Naptime
Saturday afternoon…sunshine and warm temperatures.
Grass, sun, warm ground…Bob
Grass, shade, cool dug out dirt…Bear
***Today, Sunday: it snowed all morning, then melted and the high was 43 compared to Saturday’s 57.
Posts from the ‘Bob’ category
Easter Sunday
A beautiful sunrise started our Easter Sunday.
Bear kept me company in the kitchen…
And Easter breakfast was had before a small fire: Lemon Blueberry Cornmeal pancakes, egg in a hashbrown nest and sausage. Both breakfast and the woodstove warmed up a morning that started cool at 28F.
But before noon, it felt warm and eventually the thermometer hit 54F.
Bob partook of sunshine in the front yard…
And kept an eye on a small butterfly. (Butterflies are one of his favorite things :)! )
Wishing all a happy and Blessed Easter, from Bob, Bear and me.
Enjoying
So…Spring. Technically, it is Spring – for more than a day now. Montana did not get the memo, but then Montana rarely does. That is just one of the reasons that I love Montana :)!
Here, at my house, in northwest Montana, we have been under a winter storm watch/advisory/warning for the past 24 and now for the next 24. It has snowed and rained and snowed and rained. Montana Spring!
Today, Wednesday, I had a very productive morning. Bear and I took a long break at lunch for a run to town…necessary errands and a walk. Back to work after. Suppertime: Bear was napping in the bedroom, Bob was in the sunroom and I took a bit of a break to just be with Bob and enjoy the late afternoon.
The iceman cometh
It looks much better than this today…these photos were taken last Monday: March 5, 2012.
Bob ventures out even as the snow is turning to ice and icy water…
“You think a little ice is going to stop me?”
Bob is not deterred by the icy path…
Cold, clean water.
Mr. Bob: Iceman.
Mr. Sunshine
Bob has decided that he does NOT like being in “his” room mostly by himself all day.
I can hardly blame him. The room I use as my office is not called the sunroom for nothing!
Mr. Sunshine.
A Happy Friday
Blue sky this morning over the House Summers! The good folks at NOAA suggest that we are to have a sunny morning followed by a snowy afternoon that is a prelude to a weekend series of winter storms.
Several gaggles of geese flew over headed north…apparently they are also a bit sceptical of NOAA’s forecasts…
Meanwhile, we enjoy clear sky, the rising sun and if you are Bear, a morning treat after the hard work of clearing the property of varmints!
And if you are me, you enjoy one or several “fresh out of the oven” orange pecan biscotti!
And if you are Bob…well, Bob is Bob… Happy Friday!
***re biscotti: I really like biscotti over cookies for several reasons. My favorite biscotti recipe which is adapted from Pam Anderson’s (the cook not the Baywatch babe) “My Favorite Biscotti” in her book “The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great” has no fat other than eggs and my adaptation is less sugar as well. The basic recipe allows for substitution of whatever extract or zest you feel like as well as dried fruits and nuts.
My basic version:
3 eggs
1 tsp extract of your choice
2 cups flour (I use a mix of King Arthur’s white whole wheat and Wheat Montana’s all purpose white)
2/3 cups sugar (I often use 1/3 cup white and 1/3 cup brown)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt finely ground
1 cup nuts and/or dried fruit or chocolate chips (dark chocolate bittersweet)
Mix the dry ingredients through salt in 1 bowl, the wet in a separate bowl. Mix together finishing with hand mixing. Toss in whatever else from the nuts/fruit/chips category and incorporate with your hands. It is a fairly sticky dough. Form into 2 logs (about 12 x 3 each) on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 300 for 50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Slice and put back on the baking sheet on their sides. Bake on each side at 275 until your desired hardness. They will harden and crisp as they cool. I typically do 6-8 minutes per side for the second baking.
And that is the last reason I prefer biscotti over cookies….You bake the entire bit of dough in one fell swoop for 50 minutes meaning I am not up and down putting cookies in the oven and taking them out. Even the second baking, they are all on the sheet and you are just turning them. Easy!
They keep in an airtight jar, supposedly for a month. I wouldn’t know as they don’t last a month…
I’ve made lemon pistachio, cherry almond, coconut almond with chocolate chips and this morning the orange pecan. The orange pecan – actually clementine pecan….I used vanilla extract, 2 T clementine zest and the juice of 2 clementines in with the egg and extract.