Waiting for Christmas (to be over)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Yes, I know that orange wall is hideous, please try to ignore it.

Now that my elf is hanging around in my kitchen, it's time to get busy.  My shopping is all done, presents are all wrapped and sitting under the tree; now it's time to start my baking.

I won't be able to make everything today because I don't have everything I need.  Tomorrow is another trip to the commissary.  But today I should be able to get some things done.  But waiting for that butter to get to room temperature takes a long time, which is why I have time to sit here right now and write another boring post.

I know, I know, I could nuke the butter in the microwave to speed things up, but I don't like doing that.

See my big metal bin of flour on the left?  I ground up 4 cups of soft white wheat berries to get me started.  I really love that wheat grinder!  I used to grind them up in my Vitamix "dry" grinder, which worked okay, but I could only do one cup of berries at a time, and sometimes it didn't grind consistently.  Then I was offered an opportunity to buy this one from the guy who was remodeling our bathrooms.  It's old but it works GREAT! I love that I can grind as much as want in one batch, and I love how the flour turns out - so light and fluffy!  No hard missed berries to sift out!

Anyway, I also ground up some rye berries to add to my gingerbread men - I'm thinking it would add a nice complementary flavor to the molasses and gingerbread spices.

I also like to mix in ground oats and/or ground barley.  Anything to help reduce the amount of white flour in my cookies and breads!

So, last weekend we were finally able to go to the cabin.

It was so fun to be riding on the snowmachine again!  Except my hands got really cold.  We thought we had everything we used to have, but now we realize that we forgot that we used to have the handle guards on the snowmachines to help keep our hands warm, so we will probably purchase some before we go out again.

When we got closer to the cabin, we had to stop because the trails were canopied by branches that were weighed down by snow and ice.  I had to try and lift them up so Chuck could get his snowmachine through.  Most of the rest of the trail was like this, so I ended up walking the rest of the way to the cabin, which was really tiring because the snow was deep, and it was the kind of snow that you sink down into after you step all of your weight onto it.  That kind of snow is hard to walk through when you're wrapped up like a burrito in heavy warm snow gear.  And it didn't help that the crotch of my snow bibs was almost down to my knees, making it even more difficult to pick up my feet.  I gotta try to find a way to shorten the torso length of those snow bibs. Anyway, I was hot and sweaty by the time I made it to the cabin, even though it was only 5 degrees out.

I had the privilege of shoveling off the porch while Chuck cleared the snow off the roof.And then we also got the snow off the top of the outhouse and the top of the wood shelter thing where we keep our stacked wood. The snow was hard to shovel because it was crispy, like it was thawed and refrozen a few times.

I love being at the cabin in the wintertime!  So quiet and peaceful and pretty!

Then we knew it would be getting dark soon, so it was time to start heading back.  Chuck gave me a ride back to the other snowmachine where we left it, but I still had to get off to lift up branches when they were hanging too low.  Do you know how hard it is to lift up heavy frozen branches?  I don't have the strength for that.

So that is all for now.  Hopefully now my butter is soft enough to mix up.

Merry Christmas!