Brrrr....

It was super cold today. This is the frost at the seam of my back door. Clearly I have not insulated it well.

CF is also out of town, and I feel like I have not caught up with regular stuff since before Christmas. Today I did my taxes; I had to because with my fellowship, taxes were not withheld and I chose to do my taxes early instead of paying the fourth quarter taxes. I soaked beans overnight and baked (4 pounds of) beans all day, used up some chicken bones in the freezer and some from a new pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store to make 14 cups of chicken broth. I took my Christmas tree down and did all my laundry. I cleaned up needles from the tree - that took a while - and put all my stuff back where it is pre-Christmas. Busy, busy! Now if only I had time to outline that paper...

I think I have enough beans for a family of 10. Boy are they delicious though. Baked beans before:

  

Baked beans after:

 

Boiling veggies and chicken for broth:

 
I froze a couple of smaller quantities of broth I can use in recipes (I got a wok and rice cooker for Christmas and lots of Asian recipes you need some broth), then rest I split into two bags with chicken and froze so I can make homemade chicken soup super fast over the next couple of months.