Dismal?

No, not really. Not as dismal as it looks anyway.

Saturday 29 March. Yahoo!
You see, it was a little sloppy in spots. It was cloudy overcast most of the day. It was breezy. Even starting to rain. But...for most of the day...it was near 60°F! I felt like we haven't been out riding in *ages*. That's probably because..oh, it's been weeks at least. It's been bitter cold, windy, snowy, icy, then when we did have a couple of seasonal days the mud was like soup everywhere.

Yesterday was as nice a day as we've had in a very long time. And L was, of course, a rock star. We didn't do anything hard. A little flexing and bending. Some transitions. She had the nicest slow jog going for a couple hundred yards. We both need to get ready to work in the weeks ahead. There are still some snow piles in the shady spots and the woods are downright swampy, but we found enough firm footing to have a good time.

We were out for about an hour so when the wind and the rain picked up and I think the temperature dropped almost 20° in just a few minutes. I felt really good with L between me and the ground even if for just a short while.

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And look! Halibut season!

Pan seared oven roasted halibut steak
With steamed leeks. Halibut is my most favorite fish. Halibut steak, seasoned and seared in a scary hot cast iron griddle and finished in a 425° oven for a few minutes is sensational. Pinot Grigio went very well with it. And would you believe I've never had leeks before?! Loved them. I made a lighter vinaigrette than the recipe. I thought the red wine vinegar might clash with my wine and the fish might be overpowered by the balsamic vinegar. So I used white wine vinegar with a little rice wine vinegar. With a little spot of maple syrup. I should have thought to use a little squeeze of lemon.

That's the very first halibut of the season!

Looking for spring

in all the wrong places? Not much spring around here yet!

It's been very cold and unpleasant for some time now. But there is some hope! I think the ice is gone for this season

21 March 2014, first full day of spring
At least it sounds like spring. The Red Winged Blackbirds came back last weekend and they're making quite the racket. And I saw geese back here for the first time this season just yesterday. But a really sure sign is...the daffodils! I saw the first daffodils on the first day of spring late Thursday afternoon.

See? Daffodils! 20 March 2014
But *every* horse person knows the *real* frist sign of spring is...

Mud.

Mud is of course...everywhere

Tractor tracks
lot and lots of deep soupy mud. You can easily sink into this stuff to the middle of your shins and have it suck the shoes right off your feet.

But the worst part of all?

There's nothing to eat out here. Bring me in now.

Dashing through the snow?

It snowed like crazy Saturday. Heavy wet slushy slippery snow. All things considered it was pretty miserable. I decided however it would be a good time to take L out and see if I could get a nice picture for next year's Christmas card.

Nope. This isn't it.
Hahahaha. She was having none of it. Here I'd groomed her and brushed out her mane and she made straight for the run in shed. Where she rolled in the dirt. Twice.

I chased her out in the snow and maybe, of a couple dozen pictures, I might have one or two pretty good ones. The rest look like that one there.

Nice day for hot chocolate!

A wintry ride

I know people that love February. Oh, I know the days are getting longer. Statistically February isn't cold as January. And it's a short month. And every day is another day closer to spring.

I hate February. Everything is hard in the wintertime and I think February is the "dark before the dawn". By the time February gets here I'm really sick and tired of the cold. So I just moped around most of the day Saturday.

Sunday I was desperate for a ride and L was happy to oblige.

The most recent snow was relatively undisturbed and there were tracks everywhere! I enjoy following the tracks. It's fun to see who's been around and where they go.

Saturday 9 February. Deer tracks.
There were some one way bunny tracks. They kind of came out from under some brush and went off into a trail and just....stopped. I was wondering how on earth did he do that?! Blood stained snow under a tree some yards away of course meant poor bunny got snatched up by an owl. Hawks leave wing tip marks in the snow.

It wasn't a particularly pretty day.

Tundra? Windy out here!
But L was very willing to go through this stuff and treated me with a perfectly delightful ride. She knows "careful". I tell her "careful" and she drops her head and she inspects the ground and tests the footing and proceeds very carefully. It's the sweetest thing.

I swear sometimes she almost just puts me to sleep. It was a lot of work getting here and worth every minute of it. Although I wondered about it at the time!

Back to the barn!

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I'll be darned!

I'm rather partial to Bass even though it's not what it used to be. It was an imported Bass pale ale first put me on to ales. The domestic brew isn't anywhere near good as its overseas counterpart but I'm sentimental about it.

I thought this IPA was very good and I enjoyed it. I had no idea Bass had an IPA.

Frozen...

Pizza!

Not a bad looking pizza

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Frozen pizza is one of my guilty pleasures. I like frozen pizza. I eat frozen pizza often. For many years...Tombstone was my favorite pizza (hanging my head in shame). Actually, it still is. But a couple of years ago the Tombstone pizza supply became... unreliable.

I don't know what happened. Tombstone pizzas went from being everywhere to nowhere overnight. So I tried some different pizzas. I found a couple I like and ....reading the ingredients can be oh, shall we say, disconcerting.

The middle of last summer I took on a personal project to master frozen pizza. The trick is to pre bake the dough. So, starting with the dough. I honestly don't remember where I got this recipe but it's my "go to" pizza dough recipe.

100% Whole wheat pizza dough

• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 ½ cups of warm water
• 1 package of yeast (a tablespoon)
• pinch of salt
• 1 (generous) tablespoon olive oil
• 3 ½ cups whole wheat flour

I have a bread machine and I make that on the dough cycle. When the cycle is complete I take out the dough, knead it for just a couple of strokes, form it into a ball and cut it into 8 pieces to make 8 individual 8 inch pizzas.

I make each of those wedges into a ball and let them rise under a towel for 20 or 30 minutes.

Hey! I can make rolls out of these!
I slap those balls of dough down flat, bag them and refrigerate them overnight. Believe it or not they'll rise again in the refrigerator.

Then I'll take those balls of dough, roll them out flat (I use a wine bottle) and then here's the secret. Dot the rolled out dough with a fork and bake it at 350 ° for 3 or 4 minutes. It's ready when you start to smell "bread", and the dough is dry and stiffened.

Let this cool completely.

Pre-baked pizza dough
Put a cookie sheet in the freezer.

Add sauce. To your pizza.

I like Hunt's 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce. I mix 4 anchovies and 2 cloves of chopped garlic with one 8 oz. can. I splash in some olive oil too. I get 4 pizzas from a can of tomato sauce. That's 2 oz. for each pizza.

Scatter some cheese and some toppings over the sauce. I use either a shredded Italian blend or a shredded whole milk mozarrella. On a couple of occasions I've used freshly grated Romano and Parmesan. Delicious but that can get expensive.

I find onions and bell peppers make the best toppings. Then I freeze the pizza on that cookie sheet in the freezer.

One frozen pizza ready for a baggie
Then I bag the pizza and put it away.

Now, when I want a frozen pizza? I put one of those on the rack in a 450 ° oven for about 13 minutes. And I find they're actually pretty good pizzas!

The first couple of times I did this I thought well, this is hardly worth the trouble. But having had some practice now I can practically make these in my sleep. The dough is very forgiving. I've let the whole big ball rise, flatten it out and refrigerated it overnight and divided it up the next day. I've let it rise and rolled it out right away. The only real rule? Standard rule for pizza dough: if it "springs back" when you roll it? Let it rest a couple of minutes and try again.

While in the past I've found handling dough a pain I've found handling the dough is a pleasant and satisfying thing to do. And I'm inspired to make some rolls and maybe I'll even make my own hamburger buns! And my ingredients list is a *lot* shorter than the packaged pizzas!

Crystal Woodlands

We had a surprise snow storm yesterday. A few inches of heavy wet snow that stuck to everything!

It was warm enough today to melt the snow but it was cold...so the melted snow stuck to all the tree branches. When the sunlight hit it just right it was like all the trees were made of crystal. This is really pretty stuff.

L was a rock star. She really loves this stuff.

Edited to add: We saw a fox on the trail today. An unusual sight! He was way too fast for a picture. Barely saw him and he was gone.

Strange email

If you get a strange email from me...

I swear I didn't send it!
What's this thing about cats squatting on your stuff?!