winter

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Five for Friday

This has been my kid’s second five-day school week since the beginning of 2026, which seems wrong in all sorts of ways. It has also had the effect of feeling incredibly long. Don’t worry – we don’t have another five-day school week until March.

Five random things on my mind today.

Another Mystery

I have a tea subscription that supposedly arrived Wednesday. I got the confirmation email, complete with a photo of the box in my mailbox. The confirmation email, strangely, said “Your package was left near the front door or porch.” even though my mailbox is near the street and not near my front door. Whatever, the driver must have checked the wrong box, the photo clearly shows it in my mailbox.


I did not check my email or the mail on Wednesday, which feels like a crucial point. But yesterday, when I finally read the confirmation email, I went to the mailbox and retrieved a whole pile of magazines and letters and bills and junk mail. But no box. Neither was the box on our front porch, nor was it near the backdoor. I interrogated my family members, but neither of them had retrieved a box. I looked in the cupboard where I normally keep my tea; nothing. WHERE IS MY TEA? My theory is that the mailman opened the box to put in Thursday’s mail, was unable to fit it securely around the box, and removed the box temporarily to put the rest of the mail in. Then he forgot about the box and drove away with it. I’m hoping he returns the box today, but I suppose we’ll see.

Palm Update

I have been babying my palm trees (which did not adjust well to moving indoors this winter) and they both have some new growth. One of them is still struggling – some of the new growth has already turned brown, and it’s not putting out as many new shoots as the other. But the other one seems almost happy? It would possibly be more happy if the cat didn’t so thoroughly enjoy nibbling on its leaves. I really hope I can keep them alive until it warms up enough for them to move back into the sunroom. They liked it much better out there.

Everything Falls Apart

When it snows, it dumps, right? Well, first the freezer in our garage refrigerator died, taking along with it a ton of food.

Then my oven started acting up, which is something it does periodically, and about which I have complained extensively before. (It doesn’t seem to want to heat to the correct temperature. However, an oven repair guy came out to check it – along with the other, more expensive oven, which somehow has the same problem – and after three hours and $300 told me both ovens are just fine and perhaps it is user error.) I made these cookies (which are just as delicious in February as they are in November) on Wednesday and the oven refused to heat to 350 degrees. It just got stuck at 340. But it was still in preheating mode. I am assuming, with no actual knowledge whatsoever, that the preheating mode injects extra heat into the oven, and that’s why my cookies got quite crisp around the edges before they were supposed to be done. (They were still scrumptious.) I wrote this off to me not allowing the oven enough time to come up to temperature. Then, later that night, I preheated the oven to 400 for dinner, left it alone… and completely forgot about it because the “I’m done preheating” beep never happened. An hour later, I remembered that I hadn’t put anything into the oven, and hurried into the kitchen to find that the oven was still preheating and still at 395. Okay, fine. I will turn it off and try again. Then it got stuck at 370 until I finally gave up and used the air fryer. This morning, however, I set it to 350 to reheat a breakfast sandwich, and it worked exactly as it was supposed to. Either it was having an off day on Wednesday and is back to full strength, or it only heats to 350.

After I dropped off Carla, I went into the basement to walk on the treadmill for awhile. But when I powered it on, it said it was paused. And no amount of pressing the pause button, the stop / start button, powering it off and back on, or unplugging it and plugging it back in made the pause screen go away. Obviously, none of these things is dire. We are fortunate in that we have both a second freezer and a second oven, which allows us to meet our freezing and baking needs. The garage fridge is pretty old – we bought it in 2012. And the oven is probably 10 to 15 years old (and seemed to have never once been cleaned before we moved in, so who knows what kind of maintenance it had). The treadmill is even older. My in-laws bought it when they lived in Europe back in the early aughts. They brought it back to the States with them in 2005ish, and then gave it to us in the early 2010s. It has served long and hard.

To recap, these losses are not dire and were going to happen sometime anyway. But I hadn’t anticipated that they would happen so close together. As we use all three of these appliances daily, we will be replacing them. Good times.

Avocados

I am not particularly interested in the Super Bowl this year, but my husband is excited about making a seven layer dip. I do not care for seven layer dip, but I will make the guacamole and eat plenty of that. Our grocery store had a nice sale on avocados – $1 apiece – so I bought a few. And then I went to Trader Joe’s and they had ENORMOUS avocados for $1.49 apiece. I had to buy two, just to see if they are as good as the normal little guys. I will try to remember to report back.

Cat Curiosity

My cat continues to be the best cat. He exemplifies the whole “cats are curious” personality type, and is constantly investigating everything. The exterminator came the other day to check our mouse bait and he said, of Lenny, “He’s a nosy little guy, isn’t he?” Yes. Lenny has to be where the action is, and he needs to be apprised of anyone entering the house and insists on doing a thorough inspection of their shoes and any bags they might bring.

He is, of course, wildly curious about Outside. Any time a door opens, our security system chimes, and that’s the cue for Lenny to beeline to the door and try to sneak out. We usually keep the laundry room door closed, so that it acts as a sort of airlock between the kitchen and the garage. He knows that we often disappear when we go into the laundry room, and that we appear through that door at the end of the day. As soon as the door chimes, he takes up a spot near the door – usually on the floor just inside the kitchen, but sometimes on the counter right next to the laundry room door. Then he greets us with a deep stretch and some little chirpy meows.

This week, he’s taken to hiding in the laundry room while we’re in there putting our shoes and coats on. He is a very good hider. So good, in fact, that one day he was unable to extricate himself from his hiding place. Can you find him? Slide the photo to the left to reveal his location.

That’s all I have for today. It’s snowing here, once again. I hope you are warm and cozy and that you have a restful weekend.

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Five Good Things Friday (Including a Giveaway!)

This year is sure off to a batshit crazy start, isn’t it. I hope you’re holding up okay, that you’re out there fighting the good fight, that you and your loved ones are warm and safe. If you need, as I do, a break from the endless cycle of WHAT IS GOING ON, you have come to the right place as I have a few good things to share with you.

Good Thing #1: NICOLE’S BOOK IS OUT!!!!! Listen, I am pretty sure that everyone in our cozy blogland community is aware of this by now, but if you are somehow not aware or if you don’t yet know and love Nicole, here is the quick and dirty: Nicole wrote a beautiful, hilarious, heartbreaking, hopeful book called Inhale, Exhale and it is now out in the world for all of us to enjoy.

I would love to send someone a copy of Nicole’s novel. That someone could be you, or it could be someone you think would love Nicole’s singular brand of wry humor and warm wisdom (which, honestly, is everyone). Just leave a comment letting me know you’re interested by next Friday, January 30, at midnight Pacific time and I will randomly choose a winner. (I’ll email the winner for details about where to send the book.)

The giveaway is now closed.

Good Thing #2: Winter Wonders Wow, literally everything good pales in comparison to Good Thing #1, so I am jumping straight into a Good Thing that many people dislike. (Including my poor husband.) We are deep into winter, and I am LOVING IT. We have so much snow! We’ve already had one snow day and a cold day and we may have another cold day today and another snow day Monday! Listen, my child has most definitely NOT been in school enough so far in 2026, but if she’s going to miss school, I’m glad it’s for snow and not for illness (that is not an invitation for illness to find us; TOUCHING ALL THE WOOD). I do not mind the cold (although I am of course deeply grateful that I have warm clothes and a warm home, without which I might feel very different), and I love the snow. It feels like magic, the way it transforms the world into something gleaming and soft. I know cold climates are not for everyone, but I adore winter and I’m trying to enjoy every frosty moment.

Good Thing #3: Freezer / Pantry Meal I am working my way through all the goodies I’ve stashed in my freezer over the past eleventy hundred months, and yesterday I was able to whip up a batch of my favorite chipotle chicken tortilla soup with items I already had. I even had a Ziploc full of diced onion, poblano, and jalapeno waiting for me in the freezer! The only thing I had to buy fresh was cilantro. And now I have a huge Tupperware full of delicious soup to get me through these wintry days. (Yes, I also made another batch of cucumber salad. It is so good.)

Good Thing #4: One Fewer Couch For over two years now, we have had an old leather couch standing awkwardly in our piano room. It didn’t go with the space, it had a huge tear in one cushion, all the other cushions were worn past salvaging. And yet there it stayed. Well. The couch is no more! My husband and I finally arranged for the trash collectors to pick it up, and we moved it to the curb earlier this week and it is GONE. All that snow sure came in handy; it was surprisingly easy to slide the couch along the snow-covered lawn.

Good Thing #5: Cat Grandpa My family and I recently left town for a long weekend, leaving the cat at home. We hired a cat sitter to come feed him twice a day (he eats wet food for breakfast and dinner and has access to dry food [and water] all day long). But I was worried that my lovely Lenny cat would be lonely with such big stretches of his day unpeopled. So my father kindly drove 30+ minutes each way to hang out with the cat, every single day we were gone. He also sent me (and Carla) videos and photos of our kitty, because he knew we’d be missing him. Kindest of all, when the weather prevented the cat sitter from getting to our kitty one evening, and Carla sent a rogue text begging her grandfather to step in, my dad immediately got into his car, prepared to make the long drive a second time that day. I assured him that Lenny had access to plenty of fresh water and dry food, so he didn’t need to brave the snow and the dark. But he was at our house first thing the next morning to make sure the cat knew he hadn’t been abandoned. Is that not the sweetest?

Okay Internet, that’s all I’ve got for you today. I hope you have some good things in your life lately, or at least that good things are on the horizon. Sending you love and warmth and cat purrs.

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Dinners This Week

At 5:30 this morning, I was torn from a nightmare by a low discordant keening. I might describe it as “toddler impersonating whale calls,” but my husband said it was more “cat meets blender.” We watched Longlegs last night, so the noise quite easily could have been the moaning of Nic Cage at his most grotesque and terrifying. (Even though I enjoyed it, I am not recommending the movie; it was Weird AF.)

We confirmined that the noise was, somehow, our neighbor’s snowplow – which means that it persisted for quite some time, as their driveway is not short. I did not fall back to sleep.

On the positive side, we got a ton of snow over the weekend. Oh, how I adore snow. I love the trees lacquered in white, how everything – shadows, blue skies, bare trees – assumes an extra vibrancy against the snow. I love sunshine caught in billions of ice crystals and winked back at me as I walk. Grey skies seem more dramatic and moody; sunny days have an extra sheen of cheer. I love it I love it I love it.

Soup is on the menu tonight, and therefore takes one of three spots for dinners this week. But before we get into that, I want to report on dinners past because they were YUM.

Dinners Last Week

  • Sheet Pan Veggie Shawarma: This was easy (aside from the veggie chopping, which is easy but time consuming) (I listen to an audiobook while chopping) and SO good. Few things are better than a big pile of roasted veggies. The seasoning/marinade was delicious, although I ended up doubling it because I added some chicken tenders to the mix. They were a good addition, especially for my husband. Also, because I was on a Green Sauce High from the previous week’s Birchie-recommended meal, I made the cilantro yogurt sauce from this recipe and slapped it on top of my veggie shawarma. One of the best decisions I made all week.
  • Salmon Burgers: For some reason, I dillied and dallied and delayed in making these, but then finally I did make them, and they were easy and yummy as usual. The recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated, and I’ve got a photo of the recipe here in case you want to try them too. Oh! The remarkable thing about this meal is that I forced Carla to eat it, too. She loves salmon and eats it regularly. This is the closest thing to salmon possible. She DID eat it, even though she didn’t particularly like it (it has teeny tiny shallots minced in it).
  • Beef Birria Tacos: The first time I ate beef birria was in Phoenix at a taco place, and I fell instantly, irrevocably in love. (By the way, I learned from my recipe search that birria is traditionally made with goat, but I’m not big on goat so I used chuck roast.) The need to eat beef birria again has been growing stronger and stronger with each passing week. However, I could not for the life of me find a recipe that I wanted to follow. Too many ingredients or too few; equipment I didn’t want to use; too many steps. What I ended up doing was cobbling together a recipe out of a bunch of recipes online… and it was SO GOOD. The recipe made enough for at least three generous meals, and we immediately froze the remaining beef and consommé, and I cannot stop thinking about it. So rich and spicy and omg perfection. My husband took over the actual taco making, which involves dipping a corn tortilla in the consommé, frying it, adding cheese and beef, and then putting on my plate for immediate consumption. This one is a keeper from a taste standpoint, but from a work standpoint, I think it’s something I would make maybe once a year.

There’s really no way I can top last week’s meals, so I’m not even going to try. This week is not about flash and romance, but instead about solid, reliable faves. Also, chicken was on sale, so it’s all about the chicken. (Luckily, these are veggie-heavy meals so I can limit or completely ignore the chicken in my own servings.)

Dinners for the Week of February 17-25

  • Chicken and Zucchini Stir Fry: I am more in the mood for this Szechuan Stir Fry, but the bell pepper quality was very poor today, so I pivoted to chicken and zucchini stir fry instead. Of course, I have to go back to the grocery store to buy things I forgot to buy (namely: the two key ingredients of Ham Sandwich: the ham and the sandwich rolls), so perhaps I will peruse the peppers to see if the prospects are more perky.

  • Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas: The bell peppers may not have been crisp enough for stir fry, but they were of acceptable quality for fajitas.

Here’s hoping that tonight I dream of swimming in a sea of birria consommé.