This Weekend, In Staying Warm

It remains really cold around Des Moines. I think the average temps are about 8-10 below historical norms for the month. Also, I read that we are only a few inches away from having the largest snowfall *ever recorded* in a single winter. I don’t know how close to the record we really are, but the only year we haven’t topped was about 130 years back.

So, that’s the context for why we have been staying inside 🙂

Friday Night: I made another pizza. Rolled some of the things I learned from the deep-dish pizza into a more traditional pizza, to see what I could come up with. I put the stone at the bottom of the oven, a cookie sheet at the top and started the pizza in a cold oven. The end result was a really crisp bottom crust, without burning the top. I think I got kinda lucky with the whole thing as the crust was nearly burnt, but I think I prefer that to being uncooked at the middle.

Saturday: I went to the church mens breakfast. It makes me feel terribly grown up to do that kind of thing. I suppose, given my age, job, wife… etc. I am in fact grown up. Still seems odd. Had a good time there, and somehow ended up cleaning parts of the church before I headed home.

When I got home, Heather and I tackled the second bedroom. I had worked on it a little mid-week, but there was sooooo much still waiting to be done. I have to give a lot of credit to Heather, because she did most of the work, and stuck with it until the room was fully cleaned out! When I say fully cleaned out, it still has two portable coat rack things, and two bookshelves in it, but at least there aren’t any piles on the floor, and it feels like a real room now.

We were talking about good “stay inside and be warm foods” and Heather thought chicken pot pie sounded good. I think maybe to get me out of the kind of small room she thought I should make it :).

I ended up settling on this recipe: Chicken Pot Pie IX

It went together really well, my only problem was that rolling out the crust before I started making the filling meant that the texture of the top crust was really soft. I think I would have had an easier time cutting the “N over N” into the top if I hadn’t rolled it out 30 minutes ago, or maybe at least laying that in the fridge to keep it firm.

That’s filling pre-gravy-ish step. That’s also the last picture I got with my camera before the battery gave out. I somehow lost my charger over the past few weeks. (I ordered a new one a few hours ago, so I should find it any minute now)

The only thing you should note in that picture is I forgot the peas. I was also going to add some corn… forgot both.

Finished product:

That’s a cell phone picture… not quite the quality I normally provide, but you get the idea. The finished product was really good.

Sunday: Heather has gotten really into coupons. I don’t think I have mentioned it here before. She got this Coupon Mom book and has really gotten into the game of finding deals. One of the deals she found is that the local gas station will give you a free Sunday paper if you get more than $10 in gas Sunday. The Sunday paper it seems, is the predominant source of coupons for the western world.  Heather and I both filled our cars up before church so that we could get two papers.

After lunch, Heather clipped coupons and planned a big grocery run, while I put on our Iowa plates ( a sad, sad day 😦 )  This did kind of ruin my “stay inside” plan, but it had to be done. I also stashed quite a few boxes in the rafters of our garage. The garage is really the only way our second bedroom is going to be open enough to get a bed into. I am glad to say we are on-track for that to actually happen now.

-Jordan