Warming up the Winter Blues in the Kitchen

Do you get the winter blues? How do you handle them? What cheers you up?
Many of my friends and I suffer from the winter blues. When the temperature hits the 10 degree and lower mark I feel trapped in my own home. With two little ones I try many things to get through our long Wisconsin winters. From movie days to baking bread my family and I rack our brains to make it through.
As I mentioned, one of my favorite things is to bake bread. My DD and I just love to make loaves of fresh bread together. For my birthday and Christmas a year ago my family bought me my first Kitchen Aid and the attachment to grind wheat. It's so fun to get it all set up and watch my DD and DS run into the kitchen to watch as tiny little berries of wheat turn into enough flour to make bread, cookies, and whatever else we can dream up.
In one of my previous posts I told you that we love the Little House series. My daughter will get dressed up in an old dress my mom remade for her and we put her hair in braids as she helps me measure the ingredients into the bowl. She always asks about what each ingredient is, (even when she already knows) and turns to explain to her younger brother who is just standing and watching what everyone is doing. Ya know, he actually looks like he is paying very close attention to the details she is explaining!
Well, after the bread rises and we've shaped it into loaves, rolls, or a special treat, ooey gooey bread, we stick it into the oven and the house begins to smell like a wonderful bakery! Of course the second the bread comes out of the oven, we burn our fingers as we crowd around to get a nice warm slice covered with butter and sometimes honey.
It feels so wonderful to have taken that time to make something from scratch that includes my family. I encourage you all to take a day and make something from scratch either for yourself or for the ones around you.

In his name,
Lisa