The outside world is cold, gray, and wet. But inside, I am preparing for spring. With false spring come and gone, I am taking advantage of some indoor days to get some seeds started, bake bread and make some home-made pizza from scratch.

Just a couple of days ago, I was in the garden in a short shirt, without a jacket–and right now, the ground is frozen again. We’re so cold!

The outside world is cold and mostly gray and wet. But inside, I am preparing for spring.

Good morning! It’s 6.30 in the morning. It’s raining. It’s ugly out. Pepper and I are going for a little walk, and then I’m going to see how much I can get done today.

Today is one of those lovely couch days again… because, well, it’s a month later than the last time I told you this. But I am feeling better. Yesterday was the worst day. So, I’m gonna see if I can’t at least get a bread made and a few little things figured out.

Before I could think about making new bread, I needed to deal with the previous one’s leftovers. Ever since I discovered stuffing and french toast bakes, I bake more bread than we can eat fresh.

After months of trial and error, I’ve got bread reliably figured out. If I don’t forget my dough, the bread works out. I keep the liquids the same each time but the rest is eyeballed only.

I quickly prepared the bread bake for lunch, so the bread crumbs could soak up the liquids in the fridge.
The broth in here is the last of the beef broth I made while we were down with the flu. Let’s pretend there is good footage here. Ahem.

I fled the kitchen for the coffee making, and went to check on my seedlings. The first tomatoes had sprouted that morning, and every time I checked new ones were popping up.

A few hours later, the bread dough was ready to get kneaded.

So, I set up Marvin, and let the machine do the work. I hope he’s not as manically depressed about it as his namesake. While Marvin kneaded, I finished lunch. I won’t even call this stuffing. But it was delicious. Marvin had also done his job, so the bread dough went back under the towel to rest.

The morning I’d started the first seeds, I’d made a long list with all our seeds, and when they need attention. We’re a bit behind here in North-East Germany but I still wanted to get the March stuff started.

I prepared two more seeds trays. The didn’t come with bottoms, so I had to improvise a bit. I used the weird bulb again to soak the soil, and decided that I really don’t like it. I improvised some more to get the trays into the bowls.

I will be planting more tomato and pepper varieties I didn’t have room for last time. But this time, I also planted a lot of other things: I planted two kinds of squashes, a cucumber, artichoke, broccoli, two kinds of spinach, and some herbs. And then there are the seeds labeled ??? that are probably tomato or peppers. But I guess we’ll see.

Now that the second boldo has died, I sewed some wine in the empty pot. It probably won’t stay in there. But I can use the empty pot to start the seeds.

I struggled to get the tiny seeds into the holes. I don’t get the benefits of these pre-filled trays. But I have them, so I’ll figure it out.

In the end, it was my husband who had the right idea. I used a tiny funnel to get the smaller seeds into the holes. Far from perfect but it kinda worked. I still prefer empty trays without soil. This is stupid. After some struggling, the first tray was filled, though. And after this first round, the trays won’t be pre-filled anymore, so I can use them like normal ones.

While struggling, I dreamed of a barn or shed on our own land to start seeds in instead of my bedroom. Now, I just need to wait patiently for the green to come up everywhere. Hopefully.

With that accomplished–and some of my couch day actually spent on the couch, I returned to my bread.

I shaped some of the dough into bread rolls. I usually bake enough dough to make a few bread rolls, a bread, and some pizza. It’s amazing to me how the same dough can be used in so many ways. Every one of those bread rolls can be turned into another pizza in a few moments. I usually prepare one pizza bottom for each of us. If we are hungry, I convert some bread rolls into a second round.

I make a very quick pizza sauce. It’s essentially canned tomatoes with salt, garlic, onion, and basil. It’ll make a good pasta sauce the next day, too.

We don’t buy shredded cheese anymore. The small farm store we get our cheese wouldn’t even offer that.

But Marvin makes quick work of that, as well. Is it still noise if you dance to it?

I really do need a kitchen with more counter space at some point. But I make do. I am always surprised what you can do in a tiny space.

And yes, there is a bread roll missing. It’s the pizza I’m cutting.

So long, and thanks for being here.