How I Gained a Pound Last Night

Dear Turkey,

I think that part of my job as a soon-to-be-rich-and-famous blogger is to promote rural winter living. You know, it's part of our shtick (sp?): you live in the big city, I live in the boonies, you take pictures with your fancy phone, I take pictures with my free phone, you hate snow, I actually don't want to gouge my eyes out when all I see is 

this every day

But if you're sick of looking at my winter-stravaganza pictures, don't worry; there is probably an app somewhere that automatically switches out pictures of gray snowy weather for beautiful tropical beaches. Or you can just stop reading the blog for four months until it starts looking different around here.

Luckily, we can warm up our souls and our numb fingers with delicious, cheap, healthy, seasonal food (what's not to love?). Last night we (and by we, I mean -- husband: 90%, me: 10.5%, baby: -.5%) made one of our favorites, butternut squash. We baked it whole in the oven (with a few fork holes for insurance) until the skin was starting to get all brown and flaky. Then we let our baby try it before we doctored ours up with lots of salt and butter.

actual color, not a simulation

We also made our favorite cranberry sauce, but I know, I know, I've already told you about that. The star of the show was...the baby, of course...but the culinary star was

mushroom barley soup

We cooked the barley, and meanwhile sauteed celery, carrots, onions, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and oregano in olive oil. Then we added tons of portobello mushrooms (okay, 9), little red potatoes, and broth. We combined it with the barley and simmered it until everything was just done.

For "dessert" we had buttermilk currant bread, which is one of our favorites (so much so that I may have already written about it and forgotten; oh well, read at your own risk). I combined about 1/3c sourdough starter (optional), whole wheat flour (probably 4 or 5c), a little white flour (1c), buttermilk (2c), buckwheat honey (2T), salt (1T), currants (2c), and yeast (1T). I kneaded it with my hand until a ball formed. This is an easy riser and I just let it sit out all day and baked it at 350 degrees for about 50 mins.

this is a big giant loaf of bread but we already ate half of it...see title of post

In conclusion, despite our shtick, you and I are united by our love of cheap, easy, healthy, seasonal, and beautiful foods (because really, who isn't?). The only difference is that where you live the sky and the ground are probably different colors. And I'm not talking about nighttime.

I moss you,
Tofu