Tori’s Writing Hole

The last few days have been hectic, to say the least. Here in the lovely Capital Region, we’ve been hit with around 20″ of snow - causing Stephen’s work to be canceled but also requiring hours of digging. I’m not equipped for that, so Stephen was forced to dig out the car and shovel tons of the white sludge off of our sheer cliff face of a driveway. His car is still buried and he took mine - not like I’d be driving around in this.

The day before, however, was the day I ate Buddha. Seriously - he was an organic chocolate, homemade caramel and salty almond confection from Lucky Chocolates (located just outside of Woodstock, NY). And boy - was he sacrilicious. Happy smiling chubby Buddha makes for a good sweet treat, and these chocolates are pretty great. The store is teensy, barely a storefront, and it feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere - but they do have a website. Prices are steep, compared to other local choco-stores, but the products here are all made with fair trade organic chocolate and other neat items like agave nectar. I think I’ll go back and try some more when the weather doesn’t suck as much.

Finally, the sourdough. As you may have read previously, I made a starter. Said starter was going well - frothy, doubled in size, sour smelling. So I made a sourdough French bread, carefully following the directions for this deceptively simple food. I let it rise, punched and kneaded, and baked off the bread as directed. And… ended up with a rock. Thick and dense, it never seemed to get the height or crust I was looking for. I was convinced this meant that the recipe (and not the baker) was faulty, so I came up with a “standard” sourdough recipe and tried that. Nope, even worse. My verdict: trek over to Panera and buy a loaf. My friend the sourdough starter found a new home - the toilet.

Technorati Tags: baking, chocolate, snow, shoveling, sourdough

When a woman becomes a mother, all sense of reason flies out the window. Polite conversation, small talk, weather - they’re replaced by poop, projectile vomiting and food intake. For some reason, if you have a baby (or toddler, or even older child I suppose) speaking of bowel movements and poop is commonplace, even expected.

I didn’t realize, however, that this carries over to adult life as well. Suddenly, when you have a stomach flu, it seems ok to talk to another adult about the consistency and odor of your excrement. Taboos be damned, I’ve got the diarrhea!

Yet another reason to be thankful I’m a mom - new conversation starters.

Technorati Tags: bathroom, poop, mother

I’ve been baking for years now - about 15 years to be precise, and there are certain things I’ve always wanted to make because I love them so. Cream puffs were an example, and when I finally got my pâte à choux to work I discovered they were not worth the effort. I buy cream puffs now.

Another item I have always wanted to bake is sourdough bread. I love this bread - always have. The fluffy texture, crunchy yet delicate crust and sour yeast taste and aroma are perfect. So of course, I’ve always wanted to make some.

To make sourdough, you need a starter. Every starter I’ve tried to make has come out horribly - a mass of flour soup mixed with mold and possibly gnats. Not great. Then I came across this recipe (courtesy of Sourdolady on The Fresh Loaf) I’ve put my additions/notations in bold:

Procedure for Making Sourdough Starter

Day 1: mix…
2 T. whole grain flour (rye and/or wheat) (I actually used organic Hodgkins Mills Unbleached Wheat Flour)
2 T. unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice (I used orange juice)
- 2 tablespoons of liquid made a really stiff, thick starter, so I also added 1-2 tbsp of filtered water to thin it a bit)

Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day 2: add…
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours. At day 2 you may (or may not) start to see some small bubbles.

Day 3: add…
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours.

Day 4:
Stir down, measure out 1/4 cup and discard the rest.
To the 1/4 cup add…
1/4 cup flour*
1/4 cup filtered or spring water

*You can feed the starter whatever type of flour you want at this
point (unbleached white, whole wheat, rye). If you are new to
sourdough, a white starter is probably the best choice. All-purpose
flour is fine–a high protein flour is not necessary.

Repeat Day 4:
Once daily until the mixture starts to expand and smell yeasty. It is
not unusual for the mixture to get very bubbly around Day 3 or 4 and
then go completely flat and appear dead. If the mixture does not start
to grow again by Day 6, add 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar with the daily
feeding. This will lower the pH level a bit more and it should wake up
the yeast.

—
I’m up to day 6, and I now have a bubbly, yeasty and fragrant starter. At day 8, I plan to start feeding the yeast a bit more flour, so I can build up a starter to make bread. The next step… finding the perfect bread recipe.

Technorati Tags: bread, sourdough, cream puff, baking, cooking