the best $20 I ever spent

 

I bought a spray mop.

Evyn has been asking to use it a couple times a day.  Yay!

I know some people have children who are similarly smitten with Swiffer mops.  Not being a fan of Swiffer myself, but enticed by a $5 rebate on Libman's website, I decided to give it a try.  Good thing, because I don't think our dining room floor had been mopped since well before Christmas.  Now it sparkles - and I didn't have to lift a finger!

a taste of spring

After weeks of below-freezing temperatures, which kept January's snow in a thick, solid layer, we had a burst of spring-like weather, reaching well into the 70's.  As the snow quickly melted, we took one last opportunity to slide down the sled "ramp" we'd built in the back yard.

 

 

 

The cold weather has since returned (along with another 5 inches of snow), but it won't be long before we're running around the yard without jackets again!

popcorn and a movie

the kids watching a Toy Story movie marathon:

test kitchen

We've been busy in the kitchen, testing new recipes. First, we tried our hands at making homemade mozzarella. The cheese was coming along nicely, until the final stage where we had to re-heat the curds to stretch shape them. A little too much heat and... well, let's just say we have about two pounds of "ricotta" in the refrigerator. It was a lot of fun, though, and something we'll definitely be trying again!

The cheese experiment yesterday yielded over a gallon of whey, so this morning we used a bit of it to make a couple loaves of crusty Italian bread.









The bread was a moderate success- definitely edible! (Andrew ate quite a bit of the raw dough... why, I'm not sure, because it didn't taste very good un-baked!) Another recipe we're looking forward to trying again and improving on.







Tonight we're peeling and cutting a whole (7#) beef tenderloin into steaks, tips and stew cubes (most of which we'll freeze and enjoy over the next month or two), starting a gallon of kefir, and making a batch of chicken wings to enjoy while we watch the Superbowl. A near-perfect winter weekend (if only our kitchen was self-cleaning)!