Saturday, January 4, 2014

Better to Bake than Curse the Cold

It's cold right now. January is supposed to be cold in New York. I think we sometimes forget that. We spend a lot of time wishing it was warm when it's cold and wishing it was cool when it's hot. I include myself. I definitely wish it were warmer right now. Relatively speaking. I wish the temperature was in the thirties instead of the teens. I can tolerate normal cold, it's extreme cold that bothers me.

Preparing chocolate crinkles.
But still,  it is January, and January is a cold month. If you want to survive the winter months, it is best to look at some of the positives, especially if you don't have the money to spend winter in the Caribbean. So here are a few ways to warm my heart in the winter, if not my hands.

~ Hot chocolate and baked goods. There is no better time to heat up the kitchen than in the winter. Our oven usually works overtime in December, cranking out treats to give as gifts. I bake more bread in the winter and nothing tastes as good as a mug of hot chocolate after shoveling snow from the driveway.

~ Bird watching. I was given a cute new feeder for Christmas. I love bird-watching, and nothing brings the birds to the feeders better than a snowstorm. The feeder has been well used. I may need to ask for sunflower seeds next year. Once the squirrels discovered this, I was filling it every other day.
A nuthatch picks out sunflower seeds.
Look! Winter Easter eggs!
~ Experiments and cold weather activities. If you haven't thrown a cup of boiling water into the air when it's -10 with the wind chill, you don't know what you're missing. (Why yes, we are easily amused.) This year, we also found directions for freezing balloons full of colored water. We only had little water balloons, but the results were pretty....cool.*

*Note: Freezing yellow water does not look so pretty when it starts to melt.


What do you do to enjoy the winter season?

6 comments:

Paula Vince said...

Those look like fun ways to enjoy your winter. I love the design of that bird feeder. That experiment with the boiling water is never something we'd get to do here, as it never gets that cold, even in June to August. We'll think of you shoveling your driveway clear of snow and drinking hot chocolate while we go off to the beach and outdoor cinemas :) We've had some hot summer days.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting! Never heard about the colored water. Wish I lived closer so I could try your home-baked bread. Stay well. Love Linda

jugglingpaynes said...

Paula: Please fan some of your warm air our way. :o)
Linda: I'm pretty sure you have had my baked bread. Maybe you thought I bought it?

Keeley said...

-10...BRRRR! So cold!
In the winter season I enjoy staying in the house and avoiding the cold as much as humanly possible. =D I very much prefer 75+f....

Inner Elder said...

Today I even miss the teens! Thank you for the yummy cookies you baked for my club. We loved them! Love, Mom

Harvest Moon by Hand said...

Wonderful ideas for enjoying winter! We do a lot of baking as well - partly because it makes the kitchen so warm. :)

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