Twas a week before Christmas and all through the garden...

We had a little snow the past few days but today was sunny and almost 40

Our One Antlered Deer Friend

This guy has been coming around most every day lately. He shed an antler sometime in the past week.

Sugar Snap Peas still growing December 11th

We've had a couple nights in the high teens and about 2" of snow here in S. W. Michigan. Today it's sunny and upper 30's. I'd read that Sugar Snap peas were good down to 20 degrees and decided since they were still blooming and bearing pea pods I'd leave them. This was a couple weeks ago when I was cleaning up the rest of the garden for Winter. I thought those peas certainly would have frozen out over the past few nights and planned to take them all out today.

They're still blooming - still bearing peas! Some of the  pods are a little mottled probably from the cold but they're still sweet as ever and crispy! There's not a huge patch planted with them - 10 squares in a Square Foot Garden but enough for Fresh Garden Peas for dinner tonight!

Give Us Our Daily Bread

Daily Bread - the stuff you eat every day. PBJ, grilled cheese, tuna, cinnamon toast, lettuce n tomato - daily sustaining kind of stuff. Nothing fancy, but it's still gotta be good, give you a dose of fiber, and reasonably healthy. Nothing too decadent or complicated- just Daily Bread. You remember the simple recipe and make it off the top of your head.

For Daily Bread  a bread machine is definitely in order. Bread making takes about 10 minutes till you push the "start" button so It's something you do. My sustainability consciousness somehow tells me that it's more efficient than using the big oven anyhow. For at least 15 years I  used an early generation DAK bread machine that in its roundness resembled R2D2. It made these peculiar round loaves that were too big to just slice and put in the toaster. It had kneaded its way off the counter onto the floor numerous times and was missing parts- but still worked and made bread!

A few weeks ago I was at the resale store and spied a whole lineup of bread machines - nothing over $4. I adopted a Breadman machine that appeared to have never been used - one of those "gee, Thanks, this is nice but the kids only eat Wonderbread.." kinds of gifts.
For me, it was a treasure! It works great! My old recipes need to be altered slightly because it's smaller than the old machine - but it works and slices fit in the toaster!!!
SO, with Breadmaking being a prime Winter Sport, here's the Daily Bread recipe I've worked out and made about 4 times:

Whole Wheat Sunflower Bran Bread

• 2 c whole wheat flour
• 1 c bread flour
• 2 Tb wheat gluten flour
• 3 Tb wheat bran
• 1/4 c roasted unsalted sunflower seeds whirred fine in the mini-food processor - I  make a batch ahead and keep in a jar
• 1 c + 2 Tb warm (100 degree) water ( I know where this is on my cup - a little over a cup)
• 1 Tb olive oil
• 2 Tb honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 tsp active dry yeast - I buy generic in a jar

put the warm water, honey, olive oil, and yeast in the machine. Allow that to sit for a few minutes while you
measure the dry ingredients - add flours, seeds, gluten to machine. Put salt on top.

Set machine to "whole wheat" cycle - press start

Take the bread out when it's done, allow to cool a few minutes and enjoy your "Daily Bread"

FIrst Post

This is my first post - just to see what it does