SURPRISE, A NEW POST AND IT'S SNOWING AGAIN.

Yes, it's snowing again. OK snow, you can stop now. We have more than we need and we don't want to be greedy.

A view of our snow supply on the deck from the back door of the sunroom. Yeah, history repeats itself and so do I. It's the same thing as last year so I go with the flow. lol...

Today was George's birthday so I baked a nice big carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. 75 candles are too many to put on a cake so I used pretend candles. It's one of my favorite cake recipes. The lighting was very poor but the cake was really good, lol...

My Christmas cacti are still blooming since November 16th even though I neglected my plants this winter. Some of the buds fell off and started blooming again after getting a good drink of water. They are almost indestructible but they are grateful for a drink of water. They dry fast in winter.

This is a Poinsettia that I got from Christine for Christmas 2017. A whole bunch of leaves fell off but it's surviving even though it suffered neglect also. It was late blooming this year. I think my restlessness affected my plants this winter.  I bought some soil and will give them some TLC and hope they will forgive me.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this old woman's rambling and leaving a comment. Please take care of yourselves, your pets, and your plants. Winter is hard on them as much as on us.
Hugs, Julia

I'VE BEEN IN THE KITCHEN FOR A CHANGE

The storm is over and we didn't get the 2 foot of snow we were expecting. It snowed about 6 inches and we got some freezing rain on top of the snow and a bit more snow on top of that. It drifted in some places and my husband said the snow was heavy to plow.

Like my title said, I've been in the kitchen more than usual lately. I made a blueberry pie last week and I added some lemon zest and lemon juice to boost the flavor. It didn't last too long. I needed to use the leftover pie dough I had in the fridge from when I made some empenadas, they are a sort of small meat pies that you can hold in the hand.
With the leftover dough, I made these little sweet treats. I spread butter on the dough and sprinkles brown sugar and roll and then cut into thin slices. My mom used to make these.

On Saturday, I wanted to try my new compact deep fryer so I made some onion rings. They were so good.

That's what was left because I only thought of taking a picture after they were almost gone. I'm trying to fatten myself up. I think it's working. lol...

Today, since I was well rested from doing nothing on Sunday, I made some veggie samosas but I remembered to take photos this time.  It would have been helpful to have someone take the photos for me since I had flour on my hand. I had to wash my hands for each photo I took.

First I prepared my son in law's dough recipe and I placed it in a bag to rest for a few hours. While the dough was resting I prepared the veggie filling. 

I like it spicy but I didn't add as much cayenne pepper as I would like because I have to share it with my husband and son who don't like it as hot as I do. My filling is moist enough to make it into little balls with my small cookie scoop.  I still have lots of filling left so I'll have to make more dough.
NOT A PROBLEM...

I rolled out the dough until thin like  Bill, my son in law, showed me to do, with my pasta roller. It works great and is much faster than rolling the dough with a rolling pin.

This is actually fun to do.
I first make a small ball and flatten it, put a wee bit of flour so it won't stick to the rollers and pass it through the pasta roller.  I start with a thicker sheet of dough and change to a thinner setting and pass the sheet of dough through several times until it's thin enough. In this picture, it's set on the thicker setting.

I cut it in strips and brush lightly with water to seal the edges and place a spoonful of the veggie filling on the bottom and fold it in triangles.
I cut it in strips and placed a spoonful of filling on the dough and fold it in a triangle, making sure the edges are sealed so there is no leakage into the oil.

When I have all my samosas filled and sealed, I deep fry them to a golden brown.

As you can see, I'm still not an expert at folding these triangles like my daughter Jackie is but they are so yummy anyway. I'll get better at making them once I've gotten more experienced.
I didn't make the dipping sauce so my husband dipped them in antipasto, lol.  I didn't have all the ingredients to make the coriander mint chutney sauce but I will next time. I didn't want to go out in all that snow today just for a few ingredients. So that's what I've been up to.

I hope that you all weathered the storm well. We are used to lots of snow in this part of the country.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  Comments are what keeps us blogging.
Hugs, Julia

JULIA HEN IS FINALLY FINISHED AND JANUARY BLUES ARE GONE.

Halfway through January and I'm back to normal or semi-normal. I've adjusted to my new easy schedule and I've rested my tired body and stressed mind. My damaged shoulder is feeling a whole lot better. I had 2 falls in November that had set me back. I couldn't scrub or lift and I got bored and felt blue.

It's not easy to do to keep still when a person is so used to being busy all the time. I've always liked to keep busy, even as a child. I either was always cleaning or taking care of kids or trying to make things better. But starting in December, I was feeling restless and lost interest in doing anything. I needed to snap myself out of this mindset.

After twidling my thumbs once too often, I decided to finish hooking my Julia Hen chairpad and finish the edge. I could only hook for about 10 minutes and my heart just wasn't in it. There wasn't much to hook on it but I persisted and got it done.

This was a rug that my Rug Hooking Daily friends, The Great Stash  Deworming Marathon suggested I do after I had done a challenge rug using leftover wool worms. You might remember George Rooster chairpad rug, named after my husband, lol. They suggested that I needed to do a Julia Hen chairpad. Well, here they are.

I've pestered my son-in-law to show me how he makes Samosas. His chicken Samosas are to die for. They are so moist, unlike the ones we buy at the market.

I made a batch of Veggie Samosas and they tasted better than the ones I bought.  Of course, I didn't take pictures. I'll take pictures next time I make them again.

 I bought a compact deep fryer to fry my Samosas but found out I didn't have enough oil to use my deep fryer so I used my wok. I don't recommend deep frying on the stove because it only takes a spatter of oil to ignite the whole pan. I forgot to take a photo of my Samasas but they looked the same as my son-in-law. I had a little flare up but luckily, my oil didn't catch on fire.

I've cleaned the wallpaper paste of one small section of my kitchen wall near the stove that was unfinished a while back. It was very dried up and needed a lot of elbow grease.

I've spent a lot of time more time cooking in the kitchen now since I'm retired.  Today I made 2 meatloaves, one for us and one for my son Vaughan. I've put on a few pounds but I still stand to put on a few extra more.

I can't wait to start planting seeds although our gardening season is still far away. I plugged in my grow light unit that was under flood water for 8 days in the basement last spring and to my big surprise, the lights lit up. They will need cleaning but I'm so happy they still work. I really thought that they were damaged.

We have a sunny blue sky and the snow is dripping off the roof this afternoon. I hope that you are blessed with good weather too today, wherever you are.
Thanks for visiting, caring and leaving comments.
Hugs, Julia