Snow Day!

It SNOWED!!! Ok, so everyone up north who is used to snow, please bear with me. We got about 6" I'd say, in my back yard. The dogs are having a ball. Linc has been doing puppy zoomies and shoving his head in the snow, Nick has been seen to do a zoomie or two, and June is ambushing them both. Ginger is put out, though, and Zippy is highly distressed because the snow comes up almost to his shoulders. I suppose it's hard for a small dog to poop when the snow is almost as tall as he is!

I took a few pictures, but they're pretty awful. I'm posting them anyway, just because it's so seldom that we get more than a dusting here in central NC.

This is awful, but you get the idea... puppy snowplow:

June is waiting

Always waiting...

Nick says, does this snow make my legs look short? I didn't think so.

I've been sick since last week, and thankfully the boss decided to grace me with another day to rest (he said don't come out in this), so I'm at home again. I'm starting to get itchy to be out and about, but I'm still tired enough to appreciate the time to rest. Since I've now exhausted the full Lord of the Rings trilogy (all nine hours... well actually ten hours, since the ROTK is a four hour extended version) twice, I think I'll move on to training videos this afternoon. Nick is now released to full activity, and we're ready to rock and roll! He'll be running Nursery at a trial in Climax, NC, end of March, and I think we'll be ready.

Last night I raided my pantry to make a stew, and this is what I came up with:

Improvised Taco-Mac Stew

1 medium onion
1 stalk celery
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic s
3 cups beef broth
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp Ground cumin
1 to 2 chopped canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 15 oz can corn, drained
1 15 oz can of Dark Red Kidney Beans (or any beans will do) drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
20-24 oz raw venison stew meat (beef or lamb would be great, too)
small can tomato paste
1 cup(s) salsa
1 cup(s) uncooked macaroni

salt and pepper to taste, plus water as needed

Instructions:

Spray a stock pot with cooking spray. Brown venison in olive oil. Add onions and celery, cook another two to three minutes more. Drain if needed. Put in spices, garlic, and chipotle, stir to toast. Add some beef stock to deglaze. Cook, stirring for about a minute. Add the rest of the beef stock, and the tomato paste. I added about 4-5 cups of water. Simmer for about four hours -add water as needed. I put enough water in to fill an 8 qt stock pot halfway.

Then add the beans, corn, and salsa (I would have used canned diced tomatoes, but I didn't have any). To kick it up a notch you could add a can of diced green chilis. Cook for another two hours or so.

Right before serving cook the pasta, drain, and then add to the soup. Allow to warm up before serving. Add more water as needed to thin the soup, if you like. I left it pretty thick. Adjust spices to taste.

Serving size = 1-1/2 cups, makes about 8 servings at 5 pts/serving.

Serving size may vary, depending on how you like your soup/stew. Barley would have been yummy in it too. Normally I don't like pasta in a dish like this, but for whatever reason it was just perfect.

If you don't like it spicy, leave out the chipotles. Trust me. Otherwise they add a kick, and a smokiness.