Bread of Life....

I have been baking a lot of bread lately, 6 loaves this week,and maybe another 3 will have to be made on Sunday. It's nice though, as it saves us about $1.50 per loaf that I make instead of we buy. Unfortunately I have ran into the problem of crumbles. It just doesn't stick together as I like. I went researching on the net and found that either, I need to change flour, or I have been adding too much flour. So, I'll cut back on the flour next time I make bread and see how that works for me. I use all purpose flour for my bread making. Bread flour is a little pricier to purchase and I get the all purpose flour in my commodities boxes. I have some gluten here (I just have to find where I packed it!) and maybe I'll try adding a little to the bread to see if that helps too. But not both changes at once of course. lol.

Yesterdays loaves I added 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal to. Same texture after baking as the rest, but I know the oatmeal added some healthy goodness to the bread. That batch is also my last batch with molasses for a while. I am now officially out of molasses. Not bad for not having bought any in a year. lol. I did go digging and found a can of Steen's Cane Syrup in my canned goods. I had bought it for making worcestershire but never did try making it, so I think I'll use this in the next batch of bread and see how it comes out. I'm kind of excited about using the cane syrup, it's supposed to be really good. I am anticipating it being a bit like molasses, except sweeter. I'll let you all know.

I am doing breakfast for dinner tonight. I have some sausage, and some eggs, and I'll do them up and make tortillas and we'll have breakfast burritos for dinner. I will probably add some refried beans to it too. A good source of fiber and some vitamins. Lol. I keep making all these things with flour and I may have to actually buy some. I have about 50 lbs of flour in long term storage, but I hate to break into that unless I absolutely have to.

We need to work harder on stocking up stuff for this winter. Since the major stores are all 50 miles away over a mountain pass, and it snows on that pass over 2 feet at a time I have to be ready to not go to town. There are 2 convienence stores here in our little town, but they carry a limited supply of anything that is not chips, pop or beer. lol.

I REALLY need to get a freezer. Since we have the generator I am not so worried about loosing power over the winter storm season and loosing everything. I just need to be sure that our gas cans are full at all times during the cold weather. That's not too hard to do, our local gas station is about 6 blocks away or so. If I get a freezer, then I can stock up on frozen meat, cheese and such to really help it so we don't have to go to town as often. if it's not one thing it's another right?

ok, I have to get ready to do another load of laundry (by hand of course!) so I am outta here!

Be looking for pictures in the next few days.