More Sourdough...

Alright so here is the sourdough 24 hours in:

Lots of bubbling and stuff, it has risen a bit I would say its about 1.25x its original volume, this was after stirring in the liquid that had risen to the top and then letting it sit for a few hours more. It doesn't smell bad, but it doesn't quite smell yeast-y either. I am going to give it 48 hours and see how its doing, if its still a little dubious then i am going to can it and go with the added yeast method.

Tonight I am making the Sweet Milk Sandwich bread recipe found  here. Last night I made Mac N Cheese, I used the Pimento Mac N Cheese recipe in the new Bon Appetite but I took out the bell peppers and the peppadew peppers. I like it, its a really gooey good recipe but does come off a little greasy, so if anyone has any suggestions? I was thinking of adding a little corn starch or flour to kind of absorb some of the oil and keep it with the noodles instead of separating out and sitting in the bottom of the pan.

Ooo I am also making asian beef wraps tonight, for some reason I don't make a lot of wraps because I just kind of don't think about them but I think I will be looking to make them more often, they are simple, different and Niko doesn't make too much of a mess with them.

Sourdough EXPERIMENTS!!

So in a fit of domesticity I decided I needed a bread maker to make my own bread because the only part I dislike about bread making is the kneading right? (thats probably a lie but its what I tell myself). So I picked up this beauty (and for only $5):

(not my actual bread maker, but its the exact same as the one I have.)

And then I said, well if I have a bread maker then I should make sourdough starter so I can use it to make sourdough. Simple enough, we made a lot of sourdough as a kid. I thought though that I wanted to make like...really good sourdough bread so I wanted to look around for a different starter then the basic one my mom used (equal amounts of flour and water and a pinch of yeast). I kept coming across yeastless recipes..apparently this is the way that "real" sourdough is made and starter made from bakers yeast will never have the same complexity. Instead you take advantage of natural yeast and bacteria (hopefully good bacteria..) in your home environment to ferment the starter. Hmm, sounds...science-y....and yay! culturing microorganisms!!!
So this is what I did, I mixed 2 cups of flour (apparently I should use whole wheat or rye flour because it has more natural yeast...I was not making a special trip to the store, I used bread flour) with 2 cups of warm water, 2ish tablespoons of sugar and a bit of salt and here she is:

Just mixed up and ready to...ferment....

and just 3 hours later:

Already starting to get some...growing....action...truth be told I am more then a little nervous as to what kinds of things are growing in there, but I have been assured by several websites that as long as the liquidy layer is not pink and that after a few days it has a fresh, fermented, beer like smell and not a bad just sour smell then its good to go...

As the great Jeph Jacques once said in Questionable Content,  baking, its like science for hungry people! http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1679

Introducing the WTF?!? Dress Form

So today I did some pretty good thrifting. After deciding yesterday that I needed a bread machine, low and behold I found one today; for $5....I know you are jealous. I also got a really pretty dress that I will probably wear next month when Skull graduates, Amazon Trail, Gizmos and Gadgets, Math Cover and Reader Rabbit. I also also got a dress form for $10 bucks...more on that in a second. Dude I had great luck today. We also donated clothes today (apparently $53 worth according to It's Deductible, which will save us $8 on our taxes next year whoooo) so I think thats why I had such good luck, you must make sacrifices to the thrifting gods to keep them happy. 

This is the story of the dress form. I spotted the dress form at Goodwill, but there was no price! I finally track down an employee (there are always like 5 of them running around until I have a question or need a dressing room unlocked) and she gave me a look...she is not sure why I want this thing...but she finds out the price, they will give it to me for $9.99...I verify, you mean like ten bucks? She gives me a look, still unsure why I want it and says yes but you can't return it. I call Skull over, point out that even used a dress form usually runs at least $50 bucks and it would be helpful for all the sewing projects that I will...eventually...get around to doing. He agrees its totally worth it, but he also gives me a look of "I don't quite understand why you want this thing but OK".
We put it up front, finish our shopping and check out, the cashier...also looks doubtful as to why I would want this thing, but I assure her I really do want it and we wrestle it into the car and go home.
So, at this point you are saying to yourself, It's just a dress form, why is everyone all WTF?? about it?? Well you see someone had altered this dress form and at the time of purchase THIS is what it looked like:

Why, yes, she is duct taped and heavily padded.

I also like to think that the chunk missing from her eyebrow shows off her devil may care attitude.

BFF's!!

I knew under all that she had a heart of gold, and Skull had a lot of fun trying to find it. I wanted to be the one who ripped her all apart but Skull no sooner had her in the door then he was undressing her...

I really do have to give the previous owner Kudos, I mean, she probably couldn't find a dress form in her size (granted this is the SMALLEST size in this series, something I was happy and lucky to find out, which means she probably also got it second hand) and she decided that she would make it work. She, by the way, used the old fashioned put on a tshirt and wrap yourself in duct tape technique, we found the shirt while we were cutting through and she stuffed it with poly fill, it was very squashy.
The whole time I was at the store I kept telling people that there was a good dress form under there. No one would believe me, but I kept telling them, just wait, just you see, there is a good dress form under there...and there was! It needs cleaned a little (you can see some light stains in the photo, they actually are less obvious in real life and look like they are probably from oil or grease and it is a little rusty) but shes my size (amazingly) and she will definitely get the job done. 

Also I just googled it, this is an Acme dress form in size A, on e-bay it runs typically between $50 and $100. WOOT!

Assorted Thoughts

So I have a project to work, making some stencils for a friend. I am pretty excited about it since it gives me something to do and I am making a little money with it to, which rocks. I was getting really inspired just looking at different stencils on stencilpunks.org so now I actually have a few projects including a shirt for Skull and a bag for me (because I need more bags?).
Also I am making sloppy joe's tonight. I learned something the other day when making hamburger helper....you know how when a recipe tells you to brown hamburger you usually just cook it until its not pink while breaking it up? Yea, no you should actually BROWN it. Sear that shit. I have been just cooking hamburger since I was like 10, and since I started actually searing it? Everything tastes like a billion times better.  I think I need to start buying the big jars of minced garlic too...I keep telling myself that theres no way I need all that...and I just used half a little jar in a week and a half...
Also anyone have good ideas on how to eat more veggies? We have salads pretty frequently, and we make stir fry with a lot of veggies, but I have a hard time getting them in with other things. I just can't seem to get into making veggies as side dishes (such as cooking corn with a little butter salt and pepper) because no matter how much or little I make theres a ton left over.


Niko quote of the day "My baby doesn't have a brain huh?" (about her baby doll while watching the documentary Babies)

Moms are not the greatest things ever (except maybe for mine :P)

So, these seems a weird way to start this since I am a mom and I am very proud of being one, but I don't think that moms are the greatest things ever. Sure we are usually the primary care takers of our children (but a big kudos to all those single dads and stay at home dads out there, you guys rock) and thats a lot of work as is maintaining a clean and sane household but, still when it comes down to it? Yea.
I am sick and tired of the "I do blah blah blah and I love it because I am a MOM" "I look like crap at all times but its OK because I am a MOM" self congratulatory type posts on Facebook. Listen, people have been moms for literally as long as there have been people, you are probably a better mom then some of other moms that have existed, you are probably not as good of a mom as others. We all do the best that we can but come on, really? I mean its not like you discovered a cure for cancer, you squeezed out a kid. Kids are pretty hard to completely mess up, I mean unless you are a TOTAL nutbag they pretty much turn out OK (or they don't, but you probably couldn't have prevented that). When I see those oft copied and pasted paragraphs I don't think "Oh wow, what a proud and courageous woman and mother she is" I usually think more of "Oh god, that one again? We get it, you have been crapped on by your kids and you have to do a lot of shit everyday, none of which apparently involve putting on real pants."
By all means, keep putting up pictures of your kids, telling stories about them, complaining about all the chores that still need done and how your husband doesn't appreciate all that you do, but we can we put the stupid forwarded messages?
On top of all that, I just want to add that I think that a shout out TO your mom or acknowledgement of good mom-edness from your kids is approximately 1 BILLION times better then those things are anyways. So thank you to my awesome mom for putting up with my dozens of panicked phone calls over the last few years, for understanding that every once in a while its OK to have a mental health day and go to the movies and leave the dishes for tomorrow, for trying her best to make sure I did my work and did my best, and for allowing everyone around her to notice how awesome and hard working she is as opposed to having to point it out to them all the time. I promise Mom, I will look into that cruise for you and dad, but I will find one with a spa, just for you.