I really have to laugh when people describe snow as magical

Let me tell you about my Saturday night.

After we got about 8 inches of snow on Friday (yes, that's right. We had nothing. Then, in one measly day, we got that much. It's insane outside), Idle Husband and I decided to just relax at home instead of trying to brave the snowdrifts with his car just to look around the Future Shop for nothing in particular. So besides shovelling off our walkway and our driveway (a bit), we had a great movie/computer/game day.

Then, around 6, Idle Husband got hungry. We'd been eating cookies all day and just sitting around, so really I wasn't that hungry. I offered him some of the leftover lemon chicken from Friday's dinner. Nope. I offered to make him a pizza with the frozen dough I'd made Friday (I'm experimenting with pizza dough right now to see if I can get the same results if it's cooked directly from frozen or if I have to unthaw it first). Nope. He didn't want me to cook, saying that I deserved a day off from kitchen work, too. So he said he was just going to run over to the Safeway and get something there. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't budge. It's not that bad! My car can make it! Sigh. I decided to tag along, and good thing I did.

We weren't barely out of the driveway when we got stuck in the snow just off the street. Since I can't really drive a stick shift -- well, I CAN but my problem is starting and stopping and that's kinda the important thing to know how to do well when trying to get free from a snowdrift -- I got out to push. Now that I think about it, I don't really have the power to push a whole car out of the snow, but when you're desperate you don't really think about these things. So I'm pushing and instructing him on what to do, when these two, 18ish aged boys came over to help us. Thank goodness they did because the extra muscle helped to get us out.

We got to Safeway, picked out our dinner, and came home. Just as we were headed into the driveway, we got stuck again. Pretty much in the exact same place. We were really counting on having momentum going in, but it didn't seem to matter in snow that deep. So there was our car, sticking perpendicular out into the road, facing our driveway. We couldn't even pretend like we were parked on the street. After a while of rocking back and forth (going forward a bit, then in reverse a bit), amazingly Idle Husband got it free and parked it across the street. Then we both grabbed a shovel and began shovelling out the snow on the street in front of our driveway. I don't think I can adequately describe to you how much work shovelling 8 inches of snow is. Unless you've experienced it, you probably can't imagine it. Snow isn't the fluffy, light, and serene stuff it's made out to be sometimes. Especially when it all settles on the ground together. It's so heavy and dense that it's impossible to pick it up in one shovel-ful. I had to keep skimming the top off of the drift I was working on until I had dug my way down to the ground.

What an adventure we had! I hope the hamburger was worth it! (Idle Husband insists that it was)

White Winter

I think we got close to 8 inches of snow yesterday!

Actual snowdrifts on the windows! I thought this sort of thing only happened in the movies

It's hard to see, but because of all the wind overnight, there's now pretty snow ripples everywhere

I like how the snow left this pretty pattern in our junipers

Rainbow bread!

Loaf One: better picture, junkier rainbow

Loaf Two: Better rainbow, junkier picture.

So last week, I attempted making rainbow bread. It was one of my Christmas gift ideas since I've been pondering doing a bread theme. I'd never attempted dying dough so these were my tester loaves. Anyway, I honestly thought it was my idea alone. I really did. Then, as the dough was rising, I googled it, and apparently this stuff's everywhere. Not that I wanted to have a unique idea for something, but you know, I kinda did.

Here's what I learned:

1. It's really hard to divide dough that's meant to make two loaves into seperate colours while still leaving some white to encase the whole mess.

2. I should probably figure out how to do this just before it goes in the oven, as the second proofing flattened my rainbow effect.

3. Add in all the flour needed, don't skimp. The white portion didn't have enough so this bread was really soft and squishy and hard to cut. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is.

4. It's kind of embarrassing for Idle Husband to be eating sandwiches made of rainbows at work. He got a lot of questions the first day.

Inquistive programmers: Is that bread blue?!Oh wait! It's green, too! What? What's going on there?! [they start coming over to inspect it closer]

IH: It's just bread, ok?

5. Don't make this again. Make more sophisticated, manly breads in the future.

owly

Check out  my Christmas decorations!

Actually, never mind cuz I'm really disappointed in them. Well, not THAT disappointed, but last year's Christmas was our first Christmas in this house, and, well, I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but at the time, I was feeling like I wanted a very understated Christmas-y look. I just wanted a simple tree with simple decorations and since I didn't have any, I made a bunch of stuff.

While unpacking my decorations and setting up the tree this year, I thought, Oh. These decorations are terrible.

I made stupid baked play-doh mushrooms which I spent forever moulding and, surprisingly, I was super happy with them last year (save for a few that took on a more squished appearance). This year, I'm a little embarrassed of them. I mean, What was I thinking?! When did I think misshapen pink and tan mushrooms looked cool and modern? I think being bent over a lump of pink play-doh for 5 hours played a big part in me believing they were awesome and folksy. But they're not. And I realize now I could have shaped them so much better. I'm about this close to redoing them, but then I think that I'll probably hate the new revised version next year and then I'll end up making mushroom decorations every year for the rest of my life until I get it right which will probably be never.

And I suppose I still don't mind the owls...I suppose...

Otherwise, I'm a little ashamed of my underdecorated house. Where last year I wanted quiet and unassuming, this year I want it to look like Christmas threw up in our living room.  What's up with that?!

Blah to baking

I've been on this huge baking kick lately. Not because I have a ton of different cravings but because I've been coming across all sorts of interesting recipes lately, all of which I've immediately thought: OMG! That would be the best gift EVER! I have to do a test run! So last week, I was kinda focused on bread (when the light is right, I'll post something that didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, but damn it looks pretty). This week, I had at least 3 recipes I wanted to try and I was scarily low on all supplies. I got my list together and went out and bought everything I thought I'd need.

But after baking this:

Rosemary Cornbread from an old Martha Stewart Living magazine

(I haven't tried it, but the batter tasted pretty fantastic so I have high hopes for this one. The third bread better be a charm, Martha, jus' sayin')

and these:

The winning chocolate chip cookie from Omnomicon's Recipe Round Robin

(T and I actually participated in this one back in June so that's how long I've been waiting to make this recipe -- also, so sad she's not writing over there much anymore!)

and then eating my fair share of these, I'm suddenly over the whole baking thing. I've been wanting to make these cookies for what feels like forever so naturally, nothing else could satisfy my baking needs until these were mixed up.

I think my baking world has finally righted itself.  Funny, that.

So. My original plan was to gift (only the few close friends I do make gifts for) three different types of bread with homemade butter and one fancy fruitcake (to the friend who likes fruitcake). Now I'm thinking, make these cookies, omit the nuts (allergies!), and call it a season.

Maybe I'm just tired today. I was up at 4:30 afterall!