Back to Winter

Okay. Would someone please tell Mother Nature that it's supposed to be Spring? What's in the weather forecast? Snow on Friday? You've got to be kidding me! If it does, it'll be a record. The latest snow in Seattle was April 17, 1972 (an inch at Sea-Tac). Yeesh.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful....

Egads. What a mess. Four inches of snow, followed by 2.76 inches of rain since midnight (and it's only noon!), and you get a real mess. Roads closed and water, water, everywhere. There was water nearly going into the boys' classroom, due to clogged gutters. Apparently they couldn't fix the problem, and as I left, they were going to dig a ditch to try to give the water somewhere to go. I can't see how it will work, since it's a low spot to begin with. Thankfully we haven't had the wind that was forecast.

So, it's a perfect day to hole up and bake! And in case you're also in the mood to bake (sounds like most of the country is socked in), here's my recipe for yummy homemade bread.

First of all, let me say - Get thee an electronic scale!!! Especially if you're new to breadmaking. I don't know what it is about my flour, but I always end up with too much flour if I measure it with my measuring cups. I have three different sets, and it's they are all the same, I checked. Also, if you want to be certain about the amount of salt you add, weigh it. The volume can be radically different for the same weight of salt depending on the manufacturer, and if it's kosher or not. Having the right amount of flour will significantly ease the learning process. I am so adamant about this, I'm not even going to give the measuring cup equivalents!




White Sandwich Loaf
Makes 3 1-1/2 lb loaves


20 ounces (567g) All-Purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons (22g) instant yeast
2 Tablespoons (28g) sugar
1 Tablespoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons (30g) vegetable oil
3-3/4 Cup (876g) milk, warmed in the microwave for about a minute or two to take off the chill. You don't want it warmer than about 105 degrees F.
29 ounces (825g) bread flour
Cooking spray

This recipe also takes a Very Large Bowl. Mine is a 4 quart (liter) bowl, and if I had a larger one, I'd use it. In your Very Large Bowl, stir together the all purpose flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center and add the oil and warmed milk. Mix well with a large wooden spoon. Stir in a cup of bread flour at a time until no more flour will go in with a spoon (about 5 Cups). I kind of jab the spoon into the center of the dough to try and work in as much as possible. Don't overdo it, though, you'll get the rest in there in a minute. Your dough will be fairly sticky at this point.

Pour most of the remaining flour onto a clean surface (I have a huge cutting board, but a clean counter will work as well). Turn out the dough onto the floured surface, cover your hands in flour, and knead the dough for 6-7 minutes, adding more flour as needed to keep your hands from getting goopy. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or your Very Large Bowl, and let it rest for about 20 minutes. Remove the bowl and resume kneading for 5-7 minutes. You may need to add small amounts of flour at a time to keep your dough from sticking to your hands and board. Your dough should be tacky, though, like a Post-It Note. Take out all that tension and aggression on the dough!

Sprinkle a little more flour in the dough bowl (yes, I'm still using my Very Large Bowl), put the dough in it, spritz the top with cooking spray or dust it with flour, and cover it with plastic wrap. The traditional method is to use a damp cloth, but it cools down the dough. Put the dough in a warm place (I use the top of my fridge) and let rise 60-90 minutes at 70-78 degrees (the cooler your house, the longer it takes), until when you poke the dough with a finger, it doesn't spring back.

Turn your dough out onto a LIGHTLY floured surface (you don't want to add flour at this point if you can help it). Flatten out your dough slightly, and divide it into 3pieces (if you have your scale handy, you can weigh them). Flatten out your dough, and place the smoothest side down. Shape into loaves. There are many ways to do this, and a quick internet search on shaping bread loaves will give you enough ways to do it differently each time. Drop it into a greased loaf pan (either a 1lb or 1-1/2lb loaf pan. I use the smaller because I like huge tops, but either will work), spray with cooking spray, or dust with flour, lightly cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes.

If you like, you can lightly brush the tops with butter or egg wash before putting them into the oven.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Turn out the loaves onto a cooling rack.

Now here's the hard part - try not to cut them for at least an hour, preferably waiting until they're completely cool. We never can, and sacrifice one loaf almost immediately :-).

Enchantment

Yesterday afternoon the snow started to fall. We were on our way back from seeing "Enchanted" with my friend, J, and her family. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it if you've grown up (and enjoy) all those Disney princess movies. One of the best movies I've seen in years!

Anyway, we stopped by the store for a few last-minute items for the annual "Guys' Xmas Party." Mr. E still hangs out with the friends he had back in high school, and we had the guys and their families over. When I came out of the store, big, wet flakes were falling like someone had just turned on the snow machine. It kept falling, and we were watching the road and the thermometer to try and determine whether or not we were even going to have the party.

We did. And everyone had a good time. Everyone brought wonderful food and drink, and we talked and laughed and enjoyed ourselves, watching the snow come down. By the time everyone left at midnight, we had about 4" on the ground. The roads weren't too bad since the snow came slowly over a matter of hours.

Today we got another inch before it all turned to rain. Tonight a huge storm is barreling down upon us, and the forecasters have told us to brace for 60mph winds. My heart goes out for our Canadian neighbors who have had over a foot of snow, now the drenching rain to weigh it all down, and the wind to top off everything.

In the meantime, we have all taken bets as to when our right-leaning snowman will crash to the ground. We each have chosen a time when we think it will tumble.

I'm off to do some work for our school. I know I promised to post my bread recipe, and I will soon. I just didn't have time today.

Posting, snow, etc.

I've decided that I'm an every-other-day kind of blog poster. Trying to find the time or the insight to blog every day, even for a month, is too taxing to me right now. Maybe once I get the hang of it, I'll be able to whip out intelligent, insightful posts every day. Until then....

Snow is in the forecast again tonight, although they can't come to a consensus as to where or when or how much snow we'll get. I bought some onions as a charm to work against the snow. It only snows when I'm not prepared and am low on milk or something. Maybe I should've bought more eggs....

If you haven't figured it out already, Western Washington is not used to snow and ice. It really is a mess, cancelling school, closing roads, and tying up traffic for hours. We don't get enough snow here to neccessitate large numbers of plows, so unless you live on a main road, you're SOL. Ergo, snow, when it happens, is a huge deal.

On Monday night, it started snowing in earnest. I called Mr. E, letting him know that the forecast models said we were supposed to get 3" of snow. He said "Let me know when it's 32". At 33.3 and dropping, I called again, and he headed home. Fortunately or unfortunately, it stopped before it got to 32, so he had no problems, but just the same.... This is our snow dance.

I do love it when it snows (and I'm prepared!). Hot cocoa, a fire in the woodstove, goulash soup and crusty bread, snowmen, wool sweaters, and Mr. E, "snowed in", sledding on a nearby hill, everyone (with kids) out enjoying another taste of childhood, recalling the huge snows of '70 or '85. (Yeah, I'm a local.)

Next time, my bread recipe!

More Wind

After a weekend that seemed very chilly, since I was outside freezing my (insert body part here) off watching the boys' soccer games, it sounds like we're in for another wind storm. Depending on who you listen to, we're in for gusts somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60mph tomorrow.

So we'll be hunkered down, reading, knitting (me), playing games, watching the leaves fly about, what have you, since the boys are off school. I was thinking about taking them to the movies, but there's nothing good out right now. All the kids' movies are "rotten" according to my favorite movie review website, Rotten Tomatoes.

The snow level is dropping like a rock, and while it won't be snowing here, it will be definitely colder. Highs that had been in the 50s, will only get to the 40s. Lows will get closer to the snowflake mark, and we'll be watching for "lumpy rain".

Hold on to your hats, Northwesterners! Here comes round 2.

Wind

We are expecting our first windstorm of the season today. Depending on how close the low comes to us, we could have wind gusts of 50mph. Right now it is calm. A time to get all the laundry done, and pick up anything outside that will fly away.

I love windstorms. Granted, I live in a relatively treeless area, so power outages are generally short lived, and I have never experienced a tree going through my house. Our big windstorm last year left us without power for 10 hours or so. It went out just after the boys went to bed, and was on by the time they got up. My parent's house was out for 10 days.

I enjoy the feeling of hunkering down, not being able to watch the TV, or mess about on the computer. A fire burns in the wood stove. Thing 2 makes a "nest" of blankets and pillows, laying on the floor in front of the stove, book in hand. Candles are burning, and I heat water for tea or hot chocolate on the wood stove. We play games while there's light enough to see, and tell stories when there isn't. Mr. E has a few ongoing stories that the boys love. It used to be Captain Smile and Mr. Hurt, or Agent Cobra and Agent Viper. Mostly they love Willard stories - an obese seagull that floats off the ferry dock next to the McDonald's in Seattle, that often gets mistaken for a buoy.

I alway feel like I have to get prepared whenever there's an "event" like this, whether wind or snow. It never fails that when I am prepared, nothing happens, and when I'm not - well, that's when we get 10" of snow*. There's enough in the freezer and the pantry that we could last for a month if we had to, but it always seems like I'm that one magic ingredient short for this or that. Ah, well. One of these days I need to learn how to cook by putting together the things I have instead of going strictly by a recipe.

So, off to get "prepared" and ensure that this isn't anything more than a light blow.

*Ok, I can drive in the snow, sort of. I live in a really hilly area (100-250ft elevation per mile driven) with no guardrails, pathetic plowing, and a bunch of nuts in their SUVs driving over the speed limit, not caring which lane they're in.


Later -

Looks like we had a 40mph gust. Not bad for the first storm of the season. Lost power for about 3 hours this afternoon. Got it back just in time to make dinner. All's well, but the backyard looks a mess.

Full Circle

I love wreaths. I would like to have a different one over my door for every season. They're so welcoming! I have my Xmas one, of course, and a Halloween one with Kleenex ghosts, but aside from October and December, my front door is wreathless.

At our old house, we had salal, doug fir, and cedar, and I would make a Christmas wreath from fallen limbs after the first fall storm, which usually comes around Thanksgiving. We have cedar here, but no doug fir or salal, and I've taken to buying my Xmas wreath at Costco.

So it's been a few years since I've made a wreath from live material, and I am rather pleased with this one of bay leaves from my garden. I majorly pruned the two plants that flank the shed door, as they had topped ten feet, and want to turn into massive trees. I have enough to make another wreath, and will probably do so tonight. If I were really anal, I would've dried the branches first, making sure all the leaves were pointed in the same direction, but I prefer the loose, two-tone effect.

The Oregon Climate Service came out with its winter weather predictions, and it's looking to be a cold, snowy one again. Hopefully that means we won't have many mosquitoes again. I don't think I've been bit more than twice here at home this year, which is a welcome relief. I love the snow so long as Mr. E and I don't have to drive in it - it's very hilly here, and after the two rush-hour snow events of last year.... Last time I watched the weather very carefully, and told Mr. E when to come home. He made it just as the snow started to stick. How's that for timing? Hopefully he'll listen this year.

So add to my list of to-do items, buying a cord of firewood, and figuring out a way to block up the vents to the crawlspace. Our floors get so cold, my feet freeze unless I have on my very fuzzy slippers, and I'm the only one that has them. Also, protect the rosemary so I don't lose it again. That was painful. I had two three-foot-tall bushes completely dead by spring. Let's see, cover the salad greens with a tunnel cloche, pile up compost around the roses....

It never ends, does it? LOL.

Kind of like a wreath.

Guilt

I'm not sure how this happened, but what started out as a compliment, suddenly has become a flurry of guilt-induced activity. The odd thing about it is, the guilt is flying back and forth over 4700 miles and 8 time zones.

Hedgewizard keeps an impressive list of all that is coming from his garden and pantry on his humorous blog. He held a "Delurking Day", so I delurked and dared to say that I hoped to have as productive a garden as his. Somehow that made him feel guilty, and sent him into a frenzy of activity, which he claims is my fault. Guess I should've stayed a lurker?

Of course I feel guilty about setting all this about, even though I didn't mean to. I've been known to put my foot in my mouth before. Being the guilt-driven person I am, I have since cleared the strawberry bed of weeds and runners, replanting where needed, watered all the veggie beds, totally cleaned the kitchen, which looked like a bomb had gone off in it, done three loads of laundry and hung them on the clothesline to dry, restocked the wood shed, and restacked the leftover wood, since the pile had fallen over, and am about to attack the herb garden. And did I mention that it's 86 degrees outside?

I know, us Northwesterners are weather wimps. I can handle cold temps and rain, but heat I cannot bear. Very few of us around here have air conditioning, since there are so few days that we need it. But I suffer when it gets towards 90.

I'm actually enjoying this little bit of summer, since it won't last long. I saw geese flying South today; more signs of fall. I'm anxiously awaiting the Oregon Climate Service's winter weather predictions. Some people think that we're going to have a mild winter after a crummy summer, others think that we're in for another bad one like last winter (floods, windstorm, and snow).

Until then, it's work outside during the sunny days. Even if it's 86 degrees, and guilt-ridden.

Getting Back in the Swing

Bread! Tuesday I had to make more bread since we were out. Here's what my loaves look like. Half a loaf disappears that first day. Each loaf is a little over 1-1/2 lbs. I figure if I'm to bake all my own bread, we'd need somewhere on the order of 160lbs of flour each year. That's not including the flour for pizza, muffins, and everything else. I'll try and post photos of other things around our homestead, as I take them.

By the way, what is the definition of a homestead? Does my house, acre, veggie and herb garden, strawberry bed, and eight fruit trees count? Or do you have to raise chickens, or something?

Summer seriously throws me for a loop. I miss the routines of the school year. Not school itself, mind you. When I finally manage to get something of a summer routine going, something throws itself in my path like vacation or day camp, and I have to start all over again.

We finally have some sun and warm temps, so I got up at a reasonable hour and got the sheets washed and on the line. Load #2 is on there now. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny as well, and I think I'll try and get the sleeping bags washed and on the line, or at least some of them. My clothesline isn't in the best of places, right behind the garage, and the sugar maples cast shade in the morning, and, by this time of year, the house in the afternoons. Since Mr. E originally didn't approve of my clothesline, I tried to put it in the most non-visible part of my yard. Now he approves, after smelling how fresh the sheets are coming from the line.

Fall is definitely in the air. The vine maples in the woods behind us are red already. Most of the plants are in a state of confusion. The blackberries are just now starting to flower. The lawn is mostly green, even though we've never watered it. Usually by now it's totally brown. I feel like summer hasn't really been here at all. It seems like we've had May/June weather in July and August. Hopefully we'll have a nice Indian Summer. Some years we do, and it's pleasant to go to soccer practice in weather that's not cold and raining, and taking home cold, wet, muddy boys.

Time to check the clothes on the line....

Home Again

We're back from a restful week up North. Now comes the busy time of unpacking everything, doing the laundry, catching up on the garden, the bills, and our friends' lives.

A couple of momentous things happened. Thing 2 caught his first fish! He reeled it in, landed it on the dock, screaming the whole time "I caught a fish!" I was hustling down to the dock, but by the time I got there, the little 6 inch trout wriggled off the hook and jumped back into the lake. Thing 2 was so excited, he was shaking all over. My little boy is Type I diabetic, and he thought his blood sugar was low. I didn't think he was, but had him go test anyway. Welcome to an adrenaline rush, dear. Needless to say, he's now "hooked" on fishing. Every moment he could from then on, he was out on the dock, fishing, for two days after that.

The other momentous thing, was that Thing 2, my cautious son, after his first trail ride of the year, actually wanted to go again. Unfortunately, the second ride was much longer, and apparently the first ride had no galloping for the kids, so he freaked out when they galloped. He stayed on the horse, though, and finished the ride, but he wasn't happy about it. Hopefully he'll remember the good ride.... Thing 1 is doing much better, and if he rides a lot next year, will probably be able to move up with the adults.

I managed to make buttermilk fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy on the cook stove. Yum! I also made pancakes and sausages, and bacon and eggs. I love hot breakfast. I wonder if I should start making it more for breakfast here at home? Thing 2 loves it, I know, but Thing 1 doesn't eat much breakfast, like his father. The crowning glory, though, was making cornbread in the oven. It took 1-1/2 hours to get the stove up to 350F, but it cooked the bread nicely. One of the families cooks a turkey in the oven every (Canadian) Thanksgiving. I'm not that brave. Besides, the stove heats up the cabin so much, I was literally "sweating over a hot stove," and had the door and all the windows open on the cabin by 9:00.

It's very sad to see the state of the forests up there. The pine bark beetle has turned once green forests into swaths of rust-colored death. Global warming has taken away natures checks and balances for the bug. Four consecutive days of -40 temperatures are needed to kill it, and that hasn't happened since 1996. Many places, including where we stayed, have logged off all the pine, since the lumber is marketable for only two years. Thing 1 was very upset, since most of the forest where he liked to play was gone, to be replaced by a huge pile of brush.

The loss of the trees was showing itself in other ways, as well. Every year, a little squirrel runs back and forth behind our cabin, storing pine cones for the winter. It'd be so busy, starting before I got up, making maybe 100 trips each morning. I'd feel guiltily lazy compared to this little creature, storing up winter supplies to get through the long, cold winter. This year there was no squirrel, its food source gone.

Our weather has been very strange for summer. Our usual dry July and August have been cool and rainy. My new clothesline hasn't been used much, and I had to put a plastic tent over the tomatoes, for fear of late blight. I actually started the wood-burning stove yesterday, it was so cold in the house. Mr. E's favorite apple tree is dropping apples three weeks early, and some of the trees in the neighborhood have started turning red. I've heard of tomato summers and cabbage summers. This was definitely a cabbage summer. I'm wondering what this winter will bring. Will the cold weather continue into the winter? Or will temperatures remain mild? Should I store my nuts (sow more veggies) for the winter?

Today I'm doing laundry, and making more bread. I need to find the kitchen after everything got dumped there on Sunday, and I had a disastrous pizza night (what was the deal with the dough? It acted really weird.) I have peaches I need to deal with, as well, and decide if I'm going to can them, make cobbler, or what.