Welcome to my first post!
Since isolation because of COVID-19 started, I've been working from home, which, in and of itself, is a bit of an oxymoron. With two young children, a law practice to run, and a house that doesn't magically clean itself (why not???), I suddenly discovered that working from home isn't really working from home at all - it's being forced to stay home during a crisis, and attempting, somehow, to still do the work you're expected to, all while juggling all the extra day-to-day responsibilities that are suddenly now also MY job (my husband is awesome with the kids and their school work...but lacks any sort of useful skill set in the housekeeping department).
The days have been difficult, some more so than others, and I acknowledge that. And you know what? It's okay to admit that. It's okay not being okay. Have I poured myself a glass of wine at 11am some days? You bet. Have I snuck outside and hidden in the basement walkout just so no one can find me for 15 minutes? Hell, yeah. And that's okay. I dare anyone to tell me they're thriving and surviving just fine and be telling the truth. The silver lining, if there is one in this pandemic...is that you learn more in crisis than in comfort...so here's where this blog comes in.
Between taking care of the household (how can there possibly be this much laundry, dishes, cooking and cleaning for a family of four?), mothering/wifing, helping two children in two different grades complete their daily "distance learning" assignments which, if I were honest, has probably caused me more tears and frustration than the kids (by the way, WHAT is this new math? When did the "old" math we learned as kids become "bad" math?), and trying to manage a workload that has more than doubled in the past month (estates lawyer here...a crisis of this magnitude will suddenly cause a lot of people to evaluate their lives and realize they really need to get their estate planning done!) - all individually full time jobs by themselves, and literally not having even remotely enough hours in the day to do it all in, I suddenly found myself needing something that I could do during my breaks, and God knows, we all need them. And no, wine, while very lovely, and very necessary, isn't a good long term solution, or practical really, given the other duties I have (which require pretty much a near constant state of sobriety), or, you know....I like my liver the way it is.
Making bread originally started as a "life skills" lesson for my kids, before the school boards figured out the new distance learning. My husband loved to teach the kids academics, like math (ew!), and I will sheepishly admit that I have very little patience or aptitude for traditional teaching. But one thing I'm good at? Home skills, especially cooking and baking...and no, I won't be humble about this - I like good food and my hips are evidence. Also, considering my brother is a classically trained French chef and restauranteur, I've picked up a few things here and there...and besides, who do you think taught him how to cook?
When our local go-to bakery started experiencing hour long line ups due to social distancing measures, and yeast became the hottest commodity (next to toilet paper) on the planet, and impossible to get, I decided that if Laura Ingalls (of "Little House on the Prairie" fame) could make her bread on the wild frontier without a jar of instant quick-rise yeast, then damn it, I could too!
5 days later, my humble and beloved OG sourdough starter mama, whom I've lovingly named Evie, gave me my first loaf of sourdough bread. It was pretty to look at, and looked like the real deal, but the insides were doughy, gummy, and dense as hell. Four more failed batches later (five, actually...I made a near perfect batch but fell asleep while it was in the oven), I think I've finally stumbled upon a good recipe for sourdough that since hasn't failed me, though I'm still constantly looking for little tweaks here and there.
And I've got a ridiculous amount of starter. SO MUCH STARTER! In the past two weeks, I've been adopting them out, and now there is an entire community of aspiring sourdough bakers asking for guidance on what to do with their new starter babies. I'm definitely not an expert, but I've learned a lot in the past 5 weeks (thanks especially to Michael Law for patiently answering all my questions - he's a Prairie Boy Bakery sourdough class graduate!), and since I'm too lazy to answer each and every question I've received, I figured...hey - let's blog it instead!
And so here begins the story of my adventures and misadventures, in sourdough (and other old world methods I'm dying to try, like fruit yeast water, potato yeast, etc.)!
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