First Snowfall of the Season

Unexpectedly, today we received the first snowfall of the season.. and it's sticking!  At first when the flakes started coming down this morning, I didn't think they would last, as it looked more like frozen rain than snow.

The snowflakes were huge as they drifted softly down out of the sky.

I wondered what the new chickens would think of the snow, as they had never seen it before.  It didn't seem to bother them in the least! 

Pumpkins now covered like patterned doilies with the wisps of snow. 

Snowflakes grouping and bunching together in little piles of white fluff.

Annie enjoying the first flakes of the season as they landed on her fur.

Her fur acts as a natural repellent to the snow!

Roger got so excited with the snow that he began wrestling, and playing with Annie.

Annie wasn't as impressed as Roger was by the snowfall, lol!

Back inside... looking at the snow gently falling outside, I got busy making some homemade bread using my trusty bread machine.  I've learned that you can let the bread machine do all the hard work by using the dough setting - it makes the bread dough on this setting, and then you pull it out of the machine and put it into your baking pan, let it rise, and then bake. I like the results much better this way than having the bread machine bake the bread.  You know that little hole at the bottom of the bread - you don't have that this way, and plus, it takes even less time to make the bread this way too!  

This is my Honey Oatmeal Bread  just as it came out of the bread machine.  I folded it into a loaf shape, and placed it in my greased pan to rise (about an hour or so).

And voila!  A lovely warm loaf of bread that looks like you labored and kneaded it yourself! Shh! It's a great secret folks! Anyone can do this!

All sliced and ready for some hungry souls to come and devour...

Sorry the lighting is quite bad today - horrible actually - with the gray light from outdoors not helping much, lol!

I decided to turn on my flash for this picture, and while it is a bit washed out, you can see that the warm delicious bread wasn't going to last long at this rate with homemade plum jelly and a hot cup of pumpkin spice tea... it made a lovely afternoon snack!  {smile}

And that is how I enjoyed the beautiful first day of snow here!

In case you want to put your bread machine to good use, here is a wonderful recipe for a bread machine.

HONEY OATMEAL BREAD-MACHINE BREAD

1 cup water, plus 1 tbsp (lukewarm, about 98-110 degrees)
3 tbsp honey
2 cups flour (all purpose or bread flour will work)
1 cup oatmeal
1-1/2 tbsp powdered milk
1-1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast (bread machine or regular yeast both work)
1 tbsp butter

Mix warm water and honey together until honey is mixed with water.  You may heat in microwave for 30 seconds if necessary.  Pour into bread machine.  Next add flour, oatmeal, powdered milk, and salt. Make an indentation in the flour mixture, and add yeast.  Cut butter into four pieces, and put in each corner of the bread machine pan.  Select the dough cycle on your machine.  (Mine takes about 1-1/2 hours to complete.)  Once bread machine beeps, take dough out of pan, and shape it into a loaf, and place in a buttered bread pan.  Let rise until double.  Bake at 375 for 30 to 40 minutes, or until browned and sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove bread from oven.  Rub top of bread with a bit of butter and remove from pan.  Let cool at least 20 minutes before slicing.