Category: Initial post

Yes.

I made English muffins, using my sourdough starter even. No, it wasn’t an April fools day joke, I really did it. I’ll show you a photo of how it started, then, when I griddle them in the morning I’ll take a photo of those as well. I can’t wait.

I’ve been wanting to make them, with the sourdough starter, for quite some time now. I finally got the chance. I started the dough about 9:25pm tonight as that’s when I normally feed the starter. I needed 150g of active starter, which mine is, but I didn’t have that volume, only 45g. I keep a 100% hydrated starter so it’s strong, and ready to be used in any recipe.

This evening I fed my 45g about 75g flour, and 75g water, making the 159g volume needed with the original 45g to maintain. I mixed all of the ingredients together making a shaggy dough, then covered it so it could nap for 30 minutes. This is called the autolyse, and is the starting of the flour absorbing the water, making the other ingredients easier to be combined.

After napping, I got to knead it by hand for 13 minutes, or so. I was too tired to get out the stand mixer. Anyway, here’s what it looked like after being beaten into submission.

In the morning, it should have doubled in volume, and I’ll cut the muffins out of the dough, cook on a medium-low heated griddle for several minutes on each side, and hopefully they’ll be done. If not, they’ll go into the oven for a few minutes until cooked through. Then they can be split with a fork to maintain the nooks, and crannies, toasted, and dressed in whatever way we want.

I’m anxious to see how they turn out. I’ll let you know.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Post script: tomorrow is the birthday of our daughter. Happy birthday E.

I started cleaning the kitchen the other day, at 11:00am., and finished around 5:30pm.

I took all of the grains, and everything in a powdered form, out of the cupboard, washed, and dried several Mason jars, of varying sizes, then put all of the powdered stuff into the Mason jars, with new sealing lids. I wiped down the shelves as needed, did the dishes as I went along, and then fixed, and ate dinner.

Finally, I am able to sit down, and reflect on all that I was able to accomplish. Plus, my kitchen is clean, and God willing, bug free.

Next week, I’m going to tackle the pantry, and the 3rd bathroom.d

This is how it all ended up.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I used to think that a banana that looked like this was ready for the bin.

Not anymore. When I open bananas like this now, I’m excited to see the beauty hiding underneath the peel. I know it’s going to be sweet, and soft, but not too much of either.

Look at that beauty. Ready for a banana shake, sweet, and no blemishes. Justo, our grocery delivery provider, delivers our produce when it’s quite young, green, hard as rocks. Just the way I want them delivered. When they come here so green, they can ripen in peace on our counter, without being bumped around in the bin at the grocery store.

This is a perfect example. If any bananas are left when they ripen a bit more, I peel them, then freeze them. That way, when we want a shake, I don’t have to do anything else but pull them out of the freezer, open the vacuum sealed bag, (you know the ones), and blend them with milk, sugar, (for YKW), and cinnamon. Yummy.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I did it!

I started walking again.

Daily? I’ll let you know about that, but I did so for today, which is, as I’m typing this, Thursday, 3/27. I walked down the street to pay the gas bill, then, on my way home, I turned, and started walking around the park.

It was absolute agony for the most part, but persevere did I. May my pain give glory to the Lord. Give glory to the Lord. Give glory to the Lord. (Kind of like Dory, in Finding Nemo. She says Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.)

I can say that now whilst I’m typing this, but whilst walking, not so much. I kept having to stop, about every 30 ft, to stretch my lower back a bit. To no avail.

What really helped, for a few feet at least, was to stop, hold on to a light post, or a tree trunk, cross my right foot over my left knee, and squat slightly, hold for about 10 seconds, then do the same with the other leg, to pull on those dang psoas muscles. The actual stretch should have been at least 30-60 seconds, not the 10 seconds each side got.

Anyway, it’s done, and done. Please pray for me that I might make this a habit, and eventually find enjoyment in the walks as I used to do.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I am going to venture back into the difficult, and mysterious realm of baking bread, using Einkorn flour.

It is one of the most difficult ancient grains we have at our disposal, to bake amazingly healthy bread. In fact many people that are unable to eat gluten can eat things made with Einkorn, as the makeup of the grains are a bit different than modern wheat grains. (Google it.)

It is the original wheat grain, dating back thousands of years, but is still being grown, harvested, and used to day to make all sorts of things.

Right now, I am just at the soaking, sprouting, and dehydrating phase, but will soon be to the grinding, and baking stage. I’m anxious to get started again.

Here’s what the dehydrating looks like. It’s not very exciting, but a huge part of the process. After sprouting grains, they become infinitely more shelf stable as the sugar molecules are changed, and converted into something that escapes my memory at the moment. Suffice it to say that once grains are sprouted, then dehydrated, they can last for several years in your cupboards, if sealed correctly.

I have about 15k. of Einkorn berries in my cupboard, in the pantry, completely sealed from the outside world of weevils. (No chance of weevil infestation here.) I have started 2.5k. on the road to flour. Let me show you.

If you look closely at the first photo, you might be able to see the tiny white tails of the sprouting berries. It is at this stage that they convert the sugars.

I ended up dividing the one tray of berries into 3 trays so they might dry faster. The oven is on dehydrate, at 120ºF, for 20 hours. After 20 hours, if they have dried sufficiently, I will leave them out on the counter for another whole day, then vacuum seal the bulk, keeping about 1k of dried berries to grind in my small grinding machine. I’ll show you that when the time comes to use it.

Until then, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Please continue your prayers for me, and my family members. Thanks.

Post script: here is what the what the berries looked like after taking a 14 hour sauna. See how different they look from the first photo. They’re now ready for being ground, mercilessly, into flour.

Wow. I hit the payload.

Of weevils, that is. Above the microwave, at the ceiling level, there’s a cupboard (that I don’t use much because of the height), that I had stored, about 2 years ago, (duh), some of my unused, sprouted, but not “sealed” jars of 4-5 different types of flour.

Do I need to paint you a picture? Really? Ok. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

They were all covered, inside, with hundreds, maybe thousands of weevils. Quite a few were still alive, and walking around the rims of the jars. So much for airtight.

I took a few photos, and will show them in a moment. I want to give you a moment to decide if you want to see them or not. Too bad I couldn’t have sold them for future experiments on pest control. Jajajajaja.

Ok. That’s enough time. Here they are, in all their grotesque glory.

I even tried to nuke the buggers. To no avail.

It took a bit to dispose of them, but, eventually, I won. They are gone, in the organic bucket, in a Justo compostable bag, and on their way downstairs to the big bin.

I feel that I’ve gotten them under control, but I’ll have to go through everything in the pantry soon, just to be sure. I cleaned out the cupboard, cleaned off the counter, and, hopefully, have taken all of their food sources out of their reach. I’ll let you know how it goes from here. It’s almost as bad as having those tiny ants in your kitchen, but you can follow their trail, and get them out that way. These I had to do quite a bit of detective work.

Enola Holmes, at your service. (If you haven’t seen those movies, there are 2 of them, on Netflix, check them out. Pretty entertaining, in a Sherlock Holmes kind of way. Enola was the sister Sherlock, and Mycroft Holmes never talked about. Fun.)

Anyway, that’s all I can say, for now, about weevils as I’m sure I feel them crawling all over me.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Recently I asked Max for a pork chops recipe as Ivan asked me to make some.

He showed me a video on YouTube showing someone making just that; along with garlic mashed potatoes, a vegetable, and homemade biscuits. That last request, the biscuits, was the real bugaboo. I’ve only made biscuits, and not good biscuits, a few times. It’s too hard on my ego to keep making things that aren’t flavorful, or aesthetically pleasing. It makes me want to start ordering prepared food to be delivered. Yuck.

Anyway, I followed Max’s recipes, for the most part, tweaking when necessary, and this is what we ate. (Should have used the regular sized plates.)

Starting at 12:00 is the vegetable portion being comprised of carrots, grape tomatoes, and zucchini. Next, obviously, is the 2 1/2 cm bone in breaded pork chop, at 6 are the garlic mashed potatoes with country-style gravy, and lastly, the amazingly light, slightly crusty outside, soft, and fluffy inside homemade biscuit. With a tsp. of gravy on top.

I couldn’t believe it. I made all of that, and the pork chop was moist, and tasty. Yay. Thank you Jesus.

That said, I have fruit coming over the weekend to make another batch of fermented kombucha, but I won’t receive the bottles until the 8th. I may have to freeze the fruit until they get here. It’s all about the timing.

Until next time, I will leave you with this cute cartoon I found on X. Don’t be sexist. Just chuckle and go on with your day.

Stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Praying all of you have a blessed Easter today. Jesus has risen. Thanks be to God.

About Justo.

Their delivery bags are biodegradable!!!

Can you believe that? They are silky soft, but strong. And they decompose. I’ve never seen another company, down here, that offers this for their clients. Walmart bags are for the general garbage, and now we have free organic bags for our organic discards. Lovely.

Win-win. If you shop at stores that are super organic in their nature, maybe they would use similar bags if asked. My favorite local store was Fresh Thyme, in Davenport, IA. A bit pricey, but excellent quality, and selection.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy with the Lord.

I haven’t extolled Justo lately, much to my dismay.

Justo is my favorite online grocery store, with scheduled delivery dates, and times. When I order groceries from them, what things are delivered are of a “normal” volume, (not the tiny bottles, or jars, or cans from other local stores), the produce is beautiful, not old, and shriveling, (like me), the herbs are fresh, the fruit is just coming into ripeness, the meat still has a bit to be desired, but one can’t have everything, now can one?!

I bought 500g dried pinto beans that I could have put directly into the Instant Pot, and started pressure cooking them, they were that clean. Let me show you.

2 1/2 beans are what I found, nothing more. No rocks, no debris, nothing. I rinsed them in the salad spinner, as it makes a great soaking vessel, and colander, all in one.

Then, as some of you know, I put the beans, 6c. water, 1/4-1/2 sliced white onion, a clove of garlic, and about 1 T. oil, this time avocado oil, into the IP, close the lid, and set it to the bean setting for 45 minutes. After that is done, I leave it for a 15 minute natural release, then, after opening it, I add a few sprigs of cilantro, and 1 T salt. Job done. Perfect beans, every time.

The beans cost me $3.78MXN/100g, while a bag of beans is $62.30MXN/k. The Justo beans end up being $37.80MXN/k. Almost half the price for the best quality beans I’ve ever seen.

This is how I will be ordering my beans from now on, maybe even buying enough to fill 1/2 gal. Mason jar. Who knows?!

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy with the Lord.