Late to the New Year’s Party (Top 5 Recipes of 2012)

In between the Christmas aftermath and my son’s birthday four days later and New Year’s Eve two days after that, you can imagine the last week being VERY busy.  We were going to do a smallish Chuck E Cheese thing for my son with cake at the house after and then that turned into not doing anything and then that evolved to a big party at our home.  Whatever.  I have three kids worth of Christmas presents to put away and a house to finish organizing today.  Luckily I have stayed away from my computer and I do have most of the stuff done but today is the last day and I am organizing the garage and making the comprehensive grocery store list for food prep and cupcake making tomorrow.

While I may not have been writing anything I have certainly been reading a few blogs here and there.  I am late with my Sundays with Joy for last week.  I have baked Mommom’s Chocolate Bourbon Spiked Banana Bread and it is FANTASTIC!  I can’t get my son to stop eating it.  I just haven’t had the time to take pictures or the time I have is after the son has gone down.  This Sunday is our last week off for our holiday schedule and I shouldn’t have much of a problem getting it to you by then.  I also missed posting on New Year’s when everyone posts their tops for the year.  That was something I really wanted to do.

I do have a disclaimer though.  These are the top posts FROM 2012.  My top post for the year was actually from 2011, back when my pictures were yucky.  Let’s keep it interesting and go backwards shall we…?

5. Cream Cheese Wontons

Now I am not a fan of remaking things that I have made for my previous Oscar “parties” but this one was SUCH a hit with my friends, I may not have a choice.  Also, if you are a fan of Pick Up Stix Cream Cheese Wontons I have cracked the code people!  I have cracked the code!!!

4. Nutella Banana Cream Pie

Do I really have to go into it?

3. Apple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Wontons

This was my attempt at making a sweet version of the Cream Cheese Wontons, and it worked so well it beat out the savory one in views.  Don’t forget the caramel dipping sauce!  Is it bad that next time I make them, I want to fry them?

2. Chocolate Cake with Strawberries and Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting

This came with just wanting to make a cake one day.  The family called for a short notice get together so I changed the whipped cream to chocolate whipped cream and I couldn’t have been happier.  I would LOVE to make this again just to get prettier pictures of it…and then EAT ALL THE CAKE!

1. Tea, Earl Grey, Cupcakes with Lemon Scented Whipped Cream

Proving that the Wheatons win at everything, my #1 post for this year is something I made for Anne Wheaton and other humans that like to order their tea with the line “Tea, Earl Grey, hot” made famous by my FAVORITE (deal with it, Justin!) Captain Picard during the show run of Star Trek: TNG.  Along with the batter from Joy’s Avocado Pound Cake this batter (although I know I shouldn’t encourage it) wins the award for most likely to disappear before baking.

For my GeekyLinks today, we will keep with the Wheaton theme.  This was tweeted by Ryan Wheaton the other day and I thought it was pretty cool, a Back to the Future/Doctor Who mash-up.  The next is about how Wil Wheaton’s Web show brings people together, TableTop, his You Tube show on the Geek and Sundry channel.  I rewatched the Ticket to Ride episode with my 9 year old the other day (yay for You Tube on the Wii!) and when THAT PART happens (if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean) the kid was in stitches!  Plus it was a game she loves on my iPod touch and that we play together when we can.  I still have yet to buy it in non digital form.

Sundays with Joy/Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Bread

Life is the master of throwing curve balls.  Remember when I told you about my lovely cat, Sally, that we spent lots of money we didn’t have fixing her broken leg over the summer?  Well, now after just beginning to let her out again (for about 3 weeks) we cannot find her.  Believe me, none of us were at all thrilled that she was going out again (she just gets into trouble) but she INSISTED.  She would meow and meow till you couldn’t take it anymore no matter how loud the computer or television volume.  We’ve looked at the shelter, online, around the neighborhood (we put up signs and posted online ads everywhere) with no luck.  We did get a call a few days ago that my husband followed up but it wasn’t her.

Adding all the pecan bits I had left in the house…

It is still too soon to call it over.  It hasn’t quite been a week.  The younger ones and I are doing fine but my husband and our oldest aren’t taking it well AT ALL.  My oldest cried in the shower the other day after soccer practice.  We could hear her sobbing from the living room.  We tried to comfort her but then she denied she’d been crying.  Apparently the crying didn’t stop once she went to bed either.  It is kind of funny, the two that are so devastated by the loss are the ones trying to convince me to get a new cat.  I think we should save the money on cat food and shots (that Sally was due for) and NOT get another cat, at least for awhile.  They look at me like I’m heartless and I do want to give in sometimes but we have to be practical, especially with Christmas coming up.  Who knows?  Santa may seem fit to bring us a new pet.  Especially since my younger daughter said that she was fine with Sally being gone but she’d better be back by Christmas because it wouldn’t be Christmas without her.  O geez…

Ready for the oven!

Onto the bread…I really loved it.  It reminded me of why I gravitated towards Joy’s blog to begin with-her AWESOME quick bread recipes.  A few slices pair perfectly with coffee in the morning.  This bread is my second favorite vegan recipe.  My first being Joy’s Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was really bummed I didn’t have all the pecans that the recipe called for.  I only had between 1/2-3/4 cup of ground pecans, which I think I will use again in addition to coarsely chopped ones.  I could have used other nuts but I didn’t want to change the flavor profile at all.  I really liked where she was going with this bread.  So did my 3 year old.  I had cut into the one I wasn’t taking pictures of, just two slices.  I decided I would wrap up the rest of it and give it to my dad.  My son decided, when I wasn’t looking, it would be the perfect thing to take off the wrapping and dig right into the rest with his hands.  So I had to slice off what he messed up (and yeah I gave it to him) and again wrapped the rest of the bread to give to my dad.  A sad, sad half of a loaf as opposed to a nice 3/4 loaf.  Well, at least we know it was good.  Also, for being vegan, this bread puffed up so nice and pretty you would NEVER know.

As always, please buy my favorite cookbook for the recipe and check out other links for variations (some made muffins!) at Bakeaholic Mama.

My GeekyLink for this week isn’t exactly a link.  Just a tweet from my boyfriend Chris Hardwick that just increases my excitement over Wreck-It Ralph.  I am hoping that my whole family can go together this weekend.  I guess we will figure it out tomorrow night.  Sometimes we all go together, all the little cousins and the grown ups.  If we don’t, I am going to be first in line with my kids on Friday afternoon.  I can’t wait!

Sundays with Joy/Perfect Kettle Corn

This is not only the Perfect Kettle Corn, Joy’s method for making the popcorn is perfect.  I have made popcorn over the stovetop plenty of times but with only a vague recollection of how to do so.  I can remember my brother making it for us as kids and I know I was younger than my oldest is now.  I have even looked up how to make stovetop popcorn but none has ever turned out so perfect for me as this one.  This is for sure my go to for any stovetop popcorn from now on.  Also, Joy is right.  It is completely addictive.

This post is a little late in coming because I didn’t make the popcorn till today.  Last week was a pretty hectic week that I hope to tell you all about next week.  Today is for relaxing.  Today is running one quick errand with the kids so I don’t look lazy but really going to pick up  The Hunger Games DVD.  Hot today was all about afterward, on our way home, getting some Slurpees.  This afternoon is about watching a movie, sipping a Slurpee, and eating some perfect kettle corn.

As always, to get the recipe, please buy Joy’s Cookbook!  Don’t for get to checkout Bakeaholic Mama’s site for some other takes on this week’s recipe.

My GeekyLink for today is duh, The Hunger Games.  Read it, watch it, whatever.  Josh Hutcherson, yay!

Sundays with Joy/Coffee Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Chocolate Coffee Syrup

Comfort zone, Joy has smashed through you again.  This was my first attempt at making a meringue pie crust and it turned out beautifully.

Truthfully, I was this close to omitting the orange zest in the crust.  Boy, would that have been a mistake!  It complements the coffee ice cream so nicely and cuts through the sweetness just a bit.  Also, I made sure not to just crush the cookies and finely chop the nuts in the crust, I decided to pretty much pulverize them and I think that helped mine not stick to my pie plate at all.

From egg whites and mix-ins to pie crust.

So lets get on with it.  I am not a fan of coffee ice cream.  Give me mint chocolate chip anyday.  However, I had just bought some Frappuccino in bottles the other day (really just for the bottles, I don’t like to spend that much money on coffee) and just realized how sweet they were.  When they first came out I thought they were SO strong but that was before I really started to drink coffee.  This time, I almost thought they were too sweet to drink.  Almost.  So when I got my coffee ice cream out and began to stir to soften it up, I may have had a taste or two.  It tasted just like the Frappuccinos I had the week before!  I am wondering if the last time I tried coffee ice cream was before I started drinking coffee as well, and that is why I had stayed away from it.  I am not sure if I will ever order it but I will have no problem finishing the container that I bought to make this pie.

Pie out of the freezer and then complete with whipped cream.

If you haven’t guessed, I LOVED this pie!  Also, if you are not a huge fan of coffee ice cream, there is plenty of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream to cut a bit of the coffeeness.  However, I wouldn’t use the zest in the crust then because as I said before, it really complements the coffee ice cream.  I didn’t change anything up in the recipe except that I used my vanilla bean paste in the whipped cream instead of regular extract because I had used the Trader Joe’s vanilla wafers (they have visible vanilla bean seeds) and vanilla bean ice cream so I thought I would just continue with the theme.  I did also make a chocolate coffee syrup to go on top.  As always, if you want the recipe for the pie buy Joy’s wonderful cookbook.

My GeekyLink today is an Avengers/Firefly mashup, both Joss Whedon creations and now both share the same theme song!

Harry Potter Birthday Party

So all last week was party prep for my soon to be (a few more days) 9 year old.  We had a heck of a Harry Potter party!  I don’t see how some people have the time to make themed food too because everything else took me so long.  However, if I had gotten started earlier than the week of then maybe things might have been different.  This was her first party in awhile because being born on Memorial Day and her birthday always falling around that time, people are usually out of town so we end up just getting some of the extended family together and going to the movies.  Men in Black III just wasn’t that big of a draw.  Don’t get me wrong, we probably will see it but it wasn’t birthday party worthy.  If the Avengers had waited till Memorial Day weekend, well, this would be an entirely different post and my daughter knows it.

Cockroach Clusters, surprise hit of the party!

She had been trying to decide between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games (she has read both series and seen the movies) but my nephew brought up a good point that the first Hunger Games movie had just come out and there are still two more to go so she will have plenty of time still to have a Hunger Games party if she is still so inclined.  As it was I could barely find any Harry Potter paper goods at the party stores.  However, what I could find was 75% off so…SCORE!  Once the theme was totally decided on, I spent lots of time Googling and on Pinterest.  What would I do without it?

The first thing I tackled was the house ties.  I got the idea from The Brilliant Crafty Type.  The only thing was that they didn’t include was a template for the tie itself, so most of my time on these was spent measuring a somewhat symmetrical tie.  On the whole it was really very easy, just measuring and cutting.  Plus, I already had half of the felt colors (which are really cheap anyways if I didn’t) and the pin backs.  I was only expecting 8 kids so I made 12 ties (3 of each house color) so everyone would have more of a fair shake in the sorting process.

Next up was the chocolate frog boxes.  This was easy in that you could print it out and you are done.  However, the cutting out with the exacto knife, scoring the edges that you need to fold, folding, and taping were quite a bit time consuming overall.  I decided then that I would only make 8 and stick them in the goodie bags (or goodie cups as it turned out).

My favorite thing was up next!  I had already made my daughter a wand for this past Halloween when she was Hermione, so all I needed was 7 more.  I found this tutorial on how to make a wand from paper and I got 7 wands that I was very proud of.  Here again though, I already had most of the paint (I did break down and buy silver and gold metallic) and the glaze.

The rest of the prep was just printing out paper for signs and making/buying candy for my Honeyduke’s Sweet Shoppe.  I had Honeydukes, Sorting Hat, and Olivander’s signs.  I also printed out some cupcake decorations.  I found a Harry Potter Font to use for some of my signs.  I made chocolate frogs (thank you to Princess Tiana, I already had a frog mold) and Cockroach Clusters.  I bought sugar quills (pixy stix), jelly worms (sour jelly worms), licorice wands (licorice), candy snitches (Ferrero Rocher, for the grown ups), and of course Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.  I also made homemade butterscotch to use in my daughter’s Butterbeer frosting and for the Butterbeer itself (Just mix one heaping tablespoon of butterscotch with cream soda, it will foam up as you mix and is really good.  I would post my variation on the frosting recipe if I hadn’t messed it up and put too much confectioner’s sugar in it.  It would have been post worthy if not for that.

I didn’t have the foresight to print the Sorting Hat sign on card stock so I had to tape it to the couch in order for it to stand up.

Since it was mostly older kids, they played a Harry Potter word scramble game and character naming.  I just googled Harry Potter games, looked under images, and came up with a few.  I did play a lame form of quidditch as well, for a prize.  All in all, the kids seemed to have a good time.  The most important thing, I know my daughter did.  She even insisted on wearing her Gryffindor tie (that she got sorted into fair and square) to school today.

And to keep the theme going What I have learnt… from Harry Potter is my GeekyLink for today.  If you haven’t looked on Pinterest or Tumbler for Harry Potter pics and stuff, you are missing out.  There is some awesome stuff out there.

Sundays with Joy / Oatmeal Raspberry Ginger Scones

Kinda the coolest week ever.

Last Sunday I joined Sundays with Joy,  a group that is baking their way through the Joy the Baker Cookbook.  Pretty awesome right?  However, it seems I joined a bit late, as last week they already posted these beauties (obviously mine are a bit different but we will get to that later).  This week they are posting Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins and since I already posted them in September, I had a chance to catch up.

I cut the big ones in half.

I made White Whole Wheat Powerberry Scones.  Now, normally I put these babies in my Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies but they worked so great in the scones!  It was almost like biting into a candy scone.  Cool right?  Antioxidant filled candy scones.  Have I told you that I really never liked scones?  I had them once, they were kind of hard and dry and not pleasant so I don’t know how many I would have gone on to make or have.  EVERYTHING has changed!  Joy mentions at the end of the recipe that they are best the day they are made and that is for sure.  However my husband who has been bugging me to “just make some chocolate chip cookies” and has been turning up his nose at most other things that I have been baking, really liked these and even ate the last one two days later.  These were not dry or hard.  They were soft and moist and yummy.  I am sad they are gone.

Of course I dusted the tops with some sugar, duh!

I am not leaving you the recipe because we want you to buy the book, but along with swapping the raspberries for the powerberries, I made them with white whole wheat flour, omitted all the spice and added a tablespoon of sugar to the dry ingredients and a teaspoon of vanilla to the wet.  Since I am sad they are gone though, I think I will make another batch with the spices and some frozen cranberries that I have tucked away.

I think I will only post GeekLinks on Sundays with Joy posts sparingly but do you want to know the other reasons why this is the best week ever?  My teenage niece called me up (she never calls!) to ask me what I was doing this weekend (I know she totally knew I was going to see The Avengers and I totally knew that she wanted to go) so I invited her to come see the Avengers with us.  So after my daughter’s soccer game, I took them all to the comic book store for Free Comic Book Day (I could totally tell she was impressed that I knew about that).  Went to lunch and then the movie (which was completely awesome, by the way)  Then when we got home the girls got caught up on My Little Pony youtube videos (insert eyeroll here, they are ALL completely obsessed including my niece).  Then we watched Doctor Who on Netflix.  Matt Smith is “her” doctor which is great but I want her to watch from the reboot and she kept asking when we would get to David Tennant because she just wanted to get to Matt Smith.  So I skipped all the gems that are the Slitheen episodes.  I was bummed, they make me laugh.  But all in all, a totally surprising, amazing, fun filled totally nerdy weekend!

Cream Cheese Wontons and an Oscar Party

Before we get down to it, I want to ask any of the cooks or bakers out there if there is one dish that they have eaten and loved and tried to recreate and if it worked out or not.

Yummy, yummy filling!

These Cream Cheese Wontons is one of those recipes for me.  My husband doesn’t like Pick Up Stix so I hardly get to have them (and when I do, I eat WAY too many).  This was not my first attempt.  My first try was at my first Oscar party I ever had about 6 years ago.  Now, I say party but what that really means is that my friend Jennifer comes over and I cook for her (I don’t know why but it has always been 2 appetizers, a popcorn, an entree, and dessert), we play Oscar Bingo and I kick her butt at predictions (it was close this year, I only beat her by 2).  Anyways, the first time I tried to recreate them I only used cream cheese and green onions and that was just wrong.  Well, a few years later and I do think I have perfected it.  I mean Jennifer and her boyfriend (a new partygoer!) had to physically move the plate so they would stop eating them.

Assembly line!

This year I made the Cream Cheese Wontons, Baked Artichoke Squares from shutterbean.com, Buttery Brown Sugar Popcorn, and Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken.  Over the years, adding kids and having each of them go through their stages, sometimes it is tough getting everything you want to get done, done.  So I decided to make my entree in the crockpot because I didn’t plan as far enough ahead as I usually do and it freed me up to make everything else.  I am contemplating doing that every year or something similar that needs low slow cooking.

Artichoke Squares ready for the oven!

My dessert was a chocolate cake.  Remember when I talked about recreating something you ate years ago?  Well, the cake was also one of those recipes and this time, I failed.  Still totally delicious but not pretty and not quite right.  When I perfect it you can have it and you will LOVE it and you will be able to make it right when I give it to you and not have to wait 9 years to try and figure it out.  Yes, trust me 9 years and it will TOTALLY be worth it.  

Found this from last year. You can see some popcorn and our mini-corn dogs!

This was my first time meeting Jennifer’s new boyfriend and I can’t say enough good things about him.  I LOVE how well he ate!  My husband didn’t eat any of my food that night (OK, he was sleeping) but he still didn’t nibble on or sample anything before work either.  Plus even if he had eaten anything, he would have been tentative about it.  Jennifer’s boyfriend Jay—clean plate every time!  Nothing means more to a hostess.  I just wish I had won Oscar bingo.

Pretty little pocket, ready to be fried!

My GeekyLinks this week are first from Felicia Day she tweeted this awesome article from NPR about this almost extinct insect.  She said it made her tear up.  I didn’t believe her.  I was wrong.  Then I have Pulp Shakespeare tweeted by Paul and Storm.  Yes, that is Pulp Fiction rewritten in iambic pentameter and set in the 1500s.  Please, please watch at least till the foot massage conversation!

Tomato Basil Bread and OMG The Hunger Games!

This bread was probably the easiest bread I have made in awhile.  This bread was just OK.  I found the recipe on Food.com and they say to eat this bread with soup.  Soup wasn’t on my menu last week.

Then I decided to make a grilled cheese with it and to use my husband’s provolone as opposed to my usual cheddar.  Did I tell you that this was the BEST BREAD EVER?  I love this bread for that grilled cheese!  It probably would have been good for a soup too, especially if you are a dipper.  The flavor profile was that of a caprese sandwich but I didn’t have any mozzarella on hand so it was not a true caprese.  (Okay, I did have shredded but I didn’t realize it till I started writing this post, dangit!)  I challenge you to make this bread and make a grilled cheese with mozzarella plus put basil and tomatoes INSIDE!  I would have, but I used all the basil I had for the bread and haven’t had a new tomato growing for awhile.  The best thing about this bread was that my super duper picky Sarah, ate the grilled cheese without comment or pause.  This is the girl that can find the teeniest tiniest onion and pull it out of whatever she is eating with her pinky and give it to me because she isn’t willing to eat it.

I think, even though it is so simple, that it is a grilled cheese worthy of Closet Cooking.  The man can cook and he has TONS of great recipes.  However, he is the “go to guy” if you are looking to change up your grilled cheese.  The man is obsessed!  His pictures and variations on grilled cheese are pure magic for a lover of comfort food.

My GeekyLink for this week is the The Hunger Games trailer!  Ahhh!  I have watched it about three times so far and have teared up every time.  First of all, great book.  Read it!  Second of all, I love the way the trailer was done.  They show SO MUCH of the beginning and end it at the Cornicopia (the beginning of the Games themselves).  I thought it was just a great way to do it.  You might also want to check out the Entertainment Weekly breakdown of the trailer ‘Hunger Games’: Let’s Dissect the Trailer!

I was debating whether or not to have my eight year old read the books.  This, however, is no ordinary eight year old.  She finished all of the Harry Potter books in about nine months and that is including time off in the summer.  There is some hard stuff in those books.  However (Spoiler Alert!), I guess nothing like picking 24 young people to kill each other on TV.  I was going to take her to see it anyway, though.  Plus, if it is worth Scholastic Points, she will be willing (It is.  It is even in her book order, she is going to order them with the money she was awarded for having the most Scholastic Points for the first trimester).  I love that kid.

Cinnamon Cranberry Apple Muffins and Happy Accidents

I was so frickin (yes, I said frickin!) mad at my husband yesterday.  My family would say, “So what else is new.”  But no really, yesterday I was totally justified.  You see, he has a very funky work schedule (he is a truck driver) and I always try my best to be very accommodating.  I mean, he has to sleep, there are peoples lives on the line!  I try to keep the kids as quiet as possible, even taking them out when I don’t need to go out, just to keep the house quiet for him.  Sometimes, though, he just doesn’t cooperate.  It is not that he has trouble sleeping necessarily, it is just that if he knows that he HAS to sleep it makes it harder for him to GET to sleep.  My problem is that on his days off he likes to stick to his work schedule.  While I understand that, it is much harder to stick with in everyday life.  You see, I was in the middle of making a batch of muffins that I had never made before.  They should have been done by the time I was supposed to leave to pick up my preschooler from school.  They weren’t.

To be fair, I never asked for his help but he was awake at this point (he even dressed my son to go with me) and he usually isn’t.  It was his day off.  I was making remarks about how he was ruining my muffins but he never said a word.  So out of the oven the muffins went, just minutes from being done.  And, as I feared, once I got back from picking up Sarah, my muffins were all sunken in, unsalvageable.  Luckily, it was a big batch, I had nine more to bake and I over baked them!  That is when I lost it.  He told me I should have told him when to take them out but I told him I didn’t know when that would have been as it was a new recipe.  He told me to make them over.  I told him I was out of cranberries.

Ready for the oven!

I was bummed.  After eating a bit of over baked muffin, it got me thinking.  I started to see the flaws in my muffin.  I was thinking what else I might change and how I could make it better.  The original recipe calls for a cup of oil.  The first time around I changed it to one cup of brown butter but I think that it was too much.  In the topping, I first used 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and although it made my house smell phenomenal, it was a bit much too.  The first time, I only used about 3/4 cup of cranberries and when I ate my over baked muffin I wanted more.  That meant a quick trip to the store because I was also out of brown sugar (how did that happen?).  I also decided to used my white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, just because.

Can you see his little muffin face saying, "Eat me"?

These muffins are awesome!  They would be a perfect addition to any Christmas breakfast.  They have less sugar and butter than before (yay, for applesauce).  They baked up so pretty with perfect little domes and everything.  The topping is so awesome, it adds a nice sweetness and crunch. Plus, with the brown butter and cinnamon, how much better could your house smell?  We ended up going out to dinner (yay, for gift cards) and once we sat down I had to thank my husband for helping me to make a better muffin.

My official GeekyLink for this post is about the Hunger Games.  If you haven’t read these books yet, please do so!  I am gearing up for the movie coming in the spring and so have this picture from Vanity Fair to share The Young Cast of The Hunger Games.  Scroll over their faces and you will see who is playing what and if you haven’t read these books, it will give you the gist and hopefully make you want to read them.  However, I do want to tell my Doctor Who fans about a contest You Might Be In BBC America’s Next Doctor Who Special. Yes, You.  So take a look if you are interested.

Here We Go, Sourdough!

Homemade Ten Pound Buns

Since I had so much trouble this time with my starter I don’t think I should be telling anyone how to make a starter.  I will though, just because there are a few things that can go wrong (although, ultimately it is SUPER easy) and maybe you can learn from my mistakes (and I promised).  First off, I would like to refer you to Sourdough Bread: How To Begin by S. John Ross, which is where Joy the Baker got her info and where I got my bread recipe.  Really, I just want to bring to your attention the cool science experiment that is a sourdough starter.  Also, be warned of the myriad of things you can do not only with a starter (pancakes, pretzels, rolls, loaves) but also with just the bread itself.  You are just going to be cooking with it all the time.

First of all, this loaf still had its issues.  Last year, the wonderful starter I had could rise my dough ready for baking in about 3 1/2 hours total.  That was just the time for my first rise this time.  I still wish it had risen more but at least it rose enough and cooked all the way through.  My first two attempts barely rose at all and were still doughy in center.  I think maybe even though I had been feeding it faithfully over a week and it was bubbling and smelled awesome, ultimately my starter wasn’t ready for me to bake with it.  I knew the starter itself wasn’t bad, so I just put it in the fridge for the rest of the week and came back to it when I had time over the weekend.  I got it out on Saturday and fed it Saturday and Sunday and made the sponge for my bread on Sunday night.  I could tell while making this bread that the starter had gotten better.  It still did not compare to some weeks I had last year where it bubbled so much, even as I had gotten all the way to mixing the flour in for my bread dough, that I felt guilty baking it because it was so obvious I was killing something (even if it was bacteria) that was so totally alive!  It really is the neatest thing.  Science in my tummy!

So on Monday I followed my recipe and baked a loaf that was completely edible (third times a charm, right?).  A loaf I could slice up and eat with dinner, a loaf I could make toast with, a loaf that I could make a Ten Pound Bun with!  Have you ever had those at the fair?  A-mazing!  Last year, when I made my loaf a week, we would put cheese on the sourdough and melt it in the microwave and have it for a snack.  This year after going to the L.A. County Fair, and eating what has been a staple of our fair food for years, it was like being struck by lightning!  Sourdough, garlic spread, and colby jack cheese melted with the broiler-how simple, how decadent, and I can totally make this at home!

Tips

Don’t let a good sourdough die.  Mine died just this spring.  I took it out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature before I fed it (which you don’t need to do) and didn’t get around to feeding it for three days!  Then I could smell that I had killed it.  Still so sad.

Keep trying.  Although I had a great easy experience last year, this year has been more difficult.  Remember, the longer it lives the easier it will be to bake or cook with it.  You WILL get a feel for the health of your starter.

For good rising use your oven.  Turn it on for a minute or so, then turn it off.  If you accidentally make it too hot, crack open the door to cool a bit before placing your dough inside.

It really is easy.  After your initial commitment of feeding it every day for a week or so, you stick it in the fridge to be fed once a week (after awhile, even less).  If you bake a loaf once a week like I did, the whole thing becomes a no brainer.

Please ask questions if you have them.  I hope I can answer any you might have, if not I am sure we can figure it out together.  So if you haven’t started your starter yet, get cracking and if you have, get baking!  You won’t regret it.

Come to momma!

My GeekyLink this week is Hogwarts house stereotypes from my Pinterest page.  I like it because it addresses some of the concerns that were brought up in the review of PotterMORE on the Nerdist website.  I pretty much agree with the entire review.  But she brings up something that I didn’t realize, apparently lots of people that were sorted into Hufflepuff abandoned their accounts.  I was sorted into Hufflepuff (I was completely honest in my answers to the questions that decide where you go) and yes, I was kinda bummed about it but not enough to not try out the potential awesomeness that is Pottermore!  Then I ran across my GeekyLink picture and I had totally forgotten that Cedric Diggory, the only legitimate Hogwarts candidate for the Triwizard Tournament, was a Hufflepuff.  Then I felt much better about it.