Making the Most of a SNOW DAY!

Hello, everyone. I am so happy to see you again. We got walloped with snow yesterday. Today, I want to bring you outside so we can measure the total snowfall. And then, in an act of pure optimism, I want to start planting the snapdragon seeds that you and I ordered from Johnny's last week and that arrived just the other day. And then, for dinner tonight, we're doing lemonicious chicken francaise. So, please hang out with me. I think we will have a fun day together. We are in my back garden now. According to my trusted tape measure, we have just shy of 21 inches of snow. You guys, it is so freaking cold here. Lots of snow. Have a look. So, this is what 20 inches of snow looks like. And the snow is going almost to the top of my knee-high boots. I am going to do my best not to fall for you. My goal is to go up the hill to show you the kitchen garden. Not sure we will make it. In fact, I can already tell we will not make it because I am blocked by the upright yews over here. They are weighed down with snow. So, guess what? We are going to go back indoors. In the comments below, let me know if you too got walloped by the recent winter storm. Now, for our seed sowing project, I had planned to go to the local hardware store or the local agway to buy more seed starting mix and also some cell packs and domes, but the streets are basically closed. We are snowed in. So, I am going to try to make do with whatever seed sowing supplies I already have on hand just as soon as I take off my jacket. Let's open this package. Seeds. So, these are all of the snapdragons. No, they can't be all of the snapdragons. Find all of the snaps. This is celery. Snapdragon. Onion. Snapdragon. Snapdragon. Snapdragon. Carrots. More onion. Another snapdragon. So, I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 varieties. So, I have Potomac Orange. These are pelleted seeds. Madame Butterfly Bronze. Potomac Lavender. Also pelleted seeds. Conn Lavender. Chantilly Light Pink. Madame Butterfly Ivory. And Madame Butterfly Rose. I don't have enough seed starting supplies to plant all of these today, but we will at least get a start on them. So, I have some very old, very dried out seed starting mix here. I have found that, at least for me, the easiest way to rehydrate dried out potting or seed starting mix is to soak it in very hot water. I'm not looking to drench the mix. I just want it to be evenly moist. This smells like warm earth. Warm earth on a frigid, snowy day. And before I go any farther, I want to cover my work surface. This tray is intended for standard size seed cells, but I'm using whatever seed planting gear I have today. I am definitely not an expert at planting snapdragons, but I did plant them from seed last year and was very successful with them. Well, if you watched last summer's videos, you know that I made loads of flower arrangements with those snapdragons, which is why I wanted even more snapdragons for my 2026 garden. And I want to thank you for your recommendations on zinnias that I should grow, and sources were interesting zinnias. Several of you mentioned, I think it was Baker Creek seeds. Some of you mentioned Burpee. And so I'm going to look at the zinnias that they have. I do know that snapdragons require light in order to germinate, so I won't be burying the seeds, but I will sow them on the surface of this seed sowing mix. And then I will give them a light covering of vermiculite. And the first seed we are doing is Madonna Butterfly Rose. You know what? I need to label this tray so I know what I've planted. So I have some masking tape here, and I need to take off my gloves. Trying to find a clean surface in which to stick this tape. So my tray is this long, and I can mark it off this way. This way I don't have to use those little plastic tags. So the first seed is Madonna Butterfly Rose, and the next variety will be Chantilly Light Pink, Madonna Butterfly Ivory. Now my seed label says that there are at least 50 seeds in here. I don't know if you can see these, but they are tiny. Oh yeah, these seeds are like dust. I'm going to try my best to plant just one or two per cell. If there are any left, I will just do this. Chantilly Light Pink is next. These cells are a little larger, so I can sow more seeds in each one. And now for Madonna Butterfly Ivory. The reason I'm working in my kitchen instead of my little room with the plant grow lights is because I don't have a large enough workstation over there. I forgot to bring in my vermiculite. I'll be right back. Now I need to mist the seeds with a little water. Then we can sprinkle on just a very light layer. Vermiculite is great because it holds moisture and it stops algae from growing. At least this has been my experience. We can put the dome on top to create a humid atmosphere. And then we can bring these seeds into the grow room and put them under lights. And the 2026 flower garden is started. Now tomorrow, if the roads are any better, I'm going to go shopping for additional seed starting supplies. I need more cell packs and trays and I will definitely need more seed starting mix. I'm going to get cleaned up here and then we can get started on an early dinner. Earlier I said we were going to make chicken francaise. We're actually making chicken francaise. It's a lemony, super delicious chicken main course. And I'm going to serve it with a side of, where's my knife? A roasted cauliflower florets. So I have a beautiful head of cauliflower here. This is too big. Good olive oil. Salt. Pepper. And toss. The olive oil will help the cauliflower to caramelize in the oven. And I will roast these at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 200 degrees Celsius. While we wait for the oven to preheat, I'm going to grab my ingredients for the chicken francaise. Now for the chicken francaise, first thing I need is some lemons. I'm going to slice one of these lemons. These lemons are very small, so I'm going to slice up two. And then this other lemon, I'm simply going to cut in half, because we will juice it later. It's part of the sauce for the chicken francaise. So I have two chicken breasts here, which I need to cut horizontally in half. Then I need to pound each half. Actually I don't need to pound this one, it's already very thin. Pound this one. So I'm looking for a thickness of about one-fourth of an inch. This one is pretty thin too. I can pound this one a little. Our contractor is here snowblowing paths in the boxwood garden. Mercifully. He actually came yesterday midway through the storm and snowblowed paths, but they all got covered again. For this next step, I need to wash my hands. I need some flour, salt, pepper. Give this a whisk. I forgot to mention it, I will link the recipe I'm following in the description below. Then I need a couple of eggs. I'm going to whisk the eggs. Then I want to season each slice of this chicken. I'm going to use my clean hand. Then I will flip the chicken and season the other side. And I need my big skillet. And the rest of this chicken francaise recipe will take place at the cooktop. Butter, oil. I'm using avocado oil. And when the butter has melted and its foam has subsided, dip the chicken first into the flour, lightly coating each side. Then into the egg and into the hot fat. Since I pounded the chicken, it will only need about three minutes per side to cook. My cauliflower is done. I'm keeping it warm in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven. And I preheated my upper oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit so I can keep the chicken warm while we make the sauce. In Kevin Lee Jacobs fashion, I forgot to add the lemon slices. I'm going to do that right now. The chicken is done and now we can transfer the chicken and the lemons to a platter. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to keep the chicken warm in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven. Heavy cream or half and half. Dry white wine, a French vermouth, chicken stock, and the juice of that last lemon that we cut in half. And I'm using both halves. I'm going to bring the sauce mixture to a simmer and let it simmer until it thickens. Now before we plate up our chicken franchese, I want to clean up a little here and I want to light a fire and maybe put on some decent clothes. Now normally I garnish chicken franchese with fresh parsley, but I don't have any fresh parsley today. And again, the roads aren't impassable. So I'm going to use my own homegrown dried parsley. That is, after I add the sauce to the parlor. Lizette will be joining me in just a moment. She managed to make it here in a four-wheel drive truck and she said the roads are still really bad. Are you slipping and sliding on your way here? Yeah. Okay, so let's do the taste test. Chicken is very, very tender. I absolutely love this dish. The chicken has that crust from the flour and the egg and we have the lemony sauce, the lemon and cream and wine. Oh, it is so absolutely delicious. Cauliflower. This cauliflower is so sweet. You might think I added sugar to it, but it's simply the caramelization that occurred in the oven. Sweet and wonderful. Healthy too, at least for me. And we are having water instead of wine because it's too early in the day to have wine. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today as we trudged through the snow and we planted snapdragon seeds and we made this incredible dinner. And again, I will post the link to the printable recipe for Chicken Francese in the description below. And to see the full description, you simply click on the title of the video. And if you were in the path of the big winter storm, please let me know how you spent your snow day. In the next episode, I think I will have a Valentine's Day surprise for you and I hope you will watch. And be sure to tap the like button and subscribe if you have not already, so you will not miss that or any episode. I can't wait to see you next time, friend. Bye for now.