I made corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day dinner last week.  Actually, I’d started making the corned beef the week before, making a brine and soaking the brisket in the fridge for a week before finally boiling (simmering, really) it and the requisite potatoes and cabbage and carrots.  (Turnips and other root vegetables would also be traditional, but I didn’t want a TON of leftovers. 

What I did want was the left over corned beef.  I used some of it make corned beef hash over the weekend, and used some more of it last night when I made a Reuben for my husband for dinner. 

He loves a good Reuben.

  This is the other basic sourdough recipe in Ruth Allman's book Alaska Sourdough.  While the first recipe I used - the "Quick and Easy" one - contains additional yeast and baking soda to aid in the rise, this recipe does not.  In this batch we rely completely on the power of our starter.  And,… Continue reading Sourdough – The Second Batch of Bread

I forgot to mention yesterday that I've settled on "Stinky" as a name for my sourdough.  After all that smelly excitement during the first days of fermentation, it seems fitting. Anyway, after giving Stinky a good feeding Saturday afternoon, he was all set to go on Sunday. I went with a simple recipe from Ruth… Continue reading Sourdough – The First Loaf

Yesterday afternoon, after the glorious discovery that it smelled - at last - like sourdough, I thought I'd better go ahead and set it up for baking. In sourdough parlance, I had to "set the starter," which you do by feeding it the night before you plan to bake so that it's all bubbly and… Continue reading Sourdough Update – A Great Relief

After the olefactory stress I've been experiencing for the past several days, as I described in yesterday's post (the crossed-out parts, heh heh), I am VERY happy to report that as of this morning MY SOURDOUGH STARTER SMELLS LIKE SOURDOUGH!!!!!!!!!!! It really, really does.  Woo hoo!!!! And I think I know the secret now, and… Continue reading We Have Sourdough!

Just wanted to let you know (especially those of you who were planning to start up a sourdough like the one I started) that I'm not SURE if mine is good or not.  It's been fermenting like it should, however, it doesn't smell the way any sourdough I've ever made in the past has smelled.… Continue reading Updated Sourdough Update