Sourdough Discard: Brownies!!

Yes, I made brownies with my sourdough starter discard! They turn out a little more cakey than fudgy. But I imagine you can add more chocolate chips and less flour, too. Now I am super, super picky about brownies. SUPER picky. I don't like cakey brownies and I don't like gooey fudgy brownies. I like them right in between. This is my brownie recipe but I substituted part of the flour with starter.

New Obsession: Sourdough Starters + Sourdough Discard Drop Biscuits

I am totally, totally obsessed with fermentation right now, especially regarding bread and starters,the old fashioned method of capturing wild yeast and bacteria to leaven bread. From biga to poolish and beer starters and sourdough... I'm completely obsessed! Sigh. More to add to my "to do" list. BUT.... when the world goes to hell in a hand basket (or a greased pole) I will be ready to feed the masses!

Soooo.... I've been feeding my pet starter for the past 2 weeks now.

2014 Obession: DIY Natural Toiletries

Last year I discovered soapmaking.

In a big way.  I have become totally obsessed now with the process and the final product.  It's not only so much fun, but it feeds part of my creative side as well as the wanna-be chemist in me.  That and since I've been using my homemade soaps on the regular, I can't go back to the store bought stuff.

Homemade Soaps and Lotions

I've been obsessed with making natural, homemade soaps for a long time. I've talked about it and talked about making soaps as part of learning homesteading skills and I finally got around to learning this year.  And now I'm totally hooked!

Homesteader Weekend: Concord Grape Jelly

Guess what I did today??  I canned for the very first time!!  One of the things I've always wanted to learn is to put up food properly especially via canning.  So far, I'm fabulous with freezing, which I have to say is still my favorite way to put up food.  Right now, I have two giant bags of Chinese long beans, a bag of rapini, tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, a Swiss chard/mustard green stir fry mix, and basil all packed in my freezer for the winter.  I love freezing but it was time to venture into hot process canning.  I just didn't think I would be making concord grape jelly.

Back to Basics: Socks

As most of you all know, I have a little obsession with urban homesteading.  Starting a container garden on my balcony, composting with worms are all in the pursuit of living off the grid, knowing where my food comes from and being a little more self-sufficient. Beyond the gardening and composting, I feel it's also important to have some other basic skills like knitting!  I'm not the best knitter.  I hate math and anything to do with numbers (I'm probably one of the few Asians who can't do math) and knitting has a lot of math and counting to deal with, but it's a challenge and I like a challenge.

Growing Fish in Greenhouses

This is amazing and very inspiring!!  I was reading up on gardening and self-sustainable ways to garden and started reading about fish emulsion fertilizers, which then started me thinking about raising fish for food, which led me to this youtube video.  I think the owner was featured last year or a couple of years ago in the New York Times for his urban-agri business.  I believe he also raises composting worms!!! Very cool! I need to find that NY Times article!