Sourdough Bread

Have you ever made sourdough bread?  When we bought my stand mixer from a young couple off of Craig's List, she gave me some of her "sourdough starter".  She said she had been "feeding" it for a whole year and I was pretty impressed.  I took it home and fed it just like she instructed me and have made some tasty things with it, including sourdough pancakes - YUM! 

Anyway, I was doing a search on sourdough recipes one day and came across a blog that mentioned Friends of Carl free sourdough starter.  I decided to look it up and I was floored.  The story is fabulous.  Carl Griffith's starter came from the Oregon Trail in 1847 and it is still being produced and shared freely today.

If you are interested, you can follow the link above and find out how to get your own with just a stamped self-addressed envelope.  Mine took about 4 weeks to get here from the time I mailed my request.

They send you a snack sized ziploc bag with dried starter in it.  You can print off instructions from the website on how to reconstitute it.  It works!  Today I made sourdough pancakes using some of it. I am not a big fan of regular pancakes because I don't like the gritty feeling they leave in my mouth, and I always feel crummy after eating them.  I think they swell up or something.  Anyway, sourdough pancakes are different.  They are awesome.  Really.

Next I'm going to try sourdough bread.   I'll try to remember to take pictures :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Preparing For An Emergency - I Think We Are The Emergency!

I think we need to be prepared for an emergency.  Not just a natural one like earthquakes or severe weather, but the unnatural kind like terrorists bring.  There are many people that are already secure in their food and water storage.   We are just getting started.  After reading some other blogs about the kinds of food to store, I got worried.  All this talk about flour, sugar and rice has me very concerned.  Add to that a bunch of dried beans and I am scared to death! Why?  Because I can't cook.  I have no real idea how to make a meal out of those things.  I know how to cook rice.  Guess that's a start! 

So I told my husband we needed to learn how to cook so we could survive a disaster.  He agreed.  We decided the first thing we would do is learn to make bread without a bread machine.  (No, I have no idea why this came first, maybe we were hungry.)  Anyway, he wanted to make sour dough bread but the ingredient list included "sour dough starter".  So off we go to Walmart to buy flour, baking soda, active dry yeast and sour dough starter.  We were able to find everything we needed except the starter.  At the check out counter we asked the checker if she knew how to bake bread.  We told her we were looking for sour dough starter.  She said she thought it was a specialty item and suggested we check on the Internet.

When we got back in the car I pulled out my iPhone and looked up "sour dough starter".  Much to my surprise I learned that it is not something you can buy.  You have to make it yourself!  Hubby and I were in hysterics.  Maybe we should start with some plain old white bread :)

The next thing we decided to try was beans.  Many years ago I made Navy Bean Soup with Ham.  I think it was tasty - who knows, that was a long long time ago.  Anyway, we bought ham hocks and dried beans, and I found a recipe on the Internet.  Tomorrow we are having homemade bread and Navy Bean Soup.  Please say a prayer that we don't poison ourselves.  Thanks!