nopin

Monday, November 2, 2009

Just a few items to report

1. Temperatures have dropped below 0F/-18C. My plan of leaving the thermostat of the oil stove to 50F/10C is clearly not going to work as temperatures get colder and colder. Over the weekend, I noticed in the morning that my cooking oils were thick, cloudy, and viscous. The peanut oil was almost solid. Hahahaha. So I've been turning up the thermostat. It's now at 56F. I hope this works to keep the house tolerable between wood fires.

2. Making quesadillas on the wood stove. Hell yeah. Where have you been all my life, quesadillas-made-on-the-wood-stove? The tortillas get crisp, the little bubbles on the tortillas char, the cheese gets sooooo gooey and stretchy, oohhh, woodstove-made-quesadillas, I bow to you.

3. There still isn't enough snow for skiing, but the ski trails are frozen pretty solid, so the girls and I can walk for miles and miles, and take loops instead of turning around. Yeah!

4. I got my first trick-or-treaters in several years on Halloween! So cool and so cute!

5. After putting on hand lotion the other day, I then without thinking put a dab on each cheekbone and rubbed it in. Then I stopped and thought, Whoa... what prompted me to do that? Oh yeah... it's Winter! It's funny how I remember to do things, without consciously telling myself to do them. I guess our brains just follow their neural pathways, once they've been carved in a good direction to take care of ourselves.

4 comments:

mdr said...

Canola oil is better than peanut oil. Your ancestors have cholestrol problem.

mdr said...

Humidifier please

Rena said...

hmmm, if you just left a wide-mouth pan of water on your stove would it steam off enough vapor to act as a humidifier?

Also, how hot does that wood stove get and how much room is inside? Like, could you erect some kind of little baking stone inside and make little wood-fired pizzas?

I would imagine your olive oil would get thick and cloudy long before any of the other oils.

And what do Alaskan kids do for Halloween costumes to stay warm? Do they dress up as the Michelin Man? Staypuff Marshmellow? I'm guessing there aren't too many fairy princesses...?

Arvay said...

They get thick in this order:

1) Peanut oil

2) Cheap olive oil

3) Good olive oil

It makes sense that peanut oil is the first, since it has the highest smoke point, so it must be comfortable with higher temperatures.

As for the wood stove, I'm sure I could cook inside once the fire has burned down to coals, but that is incompatible with its use for heat! I don't let the fire burn down until I go to bed. It's awesome as a grill though... toasted tortillas... mmmmmm...

My trick-or-treaters will still so wee that they were in the costumes that looks like pajamas, so I have no idea what older kids would be! I'm guessing most of them are trick-or-treating at the mall or someplace indoors!