We’re having a beautiful fall in Northern Michigan. The weather has been cooperating perfectly to produce awesome foliage. There’s something about the light in the fall that just illuminates everything. Maybe the lower humidity? I can’t say, except I know it gorgeous.
On Sunday I made my first attempt at making sourdough bread. Considering the recipe I followed produced a loaf about 2 inches taller, I think it fell flat. I used no commercial yeast in my attempt to make a true sourdough.
Yes, I am a food geek. What’s more, I seem to be enamored with food that requires time, aging and some sort of chemical transformation. Beer, cheese, yogurt, sourdough. Ah, as I type this I realize they all go through fermentation. No wonder I started way back when with making beer.
The recipe said to let it rise three times. I think next time I will try just twice. I did get a pretty good rise the first and second times, but this was made with my very first starter which might not not have enough of the wild yeasties to produce the third rise.
I did tear off a corner and taste it and it’s delicious. Tangy and chewy, far more so than any commercial sourdough I’ve tried.
I made a quick American style mozzarella cheese yesterday. Wow! It even tastes like cheese. It could use a little more salt, but otherwise, I think it’s great.
I even had a minor catastrophe while making it. I have (had) one of those fancy digital thermometers that have the probe at the end of a long wire. It gave up the ghost in the middle of my heating the milk to 90 degrees. After it sat at 82 degrees for like 15 minutes I realized something must be wrong. Got out another thermometer that starts it’s markings at 100 degrees. 105. Damn. But it was forming curds and whey so I continued on and low and behold! I’ve got cheese.
The thermometer dying might have had something to do with the fact that is was MELTED because my husband used it to monitor tempuratures while heat treating metal in a toaster oven. I found the thermometer on top of the oven in the basement. I assume that he left it on top of the toaster while cooking his metal things (custom knives) … (yes, we’re both crafty). He’s out of town this weekend so I couldn’t ask about it. Or make him fix it.
Today I tried making Monterey Jack. One mis-step this time and it was trashed. You have to add calcium chloride to store bought milk in order for the rennet to work well and it must be added before the rennet. Oops. After a long time of it not solidifying I gave up and fed it to the hens. The hens you ask? We got 25 laying hens this summer. Yeah, that’s a lot.
The knitting industry seems to have an “It Girl”
She’s driving me nuts. I was browsing through a knitting magazine last night and I swear she was in ads for like ten different yarn companies. Why would you want to hire the same model everyone else is using?
Don’t get me wrong…I think she’s really cute and all. But still, seeing her on virtually every page of a magazine is a little much.
