Snow Day

It's been snowing hard this morning, big puffy flakes.  We don't expect much to accumulate but it's so beautiful to sit inside the warm house and watch it fall.  Or open the door and listen to the soft sound of snow landing wetly on leaves.  David read about storms where the snow flakes were the size of cakes!  I cannot imagine how crazy that would be.  Looking up into the sky it was like this:

This picture does not do justice to the dizzying sensation of swirling snow coming down around you.  It makes me sad that we do not get the kind of snow we once did, at the same time, I don't relish being stranded for days either.  I wonder if they have dug themselves out from the 3 feet that fell up north yet? 

Did you hear about the meteor the size of a bus with the power of 20 atomic bombs that fell on Russia yesterday! Nature- wow.

I've been on a pasta kick, homemade pasta that is.  It's not so much work really and incredibly tasty and toothsome.  It all started when I baked one of those humongous Long Island Cheese squashes that we grew last summer.  They are tremendous.  I like the flavor and the texture but I do believe I'll go back to butternuts for a couple of reasons.  1) they are smaller, 2) they are denser 3) they are sweeter 4) they don't take over the entire garden!

But faced with a gallon of cooked squash I made a big pot of soup, flavored with garlic and sage and finished with creme fraiche and toasted pumpkin seeds.  Then we made 4 dozen raviolis stuffed with squash mixed with ricotta, Parmesan and bread crumbs. These were super tasty finished with brown butter, pecans, fresh herbs and Parmesan.  But alas, I still had a couple of cups of that ravioli filling, so last night I made another batch of pasta, cooked up mushrooms in bechamel sauce, steamed a big bowl of spinach from the garden and put it all together in this magnificent white lasagne.

It's sort of like the Cat in the Hat, one squash became all of these meals and happily, there is now in the freezer; prepared soup, 3 dozen ravioli's ready to drop in boiling water and a few servings of lasagne ready to pop in the microwave for those nights when there is no energy left.

I find it hard to imagine that the average American only spends 30 minutes a day preparing food, how empty I think my life would be without the time I spend growing, preparing and best of all, enjoying good food.