1. We woke up this morning to snow falling fast, oh, fast and a with several inches on the lawn, sidewalk, and streets. My approach to shoveling is to get to it when the snow isn't very deep and shovel repeatedly -- for other people, their approach is to wait until the snow stops and then shovel once.
When I started shoveling this morning, it was the deepest I've shoveled all winter and was challenging for me. But, I persisted. I finished at our house and at least shoveled pathways over at Christy's.
2. I didn't finish at Christy's because Copper and Luna had an appointment at the veterinarian for their annual vaccinations, blood screen, and wellness exam. The also had their nails/claws clipped. I'll find out later about the blood work, but Dr. Cook was pleased with what he saw when he examined them and I had positive answers to the various questions he asked.
Later, I finished shoveling at Christy's house.
3. Tonight we had a fun family dinner. Debbie decided to take on the task of making Cincinnati chili. When we had Cincinnati chili back in late December with Patrick and Meagan, it was with Skyline chili sauce out of a can (and it was delicious) that Patrick and Meagan brought with them. Debbie made sauce today from scratch and we transported the sauce, beans, chopped white onions, a block of medium cheddar cheese to grate, and oyster crackers over to Carol and Paul's.
We set out mixed nuts for appetizers and I mixed everyone either a Manhattan or an Old-Fashioned.
Paul made a smashing cabbage salad.
Christy brought a bottle of red wine and one of white. She'd read that both wines paired well with Cincinnati chili.
Out in the kitchen, Debbie set up an assembly line of Cincinnati chili ingredients.
First, we all put a layer of spaghetti in the bottom of our bowl.
We put sauce over it.
The sauce had kidney beans it it, but if we wanted more, Debbie made more beans available.
Next, was another choice, the chopped white onion.
Last, Debbie had grated a generous amount of medium cheddar cheese so that we could all pile cheese over the top of our dish.
Debbie also set out oyster crackers for those of us who wanted to put them atop the cheese.
The Cincinnati chili sauce is much more Mediterranean than the Texas-style chili so many of us are used to eating with beans. It's seasoned, along with chili powder, with allspice, anise, and other more Mediterranean spices. The sauce doesn't have whole or diced tomatoes. Rather, in making it, Debbie began by heating up tomato paste and adding water to it.
We all loved it.
I had liked the canned sauce from Skyline a lot back in December and I enjoyed Debbie's sauce even more. One day, I will jump into the fray and make a batch of Cincinnati chili sauce, too.
Carol made a very tasty cherry pie for dessert (it was, after all, President's Day).
We had a good time talking about the latest developments around the Silver Valley, Wordle, dog news, books for children and young adults, and a whole lot more.
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