By this time of year, with the temperatures once again vortexing themselves down around zero degrees and the snow drift slowly overtaking the tops of the raised beds, being stuck at home is starting to wear on me. Being unemployed all winter certainly doesn't help.
I know it's getting bad when I start getting really excited to perform any small, mundane task or errand that involves leaving the house. Are we out of something? Even if we don't really need that thing right now and probably won't for a while, anyways? Nevermind, I'd better go pick some up, just in case. I even savor the act of trudging out through the snow to pick up the mail by the road.
So over the past few days I've taken a new lean and dusted off the oven mitts (seriously, I need to wash those) and gotten back to some baking. In addition to keeping me generally occupied, it has the added benefit of keeping the kitchen warm and the house smelling good.
Last night I did a few loaves of from-scratch banana bread, and tonight I knocked out a pretty excellent batch of chocolate chip cookies. So tonight, while the wind howls around outside, I'll be putting myself to bed with a few chocolate chip cookies and a tall frosty glass of milk... stout. The tasty stuff from Left Hand Brewing Co. Even better than the white stuff, I swear.
