What To Do When The Weather Shuts One In

We now have ice and snow in Oklahoma land.  The day started off this morning with the Papa taking Babe, his spoiled yorkie out for her early morning potty break.  She was not a happy potty goer with solid ice on the ground.  It took time during Christmas to adjust to potty time on snow -- but ice is something else new and different.

Nevertheless, being an inside day.   I decided to do something in the kitchen.  It had to be a project done before leaving for my work at the Call Center.

Don't misunderstand the intent of this blog.  It is not a food blog, it is a therapy activity for this grandma.  But I have been following a couple of brand new food blogs from the younger generation.  This first one is from my younger daughter, Sommer.  http://aspicyperspective.blogspot.com/

And the second blog is also new and being developed by Laura, one of Sommer's friends from mission days and college at ORU.  Laura's blog has drop dead beautiful photos. (It's that special lens that does it every time.)  Laura is serious about developing an at home business promoting organic foods.  http://darkredcrema.com/

Let me back track a moment:  One of the amazing things is my 'throw away everything not nailed down' daughter wrote on recycling, reducing and reusing.   So yesterday, I put a pot roast and veggies in the slow cooker.  The roast was the norm, the new is the reuse, so the photo is only of the pot of simmering 'trash' promoted by Sommer.   Proof I'm  learning from blogers, I made veggie stock for the freezer with all the "throw aways" from the pot roast.  Can you see the celery, potato peels and carrot stubs?
Now back to today:  Remember today is icy and starting to snow:

With ice surrounding our windows and doors,  I began working on the Tomatoes from Laura's darkredcrema blog. Here are my therapy photos revealing the results of an ole' grandma learning what the younger generation is teaching.

While removing seeds from the romas (something I have never done in my whole life .... I grew up believing seeds must be eaten.)  Then I remembered what I learned from Sommer ... make veggie stock with the throw away tomato seeds.   In a pot went the tomato ends and seeds.  Can you find that photo under the ice photo?
In the meantime, the smell of balsamic and olive oil was great.

Around 11:30 AM, I left for work with the tomatoes in a 200 degree oven.
Arriving home from work, I did a  photo of my product on a plate.  However, in no way am I competing with those beautiful food blogs...I'm just having fun.  We ate tomatoes for dinner tonight.
This ole' grannie is learning to cook again.

I'll close by saying the drive home from work was not fun.  It had been snowing for 6 or 8 hours and the ramp onto the turnpike was closed. Our little blue bug could handle the sanded roads but not the untreated hills.   After being unable to make it up the local city hills,  we backtracked and drove around until we found a not-hill-route.  The 20 to 25 minute trip took two hours.     Happy evening to me.  I am now full, warm and happy.