Saturday, February 5, 2011

Did you survive the monster storm?

Did you get hit by the monster storm across the US this past week?
I live in Texas, so snow of any kind is pretty out of the ordinary, and not only did we get snow, we also got rain and hail right before, plus 3 days of single-digit temperatures. Funny thing is, since we don't get much of a hard winter here, I'd been wishing for some of that cold weather that's been bothering the East Coast to come our way...ta da! We got 4 days of below-freezing real winter weather.

School was canceled, work was canceled, and I had a bunch of time to do a few things I don't have a lot of time to do:
- Bake
- Play in the snow
- Read in the daytime, watching the snow.

It was a wee bit scary, because we were literally stuck in the house from Monday night to Saturday morning, with iced-over streets and eight inches of snow. I put the two books I was reading on hold to re-read my new favorite book in the galaxy, Jellicoe Road. And you know what? Second time around, in the middle of snow and sub-zero temperatures and ice and rolling blackouts and learning (just a few days ago) that the Super Bowl will be held only 2 hours away from us...it was still just as amazing and memorable.

We made an old family favorite, Toffee House Pie (it doesn't really have toffee in it, but the caramelized cover tastes like toffee) the other day: sprinkle nuts (or not) and chocolate chips on a pie crust, then top it with a combined mix (4 eggs + 2 cups sugar + 1 stick of melted butter + 1 cup corn syrup) for 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees (but don't tell Mimi that I told you, or she'd kill me)



And now the the slurp-and-splash of the melting snow is signaling the beginning of the end. It's funny how sad I am to see the last evidence of our highly irregular week drip away. It was a fun week, but I'm glad we're back above freezing again.

How did you survive the "monster storm"?



7 shout-outs!:

Tales of Whimsy said...

You were snowed in for almost a whole week? Wow. Wild. What state do you live in?

I love your picture of the book title in the snow :)

Tales of Whimsy said...

Oops I just realized you said Texas. Sorry! That is definitely scary.

Christina T said...

We had an ice storm where I live in Ohio. Today there is a winter weather advisory because of the snow but it isn't supposed to accumulate that much. I had two days off from work (Tuesday and Wednesday) but by the time I left for work on Thursday, the route I take was so clean that I could drive at normal speed for which I was very grateful! During my time off I did some reading, watched Cranford on DVD, and wrote some blog posts.

The pie looks tasty! Thanks for sharing the picture and the recipe :) I guess since you don't get much snow, it makes sense that you'd miss it. I can't wait till summer though. I grew up with snow and I've had enough to last a lifetime!

Natalie said...

Glad you got to re-read Jellicoe Road. I really want to do that soon! I spent my days off reading The Lost Saint by Bree Despain and Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I've learned that I should really invest in a snow shovel. Neither I or either of my roommates owned one, so we had to dig out our cars (which got completely buried when the snow plow came through) with a kitty litter bucket and a plastic bowl from our kitchen. It was crazy, and I was exhausted when we finally finished! Lol.

Myne said...

I live in the Pacific Northwest and it's funny we didn't get any snow here. At least you got a break, lol...

Unknown said...

Meh. I live in Massachusetts. I'm used to it.

Anne said...

You're lucky you got so much time off. I live in Northern Ohio, and despite the foot+ of snow, my college has yet to cancel anything, even though all the businesses in town shut down for a few days. Luckily I don't have any classes on Tuesday (perks of being a senior I guess), which is when the worst of it hit. Sometimes I wish I lived a little further south where they have a slight bit more respect for the snow. Here it's just "Snow? Yeah, they can deal with it. We NEVER close! And we're proud of it!" Yesterdays bit (which came straight from Texas, apparently) won't even make a huge difference =(

 
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