My Mountain Home

More Interesting than Football

I know there are many fans glued to their tv sets today, but I'm not in that crowd.  I did some quilting, weaving, baking (bread, crackers and pretzels) and spinning today, but the big news is our dinner featured several leaves of fresh lettuce!

I carefully snipped about 7 leaves for each of us and filled out the plate with butter lettuce.  The butter lettuce comes with its roots so I'm going to plant it and see what happens!

I finished up 50" of the yellow rag rug for the summer kitchen.  That warp, what's left of it, will be a quite small rug to go under the dogs' water dish.  

This next picture illustrates what the right tool for the right job can do.  Our Craftworks plates have a bad accumulation of stainless marks.  I've tried everything, bleach, Comet, 3M pads, and nothing would take them off.  On Pinterest I saw a tip, to use Barkeeper's Friend glass stove top cleaner, and it worked!

Next week should see the warp off the loom, a skein of brown Border Leicester lambswool ready to knit, a new Block of the Month (pictures to come), and hopefully the sashing finished on the Dresden Plate quilt.  That's the plan anyway.

eCourse activities-1st week

It's been a week since I signed up for the eCourses at Gnowfglins.  I'm really enjoying it and learning so much.  At the McCall Farmer's Market last Saturday I purchased a sourdough starter, something I'd toyed with before and never kept going.  This seems to be a strong strain and can produce a doubling rise overnight in a bread dough.  

The first thing I made was Sourdough English Muffins.  Here's a sandwich I made for Richard with pork loin, tomato, and shredded cabbage (from the garden--mmm so good).  

 

I only grew four heads, but next year I'll do a whole row!  I see lots of sauerkraut in our future.

 

I also rigged up a fermenting jar for some sauerkraut, but today I received two new quart jars with air locks.  I dug some golden beets and carrots and went to work.  The carrots are done with fresh ginger and sweet onion.

Time for bread?  I made a Sourdough Rye, and let it rise, contained in a brotform.  It was excellent with a nice chewy crust, good crumb and deep flavor.

Did I mention the sourdough waffles, with yogurt and berries?

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Yesterday, with company coming, I whipped up a sourdough chocolate cake.  It was insanely good, served with strawberries and whipped cream, both unsweetened.

The testing went on as I set up the sourdough cinnamon-nutmeg-cardamom rolls to bake this morning.  The recipe called for extra gooey goodness in the bottom of the pan but we didn't want all that sweetness so we eliminated that part. 

Actually I made a triple batch and put almost all of them in the freezer.  We did have one each for breakfast with a scrambled egg and it was most delicious.

I soaked some raw almonds in salted water and put them in the dehydrator for Crispy Nuts.  The process eliminates the enzyme inhibitors, making them more digestible.

My last project for the week was winding up a project I started a month ago, Lavender Vinegar.  It was finally time to decant and is such a pretty color.  Makes a good skin toner and I use it after washing my face (in the shower) with honey.

What's in the queue?  Cultured cream cheese and feta in brine!

Kitchen Goal of the Month

Kelly the Kitchen Kop has this as a regular feature on her blog.  I'm going to participate this month and see what happens.  I love setting goals, taking on new projects, planning what to do next, but I'm not so good many times with the follow through. I'll start small!

 

My goal in the kitchen this month is perfecting a recipe for whole grain crackers.  I want something like a Wheat Thin but less sweet, something like an Akmak but more flavor, and something more sturdy in its crispiness than short.  I've tried two recipes so far, both of them very rich and tending toward the pie crust end of the continuum than what I'm after.  I may try olive oil or coconut oil for the fat next time with sprouted kamut flour, then add some herb flavoring or some seeds.