Snow day

It is snowing again. I like snow but not driving in it. True, living in the Chicago area my entire life I should be used to it but I am still not a fan of it. The good thing though is since we had Christmas Eve at our house this year, the front walk and sidewalk were shoveled and salted. This will definitely help later with shoveling.

I am not surprised though that it is snowing today is it is one of our friend's birthdays tomorrow. We are all going out to celebrate tonight. Last year it seriously snowed. It probably did the year before. Winter birthday's always equal major carpooling to avoid parking problems and whatnot.

My exciting plan for today pre-party is a mix of laundry, snacking on leftovers from yesterday/Friday including cookies that my mom made - the already mentioned kolackys, pecan snowballs and chcochip cookie bar, misc crackers, veggies, and ham, catching up on some TV watching, and reading one of my new cookbooks.

My family has always believed in hints for gift shopping. It is not necessarily exactly what you want, though it can be at times, but ideas for shopping. My uncle had no ideas for me and so I gave him a few cookbook ideas. He was able to find one on the list - Small Batch Baking - which I have wanted for a long time. Hubs isn't a huge sweets person and while I do have a sweet tooth, I can't eat an entire batch/cake whatnot by myself without getting sick of it. I hate when home baked stuff goes stale too and I too often forget to freeze things. This book will fix all of that and of course, if I need more of something for whatever reason I just make more than one.

The other cookbook is Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook. I have never heard of it nor did my uncle but we both agreed it looked good. It is a mix of recipes and techniques which makes me happy. I'll be parking myself with it on the couch later with a cup of tea next to me and a dog sleeping on my feet. I love reading cookbooks as much as novels. It is easy to imagine making it as I read them.