Yep, I am a day behind! We had no internet yesterday, until about half ten at night. Ah well. Like a lot of people in the UK, I woke up to a lovely blanket of snow on Sunday.
Everything looks so pretty, and the world is so quiet too. You can’t see it as I was not sure how to zoom in, but all the branches of all the trees were covered in a thick icing layer of snow too.
I could not resist a little walk, which ended up taking me ages because the snow was very deep in places- my foot, ankle and a lot of my leg would disappear.
I did not build a snowman myself (I don’t think that doctors would classify that as resting!) but I did see a huge one that the students had made.
It does not look so huge here, but it was! I did not even reach the neck. Just after this some girls came along and posed for pictures in front of it!
Now, I think the snow is very pretty. Obviously at the moment I don’t need to go for a run, and I quite like one day of it anyway. But it is the day after that is often worse.
To get to the road, we have to drive along this path, and only a couple of other cars use it. Our actual road never gets gritted either, so that turns into an ice rink very quickly. Luckily it is flat, as a flat ice rink is much preferable to a steep one. The trouble is, a few cars drive (or people walk) and the snow gets compacted, then it freezes overnight. It’s silly because I can see the main roads from our house (and saw them on my walk) and they are fine, but it is getting to them that is hard. I have asked for a grit/ salt box before, because I am sure local residents would use it, but they always say no.
Ah well, after a walk it was a good reason (excuse?) to have a lovely hot chocolate. Yum.
What did you all do with the snow? I hope no-one got stuck/ stranded, and I really want to see some more snowman photos! They had some on the news last night (BBC) but when I looked on the website this morning all I can find is a video of someone sledging. I did build a snow bear once, but I can’t find a photo of that either. Oh, here it is.
Here you can see the bubbles that appeared, before I covered it in more flour and water.
Then I had to make the dough- 300ml of the starter mix (which was very gloopy so I had to ladle it out), 500g flour (I did half wholemeal and half white), 200ml warm water and a pinch of salt.
It looked a bit messy in the bowl, and it took a lot of kneading, but it did come together to make quite a sticky dough. From things I had read on the internet, the dough would be wetter than a normal bread dough- something I read said to keep it as wet as you could bare.
Then it went back in the same bowl (I don’t like extra washing up, sorry!) which I coated with a little rapeseed oil.
I actually took some photos to see if it had risen or not, because I was having trouble working it out! Anyway, after a good few hours I kneaded it gently and shaped it into the dough shape. I made a makeshift proving basket by lining a pasta bowl with a teatowel, and left it overnight.
Again, I was not sure if it had risen in the morning.
But a look on the camera confirmed it! Or rather, it had spread!
It rose so much in the oven, I was shocked- I honestly think it doubled in height! I did slash the top with a serrated knife, but not deep enough it turns out because it sort of burst out the bottom.
I could not resist slicing it while it was still warm.
And enjoyed an end piece with some hummus for lunch. It has turned out really well for a first go- nice and chewy and it does have a faint sourdough taste. I think as the starter mix gets more mature the flavour will develop too.
And seriously, what do you think it looks like? I am still saying ET!
Wholemeal toast with nut butter and 
Lovely peanut butter clif bar, and some vanilla and lemongrass tea to calm me down once I got back from the appointment (which ended up being fine although I hate driving/ parking somewhere new and I could not work out their map, and then got told I should have parked in the disabled bay!).
Coconut pancakes with coconut chocolate spread, microwaved apple with cinnamon, clementines and (I think ) Teapigs spiced red winter tea. For the pancakes I used 
I heated up some chocolate soya milk, and had it with some grapes. This chocolate milk (provamel) is very very sweet, so be warned.
Another mystery dinner (eg something from the freezer defrosted). This turned out to be some 
Rooibos tea and a chocolate peanut butter brownie.