Bits and Pieces

The radish poll is closed. 13 of y'all love em, 3 of y'all hate em, and 5 could care less. This was my best voter turn out ever. Thanks for playing. Next time y'all get to pick out what we vote on. You can campaign. I will provide links and make fun, provide encouragement . Good Times.

I just got rid of my links list and added a blog list. This is so much better. The most recent posts go to the top of the list. I can see if you have posted without having to go to the blog first. Saves me tons of time. I kind of Internet stalk your blogs. I'm harmless, really. Don't be skeered.

My attempt at whole wheat sour dough starter appears to be working. There are a few bubble, but no sour smell yet.

I spent a little bit of time in the garden this morning with my best friend. The wind was awful and made her eyes sting, so we quit and went to lunch. Still, I got a new veggie bed and a nice visit out of it.

I have procrastinated on the quilt and need to get on with it.

Does anyone know how to do that line through text trick?

Have a nice Wednesday.

Deb

Mailbox Suprise

I am so excited I can barely stand it. My morning trip to the mailbox revealed two great things about winter. The first Christmas card and SEED CATALOGS. YEAH. The 2009 Vermont Bean Seed Company and Totally Tomatoes catalogs arrived today.

This gets my gardening imagination going. This year I want to try garbanzo beans, Jerusalem artichokes, and celeriac. I will get Celebrity tomatoes again. They were the plants that caused the great green tomato glut of fall 2008. If I plant them in the spring, there should be plenty of tomatoes for canning.

Okay, gotta go now, must study catalogs. Oh lookie,there are tools.

WEEEEE....

Now go see what Joy has to say about catalogs and magazines.

Sour Dough Bread

This time of year when there are many parties and family gatherings I receive a lot of requests for my sour dough bread.

The starter was a gift from a neighbor. It came with that friendship bread recipe. I don't like sweets, so I just make my sour dough bread like I used to make my regular yeast bread.

Sour dough starter is alive. Mine lives in the refrigerator in a one gallon plastic freezer bag. Once every week or two, I feed it. Usually there is a little hooch on top of the starter. This is alcohol and I just poor it off. Then I add 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flower, and 3 cups of water. This is pretty runny stuff, but remember, I just pored off some of the liquid and may need to do that again before I bake.

Many recipes tell you to make a sponge. Not me.

Here are few measurements that I don't use.

2 cups starter

3 cups bread flour

1 egg

3 tablespoons olive oil or butter

3 tablespoons honey

Pinch of salt.

Mix it all together. It should be a very soft loose dough. If it is too stiff, add more starter.

Next comes the kneading. Turn out the dough on a floured cutting board. Use lots and lots of flour. Knead by pushing the dough away from you and then folding it back toward you in a rocking motion. Don't be rough and don't kneed too long. As soon as the dough is elastic, holds a ball shape, and is relatively smooth STOP.

Place the dough in an oiled glass bowl and let rise for a long long time. If it cold in the house, I set it on top of my food dehydrator with a plate over the bowl to keep the dough from drying out.

After the dough has doubled or no longer springs back when you pressed it with your thumb, turn it back out onto the cutting board. Divide the dough in half. Knead just like before. Let the dough balls sit for a few minutes and then shape into loaves. Place in a oiled glass baking pan and let rise again for a long long time.

When the dough has doubled in size again, or when you simply run out of time and patience, bake the bread at 350 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the loaves with melted butter and let cool.

Then get out of the way. People get a little aggressive when cutting and serving this bread.

There are only a few more hours to vote on radishes. Let me know how you feel.

I am Officially the Slowest Land Mammal

A few times a year I get motivated to try to get back into shape. Like most Americans, I need to lose a few pounds. I usually start walking or take a class. Unfortunately, I always get side tracked by Monkeys, my garden, or something one of my sisters is doing. I guess my fits and spats of healthful thinking have kept me from weight 300 lbs, but they certainly have not brought me back down to pre-Baby Monkey size or condition.

Recently, I have been inspired to start again. I bought one of those step meters and thought I would see what would happen if I just worked around the house and yard all day. I cleaned house for about six hours. I spent another 45 minutes or so in the garden. I would usually spend more time in the garden, but it was cold and windy today.

After a little less than 7 hours on my feet, the pedometer says I have walked 2.27 miles. I am officially slower than a tree sloth. YEAH!!!

Check out my sister's craft blog In Stitches. She has a couple of giveaways.

Our Little Christmas Tree

Every year the day after Thanksgiving Manly Man and the Monkeys put up the Christmas tree for me. Sometimes I come home from a sister's house and find it up. Yesterday, I was on the computer and they came in to tell me to come look. Isn't it sweet?

I did a little research trying to figure out if our fake white tree is better for the environment than a real tree. From everything I read, it is basically a wash. In the future, if we decide to get a real tree, I would like to get a living tree and then plant it in the yard. Or maybe we could go to a local tree farm and cut down our own and then mulch it after Christmas. In the meantime, this little tree will last us for years. When it gets to ratty to be inside, I will save it as a deck or front porch tree and it will get many more years of service.

Church of the Latter Day Hates to Fold Socks Order

In order to get out of folding socks it was suggested that I make sock folding against my religion. My religion pretty much has no opinion about socks. So let's invent a new church. Foxymoron of This Country Life suggested "Church of The Latter Day Hates to Fold Socks Order." That might work. Now we can send notes to our spouses about how we cannot in good conscience fold the socks, as we will be committing a cardinal sin. Purist in the movement may even refuse to fold clothes on religious grounds. Everybody in the Monkey House will then have to find their own freaking socks.

Aunt Debbi's Ten Sock Commandments
1. Honor your mother and stop it with the sock antics.
2. Thou shall not throw socks on the ceiling fan.
3. Thou shall not wear your mother's pink footies.
4. Thou shall not take your socks off and leave these socks on top of the play house.
5. Thou shall not throw your socks over the fence to the neighbor's dog.
6. Thou shall not leave your socks in the kitchen.
7. Thou shall not sneak your dad's socks when you cannot find your own because you left all your dirty socks under the bed.
8. Thou shall not leave your dirty socks under the bed.
9. Thou shall not wear a mismatched (one blue/one white) pair of socks to school. The teachers think you are being raised by a pair of howler monkeys.
10. Find your own freaking socks.

Now isn't that better?

Should I worry about being struck down for this little bit of silliness?

Turkey Day Report

We had a lovely family Thanksgiving this year. All seven siblings and all of the grand kids made it to the celebration.

First we released our butterfly . This was pretty lame as the butterfly refused to fly. He just sat there on that flower.

Two cousins called pulling the wishbone. Teenage Monkey won. He won't divulge his wish - silly Monkey.

We started a new family tradition of burning a bonfire. This was quite nice, but no one wanted to stay outside until it burned all the way out.

The food was good and there was too much. Sadly, no one ate my tomato jam-cowards. Table conversation was lively with plenty of laughter.

Hope you all had a very happy holiday with plenty of family, food, and fun.