Saturday, March 21, 2009

Sourdough Bread & a Quilter's Giveaway

We love sourdough bread. And I've made it before, with good results, here at Clay Hill. But, it seemed somewhat labor intensive, and as I'm sure you can imagine, I haven't really got the time for anything labor intensive at the moment.

The folks who run my graduate program don't have any sympathy for a girl's need to cook, bake, sew and garden! They seem to think I should be altogether focused on anesthesia, all the time. And (mostly), I am, but I have to feed those other sides of me or I fear they may die off completely. And the solution? Labor-saving techniques that allow me to do the things I want to do while spending just a few minutes here and there, so that I can spend most of my time doing the things that I need to do.


So, when I found this link: Mary Jane's Farm No-knead Bread through Muckboots N' Aprons, I knew I had to try it. And it seems to be working - this morning, there are four loaves of sourdough bread rising in my kitchen, and the "mother" (aka starter) is having a day off after all her hard work. I'll post about the results later, but so far the dough has a wonderful tangy wheat odor and it was wonderfully elastic when I shaped it. Is there anything better than fresh bread? Especially fresh bread that took less than 15 minutes of my time all week? Gotta love it!

And now, the giveaway: Camille Roskelley is giving away some precut Moda fabric. If you're a quilter, you know that Moda has fun fabric to suit all kinds of tastes, and my favorite there changes with my mood - they have lines that speak to the calm, tranquil side of me, and lines that speak to the energetic, can't-sit-still side of me, and lines that appeal to my fun side, and my old-fashioned side... you get the picture! Anyway, if you craft with fabric or if you quilt or sew, check out Simplify and win yourself some fabulous fabric!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, if you haven't already - there are some great comments on that post and I'm very tempted to try to pull together another tote and have TWO winners! More on that later!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can almost smell the bread from here! Can't wait to see the results.

andrea said...

ohhhhhhhh bread - hubby hear keeps saying he wants to make bread - I wish he just would get one with it ;)

Wolfie is going to mighty jealous if you come up with a second bag to giveaway :)

Julia said...

I am starving and want a loaf of fresh baked bread to lather in butter and apricot jelly... Thanks for the drool.

Susie said...

I love the smell of fresh baked bread. Think you could send me a loaf?

Yarn Princess said...

I think there should be a loaf in the tote. You know... something to let people know what it's for??? You can get bread at the Farmer's Market!

Our oldest went to San Francisco on her honeymoon and she brought me back some dry starter. Good kid. I need to get my started started!

Terri said...

Mildred, I'll try to remember to update this post with a photo!

Andrea, I hadn't thought of that. I wish I had more time (and money) - wouldn't if be fun to host a giveaway and then turn around and declare everyone a winner?

Julia, we have some peach butter left over from last summer in the freezer - thanks for reminding me to get into it!

Susie, I'll work on that! :)

YP, that's a good point! You should start that starter - I'll bet it will taste fabulous and you could always use the "no-knead" technique with it - couldn't be easier!

Terri

TC said...

I love fresh bread, be it sourdough or sweetdough. If I cooked, I'd always have fresh bread. I think. Unless I could get it from you. And I'd probably have some fresh strawberry "mitounc" jelly on my fresh bread! ;~)

Connie said...

Good luck with your sourdough bread, Terri! Fresh baked bread is such a wonderful treat. :D