd rather read him on Kindle.  But I can't get another without another wait. Also I can't knit and read. So sad, having to do one thing at a time. 

Happy day everyone, do one thing at a time or more if you can.

How a dead battery caused chocolate bark

 When my neighbor moved my car for the snowplow, he commented when he brought back the keys that it was a hard start.  I thought probably because I hadn't driven it in a couple of days, and the very cold nights didn't help.  However, having had 20 years of driving a Honda Civic which literally never failed to start, ever, I had no experience in this issue. Then this morning I thought I'd just pop out and run the car for a few minutes to keep the battery working, too icy to drive about.  And found it was dead as a doornail. Oh.  

Appealed to the neighbors, since the other option was a two or more hour wait for AAA. And neighbor J. said, no, no, don't bother, I'll fix it.  Just lift the lid, I mean the hood.  Which I did, having found out how to do that, never did it before up to now.  Managed that, and she came out with a gadget I'd never heard of but now need, a portable battery jumper.  No need to use a second vehicle, I've been living in the dark ages.  She attached it, started the car in about two seconds, and said you don't drive this enough.  You need to do that.  Quite right.  I let it run for a few minutes, then did a little trip around the development before bringing it back.

Other neighbor says he agrees with me I need to have one of these clever things, and he will get hold of one for me, since he knows all about them, and I'm baffled by the hundreds of models and sizes and specs.  

So, since I'd hauled them out on a freezing Saturday when they'd probably just as soon not, and they were very obliging, as always, I thought, this is a destination for that bark I still haven't made.  So I added it to the agenda for the afternoon.

 

Two layers, dark then white, and I swirled it about with the spatula to make interesting shapes. You'll notice this is rather a small amount of bark, compared to the acres I made last time.  They seem to be putting fewer chocolate chips in those bags, or something. At least they seem to decrease as they sit in the fridge.  It's a mystery.

 And, after I'd had a good time hitting the bark to break it up, it joined the baked goods, which I decided would be blueberry hot biscuits.

Speaking of food happening, I put the feeder I used to have on the patio, which was now in the way of the forthcoming fence, out front.  I moved it once because birds didn't come, and I thought it was too near the window.  Birds didn't come.  I put a lot more plants on the kitchen windowsill, so as to give them a sense of not being overlooked. Birds didn't come.  Last night because it was very cold, I closed the kitchen curtains.

 A Carolina wren scouted the joint, didn't eat, but evidently went to put out the word, because today a little bunch of juncoes, then a couple of finches, showed up and have evidently accepted that this top of the line suet block is in fact food.  It's exactly the same food they've been getting here for years.  Then later the wren showed up back on the patio, and was evidently searching for the food in the "right" place. 

Full disclosure ahead of Valentine's day

That batch of chocolate peppermint bark I made? I kept testing it, a piece here, a piece there. Until I discovered I'd tested it all.

I blame it on the white chocolate which I find I love. I don't like "real" chocolate with the high cacao content that's good for you.

So, today I thought I'd better replace it, this time for other people to eat.

And I had a great time, three layers swirled and marbled, too hard to break by hand, my thumb being a bit out of commission.

 Hence the mallet in the picture. Hitting is fun.

It looks like a stone quarry at the end of a shift. The pale areas are the white chocolate with red food coloring and a bit of the dark mixed in.

This was a consolation for bad weather, wind, rain, falling tree warnings, keeping me away from my knitting group.

And I will be sure to share.

Bark and bite working together

Early for Valentine's day, which I extend to everyone. It's for friends, neighbors, acquaintances, not just couples!

So I got ahead with a bit of candy making. I rarely do this, made toffee about five years ago, not a good idea to have it around a lot.

But I was given homemade peppermint chocolate bark at Christmas, and thought I'd like to try it. It's about as complicated as making a sandwich.

I just melted white chocolate chips with a drop of peppermint essence in a small pan over hot water, spread it on tinfoil, melted darker chocolate chips in the same pan, no need to wash, poured that over the first layer, cooled it a while then forked designs into the dark layer, broke it up randomly.

A few pieces in the fridge, cook's privilege, the rest in the freezer till VDay giving happens.