A to Z Reflectorationating

I know, I fell right off the blogosphere after A to Z. I got distracted by blog design thoughts and off I ran with my pencil and a half-baked idea. Those are the best kind, you get to be surprised by the end product, and they're all gooey in the middle. Well, maybe not gooey, but it sounded good and now I want brownies. MOVING ON.

What else suffered neglect while I wielded my pencil like a kindergartener with a fat crayon? Forgot to feed my sourdough starter. Doh! Olde South Yeaster Island, my yeast colony(Did you really think I wouldn't name my starter?), suffered a terrible flour shortage and starved. Here's hoping I can rebuild. Come on New South Yeaster Island!

Stuff I learned on A to Z.

The Pros:

1. I can post something everyday if I need to, tho quality is hit or miss.
2. I really like deadlines.
3. I even like writing posts ahead of time, even though I didn't do many that way. I wrote N   before the challenge started, and then at W I wrote the last 3 so I could focus on getting to more blogs.
4. I had an utterly bizarre(but fun) childhood(yay weirdos!). Also: My dad may be Wile E. Coyote.
5. I talked about Potty Tree in public and the sky did not cave in on me! I wasn't too sure about that one before. Potty Tree is okay, but I will never speak of Internet Porn Mom. I don't think I could tell that story without putting one of those warning doodahs up to verify 18 and over first. Plus, my mom would kill me if she found out. And I am even a little afraid of the kind of traffic those three words will bring to the blog already. The post with Mullet-Man brings people Googling for images of 'teens fighting'. End tangent...
6. It's kind of of fun to embarrass yourself online.
7. Ridiculous titles get attention. Just ask My Cousin: The Tree Pooper. 
8. Read lots of amusing, inspiring, and poetic blogs out there. I didn't get to them all, but I did follow a wad of new folks and I'm enjoying their offerings as part of my daily reading :) Well, you know, when I don't have tunnel-vision from running amok with a pencil. Which you probably shouldn't do. No running with a pencil, scissors, or a sucker in your mouth. That's what I heard, anyway.
9. I love comments. I also love visitors. I don't know why this is a revelation to me. I am an Attention Ho. But I'm a thankful Attention Ho. New followers: Thank you for taggin along :)

Cons:

1. I really neglected other writing projects while composing little story posts for every day.
2. Sometimes you have to stretch to come up with a unique topic for a certain letter. Lots of talk of Apocalypse on A-day.
3. I absolutely cannot stick to a theme 100% of the time. I can do 90%, but those other days I wander off the beaten track. Really far off sometimes.

I may give it another go next year, if I can come up with a good theme. But, I will probably leave signing up for it until March 30 again. I have commitment issues . . .

S is for ... Sourdough (tomato recipe)

Step one -- The Sponge -- Mix. Cover. Refrigerate 8-12 hours

• 16 oz pureed and strained tomato (Note: You can substitute tomato sauce/juice, or marinara sauce) 
• 1 1/4 c sourdough starter (100% hydration, 1:1 water/flour ratio) 
• 2 c All-Purpose flour

Step Two -- Flavor Enhancing -- Mix and add to sponge.

• 1/4 c tomato paste
• 1/4 c milk
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c Parmesan cheese
• 2 t salt

Step Three -- The Dough: Work in flour in 1/2 cup increments until you can't stir it with a spoon anymore. Then turn onto floured surface and knead in more(3-4 cups flour total for this stage) until desired stiffness, then spray with oil and cover with either plastic wrap or a bowl. Rest one hour, it will develop more gluten while it rests.

• If you want a free-form loaf, you'll need a stiff dough so it doesn't flatten out to a pancake during rise, so knead in however much it takes to make the dough not sticky, just smooth and elastic. 
• For loaf pans, you can stop short when it's still a bit sticky.

Step Four -- Forming -- I usually use loaf pans, and this technique shows how to do both styles, free-form and loaf pans. The first two loaves are done the same way and that's what I used for the loaf pans, and the last is the round loaf. (As you can tell from the picture, I'm less good at the free-form loaves -- mine's all lumpy!)

Step Five -- Panning -- Whatever the pan style, lightly spray with oil and dust with cornmeal. It will stick without the cornmeal. After, spritz again and cover with plastic wrap. Rise to double, 1-2 hours

Step Six -- Baking -- Preheat oven to 365F and bake on center rack for about 30 minutes. I like to rotate the pans halfway through. Cool on wire racks.  (If you want soft crust, run a stick of butter over the surface of the top when it is hot.) Cover with clean kitchen towel and cool. If you cut it when it's hot and tempting, it will smash and gum up on the inside. Serrated bread knife necessary.

Makes best grilled cheese sammiches ever!

Bready Update

As it turns out, sourdough bread is a lot harder to make well than the sourdough starter.

First batch, when I thought I could just wing the measurements: Horrifyingly sour

Second batch: Working from actual recipe, good taste, crust so hard that I couldn't even cut it with one of those zippy electric knives you bust out once a year to carve the turkey. But like a TootsiePop, once I got to the center, what I found inside was tasty.

Third batch: Good crust, but bread didn't taste like sourdough! It very was pretty though. Glossy and stuff. Like someone had varnished it for a photo shoot.

Fourth batch: Coming soon, probably Tuesday. Will take pictures next time, I swear. Just gotta figure out where I stuck my camera. . .

Attempts 1 thru 3 have been with whole wheat starter and the loaves were about half whole wheat and half all-purpose. Making an all-purpose starter now to see if the not-as-good-for-you white sourdough has any flavor at all. It's a mystery!

Note: Working on a new story while being on this bread kick ... well, I think my bread got hard because I kind of forgot I was baking something for a while. I don't know if it's forgetfulness or just being easily distracted. I walked away from the oven, forgot the bread. La la la. Started carrying one of those ridiculous old clangy kitchen timers with me to keep me misting the bread and oven with water! (Something I never knew anyone ever had to do. Had to buy a squirt bottle to make soft crust. I really wish I had gone fun instead and got a squirt gun, but they don't mist, and when they do it takes all the fun out of it. Mists don't go very far. Whoever wanted a mist gun? Well, er, me. Just now. Then I could wear it in a holster when I'm baking, and occasionally rip the oven door open and shoot into it while making whoosh noises. Bang-bang doesn't seem to fit in the mental image I'm gettin...)

Starter Update

So, I have been tending my new baby starter made with the pineapple juice, and just not much has been happening with it. Twelve hours ago(at 84 hours), I decided that maybe it was my flour. It's whole wheat, but it isn't brand new, and it was purchased from a store where it was probably kept on the shelf a good long time.

I opened a fresh bag(from the big store with high product turn over) and fed my little cranky baby. And then I started two others, one with pineapple juice(as this one had been) and the other with water. Only twelve hours later, they're all showing signs of life. My 96-hour starter doubled in volume and was full of bubbles. The other two produced hooch and developed gluten after only twelve hours.

Lessons for the day:  

• Catching yeast from the air is a myth. It comes in the flour, so it has to be the kind of yeast you want because all yeasty-beasties have a favorite food. The yeast that likes grain, comes with the grain(so long as it's fresh and not bleached to death). 
• Flour has a shelf life--who knew! And if you want it to have many of those delightful little microorganisms, the fresher, the more intact it is, the better. I used a Kroger brand whole wheat flour this morning, but if I ever try to start my own starter again, I'm going organic stone-ground...