The seasons while away

I've been so busy with university exams, parental birthdays and all manners of stuff that my updating here has been non-existant. The whole autumn has passed! I finally finished sorting our pictures from the trip to the US this summer and it feels like just moment ago that we were sitting in this café on Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island), eating Ben & Jerry's in the sweltering 30 degree heat:


Autumn started the first week of October - a bit late for Sweden. It was as if someone snapped their fingers and lowered the temperature by 10-15 degrees. October was crisp and beautiful and the autumn foliage was pretty for several weeks. Here's a tree on our street:



With November, gusty winds blew away the last of the yellowing leaves and the regular Thursday sweeping (and later on ploughing) of the street began. Just as October was as autumnal as autumn could ever be, November is as grey as always. We haven't seen the sun for nearly two weeks as a seemingly impregnable cover of cloud hangs damply over Stockholm. But I make the most of it and write, draw and stitch. And on days like these when I'm feeling at my most house-wifey, I like to have something hearty cooking for when my man comes in from the cold and rain. These are my ingredients, I hope it turns out well:

Our daily bread

For this first post I thought I'd start with something that gives instant gratification. Let's face it, some bearded guy with hippie hair and a toga isn't going to pop out of the cupboard and give you fish and bread. The good news is that it's stupidly easy to bake your own plain bread and if you have an hour to spare, it's infinitely better than what you get from the supermarket. And being creative in the kitchen gives an enormous sense of self-satisfaction!

I don't much go in for bread that takes 4 days to bake, or trying to make healthy food when I'm baking (where the hell is the fun in that!?), and this is the simplest, most basic bread there is. You can make small loaves, but I prefer buns. I also like to make just enough bread to last us a couple of days, not more, because the fresher it is, the better it tastes.

Plain white buns (10)

• 250 ml skimmed milk (less fat helps the bread brown a bit in the oven)
• 25 grammes of melted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 6-700 ml plain white flour
• 25 grammes of yeast

1. Heat milk and butter to 37 degrees (finger warm). Pour over yeast in a mixing bowl and stir until the yeast has blended with the liquid.

2. Add salt and sugar, and stir. Add most of the flour and work the dough with a wooden spoon until smooth.

3. Let the dough rise under a tea towel for 30 minutes.

4. Form into small balls roughly the size of a clementine. There should be enough for about 10. Place on a non stick sheet on a baking plate.

5. Let them rest under the tea towel for another 15-20 minutes.

6. Bake in the middle of the oven on 240 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

7. ???

8. Profit

All in all it's about 15 minutes of work, 1 hour of wait time where you can do other creative stuff. It's so worth it! Here's the result: