Lowspark, brace yourself for even colder weather this week-end in Houston, possibly down to 35°. It was down to 56.6° this morning here, which I do not consider all that cold, and that's as cold as it is supposed to get for the next few days. It should be nice here this week-end. If it does get cold, I will buy some potatoes and make some soup. I plan to go to the Mar Vista farmers' market on Sunday, and there are a lot of things I hope to find there, including olives and olive oil. I have a lot of Meyer lemons on my tree here, but I brought a bunch of Eureka lemons with me from Cathedral City, and so I'll have to find room in a freezer for some of them. I also have navel oranges on my tree here, as well as apples that need to get picked. I plan to make German apple pancakes or torta di miele with some of the apples and then dehydrate the rest. Apple picking season lasts a long time here.

Thank-you! There were more duck sandwiches on the bread from the oickings off the bone, I froze half, however, to keep some duck joy for later. Yesterday was a lot of running around and I had the shakes by the time I got home. I remedied that with a highly uncharacteristic double sugar dive. I kept thinking Annie would love it. Half a gooey, chippie banana brownie with a small scoop of ”mudslide” ice cream, very choclate with fudge swirl and chocolate chunks. I get the non-fan-ness. I've been trying to perfect my brownie game because they're dead easy to make on a whim, and aren't nearly as sweet as cookies or cake—at least once I get through tampering with the recipe! So, one consideration is that the duck did leave the barbecue a greasy, sooty mess, and duck fat is harder to break down. The genius of the roasting pan sized bbq is I could take it to the French drain and hose it down without too much mess (most of the fat was in the water pan, so I'm not worried about the pipes). That got it half clean with a scrub sponge. Next round, I'll try some Simple Green as well. With a permanent installation, one might just want to burn it off, but I'm not intending to use it that much to have occasion to do so, and I want it to be crean enough to carry in the car. And dirty barbecues in general bug me. A lot. Which is why the warning. It's a shame your son is so far,

Hm... No tag on the jar. In the pantry, I have jars of crisp little cookies from Rustic Bakery that never go bad or stale. I did take a little nibble to make sure they were nice. Vanilla.... Duh, just looked them up. Vanilla Butter Cookies. ETA: The almond on the apple pie were in a toffee-ish topping. This was my first use of them as a crust. They did their job but aren't really the best texture for cheesecake. I just wanted to use them up. JL, I might. We'll see. I wonder if it would work well with more and smaller pieces. As it is, it eats fine, but it cuts funny, :)

It’s been a while since we had a good snow, but basically, a couple of days before, go to the grocery store. Get whatever your normal grocery needs would be for the next few days. The day or two after the snow clears will be as busy at the stores as the day before. Get a bag of sand from the hardware or garden store, and put it in the trunk of the car. If you don’t need it for driving, you can use it on your driveway or walkway where melted ice refreezes. Shovel before the snow is done. DH disagrees, but if he wants to knock himself out, again, I know the way to the chiropractor. Shovel the base of the driveway towards the right side. Shovel some snow from the road to the left of your driveway, so that the plow doesn’t push it into your driveway. Clear space before, in front of, and beyond, your mailbox so the mail truck can get to it, and out again. Relax. Watch for drips inside, in case of ice dams.