chillin'

Ten years ago today, my mom and I piled into my car, with all of my stuff, to head back down to Vegas after my first year of college. I had picked her up from the airport, maybe a couple of days before, on a perfectly sunny day. As we started our drive, it started to snow. It was snowing on May 10th! It was the middle of spring!

As I said, we were headed down to Vegas, the place I had lived for the thirteen years prior to college. There is maybe an occasional flurry of snowflakes in Vegas, so I was not at all prepared for what Reno had to offer (which, much to my chagrin, I found out the first time I drove when it was actually snowing in Reno, and I discovered that my windshield wipers didn't work...and it was nighttime). I pretty easily accepted that it snowed during the cold months of late autumn through early spring, but snow in May was amazing to me. I'm no awed by the sight, but I do prefer May to be sunshiney and snow-free (all right, Mother Nature?).

Today, Pic and I walked to a nearby grocery store so we could pay bills and continue to enjoy electricity, gas and running water. We went just after midday, and thank goodness for that. It was a windy walk over, but on the walk back, Pic actually shed her jacket and gloves (her icebox mamma kept wrapped up, though). A bit after we arrived home, it started raining. Then, it was raining and snowing. Then it was dark and freezing (I don't think we actually got down to thirty-two degrees, but at one point, it was in the thirties). By the time we saw some sunlight and lacked some falling precipitation, it was evening and I was glad our outing was already taken care of.



What did we do to ward off the outside cold? Well, we waited until eight-thirty to turn on the heat (the thermostat was reading fifty-four degrees and I just couldn't take it any longer). And, we made a complete wreck of the kitchen, making strawberry frozen yogurt. Yes, there's nothing quite like a nice chilly dessert to end a day like this. Or something.

Pic took this picture. This is the first I've looked at it. I love that she captured that drop of honey descending.

Pic actually didn't have any frozen yogurt for dessert tonight, because she got a good deal of it after I finished filling the jars for the freezer. "What a hard day," she told me. "You're washing all those dishes and I'm eating frozen yogurt." Oh, my child.



I did have some frozen yogurt sprinkled with mini chocolate chips for dessert tonight. This was after I had turned on the heat and wrapped up in a blanket.

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The yogurt-making was really simple. I used Judy's recipe, from No Fear Entertaining. Only three ingredients. Of course, I had to first re-liquefy my honey. My honey's normal state is solid, as has been the case with every bit of honey I've purchased for the last several years. Not so bad when I'm just getting a chunk out for my hot tea. I took the time to heat it through today, though. After heating it through and letting it sit a bit, it was beautifully thickly liquid once again -- for the moment.

I used about two cups of chunkily cut strawberries to get my one cup of strawberry puree. This recipe was perfect for my ice cream maker. I filled it to the very top.

The result is a very tart strawberry frozen yogurt. I'm sure this has to do with the taste of the strawberries. In a bit, there will no doubt be sweeter berries available. (I'm just realizing this, but I didn't taste my berries today. I was so intent on actually getting this made, that I didn't take the time (like it takes a lot of time).) I'm glad we have a bunch of little jars left for the coming days. I'll be doing this often this summer, I believe.