Lots of Baking on a Snowy Day

Molasses turkey and bell cookies, sticky icky hard to handle dough. Two loaves of whole wheat bread, gorgeous lovely to handle dough. We made BLT's for dinner and found the Two Vines cabernet was a perfect match. I have a votive candle going in case the power goes out, but so far, just lots of blinking off and right back on again.

The other day, before it snowed, I was out doing some pruning and discovered a very strange thing. At first, I thought someone had run into this very shrubby willow with a truck and scraped off a lot of bark, but then I realized it had to be done by an animal. No beavers around so it must have been the deer, nibbling away at the bark. I checked with Joe, our very excellent and knowledgeable neighbor, who just had to come over and take a look. He said he'd never seen anything like it before but it must have been the deer who had been around recently. Then suddenly he knew! It was the one with the big antlers! It's rutting season and they like to rub their antlers on trees and get the scent from their sweat glands out to attract the females. Apparently, they don't ever do it so close to a house, but these critters feel right at home around here. After all, we've planted all these special tasty treats in our gardens just for them!

"Molly's Bread" version 1

All I have to say is that "no-knead" crusty French type bread is awesome, but there's nothing that compares to a handmade, fully kneaded loaf. Look what I made tonight! The recipe came from the world famous food blogger, Molly, who became doubly famous with the launch of Delancey, a tiny restaurant in an obscure spot in Ballard in Seattle. I haven't been there yet -- word is it's always packed -- but I take a peek at her blog every now and then. That's where the recipe came from for this dense, moist whole wheat/oatmeal bread, perfect for toast and general enjoyment. Still warm from the oven, we cut big slices and indulged in butter and my homemade blackberry jelly. I can hardly wait for morning and toast!

http://orangette.blogspot.com/2010/08/it-is-called-toast.html

Fresh Bread, Old Wine

Having no bread in the house and a hungry ditch digger to feed, I made a loaf of whole wheat bread and maybe it was the new jar of yeast or the new bag of flour, but it rose better than ever. The wine is a Malbec, from Argentina, and we carried it with us across the Andes and for a month while traveling in Chile two and a half years ago. I thought it would be ruined from all the bouncing around and improper storage so last night I opened it to add some flavor to a braised chicken and sausage dish. Amazingly, the wine was excellent!

Today we brought in a yard of topsoil, reinforcements for my death to grass campaign. In the area by the woods, the true enemy is bindweed. It's growing almost a foot a night and it's everywhere, twisting and wrapping and strangling whatever it can sneak up on. I wonder if it's resistant to napalm . . .