Life's Good!

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Happy New Year Y'all and all the best for 2018!
I like the sound of it, 2018, it's a nice and round number, rolls easily of the tongue ... oh boy, I hope I don't have to 'eat' my words later on ..
As usual, our New Years celebration was a quiet one, although we heard a lot of very loud firework being set off all through the day. (Or maybe they were gun-shots, this IS the south of course!)

Per 'our' tradition (sort of) we had 'surf and turf' for dinner:

Lobster and Rib-eye steak, a dinner fit for a King!

The next morning, I was up in time to prepare the batter for the eagerly awaited 'Oliebollen'!

The dough rose exceptionally well this year, it almost came out of the bowl!
There was a moment of horror when we realized that we had gotten rid of the big pan that we usually make them in .. gasp .. , but we made do with a smaller one and everything went just fine!

Look at those beauties! (the oliebollen, I mean)

As every year we vowed we will make them again over the summer, during the (dutch) 'Kermis' (Fair) season, and hopefully this year we will actually remember this and do it!

We watched the 'Rose-Parade' on TV:

And in the evening I made a traditional, southern, 'Good Luck' dinner (hey, every little bit helps), which consisted of:
Black-eyed Peas (for coins), a Ham-hock ( for the pig, a 'forward foraging animal' which brings good fortune), Collards (for the green paper money) and Cornbread (for gold).

Another delicious, comforting dish made in my Instant Pot.

I took me less than an hour to get this on the table (only 20 minutes actual cooking time), versus 3 to 4 hours if had prepared this on the stove.

And boy, do we need these 'stick-to-your-ribs kinda comfort foods!

It is brutal cold here in the south!

The temperature had actually already come up a degree when I took this picture at 8 am, 20 degrees! Can you believe it? We're in the South! Now I understand why this is not really a 'Snowbird' destination per se ...

We'd let the water trickle overnight and had already wrapped up the water hose real good so we had no problems. What with all 3 electric heaters running (one in the bedroom) and extra blankets on the bed we were as toasty as bears in their winter den.

On Tuesday it never even got above freezing! Unreal!
When it warmed up to 45F today I braved outside for a short walk. After spending 2 days in the RV, I was in dire need for some fresh air.

And fresh it was, even worse of course if you consider the windchill.
Everything was frosty ...

James had until now been working as much as he could on the inside, but it was high time to tackle a project outside that needed to be done.
The balcony at the back, in front of the 3 guest bedrooms, needed to be separated by walls for privacy, so the guys donned their thermal underwear, multiple layers and hoodies and braved the elements!

It's at times like these that I'm so happy to be able to cuddle under the covers with Merlin in my cozy bed, when James gets up at 7 in the morning!

Talking about me, I'm not doing a lot at the moment I have to say. I'm working on getting our taxes 'done', or at least 'organized'. I've finished a pair of socks that I've been working on for over a year (!), I do a lot of (jigsaw) puzzling and reading and I'm determined to make even more use this year of the Instant Pot than I already have.