the remaking of a kitchen

last evening i put the baby in the oven with the light on and left it there, after turning off the light when i went to bed. when i got up this morning i found that the starter had doubled in size.
i removed and added again and kept in the warmish oven again for 4 hours (there is not a place in our house that is 75+ degrees), it ain't gonna happen. the oven came closest to the prescribed temp. it rose again, so i covered it and put it in the refrigerator and declared it a finished starter. wahOOOOOOOOO!

Labels: finished, sourdough starter

the starter didn't grow today, BUT the bubbles were really rising and it appeared to be more active. it still smells fresh and the color is good, so perhaps cockeyed optimism is at work but it may be about to happen. maybe. i removed a 1/2 cup and replenished with flour and water and it's in the oven as we speak. i just peeked to see if anything was happening and the bubbles are rising already and it's been about 90 minutes since the addition, so more hope. i shall check it in the morning!

Labels: sourdough

well, it's still not working, or if it is it's pretty slow. i put it in the oven and left the light on for part of the time as rose suggested a temp that is warmer than we keep our house. so, i read rose levy beranbaum's blog and she suggested just staying with it, so that is what i will do for a few more days. it still smells good and the color is good, and there are bubbles rising, there are just fewer and the starter is not growing. if it doesn't begin to grow i will just start fresh and try it all over again.

Labels: frustration, sourdough

i am not sure what is going on, but it appears that it's not much. tbb hints that it could take longer to get going, so i am keeping the faith for now. our house is cooler than the recommended environment for action so my baby is sitting in the oven with the light on for now.....incubation time. ;)

Labels: frustration, sourdough

it's really growing! i am amazed. i started this with no confidence whatsoever.....just sure that it would show the streaks of color that indicated contamination or that it would just sit there like a sullen lump and do nothing at all.
now i have to figure out how to use it to bake bread. well, not quite yet, i still have a few more days of discarding and adding before the opportunity to bake arises. (not a pun)
i decided that i wanted to try sourdough for my first bread from TBB because i have loved the taste since i first experienced it on my first visit to san francisco in 1980. i have always purchased it as a treat.....used it for special meals for us or for when we entertained guests or visiting family. now, hopefully, i can bake my own. i think.

Labels: sourdough

friday, march 23
it's established that the kitchen is deserving, so we shall see what happens after that brave statement.
this is the my first attempt at a sourdough starter and catching the wild yeast. i started it at 4:15 on wednesday afternoon and today made the first addition. it looks a bit different than it did initially (i think), but that could be wishful thinking. tomorrow should tell me something definitive. i think.

we have just a few remaining patches of snow in the yard now. as the snow inches away in the backyard we see lots of vole evidence. the little guys seem to scurry around under the snow, not really tunneling since it's on the surface, but eating a lot of grass as they go. the methods of deterring them from their winter snacks put other wildlife and possibly pets at risk so we put up with the damage and hope to see it disappear during the summer.
nebraska friends have bulb flowers starting to bloom, the neighbors who's homes face the east have tulips that are a couple of inches above ground. our yard shows green in the hosta glade where the periwinkle is popping up among the leaves and the grape hyacinth leaves are showing in the rock garden and by the front yard light. it's still cool, and getting back to some really cold nights, but it's looking like spring is possible.

Labels: spring, voles

it's amazing, but the great lake w has already disappeared. usually it's in evidence for at least several days, and then it goes away until next spring, unless we have unusually heavy rains later in the season. we suspect that the ground gets thawed enough that the water is absorbed. we don't know that for a fact, but it sounds good. nebraska friends say that the leaves of spring bulbs are in evidence as we celebrate seeing the ugly brown and gray ground. the squirrels are acting exceptionally squirrelly chasing each other on telephone and power lines, through trees and on the ground. they systematically ripped a lot of bark from the olive tree and are now busily carrying that mess back up to build perilously big nests. they can be seen carrying huge mouthfuls of leaves as they scurry up the trees. building building building. we have spoken to the neighbors about alerting the fox that frequents their yards.....we need less squirrels and bunnies this year. we hope they can spread the word.
the other disappearance is the snow......it's almost gone which is hard to believe after the huge piles still around over the weekend.

Labels: lake w, squirrels

we eagerly await the appearance of lake w each year, and fondly hope that it means that spring is seriously on the way. that little furry devil that appears or not in pennsylvania may work for a lot of folks, but our very own lake means something very special here.

Labels: lake w

the two pictures are of the deck. the snow is over 12 inches deep on the seating along the perimeter.
the photo to the right is the same shot i took of the "natural sculpture" created on the evergreen shrubs along the concrete thing. they have virtually disappeared with the latest snow. need i mention that it's started snowing again???

Labels: snow

the near photo taken from inside the living room looking out the window. snow piled on the porch planter and hanging off the eaves. the next one taken from the front porch showing the snow on the shrubs and the snow plow doing its heavy duty. there was another 6 inches or so of new snow this morning.

Labels: snow

this has really been a major snow day. it started last
evening, and just kept coming down. sometimes it looked like it was slowing down or maybe even stopping, but then it would begin with vigor all over again. we have shoveled/used the snowblower 5 times today and i think we have received about 2 inches/hour at times. the last time we were out there we helped the neighbors dig out the bottom of their drive after the snowplow left its compacted gift. when we came back home, there was an inch or more in our drive so we quickly cleared the drive again before coming inside. such a deal! i tried to show the depth along the drive with these photos. the one directly below shows the depth as the front sidewalk meets the drive comparing my height with the height of the pile we created. good grief. they have told us to expect at least 14 inches from this storm! i don't think it's an exaggeration this time!
note: i attempted to post this last nite, 3-1, but blogger had an issue

Labels: snow