Snow, Bread and Chicken Piccata

I am still waiting for the coconuts to drop from the maple tree in the front yard. Thirty six hours after Monday's snow storm, temps dropped even further we had an other 18 inches of Al Gore's BS.

This is the sight that greeted us Wed morning. To give you an idea the round cement pad on the stump on my deck is 24 inches in diameter and was clear of snow 5 pm on Tuesday.

19 deg Celsius below zero

A good day to stay inside and bake bread. Tuesday night I made up an other batch of my No knead bread. This is what it looks like after rising overnight at room temperature.

This time I followed a slightly different procedure. Dump it out on a floured counter and fold in a little bit of flour and make the dough in to a loose ball. Clean out the bowl and dump a splash of olive oil in the bowl. Dump the dough back in the bowl and coat with oil. Invert on the parchment paper and put the bowl over it and let rest for 2 hours.

Spend the next hour and a half clearing the snow off the driveway, deck and patio.
Feed the birds. Go inside and heat up the oven to 450 deg F. and take a break.

After about two hours the bread will look like this

Pop it in to a 450 deg F oven and let it rip for 30 minutes.

 Thirty minutes later pop it out of the oven and let it rest.

Go back outside for another hour and half rake the 3 tons of snow and ice off the roof and clear the deck, patio and paths around the house for a second time. Those snow banks out my kitchen window are five feet high and its not even officially winter yet. Last Friday we had bare grass on the lawn.

Come inside and enjoy fresh bread.

Pop a couple more Advil, take a nap and try to ignore the world.

For dinner a quick Chicken Piccata

Trim off the fat and excess skin from 4 chicken thighs and season with salt and pepper. Leave the skin on as it keeps the moisture in the meat and adds flavor to the dish while it cooks.

Toss in a bowl and coat with flour.

Skin side down in to a hot pan with a generous splash of olive oil for about 5 minutes at medium temp.

Flip over and brown the other side.

Add about 3/4 of a cup of white wine and a handful of capers.

Cover and simmer on low flame for about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken and squeeze half a lemon in to the sauce and reduce to make a creamy gravy.

Serve and enjoy.