Cook while the oven's hot.

These wintry days, if you're looking for us, the chances are you'll find us in the kitchen by the wood cooker. Drinking tea up at the bench, kneading bread, rolling out pasta, chatting with the sour dough starter, stirring the soup, cutting up salad, or just supervising all of the above.


Our Esse is fast becoming the heart of our home. She is burning hot all day and right through the night at the moment, cooking our food and keeping the radiators in the rest of the house warm. And we've all been gravitating towards her.


It's comforting to read Little House On The Prairie to the girls every night and learn that it was the same back then too.


I guess that's what winter is all about.

The biggest differences we've found so far since cooking with wood are that;

• the oven is always on, so we may as well pop something in it.
• we are growing our own fuel source, which feels really nice and self sufficient.
• the days of pressing a button and turning a dial are long gone.
• there is about a one hour time delay between a warm oven and a hot oven.
• a good seal and dry, dense wood is the answer to the overnight burn.
• our kitchen is no longer the coldest room in the house.
• I never have to get up in the night to check that I turned the oven off.
• I am growing to love my kitchen.
• slow and steady wins the race.
• the wood cooker has her own personality and we are falling in love with her more as the days go by.
• we are baking with no exact temperature guage and without a timer. The breads and cakes go in when the oven is hot and come out when they look and test done. 
• cooking can be an absolute joy.

Now if only the dishes fairy would visit it would all be perfect.

So what's cooking with you, good looking?
Made/eaten anything extra tasty lately?
What are you having for dinner tonight?
Got a recipe to recommend?

See ya later, roast potata.
xx

PS ohmygoodness blogger, your spacing issues are killing me.