Freezing the Beast

I decided to freeze my starter a couple weeks ago. My starter is named the Beast. It is in honor of my mom who made a song up that basically went, "Grandma is the best." Her grandchildren turned it into Grandma is the beast. So yes, I named my starter the Beast. Starter is hard to keep fed during the summer and tends to overproof due to the heat. I live in the desert basically.

Redemption Loaves

 After my disastrous attempt at sourdough discard loaves, I bought a new scale. (Sourdough Saga Story) I was successful at 4 loaves. Hallelujah!

Common Mistakes People Make With Their Starter - good food for thought

Scientist Want Your Starter to Study Gut Health

Sourdough Starter Warmer - interesting but a little pricey

Surprise I made REAL Sourdough Bread

I rarely make real sourdough bread. I find it really time consuming to make.  I do make a lot of discard sourdough bread.  However, I thought what the heck and last week I made Venison for Dinner's Sourdough Sandwich Bread. Kate's straightforward approach and easily followed directions make this less complicated.

Venison for Dinner Sourdough Sandwich Bread- I made two loaves, so I made two separate batches. I had to scale up my sourdough starter a few days before. The bread is delicious. I am not a fan of a super dark crust. I think I would have baked for less time. I like to bake in loaves and the crumb was nice and tight perfect for sandwich making.

Resurrected Starter and Ugly Buns

I neglected my starter for all of December and a few days into January. There was a lot of hooch on the top. I am pleased to say after a couple of feedings, "The Beast" (what I am calling my starter unofficially) came right back to her perky bubbly self. I have been making discard bread but yet no sourdough bread. Maybe the time is soon.

I tried my hand at Swedish Rolls, and I am officially calling them Ugly Buns.  They are very delicious though. I have to say this dough is sticky. The recipe is from Farmhouse on Boone - Sourdough Cinnamon Swedish Buns.

Sourdough Chronicles - back from the dead /cloud of pumpkin spice

 I must confess I neglected my sourdough starter in the refrigerator. It had lot of hooch on the top. I fed it and it is alive and kicking. Feed it and it will come back.

I wanted to make sourdough pumpkin bread. I had to get some pumpkin spice. I had trouble opening the container. I am still sweeping up pumpkin spice. There was a cloud of pumpkin spice. It makes two loaves

Taste of Lizzy T Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

This bread didn't last long at my house.

Sourdough Summer - Finale and Discard bread so good your dog will steal

 I was so admiring my handiwork, and I sent pictures to my friends.  I had two slices, and I turn my back and find this has happened to my bread.  My dog was carrying the loaf around.

recipe here

Sourdough Summer : When to push pause

 

Sourdough discard waffles.

A couple of weeks ago I pushed pause on my sourdough starter. I fed it and put in my refrigerator, and it sat unfed for 2 weeks. Guess what it revived just fine. In the past I would have tried to keep up with it but sometimes you have to know your own limits. 

I was lucky to receive some dried starter this spring from my best friend. This is always an option. I love she took these through security at the airport.

Here is a link to someone who froze their starter.  LINK - I think this might be a good option too.

Sourdough Summer - How to Wreck Your Kitchen

There is something about sourdough that wrecks your kitchen. You learn real quick to clean up your mess. Sourdough doesn't mess around. I have washed SO many dishes.

I think I might have killed my KitchenAid with kneading discard bread. It has been a workhorse in my kitchen for about 18 years. I got a strong electrical smell kneading.

We also made a double batch of waffles this week too. I have too much discard.

Sourdough Summer the New Hot Girl Summer

 Just kidding but I was at the sourdough discard again. I made pizza dough, and it turned out delicious.

I used this King Arthur Recipe. 

Yes, I have a problem. The more the merrier with Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread. Emergency bread is a need right.

Finally, a baked Sourdough Round.  My son made this one. It lasted a few hours. Recipe is found in the book below.

Artisan Sourdough Made Simple

Sourdough Summer

 My best friend gifted me with some dried sourdough starter. I finally got around to waking it up.  So I feel like I need to declare this a sourdough summer.  It can be a thing, right.

The first thing I made with it was waffles. We have a weekend waffle tradition when we have sourdough discard.

Then I made Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread my friend passed on this recipe. It came out a bit darker than I like but yum.

If you notice a theme around discard recipes.  Well I seem to be more successful at those than sourdough bread. 

Previous Posts about Sourdough

I am not a Sourdough Quitter

Sourdough Flop Edition

Diary of a Medicore Homemaker - Sourdough

Weekly Roll - Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

Linky Love

Sitting Bull's Great Grandson Identified Using New DNA technique

Mexico's Pottery of the Night - this black pottery is really interesting

Recycled my voters guide into ghosts for a garland. It is the power of the vote.

Inappropriate Thoughts

Pain Points - I don't know if your daily living/housekeeping you constantly run into things that bother you or cause you angst. For me lately it has been a drawer that houses all my big spatulas and other weird utensils.  Guess what? I cleaned it out and organized it. I can find stuff. It took 5 minutes.  I have wasted more time looking for stuff in that dang drawer than it took to organize.  Pain Points is a term a instagrammer  Jordan  Page- fun, frugal, free uses.  Got a pain point that can be resolved with about 5 to 10 minutes of work. Need a system so you don't have a pain point. It is worth it.  I think pain points can be used to describe things a lot of things in life. Got an appointment need to make but have been putting off,  a call or email to return, need to clean out email inbox.  Maybe 5 minutes won't solve big things but it can solve a lot of little irritations.

Also below is me too. See screenshot. This is also me.

Sourdough Update

Well I tried a sourdough recipe from a special edition magazine called Bread.  I actually borrowed it from the library but kept it so long I finally found a copy to buy (Tractor Supply) I tried their loaf recipe for sourdough.  This contained whole wheat.  My loaves looked great on top but slightly burned on bottom. My kids liked it though. Loved the foil sling to place dough in heated dutch oven and remove bread.

Weekly Roll

 

There is about 5 weeks before my son graduates from High School. Final Countdown seemed like a good theme song. Got to admire their hair in the video.

Why Would You Walk From Washington DC to New York?  Good Read

Podcast Suggestion

Undisclosed - I totally binged the last season(The State vs Jeff Titus). It was So compelling that I discussed it with my husband. The is a series called Killer in Question on ID that one of the episodes covers this case.

Sourdough Update

Still feeding the starter. Tried Vension for Dinner 's Kate's Master Sourdough Recipe. It was delicious. Loaves pictured above not from that recipe.

Weekly Roll

 

Inappropriate Thoughts

All my inappropriate thoughts have to do with government agencies this week. I got to call on behalf of my son a certain agency and they had messed up. I tried to set them straight but all they were concerned with was that their form was filled out. So, we filled it out even though it didn't need to be filled out because it didn't apply. So ,if you want to grease the wheels of government, just fill out the form.

Sourdough Update

I made sourdough waffles for the first time in my new waffle maker. I love the new bigger size. They turned out great.

We also had an abundance of starter so I made Venison for Dinner's Sourdough Lemon Poppy Seed muffins but as a cake. It was good. It is not overly sweet.

Weekly Roll

 My version of my weekly round up of thoughts and links. Below is all  experimental baking/cooking I have done during the pandemic. I have highlighted several of these recipes in the past but I thought it would be awesome to do a general round - up.  All my baking lately seems to be retro inspired. 

My Year of Obsessive Indifferent Baking by Mary Elizabeth Williams really inspired this round - up. It really hit home because that pretty much described what was happening at my house.

5 Roses Peanut Butter Bread found via Reddit

Sourdough Waffles

Elevator Lady Spice Cookies

Skillet Cookie

Taquitos adaptable to be onion and garlic free as well.  This is a great make ahead. Freezer to Oven!

10 Best Recipes we made from Reddit this year - I've got to try to make the Alice Cookies

Guilty Pleasure aka Netflix Binge

Brigerton is based on a series of books by Julia Quinn

Controversial Scene

All the Pop Music Covers in Bridgerton 

Thanksgiving Weekly Roll

Well in the season of well stocked toilet paper and full pantry's. I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely all be it different. I thought I would offer my weekly roll early so you could enjoy after your turkey dinner.

Inappropriate Thoughts

This darn puzzle took us 7 flippin months to do.  We received it from my Mom who got it from someone else. It ended up with one missing piece. We even had to use a magnifying glass to complete the darn thing. There is itty bitty writing on the puzzle. I am seriously going to put this darn puzzle in the TRASH.

Is anyone else doing puzzles?

Linkage

There was a rare snowy owl spotted in a Seattle neighborhood. We spotted one in 2012 in our neighborhood.

Is Gratitude the Secret to Happiness?

Can you Find All the Squirrels?  It is a bit tricky

People have tracked down the mystery monolith - I kinda want to go find it

Sourdough Update

We had sourdough waffles for breakfast on Thanksgiving. I am continue to make some loaves every week.

Weekly Roll

Celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary in true covid style, apart. My husband is on a work assignment but he did send me these really pretty roses. 

Really starting to feel like fall around here. We got a lot of rain and wind last week. It is probably time to put the garden to bed. I have been picking dahlias like crazy.

Sourdough Update

Well it didn't go as planned as the first two loaves I made the parchment paper stuck to the bottom. That didn't stop the youngest from devouring the loaves. He just cut off the bottom crust. My next batch turned out great. I oiled the parchment paper. The dough is just wet. 

I broke my 17 week record of making weekend waffles. I made no sourdough waffles last week.

Remote Learning Update

My son has made this desk his own. We now have an aquarium for his aquaculture class.  Finally have 

fish too. Though he didn't like my name suggestions for his minnows of fish and stick. No sense of humor I tell ya

I made a new sign. We joke that you know everywhere my son has been by the trail of debris. 

Weekly Roll

Random Thoughts

These thoughts are my own opinions. 

I had the above cowch advertised to me on Facebook. I think I am the wrong demographic for the item. Though I indeed did look it up after it was advertised to me. This makes me laugh. My children didn't think this would be a good addition to the office. It is like $1,699. A lot more than I would be willing to spend.

Well it must be fall because my baking mojo is back. It never fails once it cools and the days get darker. Tried a new to me zucchini bread recipe - Sesame Seed Zucchini Bread. It made 3 mini loaves. I have become a mini loaf fan.

Sourdough Update

Made Sourdough Country White loaves last week. I thought this bread was delicious. I haven't decided if this is my go to sandwich loaf yet. I did like the crust on this one. They each had a bit of a tumor on top. I kind of felt like I should of scored these. My children preferred these loaves.

Remote Learning Update

My youngest is making quite the gallery wall of post its. I think it is going better than last spring. I appreciate how hard the school district is working. It is a vast improvement over last spring. It is hard don't get me wrong and why it works for the majority they are many who can't access because of technology/internet issues.

Weekly Roll Labor Day Edition

Starting to feel like fall here. Mornings are cool and sometimes foggy. I hope your labor day weekend was restful and Covid free.

Remote Learning Update

Can you tell my son is attending a virtual assembly? He is totally living his best remote learning life.

Love this story - Desks by Dads providing desks to students who need them

Had an interesting experience Wednesday night. We live next to a elementary school and their intercom got turned on at 10 pm and was playing classical hold music for a half hour. It is really hard to fall asleep to that. My guess is they don't want anyone falling asleep on hold

Sourdough Update

I got a new sourdough book-Artisan Sourdough Made Simple . I had requested it from the library back in March. I finally just ordered it.  Of course, then my hold came through. This book is so highly recommended by so many that I am glad I purchased it.

I made sourdough discard crackers. They were delicious and lasted about 2 seconds. I also made Golden Semolina Bread from Artisan Sourdough Made Simple. I had some technical difficulties. The bottom crust stuck to the parchment and was really tough.

Weekly Roll

Samish Overlook - Bellingham WA

Quarantine Thoughts
These are the voices bouncing around my head this week. These are my totally inappropriate thoughts

Mask acne is a thing. OYE. You don't even need make- up below the nose. Think about it. The make up industry might be taking a hit on this.

Don't you think hiking outside would be one of the safest activities you can do. Masked hiking is weird. Yes I know some trails are narrow and busy. Yes, I hike with a face covering I pull up when I pass other hikers.

I took my sons for a walk/hike around a old mental hospital - Northern State (Northern State Recreational Area). That is weird right. This is how I bond with my sons. Ha Ha

My best friend made me this. I am definitely going to sparkle like a unicorn. 2020 can't take me down.

Podcast to Listen To 
Pantsuit Politics - Problems and Priorities in Education - This is excellent especially the summary at the end. I have a lot of anxiety around sending my youngest son back to My school this fall. This will be his senior year. Digital online learning was pretty much a bust in our area. We had the technology but execution was awful.

Bellingham Marina

Linky Love
Why I love these Chaco flip flops - My friends swear by the Chaco sandals

COVID19 - Unpredictably Triggers Challenging Behaviors - Good article on Autism and COVID

10 Powerful Habits That Will Help You Become Your Best Self

My Friend shared this documentary on Facebook. It is showing on some PBS stations. I think I missed the showing in our area. It looks very fascinating. More information about Vertical Harvest

Loaf Report
Took last week off of sourdough. We still had our Sunday Sourdough Waffles. These weeks loaves look and taste pretty good. We missed our fresh sourdough.

Weekly Roll

It was graduation weekend in our small town. On Friday there was a parade of seniors. It was as much of parade as we could have during covid.  It made me happy to see the Class of 2020 reclaim their day. As we were watching I felt like I was with the town crier as my son knew so many seniors. There was also a little boy maybe 4 or older who kept screaming enthusiastically to the crowd, "Class of 2020 is the best."  It was hilarious. 

My best friend's son is a senior and I felt like a very proud auntie. He is a great kid and I can't wait to see what his future holds.

I am just going to post sourdough pictures. I think I am getting the hang of this whole sourdough thing. The other night it was a "three loaf night". Sometimes I crack myself up.

Finding Forrest Fenn's Treasure was Just the Start - I just find this so interesting and all the unintended consequences of finding the treasure.

Strange Twisted History Behind Seattle's Blackberries I just thought this was fascinating.