Sourdough Bread Starter

Sourdough Starter

Let me start this post by saying I am no expert when it comes to bread making and I believe bread making is an art form. I have been practicing for years and kicked up the experimenting in the last few years.  
I have tried to get a sourdough starter going a few times with no luck.  But my son Daniel absolutely loves a good sourdough bread so I persevered. 

Making good loaves of bread is time consuming so it's not for everyone.  But the joy and feelings of accomplishment you get when the bread turns out perfect are well worth it. 
I have never actually met anyone who has been successful at getting a starter to ferment or live. 
There are plenty of websites with instructions, and even rants about how easy plain flour and water is to start,  but what good are they if they don't work for me or you? 

Well let's get started.  Here are a few tips on how I got my starter to work.

It needs restating and underscored that the better the ingredients the better the end product.  

Also, if quick and easy bread is what you are more interested in try my Easy Beer Bread recipe. 

Sourdough is time consuming.  It just is.

Canning Tomatoes

Easy Home Canned Tomatoes
Tomatoes are one of the first things I canned well over 20 some years ago as a beginner canner.  I read it was one of the easiest things to learn as a newbie canner and they were right.

There is nothing better than a fresh tomato straight off the vine, but I think the second best thing is a jar of home canned tomatoes in the middle of winter!

I use canned tomatoes in chili, spaghetti sauce, soups and casseroles and many different recipes.  If I run out, I also make salsa or tomato juice from the tomatoes I canned. 

I can so I can preserve my garden harvest but also because I can control what's in my food.  I grew it and I grow organic. I know what's in each and every jar. 

Canning is the process in which foods are placed in jars and heated to a temperature that destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes. This heating and later cooling forms a vacuum seal. The vacuum seal prevents other microorganisms from recontaminating the food within the jar.

Homemade Vanilla

Making Vanilla is Easy!

Real vanilla is quite pricey but is one of the best flavors to use for wonderful desserts and in treasured recipes.  I myself absolutely love double strength vanilla. Making your own insures a high quality product that is free of artificial colors or sweeteners.  Homemade vanilla also makes a wonderful gift similar to a bottle of fine wine. And like fine wine, vanilla matures with age.

Making your own vanilla is cost effective and has only two ingredients:  Vanilla beans and vodka. Most commercially bottled vanilla is 4 ounces which is ½ cup.  I can't think of many things I pay that much for and get so little.

The first and most important question is: How many vanilla beans are needed to make vanilla?

Growing Your Own Garlic

Growing, Harvesting and Storing Garlic

It’s the end of March and I have the worst case of cabin fever I have ever experienced. We've had an unusually hard long winter here in Ohio, and all across the Midwest, with temperatures remaining well below freezing and even well below zero for long extended periods of time, ugh.  Usually our snow melts after a few days, but not this year. 

Gardening and seed catalogs are arriving in my mailbox nearly every week.  But most days, it’s almost too cold to walk down the lane to the mail box!

I am already planning the lay out of the vegetable garden and what I need to plant, one of which is garlic. We love garlic and I use it in many recipes and dishes.

Pantry Stocking List

Easy and Doable Pantry Stocking List

My sister Julie Buskirk is my guest blogger today. 
She emailed me an idea for blog post a few months back about a list to stock a pantry or making a food “staples” list.  She had also sent her email to a local newsletter and they printed it. 
Here is her guest blog post:

Pantry Stocking:

These days, there doesn't seem to be many cookbooks talking about lists of basic "Staple” food items families should have on hand in the kitchen or pantry.  I have a few older cookbooks I started out my young married life with.  

Those cookbooks taught me what I needed to stock up on first, before teaching me cooking techniques and recipes.

Seed Storage Container

Easy Way To Organize Seed Storage

This is an simple way to organize and store seeds, and makes it easy to inventory the seeds you have on hand.  
I like to separate my seeds by groups or type, that way come spring I know which seeds I need to purchase and which ones I have plenty of. 

What you’ll need:

• 1 Plastic Storage Container (shoe box size)
• Card Stock or Index Cards
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Seed Packets

Easy Hay Feeder

Building a Pallet Hay Feeder

We started our goat herd in November of 2012.
Our baby goats, 3 kids, are now about 3 to 3 1/2  months old and finally weaned.

I started shopping around for a good quality hay feeder.  Goats are notorious for wasting hay.  My goat mentor and giver of the goats, Shelby, told me early on that if I wanted to save money on feed and hay, I needed to buy or build feeders.
Goats pull large amounts of hay onto the floor at a time, then once on the floor it is just too dirty and unclean for them to even think about eating!
Spoiled rotten goats, says I.

Real Greenies Have Manure On Their Boots!

I couldn't have said this better. I am irked daily to see people “confessing” to be green who haven’t a clue of what real love and respect for this earth is. They have rarely walked a quiet woods, planted a tree that produces food, tended a garden to feed their family, composted for the soil sake, recycled to reuse or anything of that nature. I believe most professed “city greenies” don’t even know how or what it means to be self sufficient!

Could I do more, do you ask? Why yes, of course! But I am not preaching “green or die”; I am not condemning everyone to a smog hell who doesn’t ride a bike to work!
Below is pretty much how I feel, just could never in a million years put it into words or a speech as this blogger has done!

Elizabeth