Winter hit the Seattle area pretty hard last week. As much as mid-westerners and East coasters scoff at West coast panic over a few inches of snow and ice, we really do grind to a halt out here. In our defense, we have hills. Steep hills. Even four-wheel drive cars or snow chains are rendered next to useless on our hills. So for the past week, we stayed home. But this was a an opportunity to cook and to bake. I ran out of bread pretty quickly, but no matter; I had bread flour and yeast! So I spent a lot of time kneading dough for bread and bagels, much to my family's delight.

_{Homemade Bread Photo © 2012 Fiona Haynes, licensed to About.com}