Snowed In

Christmas night I kept checking out the window looking for snow.  I heard via Twitter that other people in Charlotte were getting snow, but we had none (I live on the south side)!  Boo!  Finally, late Saturday night, before I went to bed, I finally saw some snow sticking and went to bed happy knowing we were getting some snow!

I woke up Sunday morning to see this!!

Yay!  Sometimes the Northern girl in me wants her snow, you know??  It was good excuse to feel cozy and snowed in.  We did not leave the house!

I made Steel cut oats with brown sugar and maple syrup for breakfast.  And coffee of course!

Clyde only has two speeds, hyper or passed out, and he definitely was the latter most of Sunday.  Greg made him a little nest in a blanket on the couch and he was in there a LOT of the day.

When it was time to go out, he was like, "Um, remember how you rescued me from winter in Chicago last year, and I HATED this white stuff??  Why is it here????"

It took him way longer than normal to do his business as he assessed his options...

Finally he gave up and dove in.

He did not like it!!  He promptly returned to his warm nest on the couch after going out.

I was definitely pretty unproductive yesterday.  I spent a lot of the day watching movies and reading.

I did do one more productive thing though: I made a light box!  

I used the basic instructions on Never A Homemaker.  

I didn't get very fancy with mine though, I just used tissue paper, no velcro, and some lights we already had laying around. 

Test shot.  Check it out...

I also started reading the manual for my DSLR.  My father-in-law didn't bring me the hard copy with my camera, so I searched online and found it.  I'm determined to learn more about how to take better pictures with my camera.  Here's some shots playing with Aperture Priority.

I should use this setting more often, I love the sharp object with the blurry background look.  Very cool.

For dinner I made my own version of cannelloni, inspired by last week's yummy dinner at Dolce.  I also used some inspiration from The Accidental Vegetarian, which has a recipe similar to this in it.  I liked the idea of the roasted tomatoes, which this recipe has.

Ingredients:

8-10 lasagna noodles

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

1/3 cup goat cheese

1 cup of tomatoes diced

3 tablespoons olive oil

a couple shakes of thyme

4 cloves of garlic

2-3 cups of spinach

1 cup of white mushrooms

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1/2 cup tomato sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425.

-Cook lasagna noodles according to package, about 10 minutes.  Once done, drain and let cool slightly.

-Dice your tomatoes, and place in a baking dish with olive oil (coat the tomatoes) and bake for 10 minutes.  Add thyme and two cloves of minced garlic and stir with tomatoes, then bake another 15 minutes, til roasted.

-In a separate pan, cook the spinach and mushrooms in a little olive oil with the rest of the garlic.  

-In a bowl, combine the ricotta, goat cheese, shredded parmesan, and the sauteed spinach/mushrooms, plus salt and pepper.

-Lower oven to 350 degrees.

-Coat the bottom of a baking dish with tomato sauce.  

-Cut your lasagna noodles in half, and take a heaping tablespoon or so of the cheesy spinach mixture and roll it up in the lasagna noodle.  Place in baking dish.  Keep going til the dish is filled and all the noodles and cheese mixture are used.  Then pour your roasted tomatoes over the top.  You could actually add more tomato sauce to the top too if you like a lot of sauce.

-Bake about 15-20 minutes til heated through.  Top with more shredded parmesan and serve.

I served the pasta with a simple green salad.

It was pretty good!!  I'm glad I tried something new in the kitchen.  Can I please have like 200 more days off and I promise I'll be more creative in the kitchen!?  Hmmm, guess that's unrealistic since I have to work and all... 

Oh well, how was your Christmas weekend?  What did you do?