Why? Why do I keep thinking that if I just keep baking sourdough bread for Attila he will change his mind and like it? I did it again this morning. The whole wheat, sourdough, garlic, onion bread is rising in the oven. I guess I thought that if I added garlic and onion to the bread, two things he loves, that he would suddenly see the light and love the sourdough. Tonight will be the test!
Various family photos that have been sent my way over the last 24 years are being gathered together and piled up by the printer/scanner. After scanning eight photographs, it was disappointing to note that the resolution on the scanner was set to 50PPI resolution, too low. Back to the drawing board. The resolution was increased to 300PPI, and the project began again. There is one photograph I am looking for, it is a picture of my Great Grandparents on their farm, with my Great Aunts and Uncles, with the horse drawn farm implements. This photograph hangs in the local community centre near their homestead, where I saw it for the first time. The owner of the photograph was tracked down, and a copy was sent to me, but now I cannot locate where I stored it! Since the move, organization has suffered here at Mist Cottage. The search continues.
The weather turned cold last night, and will stay that way for the next three or four days. I don’t really mind, as it was an expected event. The oil furnace will provide some of the heat during this cold spell, increasing the volume of the fuel delivery at the end of the month. The air source heat pump has been in use often this winter, it takes over heating the house when the temperature outdoors rises above -7C. The hydro bills have been increasing. The humidifier was left out for the eventuality of a cold snap, and it is murmuring in the corner, attending to my health.
I continue to practise my crochet skills, this tension business is going to take a lot of figuring out; but once I develop a technique that works I will never look back.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
-8°C
Date: 11:00 AM EST Thursday 2 March 2017
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: -7.9°C
Dew point: -15.7°C
Humidity: 54%
Wind: WNW 31 gust 45 km/h
Wind Chill: -17
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”
Carl Jung
1875 – 1961
So, what did Attila think of the new sourdough?
Sometimes sourdough is just too sharp for people, I think. I’ve had really sharp ones and others where you can barely taste the sour. Maybe there’s a way to tone down the flavor a bit?
Our cold continues, here. And we’re having odd spurts of lake effect snow that melt as soon as the sun comes out. I wonder how buds on the trees will fare, since the night time lows are dropping pretty low. It might be another year for poor fruit harvests.
“…but once I develop a technique that works I will never look back.” – this is the best attitude. It will happen.
If Attila doesn’t like the sourdough bread, does he like or eat anything with sour cream? I know my Paul doesn’t like either of those and I do. I get my sourdough bread mixes from Prepared Pantry, I believe.
I keep meaning to say that the link to John Bailey on your page goes to some other page, nothing to do with him. I really wish I knew what happened to him and Graham! Do you have any idea, Maggie?
Teri, he liked it! Garlic and onions to the rescue! He made his sandwiches for today’s lunch with it, so he isn’t just being polite.
The cold continues here too, but the sun is strong, and yesterday it melted away the last of the old snow in the yard. Spring is just around the corner. I hope the tender fruit trees were not fooled by the early warm spell, time will tell.
Bex, Attila ate the sourdough bread with the onions and garlic, and liked it. Great for his lunches. I will continue to keep my yeast colonies active in refrigerator, one for his sourdough bread, and one for Finnish Pulla, which he loves. Sourdough is more work, and I have to think ahead, as it has to come out of the refrigerator the day before I bake. I bring it out, feed it, and leave it covered on top of the refrigerator to ferment overnight, then I bake with it. Using it eliminates the need to use store bought yeast for the rise. It is a very inexpensive way to make bread. The mixes sound good!
Thanks for the tip about John Bailey’s site, I guess he let the domain drop and someone else bought it. I wonder what happened to his archives! I hope he saved them, and put them someplace as a permanent record. Books are so much better, they last forever once acquired, I have one published in the 1840s, and can still read it!
How much starter would you need to make bread with 20 cups of whole wheat flour (for six loaves)? The recipes I used to use used (oy!) 1 cup of starter for two loaves. So would I actually need 3 cups of starter, I wonder.-Kate
For one loaf I used 1 1/2 cups of starter! So I don’t know, I’ve not made bread in such quantity. It takes a lot longer to rise with sourdough, I find. You could try working with a single loaf until you get the measurements the way you like them, then increase slowly and tweak. Starter is pretty easy to increase in volume, by adding more water and flour, although it might take a little longer to come up to speed if you reduce it to 1/ to 1 cup, after removing what you need for your bread. I am a newbie at this, but there are a great number of people who have honed skills. Permies.com have a forum where they discuss sourdough, perhaps you could ask a question there and get a more informed response: https://permies.com/t/752/kitchen/Sourdough-starter-questions