When I was about 4 years old, all hundred of my siblings and I crawled into our Chevy Explorer and fell asleep while Mom and Dad drove us down the road to Wisconsin. Both our grandparents lived in Wisconsin and we looked forward to our weekend trips to see them. Usually we arrived in Rusk County within 12 hours, especially because Dad liked to drive too fast and make as few stops as possible. But not today. Today the snow fell steadily and cars crept along badly scraped roads. I woke up somewhere in Norwalk, Ohio, to find the van had stopped. Winnie the Pooh, an audio book written by A. A. Milne and narrated by Peter Dennis, played through the van’s foggy speakers. A few other siblings were awake, and they told me the van had broken down. The engine wouldn’t even turn over. So we siblings stayed squished together and wrapped in blankets, waiting for Dad to find a repair shop and laughing at Piglet make snorting noises every time he talked. The snow kept falling, covering the van windows. 

Later in the morning, we walked to the nearest McDonald’s to eat a hot breakfast, and sometime after we got back on the road, reaching Grandpa Baer’s late at night. I don’t remember much of the rest of the trip. Something about being stranded, but still together stayed in my mind and to this day my siblings and I clearly remember listening to A.A. Milne in the snow covered van. 

This morning I woke up to discover my office was closed. Snow began to fall about 8 am, and it hasn’t stopped yet. Because of the snow and not being able to go anywhere, I’ve been playing Winnie the Pooh and baking all morning. It’s cozy in my little house!

When I assessed me and my husband’s food situation this morning, I discovered there are definite gaps. We have no breakfast sandwich options. We have no quick lunch options other than ramen. 

To remedy this, I am whipping up a batch of bread buns. I can use the buns to make egg and cheese sandwiches for my guy when he wakes up at 5:30 to get to work. Or we can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a snack. Most bread recipes are for 3-5 loaves of bread, but I am lucky in that I found a recipe that will make only one loaf, the equivalent of a pan of bread buns. 

This recipe saved my life last January as I was learning to make bread for two people. It’s so simple, especially if you have a stand mixer with a kneading arm. If not, kneading by hand is super easy! Since I am a sort of newbie to the art of bread making, I watched a few YouTube videos about it. I thought this video was super useful in showing me how bread should look and feel at different stages of kneading.

To start, I mixed together a cup of water, two tablespoons of melted butter, two teaspoons of sugar and 3/4 teaspoons of salt. Next, I added a tablespoon of yeast (I used Fleischmann’s Active Dry Original) and another of flour, then let the mixture rest for five minutes. This is an essential step. If, after five minutes, the mixture hasn’t risen (or bubbled) the yeast is bad. Just start over with good yeast. 

Next, I added almost a cup of flour and mixed it all together. Since I was using a stand up mixer, I switched out my beater for a dough hook, then added another 3 cups of flour. I set my machine to knead for about 6 minutes. Then I placed the dough in my mixer with a cloth over the top. After an hour or so, the dough had doubled in size. I punched the air bubbles out of the dough, then formed bread buns. I placed these on a greased baking sheet and left them to rise again, about an hour’s time. 

Once the buns doubled in size, I put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Honestly, I just looked at the tops of the bread. Once they were browned and made a hollow sound when I rapped them, I knew they were finished baking. I took them out of the oven and brushed butter on the tops to soften them. 

The buns are done! When I tasted the finished product, I realized I should have added just a little more salt. Otherwise, this bread is so good!