Once again, my strategy for making spring appear has worked.

Here’s how I did it: I pretended I wasn’t wishing for it. I sprinkled my calendar with days reserved for pajamas, donuts and Netflix. It’s all about hiding under good blankets and waiting out chilly misery.

I’ve had an Ugly Betty winter, a Grey’s Anatomy winter, a Parks and Rec winter (two of them, actually) and a 30 Rock winter.

Naturally, I needed to read Bossypants, the memoir of 30 Rock’s creator, Tina Fey.

Fey is as normal as plain potato chips. Have you ever worried about the size of your hips? Lamented how few dates you got in college?

So has Fey.

She’s just like us.

Were you raised by an imposing dad whose no-nonsense manner turned you into “an achievement-oriented, obedient, drug-free, virgin adult”? By a mother who says, “You’ve gone far enough, young lady”?

So was Fey.

She’s just like us.

Did you roll your eyes at your high school teachers? (As she put it, hers trained at the Teachers College of Anthraciteville. For you non-Pennsylvania people, that’s shorthand for “small, grim coal-mining town.”)

Work odd jobs that you wanted to escape?

Pack up the husband and baby for the annual Christmas road trip to the in-laws? Kept the baby quiet with cold French fries?

So has Fey.

She’s just like us.

She’s so much like us that sometimes it’s hard to remember that she’s the boss of a New York TV show; that her mother’s lecture about “That’s enough” refers to her famous impersonations of Sarah Palin; that she makes funny look easy.

Like a greasy burger lunch with an entertaining friend, Fey’s book was the kind of fun that ends much too soon.

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Let’s get back to Fey’s in-laws.

They are big consumers of Saran Wrap and Maxwell House coffee, the kind of people you might stand next to in the check-out line at Kohl’s.

Tina, meanwhile, has gotten acclimated to New York. She loves Starbucks and a different ethnic cuisine every night of the week.

How can these people eat together happily?

I suggest Skier’s Stew, because even after you’ve gone New Yorky, sometimes you can’t pass up a good stick-to-the-ribs dish. You can find it online, but I got this version from Winnifred Jardine’s Managing Your Meals:

2 pounds stew beef, cut in 1 1/2-inch cubes
8 medium potatoes, quartered 1384 g
8 large carrots, cut in fourths 576 g
2 bay leaves
1 package (1 1/2 oz) dried onion soup
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of celery soup
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

In large Dutch oven or heavy pan with tight-fitting lid, make a layer of beef, then the vegetables. Top with bay leaves, soups and tomato sauce.

Bake at 325′ for 3 hours OR 275′ for 6 hours OR 250′ for 8 hours.

Or cook in crockpot on high for 4 1/2 hrs.

Pair it with Raspberry Swirl Brownies, because the recipe calls for potent dark chocolate, the kind Tina might have to buy on 7th Avenue before she heads out to the family bash in Ohio.