I Learned Something New

Sourdough. It's a thing. I've seen enough demonstrations. I've heard plenty about the benefits. I've also recognized that it is a time consuming process so I haven't thought seriously about attempting it. I don't have time for sourdough. Until...

for a Relief Society activity in June, we had a hands on lesson in sourdough. And I mean hands on. We each got a bowl with flour and salt and a wooden spoon. Then we passed around the sourdough starter and water and a kitchen scale. Wow. That doesn't sound good. Let me try again.

We were given instructions and followed them together in our activity. I even learned how to stretch and fold and did it both at the activity and when I got home. 

Thanks to a friend who took pictures of me at the activity and texted them to me. 

 

I took some starter home with me to put in the fridge. This is not my first sourdough starter but I have never gotten to the point of feeding it before so eventually it just gets thrown out. But since we were really doing a hands on thing here, I was determined to feed it a week later. Before that, however, I realized that the hands on part of the sourdough process isn't actually that much. There's just a lot of letting it sit. And I've baked enough bread products that letting something sit is not abnormal for me. 

Anyway, so I actually made sourdough bread for the first time and second time and so on.

I've even fed the sourdough starter several times since the class, with or without intent to bake.

I've had varying levels of success with the bread and with the starter but I've done it. Yay, me. I actually tried something new.

I'll leave you with a last pretty loaf as compared to the sad one before.

 

School Lovers Love School

A few days before school started, a couple people from the junior high came by to drop stuff off for Jr. Jr. and let him know they were excited about having him back for the school year.

Then we had back to school nights/meet the teachers. Teachers asking Jr. Jr. how he feels about school starting. Mixed feelings. Teachers asking Lucky how he feels about school starting. He would rather be at school than at home. Sigh. 

Speaking of back to school nights... the high school and junior high had overlapping schedules for that night so Jr. Jr. had to come with us to the high school to meet Jr.'s teachers. And it just so happened there was a big rainstorm. Like big. We luckily didn't get flooded and missed the flooding that was on State Street. We did get soaked just going from the high school front entrance to the van and we did get to see rainbows on the road as we were driving. We were able to drop Jr. off then head to the junior high and luckily it had stopped raining because we had farther to walk to the school from the van. It poured down again while we were in the school.

Jeremy unfortunately had an outdoor show in the rain. Sigh.

When we got home, this was the view from one direction and from another. So different.

 

At the elementary school back to school night, the students were given a punch card to make sure they took care of certain things (find out where your class lines up, make sure your student info is up to date, visit your teacher) then got a prize for completing it. One of the punches was to take a back to school selfie so Lucky took my phone and got his selfie.

 

The boys didn't have rain on the first day of school. I did get pictures before school. Yippee!

 

When I dropped Jr. Jr. off at the bus, he and I had this conversation-

Me: You good for the day?

Jr. Jr.: Just a sec.

(Comes to my door and gives me a hug)

Jr. Jr.: Now I'm good for the day.

Me: Awww.

Besides the snuggles I got from Jet while the boys were at school, I also baked bread because nobody had bread to make sandwiches. Sigh. See how organized and put together I am?

When Nichole started classes a few weeks later, she remembered to send me a first day of school picture. Yay! That's my girl.

So You Want to Know About August, Huh?

Let's see. August. Well, I learned from Sarah M. Eden (one of my favorite authors) a little bit about Lammas Day which was on August 1. It's a celebration of harvest so it's common to bake bread on that day. So that's what I did. I baked wheat bread that day.

August 4 was American Family Day. We played together. For a couple days before that, we played the game my brother made up that we played with my brothers in Oregon.

 

\August 5 was Work Like a Dog Day. Jr. and I did yard work.

Later that evening, I took three of the kids with me to the Provo Library to an interactive movie event: The Princess Bride. They had instructions for us on paper for things to do at certain parts of the movie (yelling, "Stop! Stop!" during the kissing scenes, and rhyming with Fezzik) as well as items to do them with (balloons for swords, pieces of chocolate for the miracle pill, bubble wrap to pop in the Fire Swamp). It wasn't just interactive with the movie but with people around us, too. We had little bottles of water that we traded with a neighbor several times during the iocane powder scene until we finally took a drink. It was a lot of fun.

August 6 was Night Out Day. While I left the kids with root beer and ice cream to celebrate Root Beer Float Day, Jeremy and I took a drive up to Kyhv Peak Overlook to watch the sunset and eat Winco salads (it's our date food). I'd never been up there for sunset before. Jr. Jr. and I went up there for sunrise last year before October General Conference. It was nice to be up there with Jeremy for the sunset.

That day was also Wiggle Your Toes Day. I may or may not have played "This Little Piggy" with Jet but I didn't get any pictures if I did. I know I wiggled my toes, though. 

 

August 8 was Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. Nobody celebrated at our house. Sigh.

That evening, Jeremy, Nichole, Lucky, and I went to the annual Utah County Birders potluck. We spent time beforehand looking for birds but barely saw any. Oh well. Still pretty scenery near Timpanogos Cave National Monument. 

Celebrating During Shelftember

I can celebrate with food even during Shelftember.

September 15 was Double Cheeseburger Day.

It was also Agatha Christie's Birthday so I had some fun chatting on Orem Public Library's Instagram about loving Agatha Christie and book recommendations. (Have I mentioned I love the library and the people who work there?)

 

September 16 was Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day.

Some of our family members don't like raisins so I made one loaf with raisins and one without.

To go along with the bread we had homemade pizza (chicken alfredo pizza with artichoke hearts from the fridge and homemade alfredo sauce and pepperoni and olive pizza), salad that needed to be eaten up, and zucchini brownies (recipe from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again) using shredded zucchini that's been in the freezer for a while.

 

September 17 was Monte Cristo Day.

I will admit, I did spend money on the raspberry jam for the Monte Cristo Sandwiches. I could have used strawberry jam from the fridge, but it just had to be raspberry. We've been saving money on other groceries this month, though.

Jr.'s been reading The Count of Monte Cristo lately. My oldest two have a thing about thick books.

Not So Lazy, Am I?

September 2 was National Lazy Mom's Day.

It's also Shelftember and I told my kids I wasn't going to buy bread at the store this month. So I took our crystallized honey and uncrystallized it (decrystallized it?) by putting the honey container in a pot of hot water until it was the consistency I wanted. I then took that honey and used it to make wheat bread (with some help from my baking buddy).

I did a few dishes (Bosch, etc.), only a few, because I burned my hand on the oven door the night before while putting the pizza in and soaking my hand in hot soapy water would not be a good idea.

I did do laundry, though. I fed myself and my two-year old, watered plants, got kids to and from school.

Oh, and I got some grossness off our counter before accidentally spilling oatmeal on it (the counter) while getting it (the oats) out of the cupboard (and I had just refilled the container the other day so it was full). So I cleaned up the oats as well. 

And I cleaned up the flour Jet dumped on the table. That's one of his favorite things to do while being my baking buddy. If there is a measuring cup or other container on the table with flour in it, it must be for dumping out. I mean that's what I do, sprinkle a little on the table to help with kneading, so why not the whole thing?

 

I wasn't so lazy but in the evening I did something for myself. I went to the Provo Library for a launch event for the newest book from Sarah M. Eden. It was so nice and she is so entertaining, both speaking and in her writing. I used some birthday money and got myself that book and got it signed.

I'm glad I took that time for myself.

Not So Flat Wheat Bread

Finally I am getting there. I have had so much trouble with making whole wheat bread that turns out flat. It's so sad. 

The last batch of bread I made, none of them became flat. I was so happy. Most of them kept a nice dome shape. I am so thrilled that I'm making progress with something I've had trouble with for years.

Now this is with this particular recipe so who knows how it will work with other whole wheat recipes but I'm just so happy about it I wanted to share.

 

This is bread that my pickiest eater loves so that makes it even better when it turns out.

Baking Buddies

Both Jr. Jr. and Lucky wanted to punch down the dough. I told them they both could.

Jet saw the balls of dough (he just instinctively knows when I'm baking or something) and the cookie sheet I got out. He knew what to do- enthusiastically throw balls of dough onto the cookie sheet.

The turned into very nice bread bowls (I used the Italian Bread Bowls recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe again) and Jr. Jr. was very interested in eating chili in one of them.

Jr. Jr. also ground wheat for me.

I mentioned already that Nichole helped me make cinnamon and sugar quick bread. Jet tried to help, too, but we had to quickly wash his hands after he stuck them in the raw batter.

Jr. made Chex Mix.

This was all done on the same day.

I love my baking buddies.