It's the date...
something, I suppose, to commemorate...
but not to celebrate.

A year or so ago, it hit me, "2008!"
Fifty years ago, December 4, 1958...
I was married for the first time.

Smart enough at fourteen to manipulate my mother into signing her permission, and stupid enough to try.

The marriage was really over a year or two before I got the guts to leave for good, and five or six years before I got the divorce.  I could never afford a lawyer.  My second husband paid for it, because he wanted to marry me.  To me, that seemed like a good idea at the time.

Both divorces would be cause for celebration, if I could remember the dates of those anniversaries.

It's a long story.  Anyone curious enough to look can find it all in the right-hand column, here.

Combine in a 9-inch pie pan:

Whisk together or beat with a fork, then pour over flour mixture:

Combine above ingredients with a fork, and press against sides and bottom of pan to form crust.

Sprinkle and distribute evenly in crust:

Beat 3 eggs, combine with 1 1/2 cups warm milk (to reduce baking time), and pour over ingredients in pie shell.  Bake in preheated oven at 350°F or 180°C for about 45 minutes.  Custard is done when edges are set and center jiggles slightly when touched.  Quiche is best when served lukewarm.  Refrigerate any leftovers promptly -- salmonella loves eggs and cheese.  This pie reheats well in a microwave and may be even better when reheated.

* I mixed equal parts of sorghum, garbanzo and fava bean flour.  Other gluten-free alternatives include brown rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour.

† I was using white cheddar that had been frozen, making it very crumbly, saving me the work of shredding.

‡ I used a combination of 1/2 stalk celery, 1/3 small sweet red pepper, 1/5 large green bell pepper, and about 1 tbsp onion, finely minced.  Doug and I think it might have been tastier with the addition of some crumbled crisp bacon or minced pepperoni.

This is not traditional quiche, but would be more properly called, "cheese custard pie," I suppose.  Traditionally, quiche is based on pâte brisée, uses shredded Swiss cheese, giving it a much different mouth feel than with crumbled cheddar, and is often flavored with bacon and grated onion.  My recipe was devised to use available ingredients and accommodate my family's tastes, my dietary restrictions, and my physical limitations.  I fatigued myself making this "quick and easy" pie.  Pâte brisée would have required too much time on my feet, not to mention the forbidden gluten in the wheat flour.

Need I say that I have been relatively uninspired to blog lately?

Blogging about the weather... all I can say about that is that it is less stressful and distasteful than blogging about politics.  Still, whiney Mikey Chertoff will soon be replaced as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.  That might be very good news.  I'll wait until I learn the new secretary's views on RFID chips before I make up my mind on that one.

It is about fifteen below zero Fahrenheit outside and about 55 above in here.  I don't know if the new wood stove could do that all by itself.  When I got up this morning, I found that Doug had left the little electric heater under the computer desk on when he went to bed.  We have agreed to unplug it when we get up from here, but maybe I shouldn't complain.

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that the clouds had cleared off and the sun was illuminating the snowy trees in a fantastic way.  As I went for my camera, the phone rang.  After a few minutes on the phone, I got the camera and went out, but by then the sun was low enough below the treetops to the south that treetops were all that were illuminated.  I shot a few, anyway.

The weight of snow on branches is worrisome.  The wind that came with the high front when it moved in took some of the snow, but there are still a lot of branches drooping under the weight.

In answer to spinksy's question on day length, it depends on who you ask.  The radio today said it is six hours and one minute today.  According to Old Farmer's Almanac, it is 5 hours and 42 minutes, and Superpages makes it over seven hours, which must include twilight, too.  As I see it, this week we are getting a little over five and a half hours of daylight each day.  Three weeks from now, around the Solstice, the almanac says it will be just a minute over five hours, and then the days start getting longer again.  Come on, Midnight Sun!

It snowed Saturday and Sunday.  The weather guessers said we would get from six to twelve inches of new snow, and I guess they were right.  The posts in my yard are wearing big puffy white caps. 

Maybe, later when the light is better, I'll get out there and capture some photos.  The sunrise (not really up yet, just the sky color) is pastel coral, orangey pink, but with a dirty gray cast.  It doesn't look all that great to my eyes, and I know from experience that the camera will catch even less of the color.

The weekend was warm, as usual when it's snowing.  Temps ranged from mid teens to high twenties.  Now it is below zero again.  I glanced at the thermometer several times while making my breakfast:  -7.8, -9.4, -5.6.   I just walked over there to look again.  I sorta wish I hadn't:  -10.3.

Yesterday, I wrapped a string of holiday lights around a hanging plant in my front window.  It is ivy, Hedera helix, twined around a long macrame hanger.

 

From the street, it almost looks like a xmas tree.  The cats were showing lots of interest in it while I was working.  When I was done, I sprayed bitter apple on the parts nearest to the cushion where they lie in the window, and they are no longer interested.

Later.  Love you.