Into the Season

We slid right in yesterday - we had first snow of this winter. It started innocently as a rain in the morning but by the midday it was definitely snow, heavy and wet one though.


Forecast people kept saying something about cold front coming, but we had couple of very warm days just this week so nobody really believed it, I guess. The white stuff got us all by surprise! :)


We made it to the Columbia mall anyway, it was the only presents hunting window we had. It turned to be a good shopping day; may be because of the weather or troublesome economy, shops were half empty and we were very productive. We got everything on our list aaaaaaand bunch of extras to fill Saint Nicholas stockings (tonight!). Even my Grinch W. enjoyed himself :)

This carousel is installed in the mall permanently, but yesterday it looked especially inviting :)

The snow almost melted by Sunday evening, as usually. Oh, well..., at least the driving tomorrow morning will be uneventful, I hope. And it should, since I got - with bleeding heart - new tires today. The snowmen are the greeting squad of our new next door neighbor we have not met yet.



To support holiday spirit, I made apple bread pudding. It is simple recipe we used to make at home; I still remember sipping leftover vanilla milk ... Well, that and the hot cocoa were actually the only forms of liquid milk I would agree to drink as a kid. I did not changed that much since :). Layers of white bread (I used challah) soaked in milk and yolks mixture (with rum, vanilla and honey) alternate layers of thin sliced apples sprinkled with cinnamon and raisins. I felt experimental so I added couple of cut bananas and some walnuts over the apples. All is baked till golden brown, egg whites meringue is smeared over the top for couple of minutes just before finishing (Note: next time it shall be less on the brown and more on the golden side, just a little bit).


I cannot even remember when I made that one last time .... May be never since my mom used to make it for me whenever I asked. Anyway, I think I got the recipe just right :).