We decided to fix paella for Christmas Eve supper this year.  We have almost no connection to any Spanish heritage.  My uncle Dean was married to my aunt Choni, a Spanish war bride.  And Debbie’s family has had two Spanish exchange students (although one was Basque so we’re not sure whether to count her or not.)  But nonetheless I have a paella pan, that I’d only used to make jambalaya previously, and the kids were home for Christmas, so paella it was.

I had hoped the weather would cooperate so I could cook outside over a wood fire, but we have 30 degrees, rain, and a 25 mph east wind here today.

The paella was a bit loaded, I saw recipes like this called “celebration paella” on-line somewhere.   It was chicken (marinated in a bit of paprika and oregano),   Spanish chorizo, some of my home cured ham, mussels, clams, and shrimp.

And it turned out fantastic.  The shrimp was cooked but not tough, the rice was al dente, and it had a beautiful socarrat. (burned rice on the bottom, yum!)

But a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s six thousand words or so:

Getting started, browning some onions and garlic.

Added a jar of tomatoes.

 And then chicken stock and rice.

Why is the dog in the kitchen?

Done!

Here we are, getting ready to dine, looking like the pretty people in Martha Stewart Living.

Will it be a new Christmas tradition?  Check back next year…

We get some unusual weather here at Skunk Hill, located as we are on a hill with open farmland in most directions.   But this took the cake, it was warm enough the snow on the roof was melting, but cold enough that icicles were forming, and windy enough that the icicles formed horizontally.

These hung on for a couple of days before falling off.

I bottled my mead today.

If you can read the labels you can see it’s an orange and spice mead.  It’s a bit spicy for my taste, I’d use a little less spice (cinnamon and cloves) next time.  But it’ll make a nice spiced wine for the holidays.   It made 4 bottles, one is in the refrigerator to see how it tastes chilled.

It also packs a wallop.  I didn’t check the Brix before I fermented it, but from the taste I’d suspect I’m at 15%+ alcohol.

We’re going to plant native grasses and wildflowers on Skunk Hill next year.  In preparation for that I tilled up about 3/4’s of an acre today.  I plan to frost seed it next year in February or March, whenever it starts to freeze at night and thaw during the day.

That’s not really the recommended time to seed native grasses and forbs, but our district conservationist says she’s seen good results with frost seeding, so we’re going to try it.

If it works out we’ll add to the native plantings in successive years.

Does the latter photo look like Christina’s World to you?  It did to me when I looked at the photo, but I don’t see it like that when I look at my house day-to-day.  I tried to get Debbie to go out and pose on the grass for me to complete the picture, but she was having none of it, since it was about 25 degrees outside.

Here’s the Kubota, working hard, unloading a semi load of 30% corn.

Did we really have any days this fall with such perfect blue skies?  We must have, the camera doesn’t lie.

It was just a bit wet when we finally finished the 2009 harvest.  A picture is worth a thousand words:

Makes you glad you have a cab, otherwise all that mud would’ve tossed right over your shoulders.