Sourdough

Yeah! for early birthday presents! My wonderful mother sent me everything I needed to get started with sourdough. And I got all my mother-in-laws tricks as well. How can I fail now? So, all I have made is sourdough popovers (which didn't turn out as well as intended), and sourdough waffles. I haven't been brave enough to try plain old bread.

(Oh, by the way. The pumpkin bread was ok, but not amazing. I want to blame my finicky oven, but maybe the recipe wasn't the greatest either.)

Because I lack faith in my oven, I'm not sure if I am ready to trust it with hours of care over a loaf of bread. But the waffles are amazing!! I found this recipe on-line and we love it. It makes a lot , so we freeze them and then pop them in the toaster for a quick breakfast or snack. I don't think we have to worry about not using the started often enough; I can barely keep it replenished. Let me know if you want a start of your own, "Bubbles" grows fast and likes to share.

My idea of pumpkin carving

I picked us a small pumpkin(mostly for decoration) at a local farm. After a few weeks of looking at it I just couldn't see it all go to waste, especially because I had "three cans of pumpkin" on my grocery list. So I decided to try my hand at homemade pumpkin puree.

I was trying to cut it in half but I only managed to get each end off instead. I lightly oiled the cut sides, put them face down on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil, and backed it at 350 for about an hour.



Here is one empty shell next to a full one, it was very soft!
I put it all in a mason jar and blended it in our blender.


I made a small mess but it was fun, and worth it.





Sadly, we did have one fatality. The rubber washer got loose and eaten by the blades before I could save it. I wonder where we can get a replacement?




When the pumpkin was almost done baking I turned the temp down and put in the seasoned seeds. They turned out great!


We ended up with two full cans like these and a bowl full of tasty seeds! It tastes just like babyfood!



So, now I have to make pie and bread and cookies out of it or it will all be for nothing.

P.S. The bread is in the oven as I am writing this!

Projects

Ok, these might not be the best pictures, but I am so excited about my recent projects I just had to share.

First of all, after a long summer of weird hair, I finally have something to work with here! This is my self portrait on a good hair day.



Mom gave me this cute flannel last time I was home and I just recently got it out and made something with it. I am most proud of the pillow (made the trim myself!). It's probably not baby-safe but it sure is cute.



And, or course, Jo-Ann's was having a sale so I had to partake. I wanted another fleece blanket, but not the no-sew kind that you tie. I wanted to sew it with yarn like my old one. Little did I know that two layers of fleece is very hard to pull yarn through (no wonder people just tie these). It is still a work in progress. I need to invest in some leather fingertips before I can finish it. Conferencec weekend and another sale at Jo-Ann's should do the trick.



See, it's very cute. It's pink and brown, and I tied it with little pink bows. It will be my couch-napping blanket; in fact, it already is.



In other news: Brad is studying for a final exam in one week. I got the weekend off to enjoy conference with everyone else who enjoys it. It has rained here all week (so much for straitening my hair). The trees are changing and our street looks beautiful; I will post a picture of it as soon as it stops raining long enough to get out there. We have ants in our bathroom, and not the little guys, we have the big, reproductive ones with wings. Also, any ideas on how to get black mold out of grout will be greatly appreciated.

We are doing good; our spirits are high and the holidays are just around the corner!