Yesterday our furnace died. Maybe the blizzard was just too much to keep up with, but it was only 14 years old. It should’ve had a few more years left. Note to everyone: never buy a Maytag furnace. We had several other problems with it before its untimely death.
Fortunately, my husband got right on it and we’re having a new one installed this morning. (K’Ching$$$) In the meantime, it’s cold in here! I’m thinking it’s about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but I have my coffee and my Comfy, I’ll be fine.
Last night we lit a fire in our fireplace and I made s’mores and then put them on top of ice cream for mixing in. It took some effort to crush the s’more and fully mix it with the ice cream, but I did it. It was good. Not as good as the best mix-in I ever invented, but yummy.
The chocolate didn’t melt as much as I would’ve like, but I managed.
Here are some of my post-blizzard pics from Tuesday.
This is the snowbank at the TOP of my driveway—right next to the house. I’m 5’ 8.5” so that’s a lot of snow. The plow guy has no other place else to pile it all up. There’s a flower garden under there, which I’m worried about. Note: I had to balance my phone on a trashcan with my mitten and use “timer” to take this photo. That’s real skill.My aptly named street Neighborhood snowbankI can’t tell if this mailbox is still attached to its post. Sometimes the plows knock off mailboxes and people just shove them into the snowbanks until they can be repaired. People then try to make the town do the repairs, but I know from experience, it’s easier to do it yourself.
In all, we got about 12-14 inches of new snow, but Rhode Island really got slammed. They beat their Blizzard of ‘78 record, with 35” inches in Providence (38” at the airport).
A couple weeks ago, I was trying to figure out what to make for a family birthday dinner. I decided that I wanted to try making a “Minnesota Hot Dish” in honor of the brave people of Minneapolis who stood up to ICE in the coldest weather imaginable for weeks on end. I have never been to Minnesota, but I was intrigued by their hot dish recipes that Tim Walz, Amy Klobuchar and others were always talking about during the last election cycle.
Being a typical East Coast liberal, I went straight to The New York Times to find a recipe and this one sounded good: Tater Tot Casserole. Everyone liked it. There were no leftovers. I forgot to take a picture, but it looked identical to the photo in the recipe.
As some of the recipe commenters noted, the point of a Minnesota Hot Dish is to make something delicious, filling and easy. (That’s why a can of condensed soup is a typical ingredient.) Commenters said that only the NYT could find a way to make it hard. BUT it really wasn’t that hard. In the NYT version, you basically make your own condensed soup, which took a bit of doing, but I really liked that it didn’t come out too salty. It tasted very good. (I didn’t add any of the optional salt listed because I used 4-5 of those little beef bouillon granulated packets for the base and I was already worried they would make it too salty.)
For dessert, my husband requested a double layer chocolate cake. And, since it’s the Year of the Knee, I felt bad for him and decided to make one from scratch. Again, I went to the NYT and attempted the richest, most chocolaty, most decadent birthday cake imaginable. This, I would NOT make again. Too hard! And waaaay too much butter. There are five sticks of butter in this thing (two in the cake and three in the frosting), plus tons of cacao and melted dark chocolate. I mean, it was very good, but it was a lot.
Birthday cake for my two Aquarians ♒️
Here’s the recipe, in case you are a true chocoholic. And yes, I did serve it with vanilla ice cream, because what is even the point if you skip the ice cream?
If you’re an older GenX American woman like me, you have feelings about Martha Stewart.
Maybe you liked her in the 80s and had a few linen skirts that looked just like hers. In the 90s, maybe you started to find her annoying when your friends threw over-the-top wedding showers that made you feel inadequate. Then maybe you were indignant that authorities had the GALL to put Martha in JAIL in 2004 on ridiculous charges and she took it like a champ and helped the other women she met in the slammer.
And maybe after that, you found Martha & Snoop an amusing duo and realized that no matter what she does, you will pay attention because she is Martha Stewart. And you are not.
On that note, I made Martha Stewart’s Cacio E Pepe With Lemon last night. Yes, I was annoyed that the “Grana Padano” cheese she uses is not readily available in stores. The Whole Foods cheese guy hadn’t even heard of it. How very Martha! (I substituted Parmigiano-Reggiano and it was fine.) And yes, I was irritated that I had to grind 4 teaspoons of pepper by hand, because everyone knows that when Martha calls for “freshly cracked pepper” she means it. And finally, NO I did not happen to have a MEYER lemon on hand, but thankfully Martha made it clear that any lemon would do.
The result was good. Very good.
I doubled the recipe so I could use the whole package of spaghetti, rather than half.
Martha Stewart’s “Cacio e Pepe with Lemon” “Cacio e Pepe” is simply pasta with cheese and pepper and it’s a classic Roman dish.
I wanted to make a special dessert for Christmas dinner so I decided to try a “Baked Alaska” which is something I’ve always wanted to do. It was a Bucket List dessert for me. I wasn’t even clear on exactly what’s in it, but I had a vague memory that it is delicious and special and involves flames. I think our next door neighbor growing up (Carolyn) made Baked Alaska for her big annual Christmas Eve parties. If my memory is right, Carolyn covered hers with actual flaming liquor as the final step. The internet has many examples of that step going horribly wrong, so I chose to follow my favorite baking website’s version of the recipe, which doesn’t include lighting alcohol on fire, but did urge me to purchase a kitchen torch so we could still experience some drama.
Sally’s Baked Alaska Recipe is a brownie base, with two 1.5 quart containers of any flavor ice cream (I used mint chip), covered with a toasted meringue dome. According to her recipe, if you don’t have a kitchen torch, you can bake the whole thing (ice cream and all) in a hot oven for a few minutes to toast the meringue.
I had a couple setbacks along the way. The first was that my 35-year old handheld electric mixer died during the ice cream beating step. It started to make a funny sound and then smoke started pouring out of it. I had to yank the plug out of the wall and dump the whole appliance in the trash. Fortunately, the ice cream was mostly creamy by then and I was able to finish up with a wooden spoon.
The disastrous part was that I hadn’t yet made the meringue. Have you ever tried to make meringue with ONLY a hand whisk? It took my husband and me one full hour of whisking to get the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar to turn into “glossy meringue with stiff peaks” as directed. In the end, we prevailed, but I was really worried that our shoulders were going to be sore the next day on Christmas. (We were OK.) I was able to completely cover the ice cream dome with my stiff-enough meringue and popped the whole thing in the freezer for the next day.
The next obstacle was the kitchen torch that Sally recommended. I didn’t have one, so despite not being a fan of Billionaire Bezos, I had to order one from Amazon, with Christmas Eve delivery. And by George, Amazon did get it to me on time, but I hadn’t read the fine print about the fuel (butane) not being included. I arrived one minute after closing time at our friendly local hardware store. I wrapped on the glass hoping (and frankly, expecting) that they would unlock the front door and sell me some butane, but no dice.
I then drove to a hardware store in a nearby town and scored some butane. Phew!
The final product was delicious and dramatic, as I had hoped. Also, everyone took a turn toasting the meringue with the torch which was fun.
My one-year old granddaughter gave it a try (the Baked Alaska, not the torch) and seemed a bit startled by the flavor. I think maybe mint is a strange taste the very first time you have it. I might use plain vanilla instead of mint chip next time.
But hey, now that I own a kitchen torch, any damn thing could happen—even Crème Brûlée.
As Sally says in her recipe, if you make it a day ahead and freeze it, it takes a few minutes for the brownie base to warm-up enough for easy slicing.
From ChatGPT:
Baked Alaska originated in the 19th century, inspired by advances in insulation and refrigeration science. The dessert—ice cream and cake encased in meringue and briefly baked—demonstrated that whipped egg whites could insulate cold interiors from heat. It is commonly credited to French chef Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico’s Restaurant in New York, who popularized it in 1867 after the U.S. acquired Alaska. The name referenced Alaska’s cold climate, contrasting with the dessert’s hot exterior and frozen core.
I wanted to make things easy on myself yesterday as I am doing all the cooking, while my husband recovers from total knee replacement surgery. (His leg still aches too much to eat out in a restaurant.) I had the idea of making chicken parmigiana with store-cooked chicken cutlets, but the price for TWO of them was $16.99, so I decided to make them myself.
Believe it or not, it was my first time making chicken parm. I looked at NYT Cooking’s version of the recipe, but then decided to go with something simpler that Google turned up:
I like how there’s a baked version of the recipe (if you don’t want to fry the cutlets in oil first), but for my first time making it, I decided to fry the cutlets.
I didn’t have sliced mozzarella, so I used about 8 ounces of grated mozzarella and it was yummy. I also didn’t have basil, so I topped with a bit of fresh parsley leftover from my Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken.
My husband was very appreciative (as always) of my efforts and I liked it too. I used store bought marinara sauce (Rao’s), so it was really pretty easy.
I recommend buying high-quality organic chicken breasts (like Bell & Evans) and slicing them into cutlets yourself before pounding.
Buy the good chicken breasts for best results Served on leftover pasta with a salad
The healing process for my husband’s knee replacement is ongoing. Sadly, we had to cancel dinner with our son for his 25th birthday tonight, because my husband just isn’t ready for restaurants yet. There’s still a ton of pain, swelling, and stiffness, which apparently is normal at this stage (3 weeks post-op), but he’s never dealt with anything like this, so it’s pretty hard.
I decided to try a recipe I saw on NYT Cooking “most popular recipes of 2025” list—Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken. It looked easy and it was. My husband loved it. He said the flavor was great and it really was. I even made my own croutons, which soaked up the delicious sauce perfectly.
New England is experiencing real “depths of winter” cold right now. (It’s giving late January vibes.) Given the very cold weather and the knee, I think this was a success. And so easy.
Next time I’ll put the croutons in the dish first to absorb as much sauce as possible 😋
As people who read my blog may know, I am a big fan of dessert. I take flavor combinations seriously and I think I know when one is extra special.
Through endless trial and error, I have stumbled across a real winner in the ice cream mix-in department. It’s SO good.
If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, you gotta try this:
Take three Trader’s Joe’s Soft-baked Snickerdoodles (no substitutes!) and microwave them in a small bowl for 15-20 seconds. Top them with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and top that with about a quarter cup of Grape-Nuts cereal.
Next: mix them together thoroughly, breaking up the cookies as you go.
Oh my god. So delicious. If you’re in mood for a satisfying, cinnamony dessert, give it a try.
It’s still much too cold here in New England, but I attempted to get in the spirit of the holiday weekend by making a red, white and blue dessert. We got a pint of fresh local strawberries from a farm stand (for ten dollars!) and a massive quantity of blueberries (on sale at Whole Foods). Sadly, I could not find any biscuits or mini sponge cakes in the store for strawberry shortcake. (I actually went to two stores looking for them.) So, I substituted puff pastries and here’s what I learned:
You really want an absorbent base for strawberry shortcake. That’s why biscuits or sponge cake work well. Puff pastries, though delicious, don’t exactly enhance the flavor because they don’t absorb the strawberry juices.
Ah well…we managed to polish it off anyway.
The second try was better because I figured out how to remove the top and actually fill the puff pastry.
Thank you to all who have served. I’m from an Air Force family.
My father and my late Aunt Theresa in their Air Force uniforms (mid 1950s). My aunt served for twenty years (1951-1971) in various administrative positions in Germany, Japan and the US.My oh-so-dashing father-in-law (1923-2016), a member of the Greatest Generation, enlisted in 1943 and retired as a Major in the USAF in 1968.
The United States military was a key component of achieving the American Dream for these children of poor Italian immigrants. It changed everything for them, and therefore, for us.
As I’ve mentioned many times before on this blog, I like sweets, especially baked goods! (When I was pregnant many years ago, I had what seemed like hours-long “bakery dreams” about pies, cookies, Congo bars, etc.) In recent years, I have become a big fan of the blog: Sally’s Baking Addiction. Virtually all of her cookie, bar, and muffin recipes come out perfectly. I also subscribe to her free newsletter, which recently highlighted some healthier options.
Her “One Bowl Baked Oatmeal” caught my eye, so I gave it a try this week. It’s really good—and so easy. These oatmeal bars are delicious hot or cold. Nonfat vanilla yogurt makes an excellent healthy topping (but vanilla ice cream works too).
As the recipe suggested, I used real maple syrup (thank you, Vermont). I also chose to use applesauce (rather than the mashed banana option) and no nuts, because I am allergic.
11 ingredients mixed together in one bowl and poured into an 11×7 sprayed baking dish
Sally’s suggested cooking time of 35 minutes at 350 degrees was perfect
After many years of saying no, I agreed to serve on the Executive Team of my church for this fiscal year (summer 24-summer 25). Typically, it’s a three year term, but I’m filling the final year of a term that was vacated by a gentleman who sadly became sick and died.
I didn’t really want to do this heavy lift of a volunteer role, but I had run out of good excuses to say no. (I’m not working and my kids are grown.) Plus, I only had to commit to ONE year (not the usual three).
I gotta say…I am good at leadership. I believe I have significant skills in this area. I have received a lot of positive feedback from the congregation and other members of the Executive Team. So that’s been nice, but the long meetings and endless emailing have led me to conclude that if I’m going to do this type of work-work, I should get paid. I should seek out a role for which I’d start getting paid again for my skills. I’m too young to fully retire. I want to limit my church volunteer roles to the fun stuff (ie singing in the choir, circle dance, helping organize the jewelry booth at the country fair).
One thing I did on the Executive Team this year is project management. We got a donation to create a “memorial garden” — a contemplative outdoor space where people can go to reflect. We set a goal of March 16 to dedicate the space (in honor of the donor’s late wife’s birthday) and by George—it is happening today!
Later this morning, after the service, we will gather on the side lawn of the church to dedicate our new space and dramatically unveil the new stone monument at its center. The weather is going to be warm (for Massachusetts) and people are excited. The donor’s extended family and the artist who created the monument will be joining us.
Here’s a group of us in front of the 1.2 ton stone monument, which got installed in the nick of time on Thursday.
I have made lemon squares from scratch for the reception afterwards because it’s a Big Day. (And Big Days require something a bit more special than brownies from a box.)
I taste tested my lemon squares last night and they’re good.
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