Kvetching – Again

Since I'm using the word "kvetch" for my continuing bellyaching about the wind, I decided I should have more information about it. Kvetch in Yiddish means "to press" or "to squeeze" (which is what I do with a slice of lemon into my morning tea) but has come to mean "to complain" to us non-Yiddish speakers. You can be a kvetch or you can do it. Occasionally I'm guilty of both. At least, I hope it's only occasionally and not often! If it's too often, feel free to kvetch at me.

We've had another entire week of strong winds. There was a very brief respite early on Sunday morning. The silence woke me up! There was also a goodly amount of heavy, wet snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, right after I'd commented "it certainly isn't too muddy" to till my garden space. Dennis did get the garden tractor delivered to our yard a week ago Monday, just in time for the snow to commence. And there's more snow in the forecast. We all hope it's full of moisture if we have to be white again.

The winds have knocked down more tree limbs, of course. That heavy, wet snow probably contributed. I've picked them up. Most of them were small, so they weren't added to my "to be chipped" pile. Instead, I snapped them into smaller sections and scattered them on the dirt driveway. Of course, there are more down on the lawn by now. That lawn is greening up nicely since the recent snow melted. I'm so happy to see green outside again.

During the one warm day (it hit 61 degrees) we had last week, I managed to get two more flowerbeds cleared off. It didn't feel that warm, so I was double-sweatshirtted. The daylillies on the south side are showing lots more growth, as are my chives. There aren't any flower buds on the daffodils yet. Of course the weeds are also growing.

On Saturday, we finally saw our deer in the yard again. We hadn't seen them for months. I'm glad they survived. Of course the antelope Dennis is so fond of (NOT!) are still in the area, although not in our yard. I've been seeing robins for a couple of weeks, so I know there are food sources (bugs and moths) for them. They don't frequent the feeders I have hanging about the place. I have seen a few tree swallows, as well as sparrows, visiting the seed stations. It will be a few weeks before I see any goldfinches. They seem to arrive in early May each year. I'm not sure how early to set out the oriole feeders with cut oranges and grape jelly. We have had magpies off and on all winter. Their bright white and black plumage gets our attention when they flit through.

I'm trying my hand at pickled eggs. I'm using an older jar of my canned beets in this effort. I put it all together in the fridge on Sunday. They take a few days to a week to fully develop/absorb the flavor, so I might have a recipe to share next week. The spring session of my Whole Life Challenge (WLC) started this weekend, and eggs are a good, compliant source of protein for me. I knew this was coming, so when I baked chocolate chip cookies for Dennis, to get him through seeding, I made a batch of fake, sugar-free Crumbl cookies for myself. I didn't make them huge, though, so I can have two at once. They're pretty good.

Copy-cat Crumbl

Churro Cookies

1/3 C liquid coconut oil

1/3 C almond milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 C coconut sugar

1 3/4 C packed almond flour

1/4 C coconut flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

Oven at 350°. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix the first four together until smooth. Add the last four, beating until smooth. Scoop into balls, roll in a mix of 1 Tbl cinnamon and 1/4 C coconut sugar, until coated. Put on baking sheet, flattening slightly. Bake 12 minutes. Cool completely on rack. While cookies cool, make frosting: beat together 4 oz cream cheese, 1/3 C powdered sugar substitute, and 2 tsp cinnamon. Frost cooled cookies. Store in fridge.