Well, what a week it's been so far! So much going on around here in preparation for the upcoming Papertrey release and of course in the middle of it all, we had a blizzard. A real deal...I'm not just exaggerating here...actual blizzard. Ca-razy. It snowed and snowed the wind blew and blew and in the midst of it all, I fixed split pea soup.....successfully. Hurray! :) Turns out, blizzards aren't so bad after all, so long as everyone in your family makes it home safely and you can have cozy soup for dinner and then relax in front of the fire while the blizzard rages on outside. ;)
That's Bart out there, shoveling the driveway. See how high the snow is that he's shoveled already? That's a lotta snow.....(said in my best Italian accent).
I have to say that I was feeling very thankful for our warm home as we crawled into bed that night. I know there are so many less fortunate.
Anyway, I took a few photos during the storm, but only a few because that wet snow was blowing so much that I couldn't even stick the camera out the door for a second without getting snow all over it. As you can imagine, snow/water aren't really all that great for Laverne, the Nikon.
Our big blue spruce in the backyard.....so pretty with a blanket of snow.
The morning after the blizzard was sunny and frigid. But in spite of the 2* temp, I couldn't resist running outside to snap a few piccies. The photo above is what greets poor Riley when we open the gate in the backyard, for him to go outside. Uhhh.....kind of hard to jump and climb over all of that just to go to the bathroom! Poor doggie boy. Good thing he's not short!
This is at the bottom of our driveway, after the snowplows had made a pass thru the cul-de-sac.
Above is our front walk. Or what used to be our front walk.
Just so you know, there are steps leading up to our front porch.....or there used to be. As you can see, the snow is clear up above the bottom of the door, and I'd like to remind you that I shoveled 6" of snow off of that same porch earlier in the day! I told you, that snow was blowing like crazy!
All in all, we ended up with about a foot of snow.
I think they said on the news that this is the most snow in a single day that we've had here since the 1960's!
And the driveway, after my hottie hubs had worked his hiney off to shovel all of that snow.
I've also had some requests for the split pea soup recipe that I made the night of the blizzard. I should tell you that I bought a bag of {Market Pantry} Green Split Peas at Target and then I sort of adapted the recipe on the back of the bag to what I had on hand and what we like. I also made a much larger batch of soup than what their recipe called for. (Like basically double) So if you don't like my version (below) you can always follow the recipe on the bag of peas.
And yes, I know that split pea soup isn't really all that appetizing to look at, but boy, oh boy, is it tasty. The thing is, I LOVE potato soup. The great thing about split pea soup is that it sort of feels like you're eating potato soup, except with a much healthier vegetable.....the pea!
I should also tell you that the soup turned out a bit soupier (and by that, I mean, runnier and not sludgy enough) than I would have liked but that was mostly because I was kind of guessing on the water. However, two days later when we ate leftovers, the soup had thickened up quite a bit. Next time, I'll just make it with less water to start out with.
2 Tbsp. olive oil
5 medium carrots sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1/3 red bell pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lb. split peas, rinsed and drained
14 cups water (mine was too runny so next time, I'll go with 10-12 cups of water)
6 chicken bouillon cubes
7 small-medium potatoes
Rinse peas and remove any foreign material. Heat oil in Dutch oven or large pot. Add carrots, onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cook and stir until onion is tender. (Next time, I would probably double the amount of carrots and onion I used, and I'd probably add a few more potatoes. You can adjust your own veggie amounts to what your family likes.) Add remaining ingredients, except potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 30 minutes. Add potatoes and additional water if soup has become too thick. Simmer an additionial 30-45 minutes or until potatoes are tender and peas have broken down. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Other than being soupier than I intended, the soup turned out great. You know it's good when your hubby wants seconds, right? ;) I'm really happy to have another healthy (and tasty) soup to add to our repertoire......because we all know how much I love a good soup!
Your Questions :: ANSWERED
Before I go, I wanted to take a minute to answer a question that I get a LOT about what I do for envelopes with my cards, since so many of them have lots of layers, or bits and pieces sticking off the sides of the cards.
If I'm giving the card with a gift, I'll often skip the envelope all together and let the card be part of the package decoration by either tucking the card under the ribbon on the gift, or perhaps in the tissue if it's a gift bag. Sometimes I even punch a hole in the upper corner of the back of the card and tie the card to the handle of a gift bag, using the card as a giant gift tag.
If I'm mailing the card, I will often use what are referred to as "greeting card envelopes", which can be found at most office supply stores. They come in white or cream. They're much larger than the "invitation envelope" A2 size. When using one of those envelopes, I'll usually slide a piece of card stock in the envie as well, just to protect the front of my card. OR, another option I sometimes go with is to just mail the card in a padded envelope. YES, there is additional postage to consider if you go that route, or even if your card is just really thick, making it so the envelope can't be run thru the standard machines at the post office.
Everyone has different feelings about this topic, certainly based somewhat on the added expense to mail bulkier cards. However, I have to say that at the point that I stopped designing to fit in an envelope and just started creating whatever I felt like at the moment, it was a huge awakening for me. It is so freeing to be able to create whatever is in your heart, and then worry about how to package it up later.
Obviously not everyone can take this approach if you mail all of your cards and truly the extra postage is a concern. But for me, I think I grew as a designer when I was able to step out of the confines of "the envelope". So, hopefully that will help some of you as well. After all, it's sometimes all those great layers and embellies that really make what we do as paper crafters, so fun, right? :)
I also wanted to say thank you for all of your sweet comments on my newest stamp set sneak peeks this week! It's going to be a FUN release, and I'm so grateful to each of you that shared your excitement with me here, on Nichole's blog and in the Papertrey Forum. I appreciate you!
I've got a couple of crafty posts coming up for you this weekend as part of Papertrey's Anniversary festivities, so I hope you'll swing back by to check those out.
Hope your weekend is a great one!
love,
