White out

To balance out yesterday’s black out, I bring you a White Out.  The snow started falling yesterday, with some breaks in the action here and there.  The front, which brought with it some thunderstorms and strong winds, is somewhere out east (perhaps off the coast by now), and the snow that’s flying today is lake-effect.

View of the pond yesterday morning. (One of those breaks I mentioned.)

We are currently under one of those special weather advisories.  Snow to continue… visibility below one mile expected with periods of less than half a mile possible… accumulations can be as much as an inch an hour… etc., etc., etc.  Any photos I take today are likely to look like the white-out photos I took yesterday except for some additional snow on the ground.

View of the pond a few hours later.

If we’re lucky, we might fit in some skiing before the new round of warmer temps and rain.

Watching the snow fall

Thank you to everyone who left wishes and happy birthday’s for M.  He thanks you too.

Now, about those black walnuts.  M’s favorite cake is walnut cake so that is usually what he has for his birthday cake.  Not just any walnut cake, mind you.  He likes his Grandma Kraus’ walnut cake.  (To read more about it, including the recipe, visit this post.)  Grandma Kraus had a black walnut tree in her yard so when she made walnut cake, it was black walnut cake.  We do not have a black walnut tree so when I make walnut cake, it is walnut cake.  Store-bought walnuts at that.

Our neighbor (across the street) does have a black walnut tree.  Every year she leaves a few walnuts on the ground for the critters, rakes up the rest, and burns them with the leaves.  Back in October or November, M asked her if he could have some of the walnuts if she wasn’t going to use them.  She was agreeable so he planned to go over a day or two later, during the weekend, to get some.  However, the next morning our very nice neighbor brought M a wheelbarrow full of black walnuts.  Well, that was a lot more than we needed (wanted), but we were grateful to her for not only giving us the walnuts, but gathering them for us, too.

I don’t know if you’ve ever shelled black walnuts, but it’s no easy thing to do.  I don’t remember the exact order of things, but the walnuts were soaked, dried, tossed around in the cement mixer with some sand and water, and dried some more.  Eventually M was able to start cracking them, also no easy thing to do.  It takes a lot of work and time to get enough black walnuts for a walnut cake.

And boy, was it worth it!  M, having done all the work on removing the “meat” from the walnut shells, decided he wanted to make the cake (cupcakes, which is better for just the two of us and for giving away to the neighbor who gave us the walnuts).  I knew the taste would be different (black walnuts have a stronger, earthier flavor), but hadn’t expected the texture to be so amazing.  Black walnuts seem to be oilier than the regular walnuts.  Best.  Walnut.  Cake.  Ever.  Now I know why M kept insisting that black walnuts are essential to a fabulous walnut cake.

So.  That’s the story of the black walnuts.  Not terribly exciting.  No adventures or anything, other than of the gustatory variety.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Be careful when you leave.  Visibility is pretty poor right now due to a snow squall.  M and I are thinking of heading over to the Akron Art Museum sometime soon to see the landscape exhibits (one exhibit involves photography, and the other involves paintings from the era of impressionism).  You’re welcome to join us if you like.  🙂

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