Sourdough Bread recipe

Here’s the first of the two recipes that I promised to post. Well, it’s the links to it anyway!

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/FrenchSourDough.htm This is the recipe for the sourdough bread I made recently. I don’t make my starter the same way though, I mix the flour and water and then sit the uncovered bowl outside for a few hours on a quiet, windless day. That puts wild yeast from the air in the bowl to start the fermentation. It turns out different every time! The only thing to watch is if there is any pink mould or discolouration develop on the starter, you MUST throw it out and start again!

I keep my starter in a jar in the fridge and feed it 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour once a week. I also use organic unbleached wholemeal flour for the starter as it has more food for the yeast organisms. If any grey watery ‘hooch’ develops on top of the starter you can either stir it back in or pour it off, it’s harmless.

I’ll post the recipe for the Minestrone in a few days!

Closure of Craft Designs Online

Well, I made the decision yesterday to close down Craft Designs Online. I hadn’t had the response I had hoped for from designers, and then I found a website (You Can Make This) that was doing the same thing, was very big and well-established and so I decided not to compete with them!

I’m a bit sad about having to close it down before it really got started, but on the other hand I now have a lot more time for coaching, which is a much higher priority! It’s been a great learning experience and really positive overall.

Yummy!

Minestrone and homemade sourdough bread for dinner…. I feel so full! And the really cool thing was that the bread was in rising, and the soup was made, all by 9.45 this morning! So I had to knead the bread again, set it to rise and then bake it later, but that only took a few minutes of work. And it tasted soooooo scrumptious!!!! Soup so thick we could almost eat it with a fork…. the bread was a bit heavier than usual, but still tasted great! Yummo!!!!!

And the posting is official!

Our posting back to Canberra next January is now official, as is Eddie’s promotion to Warrant Officer Class Two (WO2)! The posting order has been done! Yay!!! It’s weird, I’m happy to go back yet there are a lot of people I’ll miss from here! Hopefully we’ll be in Canberra for awhile, when we move it will be the fourth house we’ll have lived in within twelve months!

4 houses
3 removals
2 states (VIC and ACT)
1 family

Nice mathematical progression isn’t it! LOL!

Goldwork Class - Week 3

Last class. Well the picture from this week doesn’t look like there has been much change… that’s because I didn’t do my homework before the class! I was really busy with other business/coaching stuff and simply ran out of time. So now I just need to work on getting it finished. I’ll post pics on here occasionally as I continue to work on it.

I’m heading back to Ballarat in October, the other ladies from this class and I are having a get-together to work on another of Alison’s kits. This one is called Bejewelled Dragonfly. It is a very simple goldwork piece, with swarovski crystals added. Gorgeous!

Red-Eyed Tree Frog Longies and Nappy

These are some knitted Longies and a cloth nappy that I made for a friend. I dyed the wool using food colouring, and the frog was traced from a greeting card and embroidered in wool. I’m really happy with how they turned out! The longies are actually a bit darker than they appear in the photo, the flash has washed out the colour a bit.