Snow Day.

Why, hello people I love.

It snowed.

Our humble abode.

The Man is excited and full of glee even thought it took him SEVEN hours to get home due to traffic. SEVEN HOURS for a one hour drive. I am bored and cold. Sorry, people. Snow just isn’t my thing. It’s pretty to look at from inside, but that’s about as far as my interest goes. I don’t like cold and wet. Just don’t. I’m a jerk, I know.

Today, since I couldn’t drive anywhere, I did my co-writes (where I write songs with other people) on Skype. Thanks internet!

Speaking of, please go check out my friend and frequent co-writer – Quinton Tolbert. Pre-warning: you are going to slap yourself pretty hard and think you’re not in real life when you hear him. Don’t say I didn’t tell ya. LAWD.

After my session with Quinton, I checked Facebook where everyone and their momma is freaking out over some milk and bread and eggs. I, for one, don’t get the milk, bread, and eggs obsession. I can understand toilet paper, Gushers, and canned soup, but not milk, bread, and eggs. The Man voiced his concerned about the milk, bread, and eggs phenomenon when I sent him to the store during all this hysteria.

He called me from the store and said,”I believe there is something about snow and ice that make people crave French Toast, cause people are fighting each other for milk, bread, and eggs. I’m leaving before I get hurt.” He’s a smart one, that Man. French Toast is not worth any blood shed.

One reason why bread isn’t on our grocery list is because I don’t buy bread. I make it. I say that as non-obnoxiously as I can.

Remember a couple of months ago when I wrote about some things you may not know about me? One of those was about how if I didn’t do music, I’d want to run a self-sufficient farm. Jeremy and I started thinking more about that more and have figured out how to have a semi-homestead. We’ve started a garden, I make my own bread, pasta, and tortillas, starting to mill my own flour. Stuff like that. I’d love to have my own chickens and cows, but there’s no time for that. So we’re just doing what we can do.

I’ve told a couple of friends about it and their first question is- how do you have time for that. Well, there’s a couple of ways. One- I don’t have kids or pets. Two- I freeze and can a lot of things. So, if I have a Monday at home- I can make bread and pasta and freeze it, can vegetables, etc. Then what I’ve got doesn’t go bad. I have a little irrigation system for my garden as well as a momma who will go over and tend to the garden when I’m gone. So, we make it work.

Another snotty thing about us, is we eat clean I would say 80% of our diet. Just something we’ve been convicted about. So we’re those weird hippies who don’t like chemicals in or on our food. Since we’ve started eating this way- along with some exercise- I’ve lost around 15lbs and overall we both just feel WAY better. It’s not for everyone, but it works for us.

Also, we’re saving about $40 a WEEK on our grocery bill, which is The Man’s favorite part. It’s not hard, it just takes some time. For us, it’s worth it. When we’re at home, we work on our semi-homestead. When we’re not, we have a some sweet people to help keep it up.

Anyway, back to bread. I make my own bread. Here’s what I’m doing today.

I made this loaf last week, and it’s super easy…and gone. Hence why I’m making more today. It does have some flour, so it’s not whole wheat. But it’s still awesome. Don’t let the prep time intimidate you- it’s really a whole bunch of waiting. I had two conference calls while I was making this stuff. Here’s how I did it.

AUTHOR: ADAPTED FROM WHITE ON RICE COUPLE

PREP TIME:  2 HOURS

COOK TIME:  40 MINS

TOTAL TIME:  2 HOURS 40 MINS

YIELDS: 1 LOAF

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 2¼ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2½ cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups bread or all-purpose flour
• 1 cup rolled oats, plus more for topping loaf
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 tablespoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour water and milk into a microwave-safe bowl; heat 30 to 45 seconds until warm (about 115 degrees F). Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Add yeast and honey. Let sit 10 minutes until yeast is foamy.
3. Stir in flours, oats, butter and salt. Using a dough hook, knead on medium speed 6 minutes until dough is smooth, elastic and only slightly sticky (alternatively, knead by hand 10 to 15 minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth, elastic and only slightly sticky). Keep dough in bowl and cover with a tea towel. Let rise 1 hour until doubled.
4. When dough is doubled, punch down and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Press into an 8-by-8-inch square, then tuck in sides slightly and roll up into a log. Transfer to a lightly greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pan, seam-side down. Cover with a tea towel and let rise 30 to 40 minutes until dough reaches the edges of the pan (but not doubled).
5. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (375 degrees F if loaf pan is dark or nonstick). Sprinkle oats on top of risen loaf. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until loaf is deep brown on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from loaf pan and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Taadaaaa!

While mine’s still warm, I like to mix just a little bit of butter and honey, melt it, and brush it over the top. Boomshaklaka.

So, for all you winter freaker outers, make your own dang bread if you’re out! You really don’t need milk for most bread recipes. You just need to have some flour and yeast and sink that produces water on hand. Then I always have honey or some maple syrup so it doesn’t taste like bookey. That word is pronounce boo•key, not book•ie for those of you wondering.

Gonna start sharing some stuff we cook and do here at home with ya’ll for the ones who’ve asked. Here’s some other stuff I’ve made at home.

Pasta

Deer Stew

Ribs and Roasted Carrots w/green beans and sweet cornbread

Oatmeal Pancakes

Open faced taco w/ homemade tortillas, egg, sautéed onions, homemade guacamole, and homemade salsa

If you make some bread, send me a picture so I can see if it looks better than mine. 🙂

See ya when it’s warmer and Happy Hunger Games!

HMS