Sourdough Update

The mystery of the missing starter has been solved!

On our walk this morning Judy reported that with all the young ones home for various college graduations the starter was found on the porch, brought inside, and left on the counter.

If you know sourdough you know where this is going.

As I typed yesterday, it's a vigorous starter.

Left on the counter it outgrew the little container I'd put it in and made a run for it.

Oops.

I guess that means it did get up and walk away....

The horrified young ones cleaned it up and threw it away.

We are not crying over the lost starter. Technically that was a cup of starter I was supposed to discard anyway. And there is more where that came from! She said this also gives her time to acquire a crock that would be an appropriate starter home.

In other bread news, I sat down with the nutritional labels from the flour and the store bought bread and did a lot of math to figure out where my bread stands.

It's not perfect calculations, but it reinforces my feelings that my bread (eaten in modest slices) isn't all bad. Sure it's a little higher in carb and a little lower in protein than the store stuff, but not as bad as one might have expected.

What did surprise me is that the Ancient Grains Blend didn't up the nutritional profile as much as I was expecting. In fact the traditional Whole Wheat has a higher fiber content. If I make my next loaf with whole wheat it will be even healthier.

Still, the Ancient Grains does have a nice flavor to it.

In other, other bread news, I have sent an e-mail to the KAF Bakers Help people to find out if I can use a cup of my sourdough starter in place of the starter in the Scali Bread recipe. That was late yesterday so I haven't heard back yet, but personally I don't see why not. Think of the time that will be saved if I can! Especially if I can use unfed sourdough.

Knitting content will return soon, I promise. :-)

Hello, Sourdough.

After Mom and I were done at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival last Sunday we skipped over the border into Vermont to visit the King Arthur Flour company store.

Since I've been using KAF products exclusively for my baking since the 1990s the prospect of visiting their store in person was fairly exciting.

In fact, I've suggested this as an outing to Hubby a couple times since we moved back to NH but since he doesn't bake he's always squirmed out of it. Mom doesn't bake, but she likes baked goods, so I knew she'd be up for it.

If you get their catalogue then you have an idea of what we saw. Basically, all those items in the catalogue right there in front of you so you can actually make all those impulse purchases that pass through your mind when flipping pages or looking at the website. In addition to more flours out of more grains than you can shake a whisk at.

Lunch?
In addition to shopping part of the plan was to get a bite to eat. It was a rainy day that Sunday so we thought soup would be the way to go.

The soup of the day was Vegan Tomato Bisque. That raised warning flags because I haven't met a vegan soup I liked. Even during our trip to France summer before last I had a vegetable soup that was so tasteless we figured it must have been vegan. But mom and I ordered the tomato soup anyway.

Sorry, guys, but it was really....bland. Mom and I agreed it needed cream or a chicken stock base. Either of which would have defeated the vegan purpose. Happily, the dull soup was the only disappointing part of the trip.

Treasures
My wallet did not escape unscathed despite my attempts to control myself. Mainly I bought a bag of the Ancient Grains Flour Blend to have a healthy option on hand, a bag of dough improver to make bread easier to knead, and a present for my mother-in-law.

But the piece de resistance was a container of their fresh sourdough starter. (This is not a picture of how the starter comes from the store. This is a picture of my starter after I started waking it up. The starter from the store is in a little bitty container that isn't intimidating at all.)

Now, I already killed some of this sourdough starter back in the 90s when I was living in Texas. Although after reading all about sourdough on their blog in the last few days I wonder if that old sourdough was really dead. But that was more than 10 years ago, so I'm not going to mourn it.

You might also recall that I recently killed a sourdough starter while living in CT. But that was from a very old, powder souvenir starter from California. I think it had issue to begin with.

Anyway.
On Thursday I finally got the container cleaned and woke that sucker up. All day Friday it was going gangbusters, which was very exciting. Actually, I just took a peek at in the fridge and it still looks bubbly and happy.

I have dubbed it Seymour, for what I hope are obvious reasons. Although it might be more logical to name it Audrey 2.

On Friday I whipped up a batch of bread following the Rustic Sourdough Bread recipe that comes with the starter. Only I subbed in 1 cup of the Ancient Grains Blend for that whole "healthy" bread illusion.

I'm rather pleased with the results. It might have come out a little denser than I anticipated, but I think that is the influence of the whole grains. Also, I haven't been baking bread from scratch much lately. Additionally, it's been raining, like, all week here and I'm sure the humidity affected things.

When it first came out of the oven Hubby had a sliced and declared it good. This was a breakthrough because the only bread I've baked that he's really liked so far was the Scali Bread, which is good bread, but limiting in baking options.

Since then, however, Hubby has denounced me as both a siren and a saboteur and declared that he won't be eating any more home made bread until he has reached his weight loss and fitness goals. Mainly because there is no way to know the actual nutritional value of my bread. sigh.

I, on the other hand, have chosen to put on nutrition blinders and finish the loaf. Sure, my bread probably isn't as good carb-wise as that sprouted grains stuff we buy in the store, but I can't imagine it is all that bad.

Of course, this puts me in a pickle where Seymour is concerned. As you might know, if sourdough starters aren't used every week they at least have to be reduced and fed. Well, I'm not going to continue to bake loaves of bread that I'm the only one eating. I guess I'll just maintain Seymour, discarding a cup each week, until such time as Hubby is ready to play along.

Disappearing dough
Speaking of maintaining a starter...there is a lot of feeding and dividing involved before you can actually use it.

At one of those steps the directions say to remove a cup and either discard it or give it to a friend. Anticipating this step I had arranged to give that cup to my friend Judy. Well, I plopped it in a container and left it on her porch since she was out and about when the time came.

She sent me an e-mail that it's missing!

Now it's a very vigorous starter but I can't imagine that it managed to get up and walk away on its own.

At least, I hope it didn't.

Maybe I should check the fridge again.

Schleppy Sweater: Making Progress

I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly the Schleppy Sweater is working up. In around 10 more rows, give or take, I should be able to put the body aside and start the sleeves.

Since I'm working it in the round I'll have to catch the sleeves up, then I can join the whole mess together and finish it off with no seams.

I sure hope joining the sleeves makes sense when I come to it. I don't have any underarm bind off, which probably means I did some math or measured something incorrectly. I'll worry about it when I get there.

Try It On
On Saturday evening I got through the corset ribbing and was ready to add my third ball of yarn when I decided it was time to see if I was actually on the right track. It measured about 8", as expected, which means I'm nailing my row gauge.

I'm pleased to report that it actually seems to fit!

I transferred it to my trusty spool of kite string and put it on. I held the cast on edge at my hips, where it's supposed to be landing and held the top up. The corset ribbing could have been a wee bit higher, maybe two rows, so I'm not going to rip back to change it. The circumference around my body seems on target as well.

Outside Encouragement
On Sunday evening I went to a potluck with the other Westport Yarns, nee Knitting Central, staff members to celebrate the transition.

It was a little messed up because the Connecticut coast was walloped by a massive rain and wind storm Saturday. Half the people in attendance were unable to bring their contribution because they lost power and couldn't cook.

My town didn't loose power at all. In fact I didn't realize how bad the storm was until I was on the Merritt Parkway where I could tell trees had been down. There were more downed trees in the area of the store.

But it worked out fine. Giggles made butternut squash soup. I baked a loaf of that Scali bread. The hostess wisely picked up some fancy deli salads. ABB made ambrosia, and there were two types of cheesecake, cookies, and other desserts.

My bread was a big hit and everyone was duly impressed. I actually had to bake two loaves because I knew Hubby wouldn't let me take it out of the house. In fact, when they were out of the oven he tried to run off with both of them, but Samson jumped up and tried to snatch them, causing Hubby to return them to the kitchen island.

I also received a few pats on the head for attempting my first sweater design and the fact that it actually looks like a sweater. People even identified that the center ribbing is intended as waist shaping.

Things That Smell Good

And I'm not talking about wet dog!

The flowers I got for Valentine's Day. Sneaky thing had them sent to the yarn store when I was working Sunday.

Because getting flowers is good. Getting them where other people can be jealous is better. hehehe.

The lilies are very fragrant and heady. I've been carrying the bouquet around the house with me.

Mainly had it parked on the coffee table next to me, but also brought it up to the bedroom last night so I could see it first thing this morning. Now they are on the mantel in the living room so the pups can't get them.

Vanilla. mmmmm.

The one on the right I bought in Mexico for like $5 back in 1997 or 98.

Hubby and I have been watching the end approach with dread. We've joked that we won't know what to do when it runs out, it's been so long since we had to buy vanilla.

The one on the left I bought on Sunday at Penzeys Spices. We won't discuss how much it cost, but it wasn't $5. Neat store, though.

The bottle doesn't pour well, for trying to fill a little half teaspoon measure. I had to use one of Hubby's wine pouring spouts to control it.

Boston Cream Pie.

From scratch.

Yes, the baking spree continues. Oh, and I made another loaf of that sandwich bread, but I did use the dry milk this time. I let you know more tomorrow.

Between Valentine's Day and Hubby's Birthday both being in February, it was a good excuse to make an elaborate cake.

I used the recipe in the Fannie Farmer Cook book. But I did the creamy chocolate frosting, not the eclair frosting.

I gave Hubby the whisk from the frosting to lick.

"Why did you warm up the frosting," he asked.

I made the frosting.

"No one has every made me frosting from scratch before."

I guess no one has ever loved you this much before.

We must not miss an opportunity to drive these points home.

Bread and More Bread

Well, I wasn't getting much knitting done on my Ravelympics project for most of the day.

No, instead I had the urge to throw more flour around the kitchen.

This time I made King Arthur Flour's Classic White Bread. What I like about their blog is they give you extra little tips that aren't contained in the normal recipe. The pictures are helpful as well.

Like this whole idea of rubbing the top with a stick of butter when you first take it out of the oven, which is why mine looks so shiny. Really increases the butter flavor.

On the other hand, I'm usually going for a crispy, crunchy crust, so I'll probably stick with brushing the top with water when it first goes in the oven. But you have to try these things at least once.

Although I let it rest for five minutes after taking it out of the oven, I totally burnt my fingers trying to cut a slice (or two) so I could munch it while it was still warm.

Definitely a different flavor than the Scali bread I was making earlier in the week. But still very tasty.

I'm not sure that mine rose as much as theirs. I think the kitchen got a little chilly. But it still fluffed up nicely and tastes good. If I keep this bread baking nonsense up I'm going to have to get a new box of dried milk and see what difference it makes.

Part of me wanted to put the large version of this picture in the blog because I'm so very please with the interior texture of this bread, but that would have been silly because the picture is so huge.

Seriously, the bottom and side crust are nice and crispy, the interior is soft and chewy, and the top crust is all soft and buttery. So many textures and so much flavor to enjoy, what's not to love?
I'm going to have such yummy toast with breakfast tomorrow.

Obviously Samson, who is a little blurry because he was in motion when I took this, totally understands what I'm talking about. Or at least he thinks he understands and would love to experience what I'm talking about first paw.

After all, we're talking about a pup who likes bread and loves butter, so that loaf would be right up his alley. Which is why it safely tucked away in the cupboard over the stove.

I also made a loaf of banana bread. I noticed last night that our bananas had been ignored and got overripe. Whipped that up with the recipe I always use from "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking Basics." (What?! I bought it when I got my first apartment after college.) I like to put a half cup each of chocolate and peanut butter chips in it.

At this point, between the three loaves of bread, the peanut butter cookies, and the banana bread, I have blown through the bag of flour I bought barely two weeks ago! I need more flour. Wow, I've done a lot of baking lately.

I was a very busy girl today.

Let's see. I mixed the banana bread and put it in the oven, then mixed the sandwich bread, then went to the library, then shaped the sandwich bread, then played online, then put the bread in the oven, got the laundry going, then finally settled down to knit around like 3 pm. Oh, and I played fetch with the pups a couple time.

Knitting
Just now before I came up I made it through the pleats section of Stella's Blouse. About 30 rows. I'm a bit concerned that it's taken me like 4 hours of knitting to work 30 rows, but they are 121 stitches each and there is a pattern.

Of course, now I'm into the smocking section, which won't go much faster. But after that it's all stockinette stitch all the time, and I'm expecting that to whip along. Especially since it's going to have far few stitches to work.

I had to stop because I have to decrease many, many stitches away before I start the smocking and I didn't want to have to figure out the math to balance it. I remember that was rather painful on the sleeves and back.

Of course, I seem to remember the one sleeve had other issues I didn't discover until I was trying to decrease.

Instead of straining my brain, I went to this calculator, which did the math for me. yipee!

At the same time, I'm having to remember to take breaks, stretch, and rest my hands. I kind of forgot the combination of the cotton yarn with the Addi Turbo needles is a bit rough on me.

Really, I'm not accustomed to working with the Addis. Oh, I like them fine, but generally I spend most of my time knitting with bamboo or birch double points for my socks, or my Denise Interchangeables, which are plastic. None of those needles are a slick as Addis and it's a bit of an adjustment.

However, it's bed time now, so more knitting is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Back to Socks

With Hubby's Chunky Cabled Scarf done, but a few days remaining before the Olympics (and Ravelympics), I returned to working on the numerous pairs of socks I have on the needles.

These Green Step Socks are my plain stockinette stitch pair for waiting rooms and anti-fidget activity when I'm battling writer's block at work.

I finished the first one over the weekend.

I noticed the toe ended at just about the same point in the color pattern where the sock started.

Against my better judgment, but because a girl can dream, I went ahead and cast on.

As expected, I was too far into the color section. The pinky salmony bit came up around row 7 of the ribbing when I shouldn't have reached it until row 14 or 15.

Since the idea of unmatched self-patterning socks still makes me twitchy, I reeled out yarn until I found the same section. I used tied a little knot in the yarn under then new ribbing, unraveled it, then used that section to backtrack on the working yarn to find the correct spot to cast on.

I think that little method worked rather well. I'm probably one a row shifted at most. Of course, I'm not neurotic enough to do that all the time. I'm willing to just eyeball it and have those rows of ribbing actually count for something.

Tartan Argyles
In the evenings at home I've been working on the second Tartan Argyle.

At this point I'm through the first two diamonds and into the third. Then it is just the instep to go in pattern.

I think this time I'll stop before the instep, work the heel flap/turn, and then work the instep and sole simultaneously to reduce the counting I need to do to ensure they match.

That means I'll have to fish the rest of this set of double pointed needles out of the test sock I was working on a few weeks ago.

At the moment I'm going to pause in the knitting and start tackling weaving in the ends. That takes focus and is not something I can do while I'm watching TV.

Snow Day!
My office was closed today because of the snow. It started this morning between 6:30 and 7 (I was up at 6:20 and didn't see anything, although I didn't have my glasses on). Not a ton of accumulation so far, but it's supposed to get worse tonight for the evening commute.

I'm really happy the powers that be at the office decided to close. We were worried they'd have us come in, then close early, and that would have sucked.

Of course, I'm working on an article that was due like last week, so I can't take a true snow day.

Still, I've managed to slack off most of the morning.

We finished the bread I baked, so I'm working on another loaf. I mixed up the starter last night in anticipation of being home today.

I asked Hubby I if should make the sandwich bread instead and he said the Scali bread was good so I should make that again.

This time I was smart and misted the started with olive oil (we have an atomizer that we can fill with whatever we want, as opposed to canned cooking spray) before I put the plastic wrap over it. Didn't stick so bad.

Also, I remembered that I did change the recipe. It calls for a bit of dried milk and I don't have any so I skipped it. I think it adds protein and helps with the texture or something.

Anyway. Last week I pulled out my box of dried milk. It did not have an expiration date on it, but I distinctly remembered buying it when I was living in TX, which shows you how much I use it. That made it at least 10 years old. eeewww. So I tossed it (finally). The only boxes I saw at the store were massive emergency reserve sizes, which didn't make any sense since I never made it through a normal size box.

I guess if I stick with this baking bread on a regular basis thing I track down another little box of dried milk. Until then, I think I managing fine without it.

Now, I must go weave in ends on my Tartan Argyle while I mull over my article topic.

Stay warm!

Bread and Soup

"It's like a baguette," Hubby said. "I didn't know you could do that."

Eh? I can shape bread any way I want, I thought.

Then he want on about how he was more excited about this loaf than my previous loaves, "Which looked like a hat."

Eh? A hat? But I guess my most recent attempts (which were absolute disasters) have been round, which is the easiest shape.

He then proceeded to pick up the entire loaf and start gnawing on the end.

I suggested perhaps he would like a slice with butter, but he said we didn't have time since we had to go grocery shopping.

He wrapped the loaf in parchment paper, put it in the center of the kitchen island against the utensil jar, and put the cooling rack on top of it. All the while Samson was watching intently from the Green Room. So Hubby informed him that if Samson stole the bread while we were out Hubby would kill him. I said Hubby would have to get in line.

This story is not going to end the way you expect, because I put the loaf on top of the fridge. With a clever, determined, bread loving pup in the house it just wasn't worth the risk.

Bread Success
The bread was very good, if I do say so myself, and really knocked Hubby's handmade socks off.

He was quite blown away by how good the bread was. This is understandable considering how bad my last loaf was (old yeast, possibly stale flour, let's not discuss it). The success of this loaf totally opens the door to future loaves. And I was able to say, "See, I haven't been lying all this time when I claimed I can bake good bread."

I follow King Arthur Flour on Twitter (@KingArthurFlour), but they did not bribe me with coupons to say nice things about them. I've been using their flour for years. Couldn't tell you why I first started buying it, maybe price, possibly because it's unbleached.

At the end of January they sent out a link to recipes for this Scali bread and Italian Wedding Soup.

I was all over it because I like Italian Wedding Soup but it isn't in any of my recipe books.

The bread recipe was easy, well as easy as scratch yeast bread is. I didn't mess with it at all, which is to say I did not sneak any whole wheat flour into it. After the last loaf was such a disaster I figured I have to get my chops back with some simple, basic white bread recipes.

I mixed up the starter Saturday night. Then started in on the loaf Sunday between the six loads of laundry I had to do. Much abuse of my souvenir tea towel with the French wine appellations took place. Since it's flour sack material it was just perfect for covering a rising loaf. I even set the time for 10 minutes to make sure I stuck with the kneading long enough. I think the egg wash, which I don't normally use, went a long way toward the nice crispy crust.

Making the braided loaf probably went a long way toward impressing Hubby as well. We have blown through it with only a roll size amount left after breakfast this morning. Hubby might even finish it as an after school snack.

In fact, this recipe was such as success that I don't know if I should repeat it this weekend or go with the basic sandwich bread recipe KAF link to earlier this week.

Soups On!
I also made the soup on Sunday. I did not time them to finish at the same time, but it didn't matter.

I went wild changing the soup recipe, so I'm not sure where to start.

First, I didn't make the meatballs from scratch. I cheated and used the frozen Party Size Meatballs from Trader Joe's.

Second, since I wasn't feeding a wedding of any ethnicity, I reduced all the ingredients by a quarter—so half a cup of each veggie and 4 cups of broth. This was a good amount for the two of us. Hubby had some for lunch Sunday, we ate it for dinner, and I finished it for lunch on Monday. It was a light lunch, so maybe a wee bit more would have been good.

Third, I used fresh spinach instead of frozen. Couldn't tell you why. I bought one of those 6 oz cello bags of baby spinach and use most of it.

The soup was tasty, but we agreed it was a bit bland. We put this down to me not using enough bullion. Hubby points out I usually do that and suggested that I put in what I think it needs, then put in more. Usually he comes along behind me and fixes my seasonings, but he was very busy with school work Sunday and dropped the ball.

Still, I'll make it again.

Of course the parts of Sunday that were not devoted to being a domestic goddess were dedicated to finishing Hubby's Chunky Cabled Scarf.

It's Alive!

Hey, Mom! Look at how well my sourdough starter is doing!
With the oven fixed, I am filled with a desire to bake stuff. Hubby was gone all day Saturday at a debate (he's the team adviser), so I was free to throw flour around without restraint.
When I was single in TX and had no life, I used to bake bread from scratch all the time. I was got quite good at it, if I do say so myself.
Then I got Hubby, and the puppies, and bread from scratch took too much time. When we were dating Hubby swiped his parents' bread machine for me (they never used it), but I never quite got the hang of it.

Poor Flour, to Come to Such an End
So I jumped back in with a loaf of wheat bread on Saturday. I think I should have stuck with white for my first time back. Sure, they look nice, but the taste leaves something to be desired. (Well, mom seemed to like it, but she always likes my bread, so I take her judgement with a grain of salt.)
Actually, a few grains more salt probably would have helped.
I used it for Hubby's toast this morning and he declared it dense. He smiled when he took his first bite, then pretended to try to feed it to the pups. So I had mercy, made him a slice of commercial toast, and let him feed mine to the pups.
I brought in a slice for Boss Man to try (he bakes bread too). I warned him about what Hubby thought. He didn't have the option of feeding it to the pups, but he agreed with Hubby's assessment. We debated too little salt, too much flour, and the age of my yeast and flour (!). We agreed whole wheat is tricky.

Sourdough
On Saturday I also fished out a souvenir package of San Francisco sourdough starter. I'm not sure how old it is, so it might be either brave or insane of me to try it.
It didn't look like much Saturday, a white sludge on the bottom and a liquid on top. I thought paste. Hubby said puke, which shows how long it's been since he saw any puke.
But when I came down Sunday morning it was all frothy and the liquid was on the bottom. Smells right too. So I have hope it will work out.
Of course, it doesn't look like the picture anymore, I gave it a brisk stir this morning and added a little more flour.
I'm supposed to let it work on the counter for three days and then transfer it to the fridge for a few more. So it should be ready to go by this weekend.

Cookies?
Hubby, of course, has been campaigning for chocolate chip cookies since we scheduled the appointment to get the oven fixed. It's not that I'm denying the boy on purpose, he's the one that ate all my chocolate chips. And I need butter, softened at that. So we're looking at tomorrow or Wednesday before he gets his wish. (I think another reason he turned on the sourdough is because I'm growing it in the cookie jar, which was my chef jar when I was single.)
And I want to bake cinnamon rolls too. More yeast based items! But, again, I need butter.

Knitting?
Eh, what's that?
Actually, I'm working on a pair of bed socks for my mom. Yeah, don't worry, she doesn't like surprises.
Which is ironic considering she, Aunt K, and my niece "dropped in" for dinner Saturday. Keep in mind, they live four hours away.
Anyway, it worked out because I was able to show her the yarn I'm using. Multi-colored mystery acrylic from my stash. She wanted easy care and not to warm.