Heavy wet snow

Another 18" fell, weighing down trees and bushes, breaking tree limbs and taking down white pine branches.

The greenhouse outside the kitchen on Tuesday...

and nearly covered Thursday morning.

Everything is groaning under the weight of the snow.

Lisa still doesn't have power, their house dark and cold and waterless as they need electricity for their well water.  They come over here for dinner, I had bought a roast beef for the weekend but after our power cut yesterday decide to use it tonight.  I rub a mixture of dry mustard and flour over the outside of the rib roast and put it into a hot oven.

Time to use up a multitude of root vegetables, parsnips and carrots peeled, boiled and mashed with a tiny smudge of butter, turnips mashed with a lump of butter the size of a golf ball served with yorkshire pudding crisp and puffed from the oven and roast potatoes.  It took me a while to roast these perfectly, the trick is to parboil them for 5 - 10 minutes until the edges are soft then sprinkle on some semolina flour and bash them around in the pan for a bit to gently smash the edges.  The semolina flour is Nigella Lawson's trick and it creates a deliciously crunchy and slightly sweet exterior.  Then just tip them into the blistering hot roasting pan with the roast beef.  Somehow tucked around the roast they always taste better, tonight I added some whole garlic cloves and a sprinkling of rosemary leaves that had dropped onto the windowsill.