{ Blog 365 #31 - Another Winter Storm }

 

Brrrr!!!!

 

It is another cold day here in Northern Texas, as we are currently under another Winter Storm, this time an Ice Storm.  There was no work or schools yesterday, nor today, and apparently not tomorrow either.

 

There is a cold air storm moving in from Canada, and then we have warm air moving in from the South of us, and it is all converging where we live.  South of us will get lots of rain, north of us will get lots of snow, and we are in what they're calling The Battle Zone.  Right?  Makes you want to run doesn't it?  

Apparently it means we are where they meet so we get the ice, freezing rain, and sleet conditions.  It is dangerous, it is nerve wrecking and above all it is cold.

 

 

Curt and I were up early this morning, and by early I mean 3:30 AM.  Kaia needed to go potty, and then we couldn't fall back asleep, so we laid in bed chatting, playing with Kaia and by 4 just figured we might as well get up.  So we did.

I made my way, coldly, into the kitchen, and started our coffee, and while the water boiled, I got a fire started, and mixed together a dough for some Portuguese bread.  Pao Caseiro.....which literally means Homey Bread, because this the kind of loaf you will find in old Portuguese homes in the quaint little villages in Portugal.

There is nothing to it but 4 ingredients, but honestly, you can't beat the taste of rustic warm fresh bread, slathered in butter.

 

With the house being so cold, I set the bread to rise near the fireplace, where it stayed nice and toasty, and within an hour, it had doubled in size.

In the meantime, I got 2 packs of bacon into the oven.  Curt and I were craving bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast, and I needed to cook the two packs before they expired.  The rest of the bacon is in a ziploc in the fridge, and will be used throughout the week.

 

While the bacon cooked and the dough rose, I also made a batch of Homemade Peppermint Mocha Creamer.  I find it not only cheaper, but also healthier to make it at home, especially when you actually take the time to look at the ingredients on the back of the store bought creamer.  What on earth?

It's a bit scary.  It's also getting more and more expensive, so for the moment I'll just make it at home.

 

The rest of the day, I didn't do much at all.  I have a horrid hormonal headache, cramps and the usual Perimenopause light headedness.  It makes it hard to get much done, so I'm thrilled I got so much sorted early morning.

We are now bracing for the incoming snow and ice overnight, and into Thursday morning.  I just pray our pipes don't freeze again.  

If you're in the path of these Winter Storms, stay warm and stay safe.  I'll be praying for us all.

Right, I am going to sign off, I just got out of the shower and washed my hair, now I want to go give it a quick snip snip, just on the ends.  Then I'll be reading, watching some tv and going to bed early. 

 

 

I will leave you with a little peek at one of the Kitchen Towels I sewed last week.  I am in love with it, and it matches my kitchen perfectly.

Have a wonderful night ladies, and I'll see you all tomorrow.  

By the way, I can't believe I was able to post every single day in January.  Wow!!!  It is getting easier to post, at least for me, although I'm sure there will be days that I'll probably feel like I don't know what to talk about.  Hahah

Anyway, we will deal with those as they come. ♥

{ Slow Saturday }

As a stay at home mom, it is not easy to get away from our jobs, considering we live at work, right?

When we first got married, when I would get frustrated with the housework or the monotony of it, I would sometimes tell Curt that I wish I had a job where I could also go away for 8 hours and then come home and switch off and relax.

Over the years, I've learned to love what I do, but truth be told, there are still days, especially on the weekends when I see everyone relaxing from work and school, that I feel like I kinda of wish I was also able to sit back and do absolutely nothing.

{ Sourdough Starter }

One of my favorite things to do, is bake bread.

I just love the whole process, the kneading, the baking and then knowing that when it's all done my family is rewarded with a loaf or two of the best tasting fresh homemade bread.

There really is nothing like a warm slice of bread slathered with butter, is there?

I've been wanting to make Sourdough Bread for such a long time but quite frankly, it intimidated me, I have looked through so many recipes and websites and they made it sound like you need some sort of degree in bread making to even attempt it.

So, it's been put off, for a really long time.

Until I got my first Homestead Blessings DVD's, the West ladies make it seem so so easy and after watching the video The Art of Bread Making, I decided that it's now or never.

If you've never made a Sourdough Starter for fear that it would be really hard or a difficult process, then stop that thought and get right in the kitchen with me.

Let's make some together shall we? What's the worse that could happen? It doesn't work? Then we'll start right up again, but imagine if it does, we'll all be eating delicious Sourdough Bread, Pancakes, Pizza Dough etc in a few days.

Making Sourdough

Credit: Homestead Blessings - The Art of Bread Making

• 2 cups of All Purpose Flour
• 3 tablespoons of Sugar
• 1 tablespoon of Active Dry Yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of Salt
• 2 cups of Warm Water


Mix in plastic or glass bowl till blended. Cover with cloth and set in warm place out of draft. Stir several times each day. Let ferment 2 to 3 days.

To use, remove starter needed for recipe then refrigerate remaining starter. Replenish every 7 to 10 days by stirring equal amounts of water and flour. Let stand at room temperature overnight and return to fridge.


Some people use bowls and some use these big glass jars, that's what I'm using and besides I don't have a glass bowl big enough.

The West Ladies advice using a plastic or a wooden spoon to stir the ingredients.

In goes the tablespoon of yeast, I measured it out and it's exactly one of the little packets of Dry Yeast that you get at the grocery store.

Stir the ingredients well.

Cover with a cloth. I set mine on the window for about 10 minutes and with this Arizona heat it quickly expanded and bubbled up, so I removed it and it's now sitting on my counter.

This is what it looks like two hours later, can you see all those bubbles?

I'll keep you up to date on my Sourdough Starter, I'll even take photos every day to show you.

You may have noticed that usually they tell you it takes 7 to 8 days and you're adding flour and water every day to it and stirring and whatever.

Honesty, that put me off because with everything that I have going on during the day, I can bet you anything that I would totally forget about it.

This way, it seems a lot easier and shorter too, only 2 to 3 days. I can DO that.

And while I was in the kitchen, I whipped up a quick batch of chocolate cupcakes, because I don't feel well and because chocolate makes everything better, doesn't it?

so does crocheting.....here's the beginning of my big Queen sized Granny Stripe blanket. Not exactly the colors I wanted but I'm just using leftover yarn in my stash, so who knows what every stripe will be, I'm just sure that by the time I'm finished I will absolutely love my blankie.

From Sunset to Morning Bread!

Do you know that one of my absolute favorite things in the whole wide world, is a sunset? There is something magical about that time of day when the sun lazily creeps behind the horizon, it leaves this trail of orange and pink across the sky and you are left with a palette of amazing colors around you.

As I finished off the dinner dishes last night, I looked up from the sink and saw this:

This beautiful purple/pink/orange big fluffy cloud, right in front of me, I knew I had to get out there with the camera and boy was I glad I did

This was the actual color of the sky to my left.

You can see the White Tank Mountains in the distance

And right above me was this.....now tell me does the Lord not make breathtaking skies?

After snapping a few pics, and at one point crouching behind the truck because there were a few cars driving by and looking at me with that "there's the crazy camera lady again" look on their faces.....I came back inside and smiled. Just being outside for those few minutes seemed to lift a weight off my shoulders.

The middle of the night brought rain showers and it was wonderful, at first I was awakened by the sound of pitter patter against the skylight in the master bathroom, I wasn't sure what it was, you know when you're in the middle of that sleep state? You first startle awake and can't even make out where you are? LOL That's what it was, I jumped up in bed and thought "Now why would a woodpecker be messing with the windows at this hour of the night?". Poor Poor Sandra, I'm loosing my mind. LOL

We've been enjoying our morning walks, just before 9 am we set out towards the school and it's so quiet out there, it's just us talking about what the day holds for us and what we'll do later. After dropping off the kids, I walk back home alone and it feels wonderful. It's very relaxing when you're able to slow down and just go at your own pace, you hear the birds, you hear those weird cricket kinda loud bug things...I think Nancy had a photo of one on her blog. You see the birds flying overhead and you get the occasional car with the military guy drinking his coffee as he makes his way to work on the other side of the base.
But most of all you get solitude and quietness and nothing but you and your thoughts. Boy can it get scary LOL

I'm an active thinker, I think and think and think some more and it's not always good stuff. I tend to over analyze things and worry and wonder, all those "what if's" coming at me. But I've started using these morning walks as my time to throw out what I'm having problems with and then making sure that by the time I reach my front door, I leave them outside in this imaginary God Box. This comment/help me box, if you will. I imagine that once I get inside, the Lord steps in and grabs my problems out of that box and returns an empty one in its' place. It's been very freeing, you should try it.

So anyway, after getting the house cleaned up and everything straightened out from the weekend, I got my steaks marinating and in the refrigerator for tonight's dinner, and then I baked some bread. Ahhhhhhh.......a cup of coffee and a fresh slice of bread slathered with butter!

I'm the kind of gal that doesn't like pretty bread. You know....perfectly round tops and shiny brown surfaces and all that shebang. I like the rustic, uneven loaves that make me think of the little bakeries in portugal where I would walk in and find those big round or oval shaped cracked bread loaves with all it's bumps and lumps. THAT is the kind of bread I make.

And my family has this aversion to dark bread, if the crust is dark they don't want it. No matter how many times I explain that it's not burnt, it's just golden brown. Nope, ain't having it. So I bake my bread until it's done and then I remove it, so I get this pale lightly browned bread. Who cares, as long as it takes good!


I divide the dough in half and make one loaf and turn the other half into small dinner rolls. See that one in the middle with the butter all over it? I know it's not dinner and all, but once the camera was shut off I breathed and it was gone. I have no clue where it went....really I don't! It's like magic, one minute it's there, the next it's gone. LOL


I'll have the recipe up on my food blog later tonight. Right now I have to hurry up and get on out of here, the kids leave school in 10 minutes and I have to be there to pick them up.

Have a great day ladies, eat bread and be happy :)

I love my dentist but OY.......

I didn't exactly know what I was getting done yesterday so needless to say I was a bit shocked when he told me he was doing 3 fillings. What's a filling right? No biggie.

Well yeah but I seem to have conveniently blocked out the part about getting numbed up, which means long thin needles being inserted into your jaw. I had 7 all together and while it was numb I was ONE HAPPY CAMPER although I'm sure the people out in the waiting room weren't prepared for the sight they were faced with once I slowly emerged from the back rooms.

Crooked smile and drooped lip on the right side of my face coupled with a lisp (my tongue was half asleep) and I think I may have been drooling, but I'm not completely sure because you know, I couldn't feel anything.

I came home and was really hungry because I forgot to eat breakfast, so I tried to eat a piece of toast. LOL OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!!
NEVER try to eat anything when you can't feel, I had no idea I had completely butchered my cheek, I must have bit it a couple times but hey, I couldn't tell LOL

Anyway, that was my trip to the dentist, I'm doing ok today though it feels like I was repeatedly punched in the jaw, but at least my teeth are sparkly clean and I have NO cavities. Can't have it all right???

The weather has been beautiful here for the past 2 days, nothing but sunshine and even though there's still a chill, it's nowhere near as cold as it's been and there's no snow and ice everywhere. It really does feel like Spring. I wish I could take a picture of my tulips, they're all coming in and they look amazing.

Unfortunately my digital camera has decided not to work anymore, I can turn it on but it won't open the shutter and it won't zoom, which pretty much means, I can't take pictures.

Isn't it always like this??? The minute you start saving money for something, all sorts of obstacles appear to make you spend it. That's what happened with the dentist trips for me and Jasmine, $200 just for some fillings.

I've put it in God's hands though and will just be patient and let Him help us make the trip to Africa a reality.

Curt has his promotion test on thursday and he's been studying really hard, of course he's nervous because Tech is the hardest one to get. Please send out a prayer for him that he does well on the test, it would help us so much.

I have a lot of cleaning to get done today plus laundry to put away, I've been putting that off as long as I could but it's starting to drive me insane. I don't mind doing housework and as a matter of fact, I quite enjoy it BUT that is when I don't feel like I HAVE to do it, then I become instantly lazy....isn't that just the worst?

Before I forget I just have to share this recipe with you, there is a wonderful blog that I visit and I'm ashamed to say I've only commented once or twice, it's called Farmgirl Fare and I love popping in every morning just to see what farm life is up to. She cooks a LOT and always has the best recipes to share, so when she mentioned baking bread my ears perked up, what is better than homemade bread???? NOTHING!!!!

Farmgirl mentioned a No Knead Crusty Bread that was amazingly easy to make but turned out so well that she was just speechless and so was I. Does this not look like the best bread on earth??? I can almost smell it and imagine slathering on butter watching it melt into the warm straight out of the oven bread.


The recipe was first posted on the NYT and it's by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery, who actually invented it. You will need to register for free with the NYT to read the recipe and the article. I'm sure now you know what I'll be baking this weekend.

Look at how many people are blogging about this wonderful bread. Are you as intrigued by it as I am??? I say we all pull out the flour and yeast this weekend and see how many of these beauties we can produce. I have to tell you that I think what first got my attention about the bread is that it looks a LOT like the traditional bread we see in Portugal. I remember getting up in the morning and walking down the street to the local bakery....the scents eminating from it were enough to make my mouth water and then you were met with tons of different shapes and sizes, but my favorite was always the crusty and airy loaves. YUMMY!!!

Alright now I better get on out of here, I have tons of housework to do, laundry to tackle, some ironing involved and I also have a living room carpet to steam clean. I should be busy for the rest of the day only stopping for lunch and to run out and pick up Jasmine at school.
Hope your day isn't as busy as mine....if you can get a nap in, please think of me LOL

God Bless,