Lasagna after shoveling

A quick Google search turned up this lasagna recipe and it sounded good. Of course, I made a few modifications along the way but it did come out delicious.


Slow-Cooker Vegetable Lasagna
Yield: 8 servings

• 4 cups marinara sauce
• 8 to 9 lasagna noodles (preferably whole wheat)
• ¾ cup green peas, thawed if frozen
• 3 cups baby spinach leaves
• 3 cups sliced zucchini (from about 3 to 4 small zucchini)
• 3 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
• ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Fresh parsley, for garnish

Original recipe (and preparation instructions can be found here)
https://www.yahoo.com/food/food-slow-cooker-vegetable-lasagna-134934350.html

just turned on to cook

Steve's modifications

• The noodles were regular lasagna as that was what we had on hand and we need to clear the shelf.
• I used one summer squash (yellow) along with two zucchini to add a little color variety.
• I also used a package of the Al Fresco chicken meatballs (tomato and basil). The meatballs I sliced to make the layering easier (less lumpy).

I like this recipe as it was much easier overall. Slicing the zucchini, thawing the peas and meatballs received some forethought so they were ready when I was. Then it was a matter of building the layers in the crock pot turning it on and waiting for it be to be ready.

delicious, some for freezing and some for leftovers this week

Nothing like a one pot meal that tastes great and is healthy!

quiet Friday

listen to ‘quiet Friday’ on audioBoom

sunrise on a nearby corner in our snow covered wonder

Breaking news: frozen earthworms

Wednesday morning brought the discovery of thousands of frozen earthworms. They had risen from their ground homes during the warm spring rain on Tuesday. As evening fell, the rain turned to sleet and ice before turning to snow.

frosty earthworms

This phenomena appeared in driveways in Franklin and other parts of MA west of the i495 beltway. What the long term effects of this will have on the lawn conditions remains to be seen.

spring blossoms bent in the snow

walking around notes

listen to ‘walking around notes’ on Audioboo

A photo of the dirty ice/snow mentioned

dirty ice and snow

Falling gracefully

listen to ‘Falling gracefully’ on Audioboo

The spot of the fall

I took the picture as I came back reversing my original direction of travel. The squiggle line on the top angling down to the right is the slip. The large spot is my butt then back hitting to slide gracefully (I hope)

The snow line

The snow is gradually disappearing. This view into the backyard shows the progress.

snow line recedes

As the sun moves around the house during the day, the snow line recedes.

Such changes are subtle.

Are you patient enough for these kinds of changes to take place?

signs of spring for St Patrick's Day

Busy day here in Franklin today. Some green is starting to show for St Patrick's Day

sign of spring against the snow

In addition to the family food shopping and dinner duty for this evening, there are some events around Franklin that I want to get to.

1 - The Community Gardens. From 9:00 AM until noon there will be spring garden work and demonstrations
http://www.franklincommunitygardens.org/2013/03/spring-garden-celebration.html

2 - Help celebrate the solar installation at the First Universalist Society at 11:45 AM
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/02/solar-anniversary-celebration.html

3 - Franklin celebrates it 235th birthday at the Historical Museum from 1:00 to 4:00 PM
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/03/three-franklin-events-for-sunday-mar.html

fresh snow shadows

The whiteness and shadows are calling me

I took this photo from the warmth of the house but need to get out into the sunshine for a walk and find more photos

snow and shadows

what are you up to today?

4" ovenight

two days in a row, wow!

shoveled three times yesterday about an inch or so each time. Mostly heavy wet snow although the last shift, last night, the snow had changed to a more powdery version. Much easier to move.

Woke this morning to 4" in the driveway from the overnight activity.

Still powdery but with 4" took more time to move.

I turned around after clearing the driveway only to find it was already white behind me!

More shoveling scheduled for later

Take it easy when you do your shoveling. Be careful if you do venture out to drive!

work @home

There are benefits to working from home, especially in bad weather.

snow covering the deck today

I save an extended commute time and use that time to be more productive

I can keep current with the shoveling and that provides a good physical break between meetings

Marissa Meyer created quite a conversation around remote work with her comments last week. If you missed that, Scott Berkun has a good summary of what he has seen on this topic.

http://scottberkun.com/2013/grand-summary-of-posts-on-remote-work-yahoo/


Where do you stand on remote work?

Wind sculpts the snow

The snow is both beautiful and dangerous.

The wind is continuing to sculpt the snow that it has delivered.

wind carved along the garage and house

wind carved on the open lawn

Snow in Franklin

Two videos from Friday, one earlier in the day, one later.

Snow just starting

I think we are as ready as we can be.

• I replaced the missing shear pin on the snow blower and started it up so I know it works.
• I brought some fire wood into use the fireplace
• I covered the firewood pile with a tarp in case we need more wood.
• I filled the bird feeders to give them some sustenance during the storm
• I ran longer this morning than I normally do during the week as I am working from home to avoid travel in the snow

snow status at 10:30 AM 2/8/13 in Franklin, MA

Stay tuned, stay safe!

Blizzard watch issued for eastern Massachusetts; 12-24 inches possible

Interesting how time and weather work their magic. 45 35 years ago yesterday, the Blizzard of '78 hit New England. In Pawtucket, where I grew up, we got buried with the most snow I had ever seen (and still have). The snow drifts by the side of the house were well over my head. And if you haven't seen me in person, I do stand 6'2" tall.

The fun part about the blizzard was that my father had been fond of teasing us by saying "go play in traffic". We lived on Division St and it was quite busy. We were very careful running across the street to retrieve a baseball that escaped our yard. With the blizzard blanketing the area, the traffic on i95 was buried in snow and we were able to sled down the hill across from APEX and onto i95. I wonder if anyone else will have that opportunity?

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Blizzard watch issued for eastern Massachusetts; 12-24 inches possible

via The Milford Daily News News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc. on 2/6/13

The National Weather Service office in Taunton has issued a blizzard watch for eastern Massachusetts for late Thursday night through Saturday morning.

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to The Milford Daily News News RSS using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

So much can be found within the tracks we leave!

In December, before we got our big snow fall that still leaves the ground covered, we got a dusting. Enough to sprinkle whiteness around. Enough to change the color of the world.




Enough to allow for looking back on where one had been and see what mark had been made.

Only one vehicle had passed on the road thus far.

Only one set of foot prints had left its mark.

Were they human? Did the spacing indicate walking or running? What kind of shoes were they wearing?

So much can be found within the tracks we leave!

Winter view

Winter wonderland

Plowed roads

Rolling hills

photo opportunities

and a good workout!

snow

The nor'easter brought the first snow to us on Wednesday. It doubled my drive time home from work and provided some shoveling exercise.

I gave the driveway two passes, once when I got home and then again before going to bed. It was good that I did the later as this morning, it was so much easier to just take off the dusting that did fall or drift around overnight and then tackle the end of the driveway. The plows had come by sometime after I shoveled last night and left their usual pile at the end of the driveway.

I'd rather have snow than a hurricane!


For the record, we did end up with about 3" or so.

Things go bump

Even when snow falls, whitening all around us, there can be bumps.



How do you deal with bumps in the road?

Do you keep your head?

Today is Dr Seuss's birthday. Celebrate all that goodness in the rhyme!

From the archive, I did a series of posts on the lessons of Dr Seuss for the job searcher. You can find them all here  http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2010/03/job-search-notes-dr-seuss-series.html

Dogwood in Snow

There is snow in New England this winter. After not seeing any significant snowfall since the surprise buried us in October, we have some now. About 3-4 inches here in Franklin thus far with some light precipitation still coming down.




Yes, we did skip the Leap Day. Too much to do and so little time to do it. Hope your Leap Day was a good one!

Change

What was:



Is no longer:



Change can happen rapidly and frequently, are you ready for change?