Winter Baking
Most of the time I love to cook more than I love to bake. I enjoy chopping lots of veggies for soups and rolling out pasta for lasagna. In the winter however, I enjoy baking, especially when it’s really cold outside. In The past couple weeks the oven’s been working overtime making all sorts of wonderful things. Today I’m going to be busy baking a few things for the Super Bowl party we’ll be attending tomorrow.
When I do bake, I generally prefer to make bread. I make all kinds of bread, but nice crusty sourdoughs come out of the oven more often than sweet breads. Every now and then Mr Chiots talks me into making cinnamon rolls for him, the ones above were made for his birthday (they were topped with maple caramel made with our homemade maple syrup).
I’m not a big cookie baker either, much to Mr Chiot’s chagrin. Every now and then I feel like some chocolate chip cookies so I make a batch. My favorite recipe at the moment is this one from Nosh With Me. I made a batch this week to eat while reading through the new 2010 USDA nutrition guidelines. I happily munched away on my butter laden cookies and drank my whole milk latte without any guilt while reading their recommendations to drink skim milk and remove butter from your diet.
Last night a delicious four berry pandowdy with the zest of four of those lovely Meyer lemons came out of the oven. Didn’t get a photo of that, I was too hungry, and tired. I have to admit, if I could only bake one thing for the rest of my life, it would be a good loaf of sourdough. I’d happily give up all cakes, cookies, brownies and sweets for a good piece of bread any day.
Do you prefer cooking or baking? What’s your favorite thing that comes out of your oven?
Share this:
Gardening Brings People Together
One of the things I’ve noticed is that gardening really bring people together. The love of gardening is something that many people from all walks of life have in common. It doesn’t matter if your ninety or nine, if you’re both gardeners you can find something to talk about.
My neighbors have always asked me about gardening, but more so now that I’m growing edible things. After I put in raised beds in the back and starting growing tomatoes in my front flowerbeds, I noticed that a few of my neighbors started to do the same. The neighbors across the street even starting cutting down trees each year to expand their edible garden. She comes over often to ask my advice about what’s wrong with her peppers or where to buy strawberry plants. Late this fall she came over and offered me some raspberry canes. I’d been wanting to put some in, but hadn’t bought any yet, so I say yes. She brought over a bucket full of them, I think there were 10 canes in all. I’ll have to make sure to take her some garlic when I harvest mine this summer, as I know she doesn’t grow her own yet.
Gardening truly is a wonderful way to open the door to get to know your neighbors. Even if your neighbors don’t garden, simply sharing some of your bounty may be enough to get them interested. You may find yourself with gardening neighbors soon enough!
Do you share plants & produce with neighbors? Has a neighbor shared plants with you?
Share this:
Join Us for No Buy February
This weekend I heard about Xan’s No Buy February Challenge. Since I’m a big fan of saving money and being thrifty I joined up. Mr Chiots and I did a no buy year 5-6 years ago and it was a wonderful thing, it really helped us get off that treadmill of buying stuff we didn’t need only to get rid of it a few years later and replace it with more stuff! It was a turning point for us financially, it really made us think about needs vs. wants and as a result we were able to pay off our house last year.
The idea of No Buy February, is to refrain from purchasing anything you don’t absolutely “NEED” during the entire month. You set the parameters for what you need or don’t need, here’s what Xan says:
Take the pledge with me for a NoBuyFebruary. If you don’t need it to live, don’t buy it. Taken to extremes, this means only buy groceries, because I’m guessing you have plenty of clothes, and you certainly don’t need any more dust catchers. If you can make it at home, you can’t buy it. Coffee. Meals. I’m including electronic expenditures, too, so that means no Kindle books or online subscriptions. Just go for a month without spending any money that you don’t have to spend. No fair using the last day of January to go on a buying binge either.
Of course you can still purchase things you need, I’ll be buying supplies to make my own seeds starting mix and a few amendments for the garden when I head up to Ohio Earth Food later this week and maybe some more seeds once I finish planning the garden. To me these things count as needs though not wants, if I didn’t purchase them I wouldn’t be able to grow my own food this summer. I’m fairly certain, however, that I can go the entire month of February without purchasing any additional food, heaven knows I have enough in the pantry to survive for months. It may mean going without mushrooms, or maybe running out of something, but we won’t starve! I decided that I was going to keep track of the amount of money I’m saving buy not purchasing things I don’t need and at the end of the month I’m going to donate that money to charity.
I’m also going to focus on going through the house and getting rid of stuff I don’t need during February. This is a perfect way to reinforce the don’t buy mindset. When you start making piles of stuff to give away or sell, it’s eye opening. You see how much you actually have and how little you really need.
What about you, do you think you can go a whole month without purchasing anything you don’t need?
Share this:
Quote of the Day: Theodore Roethke
“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light”
~ Theodore Roethke
As I look out on the gardens everything is nestled under a insulating blanket of snow. All of the peonies, irises, hydrangeas, hyssop, echinacea and all the other flowers in the garden are quietly waiting for the soil to warm in the spring to start growing and blooming.
Just like gardeners, they need a rest over the winter to produce such beauty during the summer. I thought this quote was perfect for this time of year because no doubt they’re all keeping the light in their roots underneath the snow. I think I’m most excited to see my hydrangeas this coming summer, they’re definitely one of my favorites!
What flower are you most excited about seeing during the next season?
Share this:
Long Winter Evenings
“It is most amazing how much literature you can cover during the long winter evenings. We read fairy tales and legends, historical novels and biographies, and the works of the great masters of prose and poetry.”
Maria Augusta Trapp The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
One of the things I do love about winter is that I have time for reading, not as much as I’d like since I’m pretty busy with my day job right now. I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm, and it doesn’t get better as you get older. I have a list a mile long of new books I want to read, and yet I find myself often flipping through old favorites that live on my bookshelf. This time of year I find myself often referencing gardening books while ordering seeds and planning my summer garden.
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, the book quoted from above was one I read in December and I throughout enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. It’s a wonderful story of a thoughtful life. I also really enjoyed the The River Cottage Cookbook and the The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes both cookbook/stories. I’m now moving on to Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land and a few photography books. I’m always on the lookout for great books to add to my list.
Read anything great lately that you can recommend to us?
