Sourdough.

 I have wanted to learn more about sourdough but ever since I was given my first starter, I have been baking with it and using it but not really trying new recipes.  This winter, I would like to keep working on this art of sourdough, so here goes!  

The one thing that I had to get in my head was, I have to plan ahead!  I don't really like this part of sourdough because I'm way to much the type to be "Oh, homemade bread would be great with our meal tonight!  Let's make some!"  That's not the way it is with real sourdough.  I did get a four hour sourdough bread recipe from my cousin but it's not fermented like real sourdough normally is, it just uses starter in the recipe.  

The past few weeks, there have been some fun sourdough recipes posted on Instragram and from ladies I know personally!  That always makes me believe that I can make it too!  😃

Roseanna Witmer, friend from church, shared her sourdough English muffin recipe and I was saving all her photos and tips!  She's the one that gave me a starter from our sourdough and it's because of her that I know anything about this kind of baking.  She inspired me to try it!  And I've made numerous round breads from her starter already!  I do have to admit that I took what she gave me and just did it.  No extra Youtube watches, etc.  Oh yeah, I did purchase a beginners book on sourdough that I do really like and have referred to that a lot!  

I mixed my first sourdough English muffin recipe last week and here's how they turned out!  The dough was a bit sticky but the taste was delicious!

Another church friend, Clarita Yoder, shared a recipe that looked amazing and because she had it step by step, I tried that too.  However, my dough didn't rise a bit.  Nothing!  I mixed the dough, left it set overnight and according to her photo's there should have been a nice risen dough!  So, I asked her for some new starter and tried again!  I think maybe my other starter was not being fed correctly.  I still have it and hope to bring it back to full potential!

Sure doesn't look like a nice rise to me!!!!  🤨

So I try again.

This looks better!  This is a sourdough chocolate twist.  Again, I did it step by step and it turned out pretty!

I made another batch of English muffins!  These turned out better than my first and had a much better rise!

These really are easy to make!  Step by step and taste great!

There's much to learn about sourdough and I'm by far not the expert but I'm working at it!!!  

Winter time is a fun time to learn things like this!  What will be my next recipe I will try?

He passed! Now driving solo.

 It's January and it's cold.  We had another dusting of snow this morning but not enough to delay school and Little Man was disappointed about that.  The tempts are to be below freezing tonight and for the weekend and that might mean Matthew will be out skating again with his friends.  Last weekend he was skating Saturday night, went snowboarding Sunday and then skated again Sunday night.  His lungs must feel amazing with all that cold air flowing through them.  I asked if he doesn't get cold and he said not if you play hockey!

While he's outside in the cold, I'd much rather be inside our warm and cozy home finishing up the puzzle!!!  It's complete.  Which one next?

Sunday afternoon I grabbed my seeds magazine from last year and started dreaming about the garden.  There's a few things I would love to add to the garden this year!  Maybe some fruit trees?  Maybe some preannuals?  For sure lots more flower seeds!  More lavender plants!  I'm dreaming and made a quick list of seeds and plants I want to grow.  One thing I did learn while researching seeds is that there is two different kinds of fennel.  I grew fennel the past two years in hopes of eating the white bulb of the plant that we all love so much!  The plant did great and grew taller than Ashlyn but never got a nice bulb in the ground.  I just read that there are two different kinds of fennel and I want to make sure I find Florence this year to plant and maybe that will give me the final result I wish for!

School projects are never so fun but only because the kids end up waiting till the last minute and then they suddenly need tons of glue, paper and display boards.  This time the kids did their projects all alone and had it done by fair day!  Good job!

Houston Cafe is a new cafe nearby and friends of ours own it!  Mom and Jody met me there for breakfast the other morning and it was all so delicious!  The hot chocolate was so tasty!  The poached eggs, salmon and avocado on top of a sourdough English muffin was delicious!  I can't wait to go back!!!!!

I stocked up on groceries earlier in the week and I love to fill up the vegetables and fruits!  The kids have a new favorite granola bar that was introduced to them by Austin's basketball team snack.

We love all the Florida fresh fruits you can buy right now!!!!

And whenever fennel is to be found, I buy it!  We love this vegetable!

Our slow pace of winter is so great!  We have many evenings right here at home and love to snuggle and watch the new Magnolia Network Show or football or read.  Basketball has our first priority of events though!  Matthew is the captain of his team this year and they are playing great!  No losses so far!  Mike and I drove to the Berks game on Tuesday night and we love watching this team play the game so well!!!!

 

I made sourdough English muffins for the first time this week!  They turned out yummy but a little flat!  I thought my dough seemed a bit sticky and I can't wait to make them again!  They were easy to make and a simple recipe to follow!  As I mixed the dough the night before, Matthew and Mike were sitting by the kitchen bar watching me.  Matthew can't figure out why you would go to so much bother if you can just buy English muffins.  The next day, he benefited by eating a big boy egg sandwich before heading off to take his drivers test.

He practiced some parallel parking by using the dumpster and off we went for his driver test.  On the way there, I was reminding him where the lights are, hazards lights and telling him to watch his speed on the back development streets because usually they are low speed limits.  He finally said, "Mom, I think you are more nervous than me."  Enough said.  It didn't take long at all for him to take his drivers test!  He passed and said it was easy!  He's now driving solo.

Kids grow up too fast!  It just seems like yesterday that Matthew was my little side kick when Hadassah started school.  Now he's growing into a man right before my eyes and playing basketball with all his heart.  He's breaking school records, leading the team so well, sweating off some bad orders and thriving in life.  He loves his friends!  Now, he's off driving by himself!!!  No more 'pick me ups' or 'drop me off'.  You know, you do get to this place because there does comes a time to drive solo but there he goes.  "Lord, keep him safe!"  I'm so proud of him!  

And then last night he comes home after playing some hockey at Justin's house.  He walked in and asked if I could make him two turkey apple butter sandwiches?  It was 9:45 PM!  Two sandwiches!  I looked at him and said, "What happened to you?"  He laughed and said he got hit by a hockey stick in the eye and fell down and got a bad scrape on his arm.  I'm so glad it's nothing too serious and this morning he went to school with a shiner of an eye and a bruised up arm!

The one to three inches of snow that was predicted for today, wasn't much.  The roads were wet this morning and it didn't start snowing till around 7 AM.  It was one of those moments where you think "is school going to have a delay or not?"  Not today but the snow was pretty while it fell on the magnolia leaves outside our house!

The house got cleaned today and we are ready for another freezing weekend!  Tempts are dropping low tonight and staying that way all weekend.  We have more basketball games to cheer at this weekend and I can't wait for it!

Happy January winter days, friends!

Mid January.

 

It's winter time here at our house.  The new year brought us down with the flu but we are on the mend and doing well!!!  Health is something I thank the good Lord for everyday!  And the sunshine!  We had such a dreary Christmas vacation with gray skies.  We came home from the cabin and the sun is now beaming through our house windows and Matthew commented on Sunday morning that "it's so bright in here!!!"  I love that about our remodeled house!  Six years ago, we had a much darker home and I would never want to go back to that!

Something I hope to do more of this year is read.  My problem with books is I just need recommendations!  If someone raves about a book they read, I'm all into it too!  I need to get inspired and read more!  I hope to read these Little Pilgrims Big Journey books to the children this winter!  I'm also doing the read through the Bible in a year in chronological order again!  This is my third year doing this and I love it!!!!

Sunrises and sunsets are a must see for us!!!  We can see both from our home and we are having some stunners this winter so far!!!

It's the time of year when I go from one room, from one closet, to the next and clean out!!!  I already took a big load to Fashion Cents and it feels good to rid of the things we don't need anymore and clean house!

Biscotti's are so delicious with a hot cup of coffee.  Mike is enjoying these on his way to work!

We got our first snowfall last weekend!  The kids enjoyed that first bite of snowflakes!!!

Last Friday was also our first virtual learning day at home because of the winter weather outside.  Austin woke up to the sun pouring through the windows and said, "It's like God is shining through!"

The littles warmed up with some hot chocolate before starting school at home.

It went well and one thing we did learn over the past school year is how to do school at home when needed.  It's kinda sad to know that these two probably won't ever know what a "real snow day" is because now they still do school at home when it snows!  But the good thing, the very good thing is that we don't add any days at the end of the school calendar!  We like that!!!!

I was dreaming of some warm sourdough sticky buns but after much process, they didn't turn out the best.  Sigh.  They tasted good while they were still warm but got hard and yucky soon after.  Maybe I'll try again on the next snow day!?!

Something new for our Little Man is his basketball team with Upward!  Our family has participated a lot of basketball games over the past years but always with the older kids playing.  This year we signed Austin up to play and it's been so fun watching him play and learn more about the game!  He had his first game last Saturday and even though his team lost, we were there to cheer him on!  Matthew was all about watching Austin and that is so special!  I love to see sibling love!!!  Adrian is on the same team as Austin and that makes it even more fun!!!!  Go Shooting Stars!!!!!

That night the Lapp family gathered around Mom's table for crab legs!  She bought a bunch for Christmas but we were so into our games that she never made them that night.  They were froze and we decided to all gather for seafood before she heads to Florida for the rest of the winter.  What a blast!

I received my 2021 Chatbook and I love watching this collection of mine grow!  All my instagram posts get printed into these little books!  It's so fun looking back over the past few years and the these books are already precious!

Something I do every year with Sherry Zook is go to Rachels Crepes for a fall crepe.  Well, we had to cancel numerous times because of sickness and the holidays but we finally got it accomplished the other day!  Sherry is such a sweet friend and she has helped me through the early school days way back when Hadassah began school.  I would often ask her questions about the sport events because she was already there with their older children.  I didn't get to order the "Thanksgiving Dinner Crepe" but everything I did order was so delicious!!!  Thanks for being a good friend Sherry and for taking time to get this finally done!

I'm also working on this puzzle!  Lena gave us this Kansas City Chiefs puzzle for Christmas and the tiny pieces are taking some time to put in place but I'm getting there!!!!  Winter is the only time I do puzzles and I love it!!!!

All the Christmas decor is boxed up and it's now WINTER decor in our home.  There's something refreshing to have the greens and extra decor put back into storage and have a clean slate.  The house plants are stunning and I would love to add a few more this winter!  Watching things grow and having live plants around the house is life giving!!!

Bundle up it's cold outside!!!!  We have many more basketball games to attend and love to cheer Matthew's team on to victory!  So far, no losses!!!!  They are such a great team and work hard at each practice and game!!!!  They deserve all their wins!!!!  Go Warriors!!!!!

Happy Winter friends!!!!