Sour Dough

Sour Dough Bread

In a clean plastic container make starter that will go back in the fridge.
1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/8 cups water
1 1/4 cups flour

Mix and let stand for 24 hours. Then put back in the fridge.

With the starter that is left make your sponge.
Add to your starter.
1 1/8 cups water
1 1/4 cups flour

After about 4-6 hours your sponge will be bubble and grow in size.

When your starter is ready, make the dough.
In a large bowl mix 5 3/4 cups of flour and a palm full (approx 2 tbl) of salt.
Add 1 1/8 cups of water
Add sponge
Mix with a wooden spoon. Let stand for about 30 minutes. Knead for about 3-5 minutes. Cover with a towel and let stand for 4-6 hours until it doubles in size. Cut in thirds and knead for a few minutes. Fold in sides to form a ball. Spread some corn meal on a cookie sheet and place your three balls on the cookie sheet. Let stand for another 4-6 hours until double. It may take more or less time depending on the room temperature.
Place baking stone in the oven and preheat to 475 degrees.
Bake for 17 minutes, lower heat to 350.
Bake for 10 minutes and remove, cool on racks and cover with a towel.
Store and enjoy!

Sour Dough Starter

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups water

Let stand for about 3 days until it gets bubbly and starts to smell sour. Mix container as above for starter to put back in the fridge. Throw the rest away. Do this every day until it takes about 6-8 hours to get real bubbly. Put in the fridge, your starter is now ready to use. Note: if it takes a long time to get going you can add a little bit of cake yeast.

Some notes:

  • The recipe above calls for 1 1/8 cups of water. In the summer I usually use closer to 1 cup of water. I think it’s because of the humidity in the air that I don’t need as much.
  • You can use any all purpose flour. I prefer Ceresota unbleached flour, it really does taste better.
  • When I first made my starter it just never took off. I was just about to give up and had a little chunk of moldy cake yeast in the fridge. I figured what the heck and threw it in there. That was just what it needed.

TV

It was around this time of year in 2008 that we made one change that improved our quality of life.

I disconnected our TV antenna. We have no broadcast television or cable.

Some of things that TV is really good at:

They get you caught up the next show before it’s even started making it easy to spend several hours when you originally planned on one.

They give you little tidbits of news so you think you need to watch the news. Then when you do you get 30 seconds of a story, often with misleading conclusions. I think I am much better served by reading my news.

How many shows get you emotionally caught up in a STORY played by ACTORS. Its funny to think how often we talk about these shows and characters as if they are real.

Some of the ways it affects us:

About 20 years ago a story in Newsweek talking about how TV distorts our sense of living. People in TV shows live in nice apartments, have nice things and do lots of things. But how often do they work? At the time they concluded that for every hour per week you spend in front of the TV you spent about $1000 more per year.

It’s a distraction. I cannot be in a room with a TV on and have a conversation with someone. I end up half participating in the conversation and half catching what’s going on in the show and not doing either one very well.

I’m not saying TV is all bad. I just know that my life is better without it.

Cream of Morel Soup

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1 pound morel mushrooms
juice from 1 lemon
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 clove garlic chopped
salt and pepper
5 tablespoons flour
4 1/2 cups beef stock
1/2 cup heavy cream

Finely chop morels. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in pan and cook onion and garlic in it until soft and yellow but not brown. Add morels and cook until mushrooms absorb juices. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Melt remaining butter in large saucepan. Stir in flour, then add hot beef stock gradually, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Simmer 20 minutes. Add mushroom mixture and simmer an additional 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings. Add cream and serve hot.

Enjoy!

The Wagon Train

Today around 1:00 Sprinkles started barking. We were inside eating lunch. She barked enough that we knew it was something real, not just the dog barking at the wind. We looked outside to see something you don’t see every day. A wagon train!

There were 18-20 wagons and many saddled horses. All sizes, colors and breeds. I managed to get a few pictures.

A New Era

Prestegard Road has changed. Last wednesday they came through and put up signs saying “Fresh Oil”. The trucks went up and down the road spreading a layer of tar and topping it with a layer of gravel. Our road is now paved and will no longer be a gravel road. It’s probably not really that important. I’m sure that at one time it was a dirt road. I don’t know when the road got gravel.

About 7 years ago at an antique shop in town we were looking at a plat map from 1915. Prestegard road was on that map. It wasn’t named, however it was on the map and appeared to follow the same path it does now. Not that much has changed in 90 years. A couple of houses have gone up, a few have come down too. The names on the deeds have changed a few times.

The cars will probably go a little faster, kicking up up less dust as they go by. Hopefully not so fast that their drivers don’t wave.

Naming Chickens is a Bad Idea

Today is the day. We have 13 chickens, two of them roosters. I can’t buy chicken at the grocery store when I have a yard full that need feeding. The oldest rooster, named “Mister”, has gotten kinda mean and sometimes attacks people. Actually I’m not sure if it’s an attack or an attempt at mounting. But either way it’s time for him to go. The kids have even stated that they want to eat him because he is so mean and they are afraid of him.

I looked on the Internet and found some good directions for butchering. I read them, go outside, get out my ax, get the rooster. It takes a few minutes to work up the courage My stomach feels kinda icky and I am pale. I put him on the block, grab my ax, and out of fear that I would hit my hand I miss! Off he goes. A hatchet would be easier than a full size axe. I go back in the house and grab a kitchen knife, catch him and try again. It’s not easy to cut a chicken’s head off with a kitchen knife but I do it. It was horrible.

I do the plucking, cleaning and bring the chicken in the house. After washing in the pot it goes. When you do this you realise that the process of butchering changes the bird from “a chicken” to just “chicken”. I have gotten him in the pot and ready to go in the oven when the kids get home from school. I am still somewhat out of sorts from the whole thing. The first thing Jaimy says as she walks in the door, “What’s for supper?”

“Chicken” I answer.

Instantly “Who?”

“Chicken”. I did not want to talk about it. It was not pleasant, actually, it was horrible. I’m sure that the next time will be easier.

A couple of hours later we are eating the toughest meat I have ever had in my life. I now know where the expression “He’s a tough old bird” comes from.

Next morning we are in our regular routine. When we go out for the girls to get the bus I feed and let out the chickens. Jaimy is standing there when the chickens come out and she asks “Where’s Mister?”

“He’s gone”.

Her lip comes out, her eyes well up with tears, “Your mean… I’m never eating your chicken again.”

After school the first thing she says to Laura is “Daddy cooked Mister, I’m never eating his chicken again. I was starting to like him”

I used the left over meat to make a pot of soup, every one enjoyed it. Mister was not talked about at all.

Naming chickens is a bad idea.

Hopefully it will go better with our other chickens. They have names like, “Pot Pie”, “Stew”, “Barbeque”, “White Meat” and “Dark Meat”. Any chickens we get after this won’t have a name.