My friend Sally brought me over a jar of sourdough starter last week, and I made my first batch last night. I am a definite fan. I’ve always loved sourdough bread (the more sour, the better!) and I really like the long rising times. Makes bread making much more flexible. I’ve wrecked several batches of my normal whole wheat yeasted bread by starting it and then getting held up running errands, thus letting it over-rise, which makes it super dense on the bottom and full of air bubbles on top.

I was pretty sure I was doing the sourdough wrong the entire time. I do think I left it a bit too wet, so it’s a little dense, but I took beautifully risen, crusty, free-form loaves out of the oven last night. Paul and I ate about half a loaf while we watched three episodes of Lost (finally finished Season 4! Now we can watch Season 5 - don’t tell me ANYTHING!)

My next project is to do the sourdough according to this tutorial. She mixes it up as a really wet dough (in a stock pot, mixing with a big rolling pin), doesn’t knead it, pours it into bread pans, and lets it rise for seven hours or more. This has several perks - it allows the sourdough to ferment the flour for long enough to break down the phytates (as opposed to my sponge/dough timing, where the sponge sits for 8 hours, but the dough for only 2-3), it is more flexible since I could make it in the morning, go to work and then cook it in the evening without any intermediate steps, and it’s a whole lot less messy. Man, did I make a disgusting mess trying to knead that wet sticky dough on the counter. At least I remembered to take my wedding rings off this time.

I will update as the sourdough experiments continue. With the sourdough, yeast bread, yogurt, Paul’s soon-to-be beer making project, and my soon-to-be kefir or kombucha experiments and whatever else I can find to grow yeast and bacteria in, we are well on our way to Paul’s projection of growing critters on our countertop four days out of seven. It may just become seven days out of seven.

Tonight is my first foray into homemade falafel.. Not sure why I haven’t made it before - I make more Middle Eastern food than any other kind, and I grew up eating falafel (my mom made the kind out of a mix) and ate the Egyptian version (ta’amayya, made with fava beans) nearly every day when I lived in Egypt. Looks easy enough. I’ll also whip up some hummus and tahina sauce, but I don’t have time to make any pita, so I got some at the Middle Eastern grocery that I am so excited to have found. They have everything there! Including haloumi, which the husband loves.

UPDATE: The falafel was a great success - so good! I made some hummus and tahina sauce to go with it, along with tomatoes and cucumbers and bottled harissa (hot sauce).

I am so glad I have a crock pot. My mom never had one, so I didn’t know how useful they were. Not only do I use it to make yogurt overnight and chicken dinners while we’re at church, but I am always cooking up dry beans while I’m at work. I’m not sure how I would make half the things I make if I couldn’t cook them while I’m at work. There are too many things to do between 6 pm and 9 pm to worry about cooking beans for three hours. My crock pot is faithfully cooked up chickpeas for eight hours while I was at work today. Being able to cook them for so long (after soaking overnight) also makes really good hummus - they’re nice and soft, so they make a really smooth creamy hummus.

I took a bunch of other pictures of food this week. I’m sure most of you don’t want to see all my food, so I’ll put them behind the link…

French toast with homemade thickened yogurt and wild blueberries:

Indian chickpea stew with yogurt and limes:

Paul playing with his falafel: