Where’s the snow? It may be possible that I’ll have to eat my words at a later date, but at this point it’s a bit worrisome that we haven’t yet received our big dump of snow in the mountains. There was so little of it earlier this week that I think the only reason why our trusty neighbor cleared the drive was to avoid going stir-crazy.
It is still cold though, typically around -2°C in the mornings (lower with the windchill), and good reason for a baking session. Nowadays MotH brings a packed lunch to work, so we always need bread or focaccia. One bread in particular, Pan brioche alle castagne (braided loaf pictured at the bottom of the mosaic) from the blog Polenta e Baccala was excellent with thin slices of slightly smoked ham (speck). Made with strong bread flour and a percentage of chestnut flour, it’s like a rich, sweet dough as it has eggs, butter, crumbled cooked chestnuts, and chestnut honey. Look at me, raving about chestnut bread and I live in a chestnut forest, ha!
Okay maybe that last sentence makes it seem as if I’m going stir-crazy myself but I swear it’s not the case. With just a few weeks to go until I immerse myself in all things gardening, it’s a mad scramble to get caught up on my youtube channels. I have a lot and the list keeps growing. I need to share! The most watched, naturally, having something to do with travel or food.
Screen shot Solo Hiking in South Africa by Harmen Hoek
Hiking and cinematography? I’ve watched many hiking videos but nothing comes close to what this guy does. The videos are non-narrative (he posts full trip itineraries on his blog) and set to instrumental music. Hoek is a one-man team but his films look like he has a whole crew behind him. Posts every 2 months or so.
Screen shot La Strada nel bosco
According to this young Italian couple, they didn’t find the house, the house found them. Poetic yes? Another non-narrative channel, I related instantly to Matilde and Daniele because finding the right house in the woods is exactly what MotH and I dream of doing one day (we want to sell and move). Surrounded by peace and serenity in the Apennine mountains of Emilia-Romagna, just watching Mati’s day-to-day activities relieves stress. She bakes bread in a really cool wood-burning oven and gardens as well. Check out A new beginning for a taste of how it started.
Screen shot of Sis and her partner of The Trail Never Ends
Lastly, the only narrated (mainly) channel of today’s youtube line-up. In the summer of ’22, my sister Ruth and her partner Chris went on a 3-week long road trip from Seattle to Tuktoyaktuk to reach the Artic Sea. Packing the Jeep Wrangler and off-road teardrop trailer to the gills, they wild camped along the way, getting in as much sight-seeing as possible. BC and the Yukon is much more ‘intensive’ than I thought (fewer gas stations, closed ATMs, detours around wildfires, mosquitoes!), but the views.are.incredible. I never would’ve been able to handle the skeeters …
A trip like this would’ve tested any couple but maybe the trick to it all is to know how to have fun. My sister is not ‘staid’. Skinny-dipping, if a location ensures privacy, is de rigueur.
Rubber Slippers In Italy 
Those chestnut bakes are beautiful! Thank you for sharing more YouTuber content. Lately, it has been fun watching other people’s adventures in nature. The YouTube addiction is real, but it never makes me feel guilty because it is the only social media medium (other than blogging) that is educational and insightful.
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Thank you for your kind words. I very much agree with you on the merits of YouTube and blogging. There’s more of a ‘connect’ than say, scrolling through dozens of images on Instagram. That said, it is useful for businesses and finding specific images (I’m always wanting to see how a particular plant looks)!
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Lovely bread and videos. I love watching those kinds of videos. I do keep up with Hannah Lee Duggan and her videos, plus others. Now more to add to my ever growing list!
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Now I need to look up Hanna Lee Duggan. I learned about Ruth Stout from that Italian youtuber and checked out some of Stout’s gardening books. So much still to learn!
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I subscribe to several blogs. One of them Mozzarella Momma is a woman who works for the AP press and follows the Pope. Her accounts of the Pope’s visits are unbelievable as is her last post about the Pope’s visit to Africa. I am not a religious person but her posts are remarkable. She is very worth checking out.
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I’ve never even heard of Mozzrella Momma, so there you go, another informative source that I subscribed to subito because she caught my attention in the first few sentences. Thank you for that!
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We had flurries while other parts of tokyo had snow. looking forward to seeing your garden hauls 🙂
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Yesterday it went up to 16°C! Just a week ago it was below zero! If cold season is over, we are so screwed.
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I wish that we could give you some of our snow 🙂 Beautiful pastries! I have tasted a homemade chestnut flour cake before and it was very good, but a little dense in texture. Don’t feel guilty about Youtube! We have found out how to make things here and deal with garden/livestock/ kitchen construction/organization. It has inspired us a lot and yes, we too look at hiking videos…We have some good ones lined up this Summer.
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We would gladly accept your snow by the truckload if it were possible. Yesterday driving back from Milan, it was just so disheartening to see dry mountain tops where there should’ve been pristine white. Even Switzerland in the distance has much less snow on the tops compared to other years.
Youtube robs my time like how Instagram used to. The suggestions it puts out are so in line with my interests that I end up subscribing to nearly all of them to see if they’re worth watching in the long run.
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I love the fireplace in the background of the pictures of the breads. The breads are beautiful!
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It does make things much cozier during the cold season. And sometimes I even roast marshmallows and hot dogs just for fun!
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