What's the story?

Yum: King Arthur Flour's Morning Glory Muffins for breakfast. Apples, carrots, coconut, almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins.

Ho-hum: It snowed 6-8 inches yesterday. Fifth week in a row. Another is predicted for next Monday.

Pancakes & potions

OK, enough with the snow posts already. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, and I'm sure you're ready for me to move on to a new topic. I know I am.

Instead I give you ... pancakes. My inspiration is three-pronged: my friend Kat, who always has her camera at the ready for spur-of-the-moment blog posts, leaving nothing off limits and offering new posts pretty much daily; my new King Arthur Flour baking book; and Julie Powell's delightful book "Julie & Julia," in which she chronicles her efforts to make every dish in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year.

Michael & I have pretty much all the cookbooks we could ever need -- including Vegetarian Times' collection, two Mark Bittmans and at least one Mollie Katzen -- not to mention subscriptions to Eating Well and Rachael Ray's Everyday, which rarely let us down (Eating Well has recently blessed us with Catfish Amandine and Boneless Buffalo Wings).

We had no baking books, though, and I decided it was time. Just got it a few days ago, and on a quick look-through decided the first recipe I'd try was gingerbread pancakes. Despite the altitude, they came out fluffy, not dry and tasty, especially with the suggested dollop of warm applesauce on top. Yum!

Meanwhile, in my never-ending DIY dabbling, here's a slightly fuzzy photo of fizzy bath bombs and lotion (in the jar) that I made. My friend Cristine and I have been taking some free classes at Apothecary Tinctura, a fabulous local shop that sells herbs and gifts, and Mom got me a couple of natural-body-product recipe books for Christmas. I've also been using a homemade lavender-rose-hops-chamomile sleep balm every night, and I'm brewing some bay rum for Michael (a 3- to 4-week process).

Steers & gears

This year's installment of the National Western Stock Show parade was a bit of a disappointment. It lasted only about 15 minutes and was missing features from last year, including the sheepherding dogs. There also were a lot fewer longhorn cattle. Still, it's pretty cool to see farm animals meandering the streets of downtown Denver.


After the parade, we stopped by the Capitol on our way home to congratulate new Gov. Bill Ritter on Inauguration Day and welcome him and his family to the neighborhood (we live in Capitol Hill, and the Governor's Mansion is about a half-mile from us). I told his kids there's good sledding on the hill by their new house. No photos of the guv were allowed, which means no record of my gubernatorial moment.

Even the natives are restless

Remember how we got all that snow almost a month ago? This is what our backyard looks like now. We've gotten four snowstorms in four weeks (it's currently snowing right now, but I'm counting that as part of the one that started Friday). I was starting to worry we'd lucked out last year and gotten a really mild winter, but everyone -- including the native Coloradans -- says this is not normal. My boss, a Texan, says that if she'd seen a winter like this in her first five years here, she never would've stuck around.

The snow, however, is sticking around. We had a few days last week of mild, sunshiny days that started to melt the snow. Then the cold snap set in. Since Friday, we've had highs of 6 to 12 and lows of minus-something-or-other. Really, the snow on its own wouldn't be so bad -- if it would stop coming down! Many side streets are still a beast -- I drove on one last week that was like a ride at Disney World. There were grooves in such deep ice that when I tried veering to the side to park, my car started going perpendicular to the street. And parking in general can be tricky if you don't find out a cleared-out spot. Some areas just have heaps of snow in the gutters.

I'm all for snow -- when it snows, sticks around a few days, looks pretty until it all turns black from cars, and then melts. This is just ridiculous. By the end of every week now, everyone just dreads the next snow. And the snow coupled with this cold is just crazy! Actually, 6 doesn't feel as cold as it sounds. It's really freaking cold, but it doesn't seem a whole colder than, say, 15 or 20. Once you hit a certain point, it's hard to distinguish. I don't think I could live in someplace where it gets to 20s or 30s below zero, though.

The dogs hate the cold. They'd rather pee on the rug inside where it's warm than saunter outdoors. Even Esther, and she's, surprisingly, more consistently housebroken than Angus. So lately we've been suiting up to ensure they do their business outside. I think they're just ready for some grass to run around on. And maybe weather in the mid-20s.

(Oh, and as you can probably tell from the better-quality photos, I got the camera back from the shop yet again. Let's all cross our fingers.)