Nope, Not Summer Yet

[bluesgarden]

This is not outside wear for winter.

I'm feeling relatively productive today. So far I've fed the birds (in my pajamas), chased the pups around outside with the camera (in my pajamas), pulled some leeks in the (very frozen) garden (still in my pajamas), started a loaf of bread, started a pot of beans, finished a load of laundry, prepped a package for the mail, and possibly other things that I've already forgotten. (Getting dressed is so over rated.)

The beans are from the garden this past summer - Ireland Creek Annie. It's actually the first time I've made these specifically just because I took forever to finish shelling them and then took forever to get around to winnowing them. (Next year will be easier as I now know of a much easier method.) I picked up a package of pork neck bones at the store a few days ago and a couple of them are simmering away with the beans, which so far taste a lot like... green beans. Which seems a bit odd. Having never had these particular beans before, I don't know if it's how they're supposed to taste or if they were getting all hot and heavy with the green beans a couple of rows over. Or if they're going to transform into something else flavor-wise as they cook longer.



Meanwhile, there's a future loaf of bread undergoing what is, theoretically, a really slow rise. I had a recipe I wanted to try this time (Honey Oat Sandwich Bread) and last night I was re-reading Homemade Bread: Truly Easy and Delicious from the Dec/Jan issue of Mother Earth News, resulting in me attempting to wing it regarding temperature and bread for the first time ever. Also, lack of kneading, which... well, let's see how it turns out, yeah? I used boiling water over the oats (and then let it cool as directed), because I figured the point was actually to soften them, but the butter wasn't just cold, it was frozen, as was the instant yeast. Everything else was room temperature which is just shy of 70°F, but it's sitting by the stove which is an outside wall, but that's where the beans are boiling, so... *hands*

I also used 1 2/3 c. of wheat flour and 1 c. of AP flour, rather than the other way around. Sadly, this was not fresh ground wheat flour by way of wheat berries, which I still have on hand, because my hand cranked grain mill turns out to not be equal to the task of milling wheat fine enough to suit me for these purposes. I have my eye on a refurbished Grain Master WhisperMill over on eBay, but the price tag, even for a refurbished model, is still painful. Fortunately it's winter and freezing the wheat berries is simply a matter of storing the bag in one of the steel canning jar cabinets out in the shed.

All in all, I've accomplished things, I'm just stumbling along on a series of educated guesses and generally feel completely lost but okay with it. I think. *checks map*