January 28, 2023

WEEKLY MENU 01.29.23

It’s that time of the year, and we’re lighting the gray with comfort food for the Weekly Menu 01.29.23~

What “time” of year is hitting during the Weekly Menu 01.29.23? We’re in the gray area of the season – we’re past the initial thrill of the first snow and we’re hunkering down to slog through the winter. There is no better way to do it than comfort food, which is plentiful on the Weekly Menu 01.29.23.There are other ways to deal with this time of the year though.

Erieland is plenty… gray during the winter months. Often times the sky over the lake remains ominous all day. And the length of daylight each day might be getting longer, but the gloaming comes early. So we can either lean in, which I prefer, or worry it to death, which, as you might imagine, has no affect beyond making us all miserable.

I love gray. I’m sure you know there are multiple spellings. Did you know the difference?

The color known to fall in the range between black and white can be spelled gray or grey. This is one of the most frequently queried words in English when it comes to spelling, because both spellings are common enough to seem familiar. Of the two, gray occurs more frequently in American English, while grey has historically been the spelling preferred by British English publications. It derives from the Old English grǣg.
Merriam Webster Dictionary

And it’s not actually a “color”, at least literally ~

Gray is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is “without color”, because it can be composed of black and white.^[2] It is the color of a cloud-covered sky, of ash and of lead.^[3]
Wikipedia

We had white cupboards for years (and through a couple houses), and I finally got sick of it. The cupboards were in fine shape, and there are so many doors and windows in the kitchen that a different layout was not feasible, so we painted instead of replaced. Any suspicion on the color we went with? Yep. It’s gray. Goes with everything, accent color-wise, which is fun to play with. And DIY decorating is, not coincidentally, is one of my favorite things to do during the gray days of winter. (Affiliate links follow – see Disclaimer Page for details.)

How about changing out your lights? That’ll banish some gray.

It’s easier to do than you think, and YouTube is littered with how-to’s. Kitchen brighten with one of these:

I bet the dining room could use a refresh too. (Unless you did it during Covid like we did.)

You know what else sets this time of the year apart?

No guilt for settling down with a good book and a glass of wine in front of the fire. (It is, however, frowned upon doing that early in the day. FYI.)

I guess a perfect cup of tea could sub in for the wine. I’m a Lipton Tea girl first thing in the morning, but I love some variety in the afternoons. Have you seen Tea Forte gourmet-ish, loose leaf tea? I’m very fond of the White Ginger Pear, and adore the Blueberry Merlot. It doesn’t actually taste like merlot, but it is like a hug in a mug.

How about a sampler?

I gave the mug and samplers for a gift last Christmas – I love it so. Ireland was a big influence on my purchase of this baby (below), too. I love an electric kettle, and they were everywhere over there. This one is sublime and very good looking on the counter.

Of course it’s the perfect time of year for a whole slew of other things, too~

It’s the perfect time of the year for baking, since the oven heats up the kitchen and makes it super cozy.

Eating in front of a hockey game is a-okay too. Luckily those games are on almost every night. Ahem.

Planning a vacay or long weekend to a warm spot keeps the gray away too. We’re planning a southern road trip in a few months, and I found a link to request catalogs from all sorts of different areas down that way, so I threw caution to the wind, entered my name and address, and have been receiving all sorts of envelopes in the mail, big and small. I forgot how much fun regular mail is. Bert is thrilled because I’m not getting my delivery fix solely from Amazon.

Is it any wonder I love the gray winter months?

The Weekly Menu 01.29.23 covers another winter fave – cooking!

So. Comfort food. Sunday dinner is a super easy (hello, crockpot) meal that has chicken, gravy, and obviously, mashed potatoes. We’re using the fabulous mini cast iron skillets I got as a gift (thanks, D) and work great for an individual cookie. Sure, we have ice cream. We even have some of the Tabasco Smoked Dark Chocolate Ice Cream that was on the Weekly Menu 01.22.23. That’ll warm you up.

Aside on that ice cream: I ended up buying a pint of dark chocolate ice cream and letting it melt a smidge before mixing in some chopped dark chocolate and about a teaspoon of the Tabasco. Because I don’t have (nor do I want) an ice cream maker. It was absolutely fabulous, although between that and the spicy Mexican chocolate cookies on the same menu, I had way more caffeine than I’m used to. 3:00 am never looked so good.

Spaghetti and meatballs (actual home made ones instead of the store bought ones this week), shredded chicken posole (hello again, crockpot), a sheet pan dinner and burgers add to the full-on comfort of the Weekly Menu 01.29.23. Plus soup. With cheese and garlic pull apart bread. That’s comfort, right there.