Just rambling on….
We actually have reasonably warmish weather today. It was almost 50F this morning when I was out, although it’s only about 35F now. Of course, it was raining. I suppose the only bright side is that it wasn’t snow. It’s to be sunny and 6F in the morning though. (Yikes)
There are a few snowdrops starting to show colour, and a few early crocus poking their leaves through the ground. Sadly with the temperature dropping once again they’ll just have to wait to continue blooming and growing.
After talking about not wanting to hurt myself yesterday - I have a horribly aching back today. The stupid thing is that it seemed fine until I was in the car. Must have been something about the angle that just aggravated it. So I’m now using the laptop, sitting on the couch, with the heating pad. Nice.
The other part that is sore, although just achy, is from my hips almost to my knees. Not sore, just aching. And not the back of my legs, but the front. Ack, just falling apart I suppose. I don’t think it’s anything serious - it’s likely just DOMS of some sort. I’m going to use this as a good reason to do my Statistics homework.
I tried to avoid doing it by baking bread, but the rise time is 8-10 hours. Yes, that was hours. I put together a sourdough starter 5 days ago, but hadn’t read the rest of the recipe. I’m supposed to mix the starter with more flour, water, oil, sugar, etc. and let it rest/rise for 8-10 hours. Then punch it down, form it, and do a second rise for 2-3 hours. Sheesh, I can see why people don’t make it much. I was going to make a small loaf today and then try more tomorrow. What I might do now is do one regular (ie. close to the original recipe) and one mixed (combo of whole wheat, white, soy, flax, cracked wheat) both tonight and finish them off tomorrow. The starter itself is a mix of white and whole wheat flours. It’s going to be interesting figuring out a calorie count for them….
I hope the aches and pains go away. The bread sounds interesting. Hard to believe it takes so long. I hope it turns out. I’d be really disappointed if I invested that much time in it and it didn’t turn out.
Back in my earth mother phase I made a lot of different breads…always seemed like a lot of work for only moderate payoff. Really made me appreciate bakeries! But there was something really enjoyable about digging your hands into the warm yeasty dough.
inkheartmeg - I don’t think I read far enough when I decided to make it. Yet, the insane people that I am, I fed the starter when I was done tonight. That means I’m likely going to try it again.
tjnorth - I usually dump the ingredients in the bread machine, but do the second rise out of the machine and bake them in the oven. It’s not much work doing it that way. I don’t eat a huge amount of bread so two loaves sliced into 40 pieces usually will last me a month. My mother takes some occasionally, but even so it’s not that big a deal. This attempt is to replace the sandwich thins because… they’re kind of pricey (in my mind). And besides, it’s a challenge.