SNOWSTORM!!! With Christmas Parade Party Thanksgiving Brunswick Stew.
I *love* snow and usually am happily chirping away about the dire weather from my cozy, energy-efficient off-grid prefab while I cook and eat my way through any blizzard.
Not this time. I underestimated the storm. I thought it would snow all morning, then stop; it hasn't - now it's dusk, and there has been a steady, side-whipping wet snow since it began at dawn.
Tonight, this icicle-filled wet snowglobe world dangerously descends into the low teens.
We have no electricity!
No heat!
Oh, wait: we're off-grid in a toasty, energy efficient SIP house!
We're SO grateful to be inside, with the cookstove now humming, the horses are blanketed, hay is out, and wood is piled by the back door.
There's nothing left to do but cook, quietly work, read, and watch lots of old movies. What a great week for soups and leftovers!
Last weekend, while the boys hunted here, we headed in to the Richmond Christmas Parade and threw a Parade Party! For guests, I made Brunswick stew and served stollen, hot cocoa, gluhwein, and Spekulatius (think: gingerbread cookies with almonds, thin and crispy and addictive).
Wait. Hold on, back up to Thanksgiving. Rewind!
We have to start at THANKSGIVING because these recipes were made from the frozen leftovers! Don't you like practical leftover recipes?
So wave your hands across your face and repeat: "There's no place like Thanksgiving. There's no place like Thanksgiving. There's no place like..." and suddenly, wafts of turkey, casseroles, apple -and- cherry pie (both from our farm!) begin to dance about you. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
The night before, while I was getting the turkey ready, these two were making pies! I'm so impressed! Bakers follow precise, intricate directions! (Which is why I'm not a baker.)
Lemon Ginger Turkey on Roasted Vegetables:
This easy, delicious Lemon Ginger Turkey was roasted at 350 on a bed of onions, carrots, and celery.
Lightly grease (I used Duke's) then line the pan with plenty of cut carrots, celery, and onions. Now your turkey doesn't stick, and you have a delicious instant side dish!
I mixed liberal amounts of lemon marmalade (a tart marmalade I made from a friend's gift of lemons and canned), minced fresh ginger, Duke's mayonnaise, a little rose jam and tamari, glazed the turkey, then roasted it.
After the long but joyful, filled-with-family-and-friends Thanksgiving was done, I climbed out of my dress, put on comfy clothes, then shredded the leftover meat in one half of a casserole, and added the vegetables to the other half, and froze it.
Now, a few weeks later, we're ready for turkey again! Defrost that leftover casserole dish to use up now that you're not tired of turkey!
Back to the Christmas Parade!
NOW we post the Christmas Parade Party Brunswick Stew Recipe:
Start by making traditional Brunswick stew: soak, then cook salted lima beans (this year I used the big ones!) in a smaller pot. In the main pot, saute chopped onions, potatoes, toss in chicken (I love a mix of dark and breasts). Sauté that... now add the lima beans and a little broth or water so it doesn't burn. Stir it all around, simmering, then add in canned tomatoes. Rinse the tomato can, collecting water to about 1/3 the can, and add in that as broth (and now you can safely put it in recycling!). After it's been simmering awhile and getting done, remove the chicken to shred/chop it. Add it back in with fresh frozen corn, more dashes of Worcestershire, lots of pepper, and salt.
Here comes the Thanksgiving twist: Add in leftover shredded Thanksgiving turkey, more Worcestershire, sriracha, a little ACV. We have COLD GUESTS and this needs to spice them up from the inside!
What a fun day with neighbors and family friends!
Thank you to friends who gifted us with homemade apple cider from their farm (just outside of Church Hill!)!!!
We headed back to the farm with thawed Thanksgiving and new Christmas Parade Party leftovers under our arms.
Guess what, guys? It's going to snow!
I glance at what the weather app says... Looks like it will snow most of the morning, and then that's it! I'm SURE it will be melted by dinner like last week!
Comfy, cozy in the off-grid prefab, I muse on zoning. Is YOUR city upzoning?
Richmond's Code Refresh is underway, and there's lots to say. Oddly, it seems no one on staff is talking about this 2023 Virginia Housing Commission report that shows upzoning does increase land values and rent.
“A 2019 study focusing on long-term impacts of zoning reform in Portland, Oregon, found that buyers paid more to live in communities with higher-density zoning. The reduction in lot sizes did not reduce prices. Instead, there was an increased demand for larger, more expensive homes on smaller lots (Dong & Hansz, 2019).”
“Builders often convert existing lower cost units into higher cost ones, increasing surrounding housing values. A 2020 study of Chicago found significant increases in upzoned property values in parcels with a 20% increase in density. The reform allowed for higher densities and reduced parking, later resulting in raised prices and no notable supply changes. Upzoning led to a 15 to 23.3 percent increase in sales prices between six months and two years after rezoning.”
Research shows affordable housing is cannibalized as a result of upzoning.
Let's talk about solar, daylighting, and the impacts of concrete towers on communities.
Mandatory shadow-modeling of any new building 3+ stories ensures all neighbors have access to solar opportunities. Many cities already do so, and this list continues to grow as the world understands the benefits of solar opportunities FOR ALL and tall buildings’ negative impacts on fresh air.
In the 1800s, Tenement Acts were passed specifically mandating windows for DAYLIGHTING for a reason. Yet here we are considering imposing unhealthy towers on our neighbors! When concrete tall towers take away light, you are turning vibrant communities into the unhealthy tenement conditions we created code for to escape.
Tenement Acts, particularly in New York, mandated windows for daylight and ventilation to combat the ill health caused by crowded, dark housing, even requiring minimum sizes (e.g., 10% of floor area). What’s the use of windows if their SUN is blocked with concrete? These laws mandated light and fresh air, evolving into modern building codes with stricter standards for daylight and fresh, clean air.
It is not acceptable to increase a community’s health and energy burden with tall density. Solar opportunities and access must be protected for all.
Richmond has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to LEED in clean energy - to achieve Net Zero, we must protect and encourage solar access in code.
We too can LEED with sustainable solar policy like Ashland (OR), Barcelona, San Francisco, Boulder, Dresden, Hartford, Miami… to advance climate goals and reduce air pollution.
Solar for all must protect ALL our neighbors.
Recipe #2: Thanksgiving Leftover Gingered Turkey Soup:
More ginger! More onions! More garlic! More jazz hands!
EAT EVERYTHING. We had leftover Christmas Parade stollen for breakfast, Brunswick stew for lunch, and crunchy almond cookies for dinner. When that ran out, we made more soup!
Chop onions, mince garlic & ginger. Add onions to the pot with a favorite fat (today, olive oil). Sauté until soft, add in chopped leftover turkey & the vegetables (mostly carrots & celery), let it cook a few minutes, stirring. Drizzle in sriracha, add minced garlic and ginger, appropriate glugs of ACV (depending on how big your pot is), a salt of choice (today, tamari), stir, now add broth until it looks like how you like your soup to look, then let it simmer until you're hungry! I always add a little more fresh minced ginger right before serving.
Bring in extra wood, blanket the horses, and tramp around, filling run-ins and mangers with hay. Now we're hungry! This hot, spicy, zingy soup hit the spot, warming us up from the inside!
Handsome Husband looked at the wind-whipped snow stuck to the windows and doors and noted, "This says a lot about the energy efficiency of the glass. If heat were escaping, this would have melted. Instead, it's stuck against the glass until the weather warms up outside."
Well, we're not going ANYWHERE, so why not curl up with vintage movies? Christmas in Connecticut, Roman Holiday, and Home Alone are on play.
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