Happy March!

Spring will be here soon! One of my favorite things to look forward to at the beginning of each month is a phenology put out by Jim Gilbert with the Wild Bird Store. March's phenology can be found here.

Erik and I went on a get away further north, to Bayfield, Wisconsin. We had planned to cross country ski and snowshoe, but quickly realized the snow we had left at home was much better than further north and were out of luck for both winter activities. We found other things to do. We went to Little Sand Bay and Meyers Beach, both part of the Apostle Islands National Park. I lived at Little Sand Bay for a summer so it was fun to be back there, although very much different without the carpet of forget-me-nots. We had wanted to hike out to the caves via the ice, but the ice was gone from the last warm spell. We heard that January was a better month to try to get out to them, or the summer when you can kayak to them.

We decided to drive over to Michigan. It was our first time in Michigan for each of us. We hiked around the Black River National Forest and saw some powerful waterfalls. It was pretty cool. I'd definitely like to go back in the summer or fall.

We ate at some good places: breakfast at the Egg Toss in Bayfield, Good Thyme, just outside of Washburn, South Shore Brewery in Ashland, WI, and on our way to Michigan we stopped in Washburn for some wonderful pasteries and coffee at Coco.


We ended our trip with a stop in Duluth for some Fitger's beer and walk amongst the ice on the north shore. It was refreshing to have a little time away.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. - Alan Kay

I loved my sister's post recently and in particular, one sentence... "Maybe I spend my train ride home trying to architect a night that uses every minute perfectly." I think that is a terrific perspective. I don't want to waste any of my time but enjoy every moment even when doing things that are less than enjoyable (cleaning the bathroom). That doesn't mean I need to be super busy, but just make the most of my time.


We had a bit of a snow storm here last Sunday and Monday. Willow loved the snow! We had just lost a bunch of snow to melting and then this storm brought us 18 inches more. The table was completely free of snow. Again I can not see over the snow piles next to the driveway. It is very pretty though.

During the snow, Erik took on most of the shoveling - very much appreciated. I warmed the house by making blood orange marmalade and a lemon vanilla sauce.

I've been making stuff lately from cakes to marmalade. The cakes I make up as I go or find inspiration online and go from there. For the marmalade I've been loving the book Well Preserved. I checked it out from the library, but I'm definitely going to need to get a copy for myself. Last weekend I made orange-lemon marmalade. It is a little tart for my taste, but I got a little advice from a co-worker that it is really nice for marinades. I used Valencia oranges and Meyer lemons. Next I'd like to try Blood oranges. I have them, but I need to find a chunk of time to make it.
Yesterday this was the view of the sunrise from our bedroom window. Today you could hardly see this tree from the fog that hung around most of the day. Thankfully the sun peaked out towards the end of the day. Willow and I got out for a run taking advantage of the last bit of sun and the rising, almost-full moon.
I think someone was playing with my camera... must have been Willow. :)

I made the strawberry lemon marmalade. I like how it turned out, but I don't think it has much of a lemon taste to it. The strawberry definitely overpowers the lemon flavor. Next in the preserving adventure is orange marmalade. I picked up some Valencia oranges and Meyer Lemons for it. I was planning on making it Monday night, yet things come up, as always and my plans were delayed.


This weekend was a busy one, but fun and relaxing at the same time. There was some cleaning, biking (inside of course), movie watching (Dinner for Schmucks), baking (awesome chocolate layer cake with a whip cream/cream cheese/oreo filling and chocolate ganache), tile making (taking a tile, trivet & coaster class with Mom and Kate), hanging out with family and friends (we watched the commercials and chatted during some game between the commercials).

While cleaning out things that I thought once mattered to me at my parents, I found this trivet that I made in high school. I think I will use it... not too shabby.


My amaryllis is blooming! It is beautiful! It is so nice to see something blooming during this white time of year!


P.S. I'm sort of worn out about the cold temperatures and gray days. Come on sun and temps in the reasonable range... 20-30 F, instead of -25 windchill.

So I made the Cara Cara Orange Curd. I'm glad I made it and had the experience, but I don't think I need to make it again. So my next attempt will be at Strawberry Lemon Marmalade from the Blue Ball book of Preserving. I have strawberries in the freezer from this summer that I'll use. We are almost out of the grape jam I made this fall from our own grapes. I will definitely be hoping for a good grape crop this next year. I'm planning gardens right now. Seems like a good time to think about that when we have feet of snow on top of the gardens. I'm looking forward to trying a small pumpkin patch and raised beds this summer.


This weekend I made a four layer chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a rich chocolate ganache made with a nice chocolate bar with espresso bean in it. The hardest part was pressing out the raspberry seeds, but it was well worth it. Erik and I played What's Yours Like? this weekend with the neighbors - great game and great company.

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
- Buddhist Saying

I must have been turned around for blogging the past 8 months, but I think I'm back. I had some activities that I was more attentive to than blogging.

It has been brutally cold the past week in Minnesota. I thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine today. Yesterday I bought some Cara Cara oranges. I'm going to make some Cara Cara orange curd. It seems that eating citrus fruit is like a burst of summer in your mouth. We've been having the clementines that dot every grocery store entrance, but I saw the recipe on the kitchn and found Cara Cara oranges in our co-op and had to give it a try. I'm not sure what I'll have it on and of course I better make it instead of just talk about it - sometimes that happens.

I have a few bird feeders around our house, but I have found out that our neighbors have a bird spa (a heated birdbath) and they have had many birds hanging out at their feeders. I think that might go on a wish list of mine. We've had birds and I'm very happy to see them. Lately they seem to be a little more chirpy which is an early sign of spring. One of our bird feeders is too close to a railing and the snow is too high that the squirrels can hop right in and help themselves to the buffet of black sunflower seeds. I may have to move it away from the railing, but not too much I can do about the amount of snow. I guess I could have shoveled away from it but that would have been a lot of work with how much snow we've had this year already.