Snow Daze

It snowed today. Again. I was feeling sorry for my situation and decided to look up the weather in Russia. In Yakutsk, Russia, it is currently -31, but feels like -46. Tomorrow night it is supposed to be around -50 with partly cloudy skies. How do they know what the difference between -31 and -46 feels like? Uhm, I'll consider my 3 inches of snow and 19 degree weather a blessing.

So, with another day out of preschool, I must think of some project to occupy our time indoors tomorrow. My grown up project started tonight as the kids were going down for the night.
Christmastime was a little hectic and I didn't get around to my tradition of making cream puffs. This evening I spent some additional time and made swan cream puffs. I have romantic memories of my time in France when I would leisurely stop at a patisserie and admire their confectionary creations. Phillip got confused and called my creations flamingo cream puffs. My dreamy romantic bubble just got popped by thoughts of a brightly colored pink flamingo flying over me with cream on its beak.

like what we have outside, the swans received a heavy dusting of snow, or powdered sugar

On another snow day in January when we were confined indoors, we made marshmallows. The recipe is found on Martha Stewart's website. It wasn't difficult, but a heavy duty mixer is necessary for the project. The instructions were perfect, except for one minor detail. It is found below. Oh, and about the cookie cutters that you select...here's a hint, the less intricate ones, the better. We had the most success with simple shapes. These last 5 or so days. Be sure to store these in an air-tight container.

nice texture after 12 solid minutes of mixing.

Martha lied. Her instructions say to use an offset spatula to spread the marshmallowy goo. It sticks to that. (see what he is holding in his right hand?) I sprayed a rubber spatula with cooking spray and it worked much better.

8 hours later he cut out shapes

polar bears, angels, snowmen, and airplanes

They make a nice garnish to a hot chocolate (or coffee) and take a long time to melt.

We've been back a week, but I am still thinking about what fun we had in California. Then I remembered a couple of the souvenirs that I had purchased.

Phillip's souvenir. How ironic, it's a snow globe.

Here is my souvenir. I'll be drinking lots of hot tea tomorrow.

So, what do you do when you are stuck indoors on a snowy or rainy day?