I repair and repaint metal toys, Tonka trucks and the like, dub around with Arduino programming, read the backlog of Analog magazines that has built up over the summer, and abuse the hell out of my Netflix and Amazon Prime privileges.
This Winter, I've added a new toy to my tool collection, a 7x12 mini lathe, so I'll spend a bunch of time turning perfectly good metal into chips and curls while I teach myself how to use it, plus blow the kid's inheritance on tooling.
I also unleash my Inner Bear and hibernate AND eat a lot so I'll be in shape (round is a shape, right?) for Spring.
Seeing as we're doing recipes:
Cold Weather Veggie Soup
Pop a half a pound or so of stew meat in a crock pot with water, onion, salt and pepper. Throw in a handful of rice or barley and cook it until it falls apart. (Note, if you like barley, use the Quaker Oats Quick Pearled Barley or the equivalent. Regular barley takes to long to cook up.) Venison is best, but beef or lamb works too. When it's cooked down, let it sit overnight to cool and in the morning skim the hardened fat off the top.
Grind the vegetables listed below with a hand grinder. DO NOT use a blender, it cuts the veggies too fine. What you want is a consistency about like Grape Nuts cereal, if that makes sense.
3 or 4 tennis ball sized potatoes.
1 softball sized turnip
4-6 good sized carrots
Half a head of cabbage
A couple of sticks of celery
Put the cooked stew meat and broth on to reheat while grinding the veggies. When they're all ground, dump them in the pot with the meat and broth and simmer until tender. Cook it down to an almost oatmeal-like texture. Longer is better, and it's REALLY good reheated the next day. Nukes well too.
Salt and pepper to taste, home-made bread and real butter as a side.
Caution: Do NOT trust a fart after a couple of bowls full of this stuff.