Pumpkin Sourdough Bread/Muffins

It's been a week and a half since we've been grocery shopping. Sick kids happened. And last night the baby had a fever. And today it poured rain and hail. That meant I was going no where and if I wanted something other than the meager variety of food in the cabinets and fridge I'd have to get creative. My inspirational items included sourdough starter (which there is an overabundance of) and a can of pumpkin I found.

I love to revisit Fall at odd times throughout the year by baking and cooking some of the yummiest Fall treats. With the last weeks full of rain and more rain, now seems like a lovely time to escape Spring and remember Fall with much fondness. So with my sick baby in arms I did something I've never done before. I looked up guidelines for converting baking recipes to include sourdough, and white to whole wheat flour ratios (I didn't have a ton of white flour either), and oil to butter conversions... and I made up a recipe. I wrote it down and went and made it. I probably did it all wrong and if you are a baker you probably know something I should have done that I didn't. But in the end I had incredible smelling, delicious looking, yummy tasting sourdough pumpkin muffins and bread. Maybe they are muffins. Maybe they are a tad cupcake-ish though not too sweet at all. I don't know what they are. But they are GOOD. And the kids agree. And Israel, who doesn't even like muffins, gobbled his muffin right up and asked for more. My only problem is making them last until the yogurt cheese I'm making is done. Because that will be a ridiculously good combination! And there's no way the bread is making it into my freezer which was the plan. Too good. In case you'd like to test my creation... I'm including the recipe. If you have suggestions or experiences with it leave me a comment and let me know.

Pumpkin Sourdough Bread

1/2 c. canola oil
1 cup sugar (Next time I'll add more than this. I used rapadura but any sugar will do. I'd probably try 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white next time)
2 eggs
2 cups pureed pumpkin (about 15 oz)
2 cups sourdough starter (mine is not very old so not very sour)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups white flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger

nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips would be delightful in this as well!

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and grease muffin tins or bread pans, whatever you want to use. Recipe makes 12 muffins plus 1 9"x5"x2 3/4" bread loaf. Probably works for 2 bread loaves too.
2. Mix together oil, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl.
3. Add in pumpkin, sourdough starter, and vanilla and stir well.
4. Mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a separate bowl.
5. Pour flour mixture into wet ingredients and mix until combined.
6. Pour into greased bread pans or muffin tins and bake muffins for about 20 minutes and bread for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

And good news, the sun just came out and the husband (not getting his morning eggs today because I used up the last for the pumpkin bread) has volunteered to shop. Yay! There will soon be fresh fruit in the house again and I can stop pretending it's fall. Though it was fun while it lasted.

And I'll leave you with a tip. As if you need a tip! I'm sure you're awesome and do very well in everything in life. But I like to be a helpful sort of person. I love to make bread. And I dislike bread crumbs... especially in pictures of my awesome bread. So I slide a cloth napkin under the bread for when I slice it. If I'm taking a picture I remove it for the picture.

See? No crumbs (almost.) Not even I am perfect and I left a couple crumbs for you. It's always easier to take tips from people that are obviously not quite perfect.

Square Framed Photos Collage

It warms up my heart to have some of the best of our family moments captured and hung. These frames have hung in many different houses while they were our home. I like to switch up the pictures in some of them. And I like to change how they are arranged. This time I chose to put all black and white photos in them and arrange them in a square. My attempt to go more modern with what I have.

But I knew that my usual picture hanging practices would not work with this. I typically eyeball position, hold the frame to the wall and stick my finger behind the frame to find the hanger, mark the approximate spot with a pencil, and whine as I don't have 4 hands to hold the picture, my drill, screws, tape measure, pencil, level... You get the picture. Not pretty. And not effective as I usually end up with an embarrassing number of holes in the wall because I get it wrong a few times before I get it right. And my arms almost fall off from holding up heavy frames.

This time I employed a concept I'd seen on Pinterest. But I couldn't find it when I looked so I winged it. I'll link to it if I can find it. Basically you make a quick template on paper of your collage and mark all the nail/screw holes on it but there are some tricks to getting it right I found.

I used newspaper and taped it together for my template. Make sure they are nice and flat! (Not like mine in the pic.)

Then I laid the framed pictures how I wanted them on the newspaper. I squared the edges with the edges of the newspaper. You could cut the newspaper to the exact size of the collage but I didn't... just made sure all lines were parallel.

Then I traced around each frame. I only traced along the top edge and around the two top corners.

Also mark a big X on the newspaper in the very center of the collage.

Next you'll mark where each nail/screw will go. Flip a framed picture up and lay it down upside down directly above the lines you traced.

Note the distance from the top of the frame to the hanger.

Then measure and mark the same distance from the top of your marked line directly below the hanger.

There's where the nail needs to go. Much easier than squishing my finger behind a picture without moving it!

Next you want to hang the newspaper on the wall... flat, level, and centered. It's not as hard as it sounds. Make an x with pencil on your wall where you want the center of the collage to be. You can use tape for this next bit but I love this blue putty stuff. It's awesome and holds paper up really well and never ruins wall paint!

So I put a little spot of blue putty on the x on my wall then poked the x on the newspaper over it. I leveled the newspaper and put more blue putty on each corner to hold it to the wall. Again, you could use tape. See the 1 year old? "Mom, I ran out of food! I threw my sippy on the floor! What are you doing?" I fed her more. No worries.

The next part is intensely satisfying. Especially if you previously had a picture hanging method like mine, you will love it! Just drill a screw into each marked spot. Pull the newspaper off the wall. (The blue putty rubs off super easily.) And hang up your pictures.

I will never hang pictures the same again!

And... just in case anyone else knows that I'm breaking design rules by hanging family photos in the dining room... here's why I do it.

1. I love to break design rules that don't make sense.
2. I don't think anything in our house is "formal" and we like it that way!
3. It's our space to eat family meals together which we do almost every day. It's one of my favorite times of each day and I love having even more of our family love in that room.

Not that I needed an excuse. But that that's it. Oh wait, one more... I want to see the pictures more than I would if I hung them in the proverbial family picture hallway.

Randomness

Randomness... 'cause that's all I got. Is that cheating somehow?

I'm actually crocheting a new thing again. This makes me happy. And means that there will be a pattern of sorts on here again soon. Wanna guess what it is? I'm using up more of this yarn that I up-cycled from a sweater. It's really fun to do so check out the post if you want to know how.

Blogs will never feel neglected. Children could. So it's easy to choose my kiddos over "my poor neglected blog." They are all sick right now and "have uckies." Poor things. Here's the youngest miserable one snuggling with Dada well past her bedtime last night just feeling ucky. But Dada always makes her feel better.

Yesterday one of the many finches that we love to watch in the backyard flew into the glass door and ricocheted off it into the back wheel of Drew's bike. It was stuck in the spokes, axle, and bars of the frame with one wing bent back and one leg pulled to the side. It was very still. I came close and saw it was breathing hard, eyes half shut. Then it opened its eyes a little and leaned its head against the wheel. Poor thing looked miserable. Have you ever wanted to hold a wild bird in your hands? Well, apparently that's been a dream of mine. I cautiously petted it (I'm scared of bird bites too) and as it didn't respond much I gently untangled it and held it for a minute. I have to say it was just as great as I always thought it would be. Warm, unimaginably soft, fragile, and grateful. Of  course the grateful part is maybe all in my head. Hero complex much? I set it on our porch carpet and after a little while its legs uncurled and eyes opened and head lifted. It started keeping an eye on me when I brought out the camera. A little while later it flew away... a little loop-ishly. I think it was just stunned. Andrew said he would have just put the poor thing out of its misery with a bb gun.

 I put together that maybe this homemade glass spray is a little too good for the birds. I tried it the other day (but must wipe it away with newspaper to really make the magic happen) and was marveling at how clean my glass door was. Maybe a little too clean. Whoops.

Drew decided to make a newspaper for her home school writing project. It's way cute and I'll  share it when it's done. "Drew's News." Adorable. There's a classified section that features my Droids for sale. And there's a joke section.

I think I was feeling chatty after being cooped up with the kids. Thanks for listening. Now back to wiping snotty noses. And washing my hands. And wiping the snotty noses again... Washing hands again. Repeating.... again.

Sourdough Bread Bowls

My favorite place to eat in the whole world is the St Louis Bread Co. In other places than St Louis, MO (where I lived during my teenage years) this eatery is called Panera Bread. Whatever you call it they make this AWESOME soup in sourdough bread bowls. I could it eat all the time. The closest one to me is 2 hours away. So sad! I often wish for some of this goodness!

A while ago a friend gave me some sourdough starter. Somehow I've managed to keep it alive and feed it and grow it and use it. Don't ask me how. I don't know too much. Apparently it's quite easy and forgiving though and you really can't mess it up easily. Anyhow, the first sourdough bread recipe I tried I LOVED. And my family loved it. Haven't had the heart to try another yet. Of course my end goal has always been to make sourdough bread bowls so I went at it and was very very very pleased with the results!

I used my sourdough bread recipe (of course I kind of cheat because I always use the dough cycle on my bread machine then bake it in the oven.) So I split it into 6 pieces and formed them each into a ball. When they'd risen I brushed them with an egg and water mixture and slit them and baked them till they looked like this. Mouth watering? Yes! I made two of them smaller for the kids.

Then after they cooled I cut into them like this. Found out later by experience that you really want to hold the knife straight up and then turn the bowl around as you cut the circle out. you can dig out some more bread from the inside to hollow it out more but you won't have to if you hold your knife at the right angle.

Then just make some incredible soup and maybe top it with a little cheese.

My kids were super impressed. They said we should use different foods in place of all of our dishes...

Like pancakes for plates, hollowed out coconuts for drinks, carved carrot sticks for spoons. Maybe someday we'll have a dish-less day. Haha.

 Now I want more soup in sourdough bread bowls... Ya gotta know it's good when your own blog makes you hungry.

Seedlings

It was only a week ago that there was just brown dirt here. Now there are bitty strands of the most awesome green. That new life stretches to the light.

We may have over seeded slightly... Can I blame chubby 3 year old fingers or 7 year old exuberance? Maybe. But I have to admit I over did it a little too.

For the last week it's been raining. And we've mostly been doing this... looking out the window. Watching birdies eat worms. Checking how full the rain gauge is now. Wishing for a bit of sun so I could take better pictures of the projects I've been doing while shut up inside.

But today we finally got some sun. And we did a lot of weeding to make space for out new baby plants. Here's the baby human in the sun. Just because she makes me smile.

Books to Table/Nightstand

Craigslist was nice to me today. Ok, it was really some random stranger that was nice to me today. Even better! But slightly more awkward. Anyway, I got a lot of free books. Big hardcover books almost all the same size! Perfect! Not to read. To make into furniture.

free books

In taking apart our house to put down the wood floors we (read I, and my husband humors me) began to re-evaluate all that we have. While we've always loved minimalism, all our "stuff" frequently gets in the way. And my cheapness... While that is true we are committed to staying out of debt and purposefully living. Now to leave the bunny trail I started on... Minimalism. Purposeful living. I decided I didn't need as many books. Our bookshelf is overfull and we didn't have too much storage and... not much time to read. But that made me sad because I love books. And another thing going through my head was that we would like to have some side tables. Then the two converged and I remembered these. Two of my favorite of the many books made into nightstands/side tables I've seen flying around the internet.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/17917534/custom-stacked-book-side-table?ref=pr_shop

http://www.designsponge.com/2009/09/diy-project-book-strap-side-table.html

So suddenly my "too many books" became "not enough" and that's what led me to be giddy with excitement about free books. Sometimes more=less, ya know? Eh? Whatever. I'll leave it.

It was really easy to make it. I had two long canvas style belts that I put together by running the tail of one through the buckle of the other. Then I placed them on the floor beside my bed. I stacked books on top of the belts until the stack was just right. (I think I tried about 5 different styles.) When I got it all level and how I wanted it, I wrapped the belts around the sides and tops of the books and joined them together again and tightened. I put a tray on top of it all. I'll feel better about putting a cup of water or something on the tray that the books. And then I filled the tray with pebbles. You could glue the books all together, but I'm not that committed to this table yet. Plus, I may decide to read some of those books. You never know.

I like the flying horse on the cover of the book in the corner. And here you can see the belts buckled.

Flooring... Done!

Remember the big floor project? Well, I said I'd post our done pictures and so here they are. Though I'm cheating just a tad. The transitions to tile and carpet aren't quite done. Almost. Soon. So close... Still you'd not know by the pictures.

And here they are...

Here's my post about the entry floorboard. 

Dining Room

Living Room (In case you are wondering I moved the dining table in between the last two pictures. Sneaky sneaky.)

In action... Daddy just got tackled by Israel. Drew's chasing a ball. Serenity's enjoying all the action.

Other side of the living room... Our little living space throughout the project.

Now to bring the rest of the furniture et al back in. :) Though I really liked the minimalism living these past weeks I think I'll reclaim my bedroom now. I love our new floors so much and am so glad that they are done! And I have plans for some of the blank walls...

Seeds

I have seeds nestled in the warm moist ground in my garden and in pots and window boxes! Seeds are magical. I feel like I spent the last few days skipping around liberally showering handfuls of seeds into rich soil. I feel like the whole world will soon burst with life and color.

The reality was a little more like this though. Saddened by how late I'm starting my seedlings this year I carted all the children outside a few days ago. They knocked over pots and spilled dirt, dug their hands in pots that already had seeds planted, threw full on fits whenever it was time to go inside, and tracked dirt all over the house. They broke my glass jar for seeds and were too excited to take naps at the appointed times. They put the seeds into wrong pots (that already had other kinds of seeds.) I'm not sure what we're growing where anymore. I (kinda) labeled them.

But seeds, oh they are magical, and I've (almost) forgotten already what it was like to plant them because I can envision them waking up and tender bright light green stems with their seed leaves reaching for light and little white roots reaching deep for moisture and nutrients. I can't wait for our garden to be full of thriving plants and teeming with yummy fresh fruits and veggies and herbs!

My kids do love gardening as much as I do. Serenity is just learning about the great outdoors and is in love.

Putting mulch into a shovel.

She watched her siblings in the "digging hole." That is their own place to keep them from digging in our garden.

So, while my original plan was to not garden much this year the warm air of almost spring made me crazy. I suddenly have big garden plans that include tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, lettuce, spinach, kale, jalapenos, garlic, basil, cilantro, rosemary, parsley, lavender, zinnias, butterfly weed, wildflowers, and (of course) sunflowers.

But I'm so happy about it. The children have pink sun kissed cheeks and they check on the seeds every day asking me, "Shouldn't something be poking out yet?" I have to tell myself and them to be patient... and dig more gardens to prepare.