November 21, 2014

And on the 21st day, she slept...

November 20, 2014

It's not about the nail.

OK this video has nothing much to do with anything on my blog but I just thought it was so true and so funny, I had to post it. If you've ever read "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", you'll know what I mean.

November 19, 2014

29 years ago today, I gave birth to my second daughter.  I've always thought that mothers are the ones who should get gifts on the birthdays. I can't believe I have kids that old. 

Today I went out for a run after work. It's everything I can do to get myself to exercise after work, especially when it's cold out. I just want to come home, put on my jammies, and curl up on the couch. And that's what I did Tuesday, instead of running. I was cranky yesterday.

However, maybe it was good that I took the extra day because I had a great run on well rested legs. While I ran, I was listening to Blackie and the Rodeo Kings on my ipod and totally lost track of the time. I was planning to run 4/1 but I ran for 10 minutes before I realized I hadn't taken a walk break, so I only took 3 one-minute walk breaks for my entire run and felt fine! Plus, I ran a full 5 k instead of 30 minutes.  What a slow 5 k it was though. 40 minutes. Ah well. My endurance is improving and that's what counts.

I'm still taking my vitamins daily but I'm don't try very hard to remember to do my physio every morning and evening. My reminder app is getting frustrated with me.

Photo credit to http://crankygirl.info

I haven't lost any weight yet either. Erik's in fucking Costa Rica for 2 1/2 weeks so I eat what I want, when I want, instead of making proper meals and following a healthy eating plan.  The good news, I don't drink when he's not around so I've cut back on those weekend booze calories and I don't make fancy, calorie-filled meals so that's a calorie cut back too.

I hate that's he's off vacationing on a sandy beach and I'm stuck here in the cold, going to work, doing all the housework, looking after the pets etc.  It sucks and it makes me cranky.  However, I don't actually want to be down on the beach in Costa Rica right now - it's supposed to be Fall and I love the end of Fall/beginning of Winter.  I just want him home with me so we can do all of our usual stuff together.  If I were to head off somewhere warm, it would be in February when I'm sick of winter and snow.

OK enough bitching. Time to go feed my starter....

November 18, 2014

Sourdough Starter Part 3

Sunday, Nov. 16, 4 pm -  1 cm rise

I'm getting excited about this batch of starter. I have a feeling it's going to work this time. There's lots of bubbling going on and it's starting to rise a little within 6-12 hours after each feeding. It is even starting to smell "yeasty".

I've been following the instructions on a couple different websites (The Fresh Loaf and FoodTravelThought) and so I have varied what I've done a few times, but the starter is definitely bubbling and rising.

Last night it had risen about 1 cm (see photo) from the day before so I stirred it down, kept 100 grams, and fed it fresh rye flour and warm water.  This morning, it had risen 1 cm again so I decided to start feeding it twice a day - morning and evening.  By the time I got home from work, it had risen again, so I decided to set up two jars this time, one fed with dark rye flour and one fed with unbleached white flour.

I was reading about the 100% hydration method on the Fresh Loaf site, which means you add equal parts of flour and water by weight (not volume). Because I'm using dark rye flour and because it's very dry here, I have to use less flour so it's about 100/80 water/flour. That site recommends using 1:2:2 (starter:flour:water) which was different than the 1:1:1 that I was doing before. Anyway, tonight I thought I'd try it that way instead. I had quite a bit of starter to I split it into two jars and still had to throw some away.

Jar 1 - 50 grams starter, 100 grams warm water, 80 grams dark rye flour (this was still too thick in my opinion so I may use less flour tomorrow).

Jar 2 - 50 grams starter, 100 grams warm water, 80 grams unbleached white flour. (This was runnier than the rye flour batch. I think it seems better, but it'll be interesting to see which one works better.)

So now I'm curious to see what happens.  They should be showing some bubbling before I go to bed, and for sure by morning.  My goal is for the starter to double in size before I try making bread with it.

Below are the two jars right after feeding. You can see how thick the rye flour one it on the right.  There are air pockets and the top isn't level.  The white flour on the left poured in to the jar easier.  I'm not sure if one is better than the other though.  Some people even make a super thick starter that is more like dough. We'll see I guess.

Enriched White Flour (left) and Dark Rye Flour (right)