Snowpocalypse 2012 and Snuggle Soup

Hey there Butterballs, and welcome to my snow fortress!



For the last four days or so, Missoula has apparently been having it's seventh worst winter storm since 1850-something. We've gotten over a foot of snow, plus an inch of freezing rain, which really puts a nice shiny finish on the glacier that is my back yard. It started on Wednesday when I was teaching in Florence. It took me about forty minutes to travel the 20 miles back home. Shortly thereafter, God opened up his curtains of doom and dumped about a million pounds of icy awesome on our heads. School got canceled the next day (which is good, because little Quimbie the Beetle car couldn't even see over the drifts...), and it took six neighbors two days to dig/snowblow our cars out of the driveway. We managed to get both our cars into one clear parking spot, and called it a weekend. I've since shoveled about 12 tons of snow for the sole purpose that our mailman could deliver what ended up being pizza coupons, and a Bon Apetit magazine.

Butters is not a fan of the snow. He has not come off the couch in approximately five days. Not that he did that a lot anyway, just that his level of lazy has gone up about 1200%. I.e. Butters has a pulse and that's about it right now. I've tried to sway him with everything from kitty kibble, to new toys, etc. Not. Having. It.

So those of you who don't live in Hell's freezer might ask, "So what does one do during snowpocalypse?" You actually have several options:

1. You can get day drunk and make snow people versions of yourself an your roommates in the yard. (I'm lookin at YOU, Pecker)

2. Shovel until you tear something.

3. Watch your across the street neighbor angry-shovel at midnight.

4. Wrestle a polar bear.

5. Draw colored pencil portraits of your giant cat.

6. Make Snuggle Soup with Pecker, Caitlin, Rebecca, and your long-suffering husband!

Snuggle soup originated when Caitlin wrote on my Facebook Wall asking if we could make snuggly soup. I, of course, instantly misread this as Snuggle Soup. As in, an actual existing recipe, for something called Snuggle Soup. This did not actually exist until we combined all our ingredients in the Chopped test kitchen (sometimes known as my house), and invented it. Turns out Snuggle Soup is a broth-y southwest thing that you dip tortilla triangles in, and this is how you make it:

You'll need:
2 Chicken breasts
1 lb of spicy sausage
2 cans of chicken stock
1 pint of water
3 large carrots, cut on the bias
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can black beans
1 lime, cut in half and the juice of it
2 tbsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp garlic
2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
tortillas
1 cup-ish cheddar cheese

Drain and rinse bot kinds of beans in a colander. Break up the sausage and cook in a large stock pot, reserve, use left over grease to cook chicken. Cube the chicken breasts, cook until slightly browned, reserve. Add a little more oil of your choice (obviously I like olive...), cook garlic, onion and carrot on medium heat until translucent (for the onion, if your carrot is translucent, you should probably not be eating it...), and slightly brown for the carrot. add the meat back in, and pour the stock and water in on top of it. Add in spices, lime juice and the halves of the lime. heat through, add in the beans. Let simmer until the beans have started to thicken the broth a little.

For the tortilla crisps for dippin!
Heat a little oil in a frying pan, add tortilla, sprinkle with cheese. Let cheese melt, flip, let the cheese get crusty. Repeat until you have about two tortillas for each person being served.

Enjoy! Snuggle down for the long, harsh winter, Nanook! You deserve it! You can always pretend the snow is sand and that you are on the beach. Just don't like, go outside in minimal clothing or you will probably get hypothermia, but no need to fret! You have a big old pot of Snuggle Soup to keep you warm!

Isn't that the beachiest beach that ever beached a beach!

Not really. That's our yard under about ninety million tons of snow.

The Cat is Back!

Butterballs, butterballs, my how I've missed you! This will be my first blog in over a month, and since we have just barely tipped over into the unknown abyss that will be 2012, this will be all about things I am thankful for, and of course, my dear Butterballs, this means you!

My prolonged absence has been mostly due to a lack of computer, as my dear old lime green laptop Bart went down in a blaze of glory trying to download the massive program, Sibelius. I woke up one morning to the blue screen of death, and made the decision to let him go peacefully. I am now coming to you live from my new, chocolate brown Dell, who I have lovingly dubbed, Paula. You can only surmise who the inspiration was :) So naturally, I am very thankful for my new technology, so I can write to you lovely people every so often!

That being said, I would also like to express my deepest condolences to our Patron Saint of Butter, Paula Deen, who has recently been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Say what you want about our deep frying Goddess, but I'd like to meet a single soul who would turn down a meal made by that woman.

In spite of how busy we've all been trying to be grown-ups in the new year, my Hunnies and I have managed to reserve time at least once a week to cook dinner at the Homestead. These gatherings are alot like an episode of Chopped. It starts with one of us sending a mass text, and ends with a myriad of ingredients and wine drinking in my kitchen. This week we ended up with the following:

Pecker: The usual spaghetti squash. See, we just thought Megan REALLY liked squash, but it turns out that somehow over the weeks that we've been enjoying this squash, we've missed the fact that her parents actually grew all of those squash. This was somewhat of a relief as I think we all had secretly come to believe that Pecker had a back alley squash supplier.

Guido: Mozzarella cheese. Or MOH-SAH-RELLLLLLLLL as they say in Jersey ;) Oh, and that delicious bread that they sell in all grocery stores that comes pre-sliced in half with garlic and butter product in the middle. All you have to do is throw it in the oven for about 15 minutes and it tastes like it's been kissed by Our Lady of Lard, Paula.

Hornpipes and Corny: Lettuce, because someone has to save us from our gourdy and buttery selves.

So you may ask, "What on Earth can you make with that crap?" And the answer is: Cheese stuffed meatballs with red gravy and spaghetti squash and lard bread for dippin, of course! And a healthy salad to cleanse the arteries.

For 12 meatballs (no one said this was a diet dish...):
1 lb spicy Italian sausage
1 lb burger
1 egg
1 cup grated parmesan
1/2 a yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp each basil, oregano
garlic salt
coarse ground black pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella (this melts easier than cubes, and allows you to skip that meatball drying step of baking after you've fried them)

For frying:
1 cup olive oil

Pour oil in pan and turn on medium-high. Combine all the ingredients except the mozzarella in a large mixing bowl. Next comes the satisfying part. This is what my Dad and I have fondly dubbed over the years (and a VERY technical term, I might add), schmooshing. Schmooshing is the process of combining ingredients with one's hands until they cannot be separated. Take a small handful of meat, roll into a ball, and then squish a little to form a cup. You should take a lump of the cheese about the size of a large malted milk ball, and push it into the meat. Take another small wad of meat (such an appetizing term, "wad"...), flatten it out, and place it on top of the cheese, seal the meat until you can no longer see the cheese. Place in hot oil, fry on all sides until dark brown.

For the gravy:
One large can of tomato sauce
2 tbsp each garlic powder, basil, and oregano.

Combine in sauce pan until barely bubbling. Annnnd that's it.

For the spaghetti squash:
1 large spaghetti squash (about 5 lbs)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
garlic salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil

Now, one does not simply walk into a spaghetti squash (ha haaaaa). The prep is a labor of love, and takes some time.

Prep of a spaghetti squash:
Using a VERY BIG knife, or food machete, as I like to call it, remove the ends of the spaghetti squash. THIS IS THE HARDEST PART. Do not cut your fingers off, because if you do, you will never be able to make this again, and that would be truly sad. You can either roast these ends, or throw them away, because they are tough as whale bone. Once you have removed the ends, stand the squash up on one of the now flat ends, slice down each side in turn with your food machete. Fill a large baking dish with one inch or so of water, place the squash skin side down in the water, cover with foil, and roast at 400 degrees. This takes varied amounts of time. Once you can pierce the squash with a fork, take it out of the oven. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. scrape the meat of the squash into it, and add spices.

I am so thankful to be starting a new, wonderful year with my friends and family. Even if the Mayans were right and we're all going to die this December, I'll be going out in a blaze of meat, cheese, and love, and that my friends, is what it's all about :)