Brrrrr!

How many times have you heard that in the last two days? Seems like it's cold everywhere too, out on the west coast where my sister lives in Issaquah, Washington and down on the Gulf Coast for my brother in Houston. Dang!
I've been housebound for the last three days as we've had a whopper of a storm. I won't share too many details because many of you lived through it too. But in a nutshell Monday night was our first round of snow and the roads iced up, into Wednesday we got a total of 14 inches and then the wind started gusting up to 50 mph. Needless to say we were snow bound by the up to 8 foot snow drifts. The county finally got to our road out here around 2 pm or so, and I can't see what the point would've been yesterday at all. It would've blown back over within the hour.
But don't worry! I tried to keep busy. I made another round of cookies for the cookie event at work and also a new batch of toffee as that last one just didn't cut the mustard. The recipe is super simple 2 cups of butter and 2 cups of sugar in a pot and bring to a boil and then the recipe says to bring it to 285 degrees on a candy thermometer. Either my thermometer is off or the recipe is wrong. The first batch didn't set right, so the second time around I used the thermometer as a guide and then waited until the mixture came to that toffee brown color and then took it off the heat (stirring occasionally throughout). Perfect! I guess I might as well finish up the recipe for you since I started it, and since it is so simple: pour the toffee mixture onto a large sheet pan covered with parchment paper. When it cools slightly and is partially set pour enough chocolate chips on top to cover, give them a few minutes to melt and spread the chips evenly with a spatula on top of the toffee. I had to put it in the freezer after it cooled and I had broken it up because I COULD NOT STOP EATING IT! I also made a pan of brownies with frosting and dived into the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I made earlier. I think I've gained about 5 lbs. this weekend alone. Yikes!
On the pup front Dewey is a little under the weather. He went out to do a little of what we refer to as "squirrelin' " on Tuesday and had a big wipeout in the snow. He gets a little excited about chasing squirrels. He even does this little high pitched yipping while he's chasing them sometimes. We joke that he just wants to talk to them, he needs to know how they run so fast on their short little legs, he needs to learn the trick so he can keep up with the big dogs. Anywho, he's gimping around and if it doesn't clear up by Monday I'm afraid he's going to have to pay a visit to the vet. He really hates that.
So I hope everyone is home and cozied up. I'm going to go put the finishing touches on the beef stew and hot rolls I'm planning on putting in front of Scotty when he comes in from shoveling out my poor little hyundai so I can finally go back to work tomorrow. What a guy!