joy of snow

Right after the 2014 New Year, New York and much of Northeast had blizzard that forced schools to close and offices to shut down including mine. What a blessing to be able to stay at home when roads were hazardous. When we woke up on January 3rd, we had about 10 inches of powdery snow. So, of course, we had to clear the snow before I went out for my MRI appointment at Vassar. The powdery snow was relatively easy to clear and I got some exercise done by shoveling the snow.

Over the weekend, Peter suggested that we tried snow shoeing and he brought out the snow shoes that he has purchased behind my back. Hmmm.. he seemed to have the shopping hobby that he has inherited from his family. Sometimes I am truly amazed with the items that we carry in the house that I did not know about. For those of you living in Hudson Valley, before you buy something, please check with Peter to see if we have it in the house. Oops, I have digressed. Going back to snow shoeing, we put on our snow shoes for the first time and walked from our backyard to the Harrington backyard. It was a short walk and LuLu had so much fun hopping like a bunny in snow.

And the next day, we went to check out the bike path at Dutchess Railroad Track to see if we could snow shoe there. To our surprise, the path was full of snow and it was a perfect condition for snow shoeing. We walked with our snow shoes for about an hour and returned home happy and tired. It is wonderful to have Dutchess Railroad Track so close by and it allows us to be close to nature all year long without taking a long drive.

 

breads: Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread

Peter had the week between Christmas and New Year off from work. To keep him busy, I have asked him to try "Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread" from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.

Ingredients: KAF all purpose flour, salt, water, a tiny bit of yeast, and time

Peter mixed all ingredients in around 2PM on December 30th and let the dough sit close to 24 hours. I then shaped the dough around noon on December 31st and baked it around 2pm.

We tasted it for breakfast on New Year's Day and the bread was amazing! The flavor and texture were both excellent. Next time we will try to add some whole wheat flour to make it wholesome.

Congratulations of Chef Peter for his success!