Place somewhere warm to rise...

You see...that's a problem.  Having recently watched a video for making Portuguese Sweet Bread, I decided a day with a high temp of 19 degrees would be a nice time to try it, since it was too cold to do much yard work. 

The only problem is, I keep the temperature in the house right around 65 degrees during the day(it's set at 63 overnight)...although I do spike it up when the girls take their showers. In search of a 'warm place', I left the bowl on the stove top while I prepared a few other things in the oven...but it just wasn't happening.  After two and a half hours, I finally gave up.  I had some rise, and I got a little more when I proofed the formed bread....but nothing like I should have.

The finished product tasted really, REALLY good...and while it was denser than it should have been...it was solid without being dry, or hard.  Hot with some butter melted onto a slice, it tasted just like I remember Portuguese Sweet Bread tasting. 

My wife is the one who introduced me to this guys recipe's...White Trash Cooking, on youtube.  He also has his own website set up, where all of his recipe's are archived in PDF form.  It's neat, because he shows you don't need a fancy kitchen to make good food...and he goes into a lot of detail on his recipe's without coming across as condescending.