You’ve made your decision. You’ve prepared for days. You’re rough and ready. It’s time… to make your first loaf of sourdough bread!
Take a deep breath; this recipe is so un-fussy that even the least experienced baker can get it to work. We’re working with 100% white wheat flour so that even if something doesn’t go quite right, you’ll still end up with a really nice loaf of bread.
To bake sourdough bread, you’ll need a starter. You can get one from a friend or relative, buy one online, or you can grow your own.
A 100% hydration starter contains equal parts of water and flour. When you’re ready to bake with it, it’ll create a light loaf with a familiar, tangy sourdough flavor.
During the first few days, the yeast and bacteria will start to grow slowly.
You know those recipes that your family has been making your whole life? This coffee cake is one of them. It’s always been known in my family as “George’s Coffee Cake” even though I’m 95% certain I’m not related to anyone named George.
When my mama and I sat down to add this recipe to our Drop recipe creator a few weeks ago, she decided that it needed re-christened and named it after herself.
Right now, I live in an almond milk household. After 25 years of cow milk, I’m living with a couple of lactose-intolerant cuties and so, feeling pretty laissez faire about the source of my milk, I’ve started drinking almond milk.
The thing is, though, I’m kind of almond-milk-intolerant. For a while, I thought my body just didn’t like almonds. Lately, though Trader Joe’s changed the names of all their milks and waters to “beverage” because there’s been all kinds of hubbub about what’s really in the shelf-stable stuff and I started wondering if maybe one of the preservatives was the culprit.
Surprise: It was!
Listen, I’m all about convenience and will continue buying other tetra-brick stuff til the cows come home, but I’m pretty thrilled that I can jump back on the almond milk bandwagon now that I’ve figured out how to make it for myself.
Speaking of convenience, let’s talk about how easy it is. Besides the 4-8 hours of foresight required to throw some almonds and water in a cup, the process of actually making almond milk takes less than 10 minutes and requires minimal clean-up.
The price is pretty good too. Here’s my breakdown:
| Homemade | Store-bought | |
| Almond Milk | $2/L | $1.58L |
| Almond Flour | $2/cup | $2.95/cup |
| Total | $2 (yay recycling!) | $4.53 |
Raise your hand if you’re over winter.
Everyone’s hand up? Okay, good, me too.
This time two years ago I was all warm and cozy in Galicia, the weirdest, most wonderful corner of Spain you’ve never heard of.
Pontevedra, Galicia, specifically
Ever wanted to visit Ireland but wish you could speak Spanish while you’re there? Come to Galicia. Prefer bagpipes to flamenco? Galicia’s the place for you. Can’t decide between mountains and beaches? Wish you accidentally stumble upon visit 6,000-year-old ruins while you’re out for a walk? Want to go to a pirate parade in the middle of February? Galicia, Galicia, and Galicia. Ai, que morriña.
Galicia has the best tree-climbing, rainbows, and state beer
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it because last night, we had a bunch of fly chickadees over for Bad Lesbian Movie Night and made sushi. And sushi makes me think of Galicia. Not because it’s popular there or anything (as far as I can tell, the only thing Galicians eat is ham, ham, ham, octopus, and ham) but because I learned to make it there.
Not-so-fun fact: Avocados are named after the Aztec work for testicle.
Actually fun fact: In some parts of the world, avocados are called butterfruit. The good thing about this name is that it a) has nothing to do with testicles and b) provides a sneaky way to name your cookies without people realizing that there’s avocado in them until after they’ve eaten one and fallen in love with it. Continue reading
Mamoot 