Sourdough starter - take three

I started this blog in December to keep track of the sourdough starter I was attempting. Because I'd made so many gorgeous loaves of bread by then, I also figured I'd store the pictures here, and write about what had succeeded and what was a miserable flop. The starter turned out to be the latter, as it was just too cold in this townhouse to grow properly. Oh, and then the second time I tried it, I put the container in the oven to heat up, and then promptly forgot to turn off the heat. I haven't thought too much about it all summer - perhaps because we've been juicing so much that there wasn't much need for bread, but I've decided to try it again before it gets too cold, which I'm praying will be sooner rather than later. It will most likely be later.

1/2 cup warm water (85 degrees), 3/8 cup white flour, 3/8 cup rye flour looks like mush. Dryer than I remember. But I put it in the container, and now I let it sit for 24 hours up here in the office, since the air conditioning has a hard time getting to the second floor. I'm sure it won't have grown tomorrow, but perhaps by the third day.





And then I made a very large trip to the store - which was not brilliant of me, considering this was the first week of school here, so the store was filled with every single family who lives in Oklahoma City. But I managed to get a few things anyway, including more potting soil for something John bought me.



The yellow-looking leaf is not actually yellow; that's an error of the photographer's. It's a lovely houseplant - I can't wait to see how big it gets.

While I was out, I also bought a book of ice-cream recipes. And since I've played with the new vacuum all afternoon (instead of doing the writing I was supposed to), I'm going to make myself a martini and find an ice-cream recipe to make before John comes home.