Hey, everyone! I hope all our US readers survived winter storms Fern and Gianna okay. Where I live right on the border of Middle and East Tennessee, we were just on the edge of both storms, so we got a little ice and snow followed by a little more snow the next week. Nothing major, just enough to be a nuisance for a few days. But a couple hours west of me in Nashville, Fern dumped a powerful ice storm that they still haven’t recovered from, and a week later, just a couple hours east of me, Gianna pummeled the Smoky Mountains and our neighbors in North Carolina with nearly eighteen inches of snow. That may not seem like a big deal to you New Englanders and Midwesterners, but this far south, we just aren’t equipped to deal with weather like that… especially two weekends in a row.
And in case that wasn’t enough torture, on Monday, Punxsutawney Phil had the nerve to declare we have six more weeks of winter ahead of us before the spring thaw. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s about time for that dang groundhog to take a trip to the Fluff-n-Stuff taxidermy shop if he can’t do anything but bring bad news.
The winter precipitation and sub-zero temperatures have forced me to dig in at home for the last three weeks instead of being the normal social butterfly I usually am. So what’s a girl to do but learn how to make sourdough bread when she has extra time on her hands, right? I missed the craze during the pandemic, but after taking a breadmaking class at one of our local wineries right before Fern hit, I took it as a sign and may have gone a little nuts experimenting since then. So far, I’m pleased to say I haven’t had a single failed loaf, and my starter, “Fernandough,” (Fern for short, in honor of the storm), is still going strong. Here's a photo of my very first loaf of bread (Isn’t she pretty?) and a couple of some sourdough discard bagels and pancakes that now have me obsessively feeding Fern just to produce enough discard to try all the great recipes I’ve found online. I think my next attempt is going to be sourdough shortbread cookies. I’ll let ya know how that turns out.
Deanna and I want to thank everyone for making our January sale such a great success. We saw a substantial uptick in sales and page reads on the first three books in the Sadie Sexton series last month, and we’d like to give a big welcome to our new subscribers to our newsletter! We’re currently working feverishly on Fibers and Felonies, the sixth (Can you believe it?) book in Sadie’s continuing adventures. I’m also super excited that Deanna will arrive here in Angieland for a visit next week, and we’ll be spending some time planning our schedule for the rest of the year, plotting books, and cooking up some fun bonus content for you in our newsletters. So stay tuned, stay warm, and if you see that groundhog anywhere, tell him I said to get stuffed, okay?