Thursday, February 5, 2009

Collards and Cornbread...

Good morning! It is another wonderful day here in Cali. It is shaping up to be overcast as we are expecting some much needed rain in the Golden state. The Sierra snowpack is only at approx 63% of normal for this time of year and has many people in the ski industry as well as the farmers in the Central Valley worried. But oooooohhhhh yes, Mother Nature has decided that this week, the moisture will come. As I was cooking a fine, traditional meal last night made up of collard greens and pork with cornbread and black-eyed peas (tell you about that in a minute) my ears were perked to the weather report unfolding on my friends large flat screen across the room. I saw the words "Storm #1, Storm #2, Storm #3 flash into view. Apparently there are three storms lined up from the pacific (#1) and two from the Gulf of Alaska. The rain is expected to start this after noon and the snow levels to be around 5000 ft. Oh how visions of snowflakes the size of chicken feathers and face shots of endless powder have captured my dreams. It may not end up being the incredible dump that I am hoping for, but the mere notion of snow in Tahoe gets my blood going! So between now and tomorrow morning we are hoping for at least a foot of the white fluffy goodness to be enjoyed when I go skiing tomorrow. The speculations are flying about the potential of the next two storms converging on the Tahoe area over the weekend, but any snow is good snow and I am hoping to be a part of at least one epic powder day this season.

So back to the title of the post..... I amazed even myself last night at the quality of meal I turned out for our friends Chrissy and Vern. I even had an authentic Southerner's palette to test the mettle of my collard and pork abilities. I was given a solid B+ for my efforts in total. The greens, pork, and black eyed peas were fantastic. My cornbread was a little too dense, but was ripe with real butter flavor! Vern (the displaced Southerner) made the comment that his arteries were clogging just looking at the bread bubbling in the cast iron skillet :-) Yeah....just the way we Southerners like it... To top this culinary extravaganza off, it all came off the stove/out of the oven at the same time, a feat that I have never been able to master until last night. The only thing missing was my wife... I miss her soooooooo much, but am excited for her interview process success. Today marks the end of that process and her undoubted acceptance to both of the programs she has been interested in. I would ask everyone to join me in praying for her as she impresses everyone she comes in contact with today during her interview and that God will make abundantly clear the path that she/we should take for her grad school education. Hope everyone has a Blessed day!

2 comments:

Tiffany said...

Sounds yummy!

Anonymous said...

That sounds really Yummy!