Largely useless modes of transportation.
Oy. Vey. We THOUGHT that the Met Office was wrong about the two weeks of snow – they’re so rarely right about anything at all that we were prepared to blithely ignore them as usual. We had two days of brilliant sun over the weekend in which the temps soared — soared, we say — to the low thirties/-3°C, and we thought surely that the snow would begin to melt. And it didn’t. It sat there. And looked smug.
Slowly, people begin to venture from their homes, armed with metal dust pans, and began scraping the snow from steps and walks… and last night, when we went to bed, the sky was clear. We expected more of the same this morning. Or, you know, rain. This IS Glasgow, after all.
Surprise. It’s snowing so hard everyone got sent home from D’s office today at ten to noon, the buses are not really running (we saw one towed downtown, and another slid into the curb right in front of the chiropractic office), and rather than waiting for elusive buses or cabs we walked home from downtown (T. slipped twice, but fortunately, just post-chiropractic appointment, managed to simply do the splits twice and keep walking. This freaks D. out to watch, for some odd reason, and there is much muttering about stubborn people who walk too fast.) with our umbrellas up, and still arrived home soaked to skin. It was a SLOG. Our appointment was at 10:30, and both of us get a fifteen minute adjustement. We left at ten ’til eleven, and though it was only two miles home or so, we got there after noon.
The most common sound in the otherwise silent city are car alarms, as the heavy snow shifts and slides, and the vROOOOOOOOOm, vROOOOOOOOOOOM! as vehicles spin their wheels, trying to back out of parking places and get up hills. It’s not happening. We saw a poor bride dressed in full champagne-colored finery WALKING UP THE HILL IN HEELS, together with her bridal party, all in scarlet sheath dresses, the four of them protected only by the flimsiest of umbrellas. We cannot frankly believe that they didn’t at least have boots in the car. (Or a coat, hello!? The gowns were sleeveless.) Their little satin shoes were utterly ruined within two steps from the car, and we’re pretty sure the bride was leaking sequins.
What a day to get married.
What a day, period. New snow factoid no one ever tells you: after a point, the stuff gets heavy. Also, it is possible to sweat and freeze at the same time without having the ‘flu.
Speaking of the ‘flu and all other creeping cruds, we’ve remained remarkably well so far, still making it to the pool most days. Aside from D’s bum-bruising fall last week, nothing much too bad has happened to us, so we made applesauce cake to celebrate that. As far as T. remembers, the cake contained: 3 c. AP flour, 1 c. brown sugar, packed, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. each freshly ground cinnamon, cloves, ginger; 1/4 c. plain yogurt, 3 Tbsp. oil, 2 c. chunky homemade applesauce (Ours is made with one Granny Smith and a bunch of Braeburns, so it tends toward tart).
She combined the dry ingredients, whipped together the yogurt and oil and added them to the flour mix, then turned in the chunky applesauce. We baked ours in a springform pan, but any 9″ round baking pan will do, or even a loaf pan.
Bake at 350°F/175ºC for forty-five minutes, and you’ll have a moist, dense spice cake that has all the best flavors of autumn. It is REALLY tasty. If you’re taking it somewhere and not simply devouring it at home, cut out an intricate paper snowflake, set it on the cake and sift powdered sugar on top. Instant company food.
Today’s soup is butternut coconut curry, or it will be, as soon as the squash is slaughtered. What are you making?
I was quite enjoying the snow, but I must say I am sick of it now. Dug the car out on Friday, so I got a lift into work today. Was most surprised to see more snow this morning. Cooper is very excited by it all and especially by the magical appearance of a Christmas tree in our livingroom this morning, covered in twinkly lights.
love the sound of your cakes. Sounds really delicious. How many apples did you use to make your applesauce? Did you add any sugar and did you use it all?
I have been making a lot of lentil soup. Nice and quick to amke and ever so tasty.
Oh and if you are in a newsagents at any point soon, I am on p79 of January’s edition of Cook Vegetarian 🙂
OOH! Congrats! I will make a visit to the newsagent SPECIFICALLY for that. Go, you.
The applesauce — gee, I make it about every other week, so the number of apples varies, but this week it was a big load – I had six good sized Braeburns and one Granny Smith. I try not to make too much at a time, because while I love to eat it hot, SOME OTHER PEOPLE AROUND HERE are slow to join in. I am alone in my apple obsession. (That Other Person also says I like apples and oats enough to NEIGH, but we are Ignoring That Other Person.) At max I use two tablespoons of sugar, but I do season the sauce – usually with about a teaspoon of ginger for that amount. (No cinnamon in the sauce – after a time it just seems to overpower it.)
I have a snuggly toy for Cooper — but honey, if this snow keeps up, he’s getting it for Valentine’s Day.
The snow is gorgeous; but it does shut a city down.
Today’s cooking includes a huge pot o’ pinto beans with frozen peppers from my dad’s garden and roasting some beets. Yesterday was a large kettle of leek and potato soup. I love cooking in cold weather!
I’m catching up on posts here. I can’t believe all this snow. Ugh! No snow in NY. I hope it stays away till July. Did you take a photo of the bridal party walking up the hill? I’d love to see that. Keep safe and warm. T, I’m glad you didn’t fall. Slipping is bad enough….
Paz
Sadly, we were so gobsmacked at seeing the bride we just stared at her, instead of racing away to get the camera. That was one of those moments when life just stopped us cold!
P.S. D, no more falling for you. Glad you were able to make that delicious-looking cake. That would make me feel better, if I fell. 😉 Careful, now.
Paz
I’m waaay behind on posts–bum bruising?! No good! I bruised my tailbone on Oct. 30th, still some pains, though it went away quickly enough. Feel not-bruised soon!
As for the snow slog, ugh. ugh, ugh ugh. It’s -8 C here right now and I just want to hurt someone. I’m not made for this! (Esp. since it’s currently 47 degrees **inside** my cabin, even with a full fire in the wood stove and 2 space heaters). Let’s pray for some outrageous act of god to give us warm weather without the global climate change consequences. Or let’s just move to the tropics…we could start a post-graduate retreat center, or one for PhDs working on their dissertations…hmm… 🙂
Jess, are you going to be okay? Your cabin sounds like it has really poor insulation. We’ve found that keeping a big pot of water on the stove really helps with the illusion of warmth – thank goodness for canning pots. And please tell me you have some kind of mattress warmer/electric blanket thing going on; there’s nothing worse than losing sleep and/or having to sleep in half of your wardrobe to make a miserable thing ridiculously worse.
Hahaha! The PostGrad Retreat Center sounds lovely. I think we should bug Cynthia and set it up in her backyard in Barbados…