Friday, January 25, 2008

Friday Five--Winter

This week's Friday Five, from the RevGals:

1. What is the thermometer reading at your house this morning?
This morning, it was -7 F, though I see now it's gotten up to the lower 20's. But with a 30 MPH north wind, that wind chill goes down in a hurry!

2. Snow—love it or hate it?
Love watching it fall. Love looking at it on the ground, while I'm inside with a nice hot cup of coffee.

Hate absolutely everything else about it. Snow means shoveling. And cold, wet feet.

3. What is winter like where you are?
Being right smack-dab in the middle of the US, we pretty much get all the extremes. Summers get freakin' hot...winters get freakin' cold. There are places that are colder and get more snow, but when one considers the absolute variance between August and January, it's pretty amazing.

4. Do you like winter sports? Any good stories?
I don't do winter sports. I don't like being wet OR cold, and that pretty much rules out everything. Yeah yeah, go ahead, call me Mr. Winter Grinch. =) As far as stories, my first year as a youth director, I took my high school kids on a ski trip. The first day, I went out on the slopes, but quickly discovered that I hated skiing. I'd get up a little speed, get nervous, and fall down intentionally (the way they teach you in class, on your side almost like you're sliding into second base) after going about 50 feet. I did that the whole way down the mountain...50 feet, slide. 50 feet, slide. After a couple of runs down, I had pretty much worn off all the skin on that side of my body from falling "correctly" so often.

I spent the next day in the chalet, watching my kids through the window and drinking coffee. Now that's my kind of skiing!

5. What is your favorite season, and why?
I absolutely love love love love autumn. I love the changing of the leaves, I love the cool (NOT cold) weather, I love wearing sweaters and sweatshirts and walking through the trees and being absolutely comfortable, I love the feel and sights and smells and sounds of college football Saturdays, I love the relative warmth of the afternoon dropping to a slight chill in the evening. I love hayrack rides and roasting marshmallows and harvested fields and hot apple cider.

The only downside to autumn is that I know winter will soon follow.

Bonus: Share a favorite winter pick-me-up. A recipe, an activity, or whatever.
My favorite crock pot recipe ever (and it's super-easy!). WONDERFUL winter comfort food!

Put the following ingredients into the crock pot:
A beef chuck roast
An envelope of dry onion soup mix
A can of cream of mushroom soup
About half of a smll bottle of A-1 steak sauce
5 or 6 chopped up red potatoes (leave the skins on!)
Most of a bag of baby carrots

Turn the crock pot on low...cook for about 8 hours...then eat. You won't need a knife...the roast will just fall apart with a fork...

...okay, I'm hungry now.

LH

8 comments:

Sally said...

That crock pot recipe sounds so good my mouth is watering!!! I don't like cold wet feet either!

Diane M. Roth said...

boy does that sound good! let's see, where is the crock pot...?

Rev Kim said...

Great play! And thanks for the recipe - it sounds delicious and I'm definitely going to try it!

Teri said...

yay autumn lovers!!!

Hot Cup Lutheran said...

so we obviously have sponsored the same skiing trips! are you that guy i ran into while skiing when i was barrelling down Copper Mt. and screamed "out of my way. no really OUT of my way... i can't turn!"

oops sorry if that was you!

the roast sounds delish.

RevAnne said...

Mmmm...thanks for the recipe!

Unknown said...

We haven't dropped below 0 this year. Yet.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I hate it when I get snow in my boots. :)
and substitute a bottle of dark beer for the A1 in that recipe, and that's what I do. Yummy.
-Lil Sis