Monday, February 20th - Happy Islander Day

It's -9' with a -15' wind chill this morning at 5:47. That should be pretty much where it stay for the rest of the day but no precipitation is expected.

What a great weekend we've had so far (one more day). Friday night was a quiet one. Lloyd made supper and I was greeted to some pretty amazing smells when I got home. We had Spinach Salad, baked stuffed Chicken breasts topped with some left over blue cheese, a type of rice pilaf and ....... It was absolutely delicious. After cleaning up it was just a bit of TV. A nice quiet evening in the snow.

We woke Saturday morning to about a foot of new snow and still more coming down. But it wasn't windy and just below freezing so it really wasn't a bad morning.  We headed into town to pick up some items at the grocery store and then get some breakfast. We went to Phinley's and were just finishing when in walked Bernie and Richard. Turns out they had called our place looking for Lloyd to see if he wanted to join them, but we had already left. So they joined us instead. We had more coffee while they had their breakfast. A nice surprise and impromptu get together.

When we got home, we loaded up some wood and then set about making dinner for that evening. First order of business was to try out the new crepe maker. It was a bit frustrating at first to get the right temperature and spreading the batter at the right speed but finally we figured it out. (The instructions are WAY off) But in the end we had a lovely golden brown batch of crepes for our dessert. We were having ham and scalloped potatoes so I put the ham on to simmer. I've used this recipe for a number of years and it's always good. The ham is cooked in Coca Cola, which apparently is a southern United States way of cooking a ham. I also wanted to try out a new recipe I found for scalloped potatoes. Carrots and peas were the veggies on the side.

Lloyd helped tidy up and before we knew it our first guest, Donna, had arrived. We had a glass of wine and chatted and I noticed the time. I called the Van Gaals and they were just getting ready to come over. Brenda had a really busy day, two snow shoeing trips so she was pretty tired out. But like the trooper that she is, she made it over for supper. We had a lovely evening and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The potatoes were a little dried out from waiting but I'm going to try that recipe again. When they were first out of the oven  they were absolutely perfect. I've never been great at scalloped potatoes but I may have finally gotten it. I'll try them one more time and it they turn out as good the next time, I'll post the recipe for you. Lloyd made Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing and it was a hit.

I was up early Sunday morning and cleaned up from the night before. When Lloyd got up we were sitting in the living room having coffee when the phone rang. It was Bernie inviting Lloyd to join him and Raymond on a drive over to Moncton. That was fine because Brenda and I go skiing on Sunday's anyway. I made him some breakfast before he left then I got myself ready. Brenda called and we were invited to join her cousin Maureen and her husband at their cottage. They wanted to go and check it out and make sure everything was okay. The road in isn't open so we had to ski in. It was a beautiful sunny day with a cold wind but once you were off the road and into the trees it was fine.

Maureen had brought food with them and we had a lovely lunch after going skiing around the area. All too soon, it was time to ski back out to the road where we had parked the cars. We arrived back at Brenda's about 30 seconds before the guys got home. After a cup of tea and a butter tart, we headed home for another quiet evening. It's nice that Lloyd doesn't have a huge to-do list this time around. Although he does have to get my warping board done before he leaves.

Tonight we're having supper at the Van Gaals and Lloyd is going to cook the  moose steaks. Lloyd has a couple of things he wants to get done today that I may be able to help out with or I might just sit inside by the fire and read a book on my new Kobo (only because he now has an I-Pad and doesn't need the Kobo).
I'll try to make the most of the last of my three days off!