You don't even want to know how gross my neglected sourdough starter had become sitting in the back of my refrigerator for too many months. The start date on it was 2-10-11 and i remember baking a bunch of loaves with it but what's missing the "neglected since..." date. I'll spare you the details and any photos. But there was mold. Ewww! Ick!
Suffice to say, I'm starting a new starter this morning using the Tartine method. If all goes well, in two weeks I'll have a good sourdough culture from which I'll bake.
The bowl on the right is the rosemary no-knead dough that I'll bake off this morning in a cast-iron pot for a nice, crusty loaf to serve alongside my famous black bean soup tonight. Although I'm sad that baseball practice will likely be cancelled tonight due to the rain, I'm delighted that the four of us will be gathered around the dinner table together instead of what normally happens when baseball and dance fall on the same night (2 of us eat early and go off to the game; 2 of us eat late after dance, a tag-team sort of affair that I'm content to break with tonight). I'm ready for our summer schedule already!
Another advantage to the rain: the seeds & seedlings (sunburst and Peter Pan pattypan squash, Zephyr and other summer squashes, cucumbers, hearts of gold cantaloupe, lavender, jalapeños) that we planted over the weekend need to be watered as well. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!
Happy Monday!
