Ice storms & drama

Gosh I hate the driving drama of ice storms. Today I was making my relatively short commute, taking it slow, pondering the 20-40 foot dropoff into the ditch (winter is the ONLY time I dislike Dubuque's dramatic natural scenery) while zoom, zoom, zoom everybody else seemed to pass me obliviously.

I couldn't figure it out, considering that the opposing highway traffic seemed to be creeping toward us at a rate of about 30 miles an hour. Was I driving like a granny, fearfully clenching the steering wheel, too cautious for conditions?

Suddenly, I hit a slick patch of roadway, the car did a little sideways skitter, and then I knew -- everybody had been driving appropriately for conditions, but the slowboats had been scared when they crossed a span of ice that was ahead of the vehicles travelling in my direction. After that, it took them awhile to regain the nerve to get back up to speed, which is why oncoming traffic seemed to crawl.

What a relief to finally hit the nice, safe city limits, with its low shoulders and salted intersections. I think I'm growing into less of a risk taker as I age. It seemed a little post-dramatic to swing into Hy-Vee and stock up on food for 2-3 days. You know, just in case we're stranded at home due to ice. It might happen. We wish.

Truly, the winter trees have been beautiful. Mild temperatures in the daytime recently led to three straight nights of damp, dense fog. When the sun rose, trees and bushes and branches and grasses were coated with frost. The first morning, the frost poked out in dramatic elongated triangles, like offshoots from pointy snowflakes. I took a few pictures and wish I'd taken more.

Two days later, the frost was more compacted, like the "flocking" that it used to be popular for crafters to spray on twigs and pinecones, to make their houses look like artificial winter wonderlands. And today, after a couple about hours of worrying about red looming blotches on weather radar, and pepperstorms of ice pellets, I think the beautiful frost is no more. Now, we're into ICE.

Winter photos; Dubuque Twitterers

First thing I did when I popped out of bed this morning was to check northeast Iowa road conditions. Area highways were in the pink, which is one notch better than "Travel not advised." Then my optimist self braved the outdoors wearing long johns, 2 pairs of socks, boots, scarf, gloves, and winter coat, and carrying broom and snowshovel.

I swept off 6+ inches of fluffy powder from the car while a nice neighbor blew out the end of my driveway (always the heaviest to shovel). Slowly, I got the inkling that I'd enjoy the lovely winter day a lot better if I were to I wimp out and decide to stay at home.

My neighbor also took the time to clear out the heavy snow around the nearby fire hydrant so it is now clearly visible in case anybody on the street has a fire this winter (heaven forbid). Here's what a fire hydrant in the winter should look like:

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Bird Suet; writing for eHow

I've been putting a lot of energy into writing my first How-to articles at eHow.com. The hardest part for me is coming up with unique ideas. Yesterday I wrote about How to Attract Backyard Winter Birds by Offering Them Food and Shelter, which led to my first attempt at making homemade bird suet. It's hardening in the freezer now. We'll see how the birds react.


I made the suet in a big pan on the stovetop, and it smelled deliciously fit for human consumption -- at least until I added the birdseed. I used up a year-old can of cranberry sauce, just because I dislike that stuff. Ten-grain cereal, because I had it on hand and was pondering bird nutrition.

After reading a long discussion of the pros and cons of using lard vs. Crisco-type vegetable shortening as a binder, I ended up going with store-brand Crisco. I shaped it with sandwich containers because I have a square cage-style suet feeder about that size.

Here's my approximate recipe (the procedure was inexact -- dump and stir):

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Ice storm monster cookies

I recently published my third article at eHow: How to Recognize and Fix Sentence Fragments. Do take a look!

Stuck my head out the window a few minutes ago and got hit by freezing ice pellets. The news says the roads are treacherous. Time to stay home and do holiday baking. I looked everywhere unsuccessfully for my Mom's Monster cookie recipe, a peanut butter cookie with lots of oatmeal, M&Ms, and no flour. I decided to use this one from Allrecipes.com but reduced the ingredients to make a smaller batch. Yum!

Monster Cookies
• 2/3 c. butter, softened
• 1 c. creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 1/3 c. white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 T. baking powder
• 6 c. old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1 c. chocolate chips
• 1 c. M&Ms



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[There is no flour in this recipe]. Cream butter with sugars and peanut butter. Add vanilla and eggs. Stir in baking powder and oatmeal. Add chocolate chips and M&Ms last. Drop by tablespoonful on greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown. Allow to cool 1-2 minutes before removing from pan. Store in a covered container. Makes 4-5 dozen.

Chai Tea Mix in a Jar

UPDATE:
A revision of the blog post below appears as an article on eHow.com as

• How to make Chai Tea Mix for an easy and frugal gift in a jar.

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Thanks to Frugal Girl's enticing photos of the process, I decided to make Chai Tea Mix as a homemade Christmas gift in a jar. She borrowed from this Chai Tea Mix recipe at AllRecipes.com. Here's a slightly  different version. While it ended up being less frugal than I'd hoped, I'm pleased with the tasty results  so I decided to share the idea here:

First, I needed to find some jars that were nice enough to give away. I wasn't sure how many I needed, but I decided to buy 4 jars with lids that fit tightly with a silicon seal. These were $2 each at Wal-mart.  When I got them home, I washed them out and let them air dry.

Next, I found some holiday rub-on transfers at Michael's crafts. These were about $1.30 a package. I guessed I'd needed two packages, so I could decorate at least two sides of each jar. I'm not sure if they'll last past a dishwashing, but they're pretty for now.

The idea is to cut out what you need of the sticker, peel off one backing, and rub with a wooden popsicle stick until it adheres, then peel off the second backing. My first attempt at applying these rub ons to the glass was frustratingly  imperfect.  They seemed to stick a lot better to wood or paper. With the help of my teenage son, I persisted, discovering that it worked best to rub and peel as you go.

After the jars were decorated, I was ready to make the tea. Before this point, I had bought the ingredients I didn't already have on hand: powdered milk, coffee creamer,  and cardamom. I was shocked that the smallest box of powdered milk at Walmart was over $7. And the price of cardamom at Walmart was over $10 a jar. Luckily, Hy-Vee carried a powdered version for 89 cents, and I found 16 oz. Hy-Vee store-brand fat-free original (with sugar) coffee creamer on sale for $3.

Because one of the original recipes recommended a food processor, I decided to mix all the ingredients in the blender. My son helped by pushing buttons and holding down the lid of the blender, since I was petrified of  creating a dust storm in the kitchen. It wouldn't all fit in my six-cup blender, so we added ingredients a little at a time.

Here's my version of the chai tea mix recipe:

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