Chilly? Chili!

It's been just a wee bit cold here in the Midwest this weekend. We had the blizzard winds on Saturday, but not too much snow in Omaha. (Apparently that all hit the Metrodome - sheesh!) Still, after everything settled down, there was a nice coat of white on everything. Crap, I think that means I'm supposed to clear the sidewalk...

Anyway, instead I've just been taking pictures of my yard. You see, I woke up to find strange circular imprints in my backyard.

There were three of them and they looked like a trash can had been set into the snow. The problem was, my trash cans were all sitting alongside the garage where they belong and there were no stray cans in my yard. And no footprints indicating that someone came to collect stray cans.

Scratch head.

Crop circles??

Then the wind picked up again and I figured it out. You see that little branch & leaf in the middle of the circle??

That is apparently rooted enough in the ground or under the snow to stay put...even when then wind is whipping it around and around and around. The leaves drug through the snow enough to carve out those circular patterns! "Like a spirograph," as Katie pointed out.

Pretty cool, right?!

To warm up from our minor adventures in snow, I made a big pot of chili for dinner. I didn't follow my previous vegetarian chili recipe exactly, but the method was the same. For veggies I used an onion, a green bell pepper, and a carrot. And for beans I used kidney and navy.

To go with it, I made some corn muffins (from a mix).

And I topped it with sharp cheddar cheese...melty and delicious.

Meals like this are great for cold winter nights. And then great as leftovers for cold winter lunches!

What does winter have you craving?