December 26th Dinner Post

[livetobake]

Good Morning!

The sun is out and shinning, no snow at the moment and the wind has finally stopped howling and is not even blowing. I feel so bad for some parts of the country that is still being pounded, no electric and still in a bitter and deadly deep freeze. This is the worst storm country wide I can remember. We at having a very welcome high of 21 and the low of 15. So welcome.

Dinner tonight will be ham, potato cakes, scrambled eggs, toasted English muffins and very welcome hot chocolate.

What will be your dinner?

[muzette7]

I have a crockpot of vegetable soup going. I have a bag of alphabet noodles to and am feeling childish today so that will go in it as well.

[livetobake]

How much snow did you end up with? Be childish, it good once in a while going back in time!!!

[muzette7]

Its hard to tell how much snow we got because it really drifted so much. I am guessing between 8-10 inches. My yard is going to be a big mucky mess by Thursday when it all melts.

[MudderBear]

Everything is arse backwards for us here lol due to this storm! We have at least 5 ft of snow, and more coming. We lost power Christmas Eve and just got it back an hour ago. Plus being sick was not very fun. I could not have put the dinner on yesterday at all.
Today am feeling much better, and the kids are all coming out for apps & drinks. That is our dinner! We transferred our turkey, ham, cheeses, milk etc to our cottage neighbours who did have power. I sure hope our turkey is still edible for tomorrow. Ham should be fine, I cooked it Christmas Eve day.

[livetobake]

You had heat and that is good as at least you were warm and could keep from getting sicker. I am glad you are feeling better and can spend time tonight with family. It would be nice if whoever has the turkey would cook it today and make sure it is still good for you. Might not be the way you would do it but at least it would be saved. I say that as I did that years ago when my neighbor's oven stopped working and she had had a roast with all the trimmings in the oven for about an hour when it gave up the ghost. I heard one of her children telling mine that the oven was out, so I called and had her husband bring it over and finished it for them in my oven. I remember her saying it was the best roast they ever had, and I think it was the best only because they had a hot dinner, and the food was saved. My oven did not magical powers at all.

Enjoy your evening with your family and your dinner tomorrow.

[CharleneG]

It’s been very gray and cloudy today and it started to rain about 2 hours ago. It’s not especially cold, it’s 49° right now. I mostly did a few things around the house and got some of my Christmas dinner leftover sweet potato casserole vacuum sealed and frozen. I purposely made more than I needed so I could do that. I’ll get some of the tri tip sealed and frozen later. Last night I watched a few episodes of George & Tammy on Showtime, I never really knew much about them (rock fan here) but I would have kicked George to the curb and slapped some sense into Tammy. I’m not going to watch the rest of it.

I’m doing a rerun of Christmas dinner tonight. Tri tip, sweet potato casserole and some yellow squash since I ate all the asparagus.

[Sabine]

I remember George Jones and Tammy Wynette , country music # 1 couple , superstars in their time. I think they really loved each other, but sometimes love is just not enough.

[Chayote]

Last night I caught up with all the laundry and housework. We just ate cold meats and salads for dinner. Tiff and Immy are about halfway through their trip to get here. It's 41°C/106°f today... she has good AC in her car and we have the AC on in the house. All I need to do is make up her bed and Julia is coming to help me with it.

I didn't go to bed last night because it was hot outside which doesn't make sense because I left the AC on until 6am but it made sense to me at the time and I sat thinking about how fortunate we are to have a roof over our heads, electricity to use for cooking and cooling, clean water and an ongoing availability to food. I feel for the tens of thousands of people across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales who have no power because of widespread flooding and with this heat, they'll be feeling the humidity more than us. Many thousands are living in school assembly halls and sports pavilions and have nowhere else to go, having lost everything they owned. Not only have houses been permanently destroyed but whole towns have gone and won't be rebuilt. I feel for Ukrainian people, through no fault of their own having to endure winter without homes or electricity to keep warm.

This is only my opinion, here comes the "but"... I wonder about anyone who doesn't believe that our earth is going through a climate change. What will it take to accept that it's happening in our lifetime? (question that I don't expect be be answered) The USA has headlines in the press: "Worst storm probably in our lifetime". Australia is one of the driest countries in the world and yet here we are with widespread flooding that has destroyed everything in its path. I shudder to think what will be next...

[Sabine]

Well, here is one explanation why there is a lot of flooding in Australia . Some people call it climate change, other people just call it weather patterns.

Cause
The flooding was the result of a low pressure system over Queensland's southern coast that dragged in moisture from the Coral Sea in the north, raising it over the Queensland coastline. The area of colder air higher in the atmosphere which the low-pressure system travelled in, thus making the atmosphere unstable and permitting moisture to be lifted up and falling as rain. As the system headed south, it turned into an East Coast Low near the Central Coast and Sydney. Furthermore, around New Zealand, there existed an area of high pressure, which is an anti-clockwise rotating blocking high that obstructed the low pressure system from drifting away into the Tasman Sea.^[19]

[Chayote]

Well, here is one explanation why there is a lot of flooding in Australia . Some people call it climate change, other people just call it weather patterns.

Cause
The flooding was the result of a low pressure system over Queensland's southern coast that dragged in moisture from the Coral Sea in the north, raising it over the Queensland coastline. The area of colder air higher in the atmosphere which the low-pressure system travelled in, thus making the atmosphere unstable and permitting moisture to be lifted up and falling as rain. As the system headed south, it turned into an East Coast Low near the Central Coast and Sydney. Furthermore, around New Zealand, there existed an area of high pressure, which is an anti-clockwise rotating blocking high that obstructed the low pressure system from drifting away into the Tasman Sea.^[19]

Thanks for the copy and paste from Wikipedia, Sabine... I really do understand weather patterns and learned how rain is made when I was in grade 2 of primary school. My concern is that crazy weather is becoming the norm but it doesn't really matter.

[Sabine]

You can be concerned , but what are you going to do about it ?
learning how rain was made in second grade , wow. Most kids dont learn about it until a lot later, if ever.
You cant change weather patterns , would be nice if we could, but we cant.

[rosie]

Actually Chayote it does really matter big time. I agree with you. Imo climate change is a HUGE problem that's only getting worse. I try to do my tiny part if only everyone would maybe our planet would start to heal from all the abuse it has endured. When covid started and everything shut down within 3 weeks the ozone had started to repair itself. We're killing this planet but no one wants to give up there way of life. IM NOT PREACHING cause it's hard for me too. I'm not smart enough to have answers but I know it's painfully obvious.

[Chayote]

Actually Chayote it does really matter big time. I agree with you. Imo climate change is a HUGE problem that's only getting worse. I try to do my tiny part if only everyone would maybe our planet would start to heal from all the abuse it has endured. When covid started and everything shut down within 3 weeks the ozone had started to repair itself. We're killing this planet but no one wants to give up there way of life. IM NOT PREACHING cause it's hard for me too. I'm not smart enough to have answers but I know it's painfully obvious.

g'day, rosie... I do remember that when China shut down manufacturing due to COVID, the air improved and the planet began to heal. I'm like you... recycle everything and not buy anything I don't need. My rule for us is to not purchase anything with single use plastics. Little by little I've reduced plastics to almost none. I buy meat from a butcher who is more than happy to put it in my containers. I get me fruit and veg delivered from the Adelaide Hills growers and it's packed in a cardboard box that I reuse. Our grocery delivery comes in recycled paper bags and they get folded (by John as hand therapy) and taken to Op shops to be used for customers. When I said it doesn't matter, I wasn't meaning it doesn't matter to me. I had been looking at Google map and how the North Pole has depleted. Even if we don't fully understand why things are changing, the fact is it's changing in our lifetime... changes that have been proven by science to previously take eons to happen. Anyway, I won't bring it up again.

[rosie]

I didn't take it that it didnt matter to you. I know it does. Matters to me too. Should matter to every human but......