Surprise Cooking in the Cold

[stevenpiziks]

It's dangerously cold out there, and although the skies are clear, the streets are treacherous with ice and packed snow that won't melt, even with liberal applications of salt. Wherever Schools closed today, and then we got the announcement they're closed tomorrow, too. This was already a three-day weekend because the semester ended, and now it's stretching into a five-day! If I had known this was going to happen, I would have taken a trip somewhere warm.

During a normal week around here, Darwin gets home well after supper time two days in three, so I don't cook nearly as much I'd like. But the Village of Lake Orion has a policy that when the schools close, village hall also closes, and Darwin has been home, too. So I revved up the kitchen.

Yesterday I made chicken pot pie: hearty and hot and wonderful when it's freezing out.

Today I really went for it:

--Banana bread (to use up some overripe bananas)
--Regular bread (in the bread maker)
--Beef roast stuffed with bacon, onions, and carrots and covered in more bacon
--Mashed potatoes
--Butterscotch oatmeal cookies (made extra-crispy, the way Darwin likes them)

With schools closed again tomorrow, who knows what I'll come up with?