February

The shortest month of the year seems to take the longest to pass.....we are in the middle of a slightly warmer and less snowy time, which I refuse to get used to. As soon as I fool myself that spring is around the corner we will get eleventy-million inches of snow which will need to be moved and driven around in. Ick.

Since I'm not a fan of the highest of all Hallmark Holy Days, what's February good for? Well, two of my favorite people have birthdays this month. That's exciting. Emma is 7 now, which is amazing and wonderful....and the end of the month brings Pat just that much closer to 30. HA!

What else? Hmm. A gray day every now and then can still have its charm:

Look at that sky....

And sometimes, there's a bit of sun:
See? See it there?

And then, there might be enough sun that the sky might be blue. And some melting might happen:
Of course, there's always this silly girl:

And....cold-weather cooking! Although this week I didn't really plan properly, last week I cooked a lot, and we ate well all week. I made broccoli soba noodles, and we cooked chicken in the cast-iron grill pan. I also made Fusilli alla Crazy Bastard from the January issue of Food and Wine. Beet greens, garlic, oven-roasted tomatoes and goat cheese, topped with toasted walnuts and parmesan....yum yum yum. I heart Mario Batali (although not this newest PBS series he's got going on) and his cronies. And I think I see some oven-fried chicken in our future, maybe with mashed sweet potato/red potato.

The knitting, I am somewhat stalled on. Truthfully, I have been too tired to knit, which is like saying I am too tired to breathe or read. I managed a new hat for Emma on the round-trip to CT this weekend, but I still have not sewed the seam or taken its picture. It looks like the last one, or like a larger version of the hat in this picture:

Maybe I will get motivated tomorrow. It is LOST night....and simple knitting is good for TV watching.