Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts

Friday, December 26, 2008

Dreaming

So we took the kids across the border to my parents' house for Christmas, and we got to be part of the Canadian coast-to-coast white Christmas of 2008.

We drove up I-5 through Washington, and enjoyed the long snowy drive:
From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


The weather when we arrived didn't disappoint: there was a good deal more snow at home than at home, so to speak.
From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


The kids got some sledding in, which was a nice bonus
From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


And of course there was feasting and fun.
From Public Christmas 2008 Pics


All in all, a good use of time and money to drive up here.

Hope everyone else had as good a time as we.

Happy Christmas!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Smoky Snowy

So it's been snowy here for a little over a week: there have been threats of melting, and in Tacoma it has already completely melted once, but here in Puyallup it's not really gone away. We've had several days of fresh powder, lots of accumulation.

The first snow was unexpected, so my grill was left uncovered in the snow. It's been snowing so much since, my grill's just been getting hammered.

I decided to light a fire in it to dry it out, and it started snowing no more than 5 minutes after I started...

From Grilling in the snow


From Grilling in the snow


In my zeal to dry out the grill, I put upwards of ten pounds of charcoal in there: probably closer to 15 (3/4 of a 20 lb. bag). It got hot. My eldest got some pictures of the grill when I opened it and combustion started for real:
From Grilling in the snow

From Grilling in the snow


The grill-mounted thermometer maxes out just around 500F (around 5 o'clock). It reads about 70F cooler than it is. I went a good sixth of a turn past that (about 7 o'clock), so it must have been in the 700F--800F range.

Ribeyes were on sale, so I cooked some steaks. They were seared on both sides in well under 5 minutes, and the bones were protruding an inch. I took them off, let them cool, and then put them back on uncovered out in the falling snow to finish them off.

They were really good, but a little overdone.

Of course I burned the seasoning off my cast-iron grates, and need to reseason them: I put some grease on there once the grill cooled a bit last night. That won't be enough, but it should stave off some rust for at least a couple weeks and get me through the holidays.

That was fun.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Snow

Well, it's been snowing in Puyallup. Not snow like Gwennie or Trev gets, it's true. But snow, which makes the short days and dark afternoons so worth it.

From First Snow


It's still snowing.

My kids rang the doorbell with "a package for Ox." It was an ambush.
From First Snow


From First Snow


My grill's not used to having to deal with this brand of adverse weather:
From First Snow


It's nice to have some white stuff, even if it's of the particularly wet variety.

From First Snow