Preparing for Winter

Winter is on its way and for the last month or so, I've been feeling this really strange sense of impending gloom and cold. The weather has been gorgeous--warm, dry (but not too dry), pleasant breezes and all the sorts of things that make you want to spend time sitting outside soaking up vitamin D and fresh air. I can't say why, when I go out into that, my urge is to run to the farmers market and snatch up every preservable fresh vegetable I see, but the urge is there nonetheless.

Can you eat these? I don't know but something deep inside of me wants to
pick them all and hide them in a hole in the ground. For later. Source.

And I know I'm not the only one. I've asked other people and, at least here in the midwest, it seems to be a pretty universal feeling among the seasonal eating crowd.

Part of this, I think, is that the more we settle in to a truly seasonal diet, the more aware we become of the lack of certain foods in the winter. Last winter we didn't really prepare much at all and, once the stored winter vegetables ran out at the market, we spent a few months living on pretty much nothing but meat, hydroponic lettuce, and the occasional bag of frozen vegetables from Whole Foods. I am still sick of lettuce.

So this year, we're preparing. We don't have the time, space, or ready cash to really put an entire winter's worth of food away, but we're doing what we can to buy up fresh vegetables now in order to save them for later. I've been doing some canning and we were very excited to find a brand new deep freezer at a yard sale a month ago for less than a hundred dollars which is letting us freeze and store lots more meat and vegetables than before.

What are you doing to get ready for winter?

Our First Fake Tree

I'm so ashamed! I never, ever thought this day would come.

Mr. Scrimp and I have a fake Christmas tree this year.

And I even like it a little bit.

What possessed us to do this? I've never had a fake tree in my life, and I've always been very clear that I didn't ever want to have a fake tree. But we're going out of town for Christmas this year, we didn't want to leave a live tree behind for a week where the cats could get at it and a housesitter would have to water it, and Mother-In-Law Scrimp offered us a very cute, 3-foot-tall artificial tree.

To compound the problem, I went and picked up some absolutely embarrassingly artificial pine garlands at the dollar store. I'm so ashamed.

Ok... let's be real. If you want to have an artificial tree--more power to you. I have heard and understand all the myriad arguments in favor of fakery. But the artificial tree is lacking something crucial. What's that, you ask? The smell! It can't really be Christmas without the scent of pine needles wafting through your home.

Well, that problem has been solved for me this very day. Merely by salvaging some cast-off branches from the closest tree farm, putting them in water with a little cinnamon and clove, and warming the water up, I can make my house smell like the freaking North Pole and not worry about coming home to a living room carpeted in pine needles the week after Christmas.

And so can you! Visit Organic Authority to get their quick and easy recipe for Christmas tree scented potpourri.

(Seriously, though--next year? We're back to a live tree. )

Recipe: Dutch Babies

So, it's Christmas Eve. This will be mine and Mr. Scrimp's first married Christmas, and my first Christmas ever away from my parents and multitude of siblings.

We are trying to start a couple of our own Christmas traditions this year, as well as incorporating individual traditions that we grew up with and aren't ready to let go of. We'll visit Mr. Scrimp's parents tonight (mine live too far away), come back home, exchange gifts in the morning, and then make the 45-minute trek back out to their house again tomorrow to spend Christmas day.

One tradition that I will probably never give up, and that Mr. Scrimp is happy to continue with me, is eating Dutch Babies on Christmas morning.

I have no idea where they got the name. I don't know what about them could possibly be called either Dutch or baby-like. But Dutch Babies they are, and I can't remember a Christmas when I didn't stuff myself full of them.

In my family, we only eat these once a year. This is because it keeps them, and the day we eat them, just a little more special. Also, they are covered in so much butter that if you ate them more than once a year you would die a lot younger.

Still, it's Christmas. I've eaten a grand total of two Christmas cookies this year, had not a single sip of eggnog, and have kept my alcohol intake down to a single bottle of hard cider with my sister in law a few days ago. I won't feel guilty about eating these, although I'll probably use less butter.

Dutch Babies (serves 2)


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour (don't substitute whole wheat--it's gross)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick butter

 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, beat eggs with a whisk or fork. Add flour and milk and beat until combined.

Melt butter in a 9-inch pie tin, cast iron skillet, or similarly sized oven-safe pan or pot. Pour egg mixture into pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve immediately, with apple sauce and powdered sugar.