Makin' Sourdough Bread

A few months back, I made some Sourdough Starter.  If you aren't familiar, it's basically flour, yeast, and a little sugar or honey.  And it's ALIVE.  Some people have sourdough starter that is decades old.  When you use it, you replenish it so that you never run out and the mixture gets more and more pungent and flavorful as time goes by.  You still have to "feed" it even if you're not using it in order to keep it alive.  It's like a gooey goldfish or a delicate houseplant (neither of which I have had any luck with, so who am I kidding?)  

Since its creation, my Starter is actually doing fine, so maybe it's harder to kill than I thought.  Every couple of weekends I pull it out and add a spoonful of sugar.  That's the food.  I also leave it on the counter at room temperature overnight when I feed it.  It doesn't like to eat the sugar unless it's warm.  

So far I have had great luck using it in breads and pizza dough.  I began with the basic sourdough bread recipe from my old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook but then I've boldly branched out and added some starter to some other recipes as well.  Recently I was gifted with a Kitchen-Aid mixer (thank you Missy and Kate! You guys are awesome!) and added starter to the (white bread) recipe that they suggest.  The results were perfect and sour-licious!

Today, I decided to make some sourdough bread, basic recipe again, but forgot to add the starter!  The resulting loaves were stunted to say the least, and sort of inexplicably yellowish.  I have no idea what happened there, just that the moment I asked myself "when was I supposed to add the starter?" it was too late!

This is the Starter.

Finished loaf!

It's definitely worth the wait.  

It takes more than 10 days to make the starter because the ingredients have to ferment.  Neat, huh?

How to make sourdough starter:

1 pkg. yeast dissolved in 1/2 c. warm water (105-115 degrees)

Stir in 2 cups warm water, 2 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 tbsp. sugar or honey and mix everything until it's nice and smooth.  Cover the bowl with a cheesecloth, then leave it on the counter for 5-10 days, stirring it a few times a day.  When that's done, you can put it in a jar and store it in the fridge.  When you want to bake with it, let it get to room temperature before you use it.  For example, I will take mine out of the fridge on Friday night or early Saturday morning if I know I'll be baking on the weekend.  After you use it (most recipes call for about a cup of starter) you replenish it by adding 3/4 c. flour and 3/4 c. water and 1 tsp sugar.  Stir it up and leave it at room temp overnight.  If you end up not using it and replenishing it regularly you just need to feed with a spoonful of sugar every 10 days or so to keep it going. 

 

Bathing in Olive Oil is gross

OK, so my new favorite soap is Kiss My Face olive oil based soap.  It is the most wonderful thing if you are like me and would rather not have overpoweringly scented products.  Ever since I started making my own cleaning products, I've decided it's kind of nice when something smells like nothing at all.  So, of course I wondered whether I could use pure olive oil on my skin instead of moisturizing lotion.  

"Of course," said The Google.  

Jeri Hall famously rubbed her pregnancy belly with olive oil to avoid stretch marks, remember?  All sources agreed that a couple of spoonfuls in my bathwater would soften my skin to the nth degree.  I got my olive oil and ran the bath water, carefully adding the "couple of tablespoons" to the running water.  

The events that followed can best be described as a public service.  

 It's one of those "I tried it, so you don't have to" moments.  

Do as I say not as I regretfully did.  

The first sensation is the smell.  It was so olive-oily that it attracted the dogs.  They obviously thought I was cooking up a big tub of mama soup.  Seriously, a couple of carrots, some celery, etc. would not have seemed out of place.  I kept having to shoo them away throughout the entire (horrible) process.

Step One:  I slid into the tub.  

LITERALLY.  

Apparently "a couple of tablespoons" is waaaay too much oil.  I made a mental note to try this again only with much less oil.  (Which I did by the way, and the results were similar enough that it's not worth discussing separately.)  

I remember taking baths at grandma's house when I was little.  Always there was a capful of Avon's "Skin So Soft" added to the water.  One reason for this, grandma explained, was to eliminate the potential for a grimy bathtub ring once you let the water out.  That did hold true with the "Skin So Soft", but what about with the olive oil, you ask?  

Oh my.  

The ring that was left around the tub was utterly disgusting.  Was I that dirty?  Of course not.  What was supposed to be a relaxing, skin softening and soothing activity became a slippery, dog shoving, gross gooey mess.  When I finally did make it back out of the tub and dried off, my skin did feel nice and soft, if a bit smelly.  I am not the biggest fan of olive oil, but a friend suggested that perhaps I've never had really good quality olive oil--that could very well be true.  

Anyhoo--I looked over at the tub in shock at the remains.  I think maybe I also shaved my legs while I was in there, so you can just imagine my horror.  If you have an enemy, a good way to get back at them would be to break into their house and bathe in their tub with a lot of olive oil and leave it.

I have blocked out most of the details of the cleanup but I know that I was scrubbing the tub for over half an hour just getting the goo out.  So gross.  And, yes, as I mentioned earlier I did try it again.  Sometimes I just don't learn the first time.  I'm just not that bright, I guess.  I kept thinking I just did something wrong.  Nope.  It was just the same regardless of how much oil was used.   

Here's me--sticking to showers from now on.

Put an Egg on It!

So... we have chickens and are always looking for new ways to use eggs.  I saw this cooking show once--it was Elie Kruger's--and she made this pizza that was basically this:  Crust, olive oil, then spinach.  

You then make a well in the spinach leaves and crack an egg into it.  

Then she put pancetta on top and a little cheese.  

We're vegetarian (except for the fish lately) so I put mushrooms on top instead.  You bake it and the eggs cook perfectly along with the pizza.  If you've never eaten  fresh eggs you have no idea how delicious those soft yolks can be.  

So, after making that style of pizza for a while, 

I thought I'd try some other ways to put an egg on it! 

Peanut sauce pizza with an egg on it!

This one had peanut sauce, mushrooms, and sauerkraut.  OMG it was sooooo good.  If you've never had peanut sauce in place of regular red sauce--seriously TRY it!  It's great!  That idea comes from FONG'S PIZZA in Des Moines which is probably the very best pizza I've ever eaten and there are endless combinations of sauces and toppings.  So good.  The sauerkraut is surprisingly delicious on a pizza--try it if you've never had it.  On this one I just spread the homemade dough (of course) on my rectangular baking stone.  That was just me being "lazy".  I didn't want to bother with making it round.  

I just realized that you can see in the photo the peanut sauce oozing out.  It is seriously making my mouth water.  I remember the taste of this pizza like it was yesterday.  Too much.  Whew.  Moving on...

Here was a frozen pizza that I added artichoke hearts and red pepper flakes and of course,  eggs.  It's funny that I used to marvel at those red pepper flakes on every table in pizza parlors.  I thought "Who would eat these horrible things????"  I was mystified.  

Now, I love them!  

Eggs are not just extra good on pizza--here's a time when I made "Beans & Rice"--a vegetarian staple, so I hear.  

I put an egg on it!

I like to pretend that I'm on a cooking show...

Here's how I made Beans & Rice that one time...

Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, some of those roasted peppers that I had in the freezer (see earlier post) sauteeing in some grapeseed oil.  

Then, I added some mushrooms (of course). 

Some tomatoes...

black beans and chili type spices like cumin, cayenne, etc.  

 

I used a premade blend.  Don't judge.

After it simmered with the spices I added the rice.

I cracked two eggs on top of the mixture and put the lid on!  I'm so excited!

The eggs baste themselves in the steam.  So pretty!

 

 Sour cream on the side is delicious!  

Tonight we put an egg on this freschetta pizza---->

It was so boring.  

Supposed to be spinach, mushroom, garlic.  

First things first--add more mushrooms.

And more spinach...

 Oops I broke one of the eggs.  

Oh, well.  It just looks stupid.  It won't taste stupid.

Don't forget the extra cheese!  Now since there are more toppings than the "box" knows about I added a couple of extra minutes to the baking time.  

Go until the eggs are done, 

the cheese is golden brown, 

and before the crust burns to a crisp.  

You'll feel it.

OK, I nearly burned the crust to a crisp, but let me tell you this was one fine pizza considering the tiny bit of effort involved.   

So good.  

Put an egg on it!