I’m making sourdough starter!

Did you know that sour dough bread is easier to digest than regular bread?  I was  reading about it… Here’s  the neat  website to get excited about sourdough starter for your homemade bread.  This winter I might make sourdough pretzels and bagels too!  As I keep reading about it I realized I didn’t need the grapes, but they were in the freezer from the garden, so I put them in.  I’m supposed to  strain them  out after a few days.

12 hours after starting it. Took this pic after I added rye flour and more water and put it in a jar.  Hope I can put of a photo of a nice loaf of sourdough bread in a week or more.  I think Ill have bread-n-butter and coffee on Christmas morning.  What motivated me to get this going was  some great pumpernickel bread that I’ve been toasting and having with coffee.  Some pumpernickel recipes include sourdough starter and I think it’s in the loaf I have.

Pomegranate salad

I’m going to serve this salad for Thanksgiving.  Doesn’t this salad look great?  When you have a heavy meal, something like this is needed- it’s light and crispy!

I bought two pomegranates  for Thanksgiving and decided  to make this with it.  I even have poppy seeds  that I bought a few weeks ago which will go in the dressing.  Only  one change- I’m using all sprouts instead of lettuce.  I have a lot of sprouts that are ready to eat.  I’ll be sprouting alfalfa seeds all winter.

great pomegranate salad recipe for your Thanksgiving dinner!

http://kosherfood.about.com/od/koshersaladrecipes/r/pom_apple.htm

just a pretty picture

                    Here’s how I caught this neat photo as the sun was in line with the 5 gallon jug: I ran out the back door to give some scraps to the chickens and I see the jug in the first photo- wow, I thought .  Ran in to get my camera, took the snapshot, fed the chickens and in two minutes time the sun is setting, so I take another picture .

Sprouting alfalfa

I’m so glad I started this.  I promised that I’ll always sprout seeds from now on!  See how I put way too much water in there?  It  slowed down the sprouting, went a few days over.  it’s supposed to be twice the water per amount of seeds, but I over did it.    Thank you Chris from Utah!   She and her son showed a ll us ladies how to do this up at Peniel ranch.  They had a 5 gallon bucket full of sprouts!

  I should have got closer with this photo, – they have started sprouting.  This photo was a whole week from the first photo above.  Should only be 3 days later from what the U-tube video say. I rinse and drain every day- morning and evening.   They’ll be ready in 2 days or so.

Ready!

This is the salad of sprouts I just ate!   I should have started sprouting years ago!  I’ll be sprouting seeds all winter, promised myself.  Went on U-tube to watch some sprouting videos too.  I can’t eat pizza again without a salad of sprouts.

hens that flew the coop

They lay their eggs in the garage instead of in the coop  like the other hens.  Little rascals.

 

  

The Pacific 6819

 

Wow.  I have only seen this train once or twice before and now I got this great close up photo.  Another photo online of this train.  Interesting to see it from another angle.  The sun early morning sun was shining brightly on it in my photo, but in the other one online, you get more of an ariel view of it.  It once said Union Pacific on it as you can tell by the other online photo where the U is in view. 

Rueben sandwiches

There’s this blog that I want to draw to your attention- it’s Lillian’s Cupboard.   You’ll find a recipe with photos there.  I did!  She really can cook terrifically.   I log on every so often.   She makes dishes I’d like to make, for instance- Rueben sandwiches is one of them.  Lillian’s post on Rueben sandwiches .   We eat em around here too.  I’ve been making rye bread and I have 5 jars of homemade sauerkraut for  them. 

    Here’s the brine, and here’s the beef with garlic cloves on it before I pour the brine over it.  I put in these photos after I wrote this post.  

I’m going to make my own corn beef from a round roast.  homemade corn beef recipe, one of many on the web.   You can use a brisket or a  bottom round roast says the recipe.  What led me to making my own  corn beef in a brine is a few things, first off, Walmart deli was out of corn beef.  Its expensive  there but my daughter doesn’t want Carl Budding’s little 70 cent packet of corn beef (I don’t mind it).   Secondly, I have the pickling spices need to make it and I have a roast in the freezer… so in 1 weeks and a few days for the roast to thaw, we’ll have our own corn beef!

U tube has some good video’s on making your own corn beef too.  Check them out if you are going to try it.    Here’s a few Rueben’s I pulled off the web:

    

Update on that corn beef I made:   I got it too salty.  It sliced like roast beef and tasted like salty roast beef.  I don’t know how  the deli and packaged stuff do it- but theirs is really different in texture and theirs is pink.  I didn’t put that ingredient in it that makes it pink, but it was still good in a Reuben sandwich.

Look at this perfume shop!

Here is a  perfume shop in Baghdad Iraq at camp Striker which is by the airport.  It’s an outside bazaar for government contract workers and military personnel.   I wonder if they give out samples? Look at those dark ones…must be amber and resin  perfumes.  Why is the clerk wearing a mask?  Did he spill a bottle and it was too strong for him?

      

chokecherry jam

      I picked aronia berries yesterday, which are similar to a black currant.  They look just like blueberries and are also called Chokecherry berries.  The bushes are only 3 feet high and spread out a lot.

Here’s a close up view of them.  They are really tart and super high in antioxidants.

Here’s the jam i made from them!  I used sure gell and am thinking I could make a pie with this too .  Ought to be just the thing to snack on in the dead of winter.

Update- The sure gel didn’t gel. I just opened a jar. That is ok, because  I then put it in Jell-O and ate it in the place of  cranberries with turkey.  

law and order

Sheriff heard trouble in the henhouse

Sheriff sees me taking pictures and doesn’t like it

Sheriff exits after he crows and restores law and order

My Andralusian splash (white and black hen) with a blue Andralusian in front of her.