Fiber Fool

I was baking popovers (they were a bust, they popped, but burnt in our oven at the recommended time, temp & rack placement) when the sky suddenly got super dark and snow hit. We got our forecasted snow accumulation in under an hour. It has since slowed, but it is still coming down.

I decided to take a few minutes to calm myself (so, so busy and stressed) and take a few shots. These are pretty much SOOC (straight out of camera). I couldn’t believe how dark the southwesterly exposed living room got!

Looking up through the towering douglas fir next door just to try a different angle/viewpoint on things.

Lovely bleached pinecone beneath the fir pictured above.

A few berries are hanging onto the hedges between our house and the neighbor’s.

Yesterday’s loaf of bread was the prettiest loaf I’ve *ever* made. So of coarse I *had* to photograph it :-)

It doesn’t just look good. It tastes good too!

I used a recipe in Beth Hensperger’s Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (yes, again - the binding is nearly ready to give up the ghost we use it so much). It calls for a cracked 9-grain hot cereal that you soak in hot water with honey and butter for an hour before you add the other ingredients. I used Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain cereal.

Obviously I didn’t bake it in the machine. I also omitted the powdered buttermilk as we didn’t have any on hand. I also left out the gluten and worked it up on my own, kneading the dough myself after the last rise in the bread machine. It had a final rise of about 45 minutes, then I floured and sliced in ~1/4 deep along the top. It baked at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes, then I turned off the oven and left it in for an additional 10 minutes.

This past week has caused a heaviness in my heart as some extended family and a close friend’s family have suffered great losses. You know who you are, and I am holding you close in my thoughts.