Frugal eats on a VERY cold day, GF bread recipe

Currently the weather app on my computer says it's 17 degrees. At noon. The wind chills have been below zero for much of the day.

Catie already had the day off of school for the Presidents Day weekend, otherwise they would have probably had at least a delay - subzero wind chills aren't any fun at all, and last year we even had a cancellation for cold temperatures (in Pennsylvania, mind you. In Michigan they'd probably just yell at the kids for not wearing warm enough clothes.)

So since yesterday, we've had the wood stove burning steadily. It was a struggle the first few hours to get the house heated beyond 70 degrees - the wind whipped the heat away as fast as we could produce it. Thankfully we hit a tipping point, and now the house is as toasty as you could ask.

An old picture - we don't keep the wood stacked there while we burn.

I'm cooking some chicken soup from drumsticks, carrots, celery, garlic, and some dehydrated veggies in one crock pot, and baking some potatoes and sweet potatoes in a smaller crock pot. A meal that should really heat Jake up from the inside out when he gets home. Thank goodness he isn't working outdoors in construction anymore - he had a spell a few years back where he had a mild case of hypothermia, and it took days of hot coffee and snuggling with a hot water bottle to get his core temperature back to normal.

I suppose the cheapest way I could cook right now would be in dutch ovens on the wood stove, but I'm not sure how long it would take vs. in the crock pot, and I don't want it to cook too fast. Thankfully crock pots are cheap to run, anyway.

On the crock pot note, I tried making gluten free bread in the crock pot recently, and made the decision to donate my bread machine right after the first batch came out! I would have taken pictures, but none of the loaves lasted long enough to get a shot. 

I used this recipe - only I left out the cider vinegar, and I used my standard gluten free flour mix instead of her blend.

• 1 Tbsp. bread machine yeast
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 12 oz. water (1.5 c) (105 degrees or a little less than hot)
• 11 oz. (approx 2.5 c) GFCS’Gluten Free All Purpose Flour mix
• 2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 eggs (or 9 Tbsp. water and 3 Tbsp. ground flax seed)
• 1 ½ Tbsp. oil
• 1 tsp. cider vinegar

Then I greased the inside of the crock pot - any size will work - my smaller one made a loaf that looked like a round cake, the oval one made a nice artisan-y looking loaf, or I was able to wedge a small sized loaf pan in the big pot.

I mixed the dough with my stand mixer, but if you have strong arms you can just stir it well in a bowl. Plop the dough in your greased crock (er...), smooth the dough a bit, and switch the pot on low for a loaf in about 3 - 4 hours, high for a loaf in 2 -3 hours.

I have to say - this is the most successful bread recipe I've tried, but it really works best the same day or the day after - it WILL go stale/moldy fairly quickly, so baking daily or every other day is the best way to manage, followed by slicing and freezing your bread.

Or there's always French Toast.  :)