Of course it was dry as a bone here–snow-wise for Christmas. Booooo. What is Mother Nature doing?!
I mean, seriously, we ordered snow for the big day but SOMEbody must have missed the memo…until January. Well, fine then.
At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I must say–Christmas snow, January snow… it’s all just incredibly beautiful and if I had my way–we’d have a gentle blizzard that would keep us all indoors for a week.
Sounds like heaven to me.
That’s my dream. A winter wonderland, right here in my own yard.
Some nights, when it’s reeeeeally chilly outside, when it’s rainy or snowy or windy or all three–nothing tastes better than a steaming hot bowl of creamy, thick, cheesy chowder. Yummmmmm. This lovely little dish will warm you right down to your toes–100% guaranteed or your money back.
Heh, heh.
Cheesy Ham Chowder
Ingredients:
1 medium onion diced
1 cup sliced carrots
1 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
3 cups whole milk
1-1/2 cups water
2-1/2 cups cubed or canned potatoes (drained)
1 can whole corn, drained
1 T chicken bouillon granules
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1-2 cups diced ham
pepper to taste
Directions:
In a Dutch oven saute the onion and carrots until tender.
Stir in flour till blended.
Slowly add milk and water. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes or until thickened.
Add potatoes, bouillon and pepper.
Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Add cheese and ham and heat till cheese is melted.
Snowmen seem to be all the thing these days, so when I saw this pattern, I desperately wanted to make it for my sweet Jillian–who loves snowmen! It took a bit of tweaking to get everything they way I wanted it–but in the end he’s just what we wanted. Check out his cute little stick arms and mittens! And what can we say about that carrot nose?
For anyone who has followed the Crochet Nativity saga…you know that I made an angel last year, as the crescendo to my April’s nativity set. Trouble is that I used the wrong hook and the angel turned out to be from the Land of the Giants and was positively ridiculous. No, really. Plus her hair was really dumb. So, I brought her home and stuck her in a box and started over. I’ll just have to sort her out later. No, you can’t see her because I’m too embarrassed to show you.
But this little lady is exactly the right size.
And don’t you just adore her ruffles?!!
I mean….
And get a load of her HAIR!!! I had an epiphany from my old macramé-ing days–to do a row of Lark’s Head knots with curly yarn, over a yellow pipe cleaner. Absolutely BRILLIANT if I do say so myself.
It made a lovely little headband of hair that I could tack in place and pull back in a ponytail or leave down. Either way, it was gorgeous.
The end step was to give her a golden halo. Pssst– I made it by wrapping some spare gold ribbon around the red plastic ring from a milk jug. Heh, heh.
Feeling quite clever right now.
At last, at last, I kissed her on the head and boxed her up for her new home.
Happy Birthday April!! With so much love…
the Angel, at last…
done right.
To see all the rest just start at Crochet Nativity and follow the links.
I found this sweet little snowman pattern just a few days before our family Christmas party.
It whipped up so quickly that I made another one.
And then…and then…and then and then and then… AHHHH!!
They were just so dang cute that I couldn’t stop!!
Before I knew which way was up–I had a pile of sweet, sturdy little snowmen! Turns out I had one for each of my kids and my sister and my sweet friend.
In the words of our favorite boy wizard, “It was like MAGIC!!”
If you’re feeling the crochet snowman bug too–you’ll find the pattern here.
