INTOXICATING!

YUM! I love the smell of home made freshly baked bread! Brings back fond memories of when I was about 3 years old. Living in the quads at BYU with my folks. I would be down in the courtyard playing on the playground and I would hear my mom call me home, and the closer I got to the apartment & the higher I climbed the stairs the stronger the scent of the freshly baked bread would be, to the point I was trying to run up the stairs to get to it. Then my mom would bring to me a THICK slice of her bread still warm, with melting honey & butter spread over it. I'd sit on cool cement landing outside the apartment door and take a DEEP breath IN... almost becoming dizzy with the overwhelming YUMMINESS that steamed into my nose as the heat licked my cheeks. Then the taste...as I took that first bit,... soft and warm, while the honey & butter dripped down my fingers and tiny hands. AHhhhhh such a GREAT childhood memory!
And today, I STILL LOVE,love, love that first slice and to ooh and ahh over the smell, the texture and the taste of HOME MADE BREAD!
The recipe comes from my mother in law, Vivian Jones and even though I make bread all the time, I've never ventured to make WHEAT BREAD, as it was always too tough and dense. I got another recipe from my girl friend Alicia and the two recipes were very similar. So with the added element of using a convection oven and freshly grinding my own wheat into flour I attempted to try and risk my mother in laws infamous reputation for the best bread maker in the world ( that came from ROB...who I've heard that from for years!!!) No disrespect Mom..but I think with the right tools and the freshest ingredients with YOUR recipe ANYONE can make AWESOME BREAD, and yes compete..just a little bit with your reputation for being the ONE & ONLY to make the worlds BEST BREAD!
(*this rates right up there with my love for creme' brulee' YUUMMMYYY!!!!)

SNOW snow & more SNOW!

SNOW, SNOW go away, come again some other day...
preferable NEXT YEAR!
yes yes yes I know I live in ALASKA, and we should expect snow.
But we've had a snow/wind storm blow through the Kenai Peninsula & especially here in Homer for the past week or so that has dumped so much snow, it seems way out of the ordinary. Here are some pictures around our house and across the street. It's only March 10th & from the weather forecasts we should bunker down and ride it out, it isn't stopping any time soon.
On a good note, my Son Bobby & his new wife Kylie are flying up from Logan, Utah this weekend to Anchorage where we'll drive up from Homer (only a 5 hour drive) to pick them up and drive them back down here for a OPEN HOUSE (next Friday evening @ 7pm) to celebrate their wedding back in January. Bobby is really excited to show off his stomping grounds to Kylie and when I told him of all the new snow he was tickled WHITE! Yesterday there were a few avalanches on the main road near the pass to Anchorage that blocked all vehicles, but have since been cleared. The marina/boat dock was even closed due to the bad snow burns and accidents blocking the passage way to get out to the spit, so Rob got to stay home and be on stand by. Seminary has been canceled for 2 days, School was canceled yesterday and Church was canceled Sunday.Everyone is trying to dig them selves out of the contant dumping of new snow and the wind that keeps moving it and piling it up in places that make it hard to go and do much at all.
However..as i sit here listening to the hum of the big snow plows down the street it is a comfort to know the city is trying to clear the roads at least in town. I sent Rob & Krystal out to the grocery store yesterday for a few essentials since I was baking bread and needed a few things. When they returned they both vowed unless we were dying they were NOT going out in that stuff again! Apparently the roads were a mess and tons of people out in it who didn't know what they were doing.
SO ENJOY the snow pictures. I'm headed back to the kitchen to make myself a hot cup of herbal tea to go with a slice of pumpkin bread(with cream cheese frosting) one of Krystal's friends, Jed, who helped bake with us yesterday, shared a favorite family recipe with us and WOW,..it has officially been added to ours as well, YUM~!