Sourdough Update

Now as I'm sure you recall I have been nursing along some sourdough starter and this weekend made bread with it. Not a complete success cos I didn't read down to the end of the instructions page but at least I've learned a couple of things!!!! This type of bread is different in that it has to have extra kneading time first off and only one rise - I gave it two risings as in yeast breadmaking and as a result the dough was extra stretchy and sticky, needing to go into a loaf pan rather than be a freeform one. I baked it and it had a good crust but the other thing I learned is that the loaf pan needed extra oil as I've just had to break the loaf in half to get it out of the pan - GRRRR!!!! The instructions weren't very precise as to actual baking time but I gave it my usual bread baking time and I think it needs just an extra 15 mins to be perfect. The taste is good - you can certainly tell it's sourdough bread - and the texture was good (it should have been with all that kneading!!!!). I'll try again next weekend - the starter is sat happily in the fridge and just needs "feeding" once a week. In other news the seasons have for sure changed now both sides of the pond and Fall has arrived!!! Big Sis and I are counting down to our December vacation and looking forward to homemade sourdough bread and chicken noodle soup - not all the time on vacation of course, we have a LONG list of other goodies we plan to make!!!! We both plan on stitching today and just recharging - Big Sis is feeling much better and for that alone I am truly thankful!!!! Watch this space next week for proper sourdough bread!!!!!!

We Are Back!!!

Now apologies for being away so long but I was with my Big Sis across the pond after her surgery to have her gallbladder removed. I am very happy to say she is making extremely good sustained progress and I like to think I helped out in a small way by being with her and taking care of food and day-to-day issues to allow her lots of naptime!!!! I am truly grateful she had the best medical care and that I was able to fly out. Flying back to the UK was not much fun as I spent most of the time wishing the aircraft was flying the other way but I am next with her for Christmas and the New Year which is not long away - yes, I hear groans from our readers!!!! And for all the airlines wailing that passenger numbers are down, I saw no sign of this, as I pass through two of the world's busiest airports - Heathrow and O'Hare. What IS annoying is the cutback in flight scheduling which does nothing to endear passengers to their chosen carriers. Fortunately my flights were more or less on time and I arrived safely both sides of the pond which is, after all, the point!!! While my Big Sis rested and recuperated I whizzed around in her kitchen and left her freezer stuffed with homemade goodies (soups and veggie pasta) all portioned up and easy to reheat. I also managed to squeeze in some stitching as well as driving to the grocery store although my Big Sis did supervize by riding shotgun!!! It was strange this morning doing the grocery run now I'm back in the UK, having run round my Big Sis's grocery store a few times!!! Needless to say my checked bag was stuffed with goodies I can't get back here, including some rather YUMMM coffee creamer (chocolate eclair) and some pots of applesauce. I brought out crumpets for my Big Sis and these are very nice toasted with a little strawberry jam or nonfat cottage cheese and fresh strawberries - just right for breakfast!!!! So today in my part of the UK it started off a bluesky Fall day but we now have wall-to-wall grey clouds . . . my Big Sis tells me it's 80 degrees and sunshine with her!!!! But the seasons have definitely changed early both sides of the pond - some of the trees are just starting to turn here and in my Big Sis's street a few of the sugar maples had a faint color change right before I left. Her folks have just returned from cruising in Alaska and brought us presents - mine was a cookbook filled with recipes from the pioneer time right up to the present day and we are now planning on trying our hands at sourdough breadmaking!!! I used to make my own bread a few years ago and today I set a batch of sourdough starter going following instructions from a dedicated sourdough bread website. I want to make sure I get it right before our Christmas vacation such that I can make up a batch of sourdough bread and homemade soup for us on a cold Winter's night!!!! Well . . . that's the plan!!!! What I've started now should be ready for breadmaking this time next week and I'll let you know how it goes. Right now it's back to stitching and dinner!!!!!

A Weekend Update

It's been a somewhat manic week with my Big Sis and I dealing with some pesky RL issues - please forgive us for being away this long but I am happy to report that things are slowly settling back to normal - or at least what passes for normal for us!!!! Just what IS "normal" these days???!!!! Our September vacation has been brought forward (for various RL reasons) such that I fly out this coming Friday - in my head I'm already on that plane!!!! My case is packed and by the front door and packs of crumpets are in the freezer to be defrosted the day before I fly and stowed carefully in my carryon!!! My Big Sis loves English crumpets - for my US friends who aren't familiar with these gorgeous goodies, they are a yeasted dough treat, round with lots of holes, which are popped into a toaster then spread with most anything you like - in the UK butter and raspberry jam are favorite!!! They are primarily a Winter treat and used to be toasted on a long metal fork in front of a real fire. You can also make a kind of crumpet pizza with savory toppings, or for a nice lunchtreat top a toasted crumpet with a poached egg and a little shredded cheese then brown under a broiler for a few moments. That along with a little side salad is a surprisingly filling lunch!!! I always bring crumpets over which are always well received!!!! This time I'm also bringing some rather nice "gourmet" ground coffee from my local grocery store - a Nicaraguan blend which is strong with chocolate overtones - along with some malted milk cookies. These have been around a long while in the UK but go very well with a coffee for a mid-morning break. Now sadly I haven't got around to doing much stitching this week but hope to do some this morning. White Star will be carefully pressed then folded into a clean plastic baggie and placed in my carryon for my Big Sis to see when I'm over. An update pic will then be posted on her Fine Art Cross Stitch site. For those of you who haven't yet found your way there, I urge you to take a peek - among many other things it offers a refreshing change from cute charts - nothing wrong with those at all but it's good to have a wider choice for stitching projects. Oh - my pinger has just pinged to inform me that it's time to wash the color from my hair . . . I want to look my best for my Big Sis!!!! Later, gators!!!!!

A Wet UK Saturday . . .

Now here we are again and just for a change it's raining! Yes that was a note of sarcasm there due to the fact our Met Office cannot get even the simplest forecasting right and from loudly proclaiming at the start of June it will be a "barbecue Summer" whereupon after a two-day heatwave it has rained and rained and rained some more, they have now agreed this will continue for August and most of September!!!! This is because apparently the Jet Stream is locked above Scotland in the North Sea and won't come "unstuck" until Fall . . . I think that's a clever way of saying oh gee we got it wrong and don't really have a clue!!! OK - weather rant over!!!! So today we're cooking comfort food for dinner . . . this means baked chicken (a proper one that was raised on a local farm and allowed to run and peck and be happy for its short life and yes it's expensive but as I freeze the carcase to turn into stock later in the year for soup it works out good value) along with roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, carrots, runner beans and marrow. This last for my US readers is a giant zucchini which is steamed in chunks then finished off in the oven with a little shredded cheese . . . all this and gravy will provide dinner for me this evening (and my Big Sis via the magic microwave although we haven't quite worked out how to send ourselves yet!!) as well as meals for the week. Dessert will be English strawberries with none of this fancy sugared balsamic glaze or general messing about that TV chefs seem to think is necessary. Fresh berries in my opinion need nothing more than themselves and MAYBE a light dusting of sugar along with a little cream if you need extra pampering!!! My fave TV chefs are Delia Smith who is the UK equivalent of dear Ina Garten in the US. When I visit my Big Sis I'm agog at the Food Network Channel as we have nothing like that in the UK. I'll watch Giada and Paula Deen but Ina is my fave US chef. Jamie Oliver is very enthusiastic but he has "gone Hollywood" a tad and as for that Gordon Ramsey - no thank you!!!! *fans self and munches a restorative strawberry* Now both my Big Sis and I have declared this a Stitchalong Weekend which means getting comfy in our PJs and stitching!!!! Happily the food will look after itself pretty much and a good thing too as I don't want to hop up and down every five mins to pray over it!!! And I know perhaps I shouldn't grumble about our weather here cos I know folks in parts of the US are experiencing hard droughts with extreme high temps . . . I'm grateful my Big Sis has a picture-perfect day and doesn't have to run the AC!!! It's back to stitching for me along with a few strawberries till dinner is ready!!!

Sunny Saturday in the UK

Yes I know it's kind of strange but at last the UK is seeing some sunshine - or at least this part of the West Country is!!!! Let me explain. For the last week or more it's been wall-to-wall thick grey clouds, strong winds and bucketing down rainstorms. Not nice to look out at, even worse to drive in on the freeway. However today has been sunny (although a bit breezy) and I'd almost forgotten what that blue stuff behind the clouds is - oh yeah, sky!!!! Now today my Big Sis is celebrating a family day - I would have travelled over but it's just too long a hop across the pond for a weekend!!! *grumps* Never mind, I've been stitching up a storm as well as making a lemon meringue pie for my friend Mandy who visited this morning - Big Sis isn't keen on lemon meringue pie. If I say as much myself, it was seriously YUMMM!!!!! I must say both Big Sis and Mandy are very rewarding to cook for - when Mandy arrived this morning I was elbowed aside with a cry of "You've been BAKING - wonderful!!!!!" Her (large!) slice disappeared in a wink and it never ceases to amaze me how something as simple as a homemade goody can bring such pleasure judging from her blissful smile!!! As well as entertaining this morning I've been stitching AND made a sausage casserole for the week with mashed potatoes. That along with salads should see me through the week for dinners - believe me after a day's work then half an hour's drive on the freeway I have to use to get to/from where I work I do NOT want to turn to and start cooking!!!! Apologies to those readers who travel farther to their place of work but it's all relative!!! Um . . . green melons were on sale today at the grocery store - these are pielo del sapo green skinned ones, a little like the honeydew variety but bigger and extremely YUMMM. I got two and feel very smug gazing in the fridge at the large bowl of melon chunks. As you may have gathered, good food is very important to me along with stitching!!!! Which reminds me, time for some more strawberries then back to stitching!!

A change to my blog

As you may have noticed from the post before, I've added my sis to the blog. She's a bit shy about having her own blog. She was worried she'd have a bad day, go on a major rant about her job, and get fired. I promised her I'd moderate her posts so that won't happen! (It wouldn't anyway, but now she won't worry!)

My Sis. Now, so no one gets confused here, let me explain. She's not my biological sister. She should be, though. Our theory is the stork had a bad night, and got a bit off course. She was left with a very lovely couple in England, but she was supposed to be left with MY parents. Well, done is done now. We've found each other and my folks have 'adopted' her. While we don't live in the same place, we talk and email every day. She even visits me in Michigan 3 times a year. (I know, I'm bad for not visiting her, but I don't fly.)

So, when you read our various posts, so you don't get confused, read sis' posts with a British accent, as she will post from England's west country. Read mine with a Mid-western accent from the United States. Trust me, it will all make much more sense that way!

WELCOME TO THE BLOG SIS!

Inroducing Little Sis

A very big HI *waves* I'm Sheri's little sis and she introduced (or should that be induced????!!!!) me to cross stitch a couple of years ago with a Lavender & Lace Angel project. I've done a few since then and am proud to be a model stitcher for my Big Sis but cannot boast the experience and number of projects Sheri has!! Once I'm comfy with my feet up I stitch away, little tongue sticking out the corner of my mouth and would be happy stitching all day but pesky work tends to get in the way!!!!! Of course I know it pays the bills and stuff but it would be wonderful to stitch away or cook up yummm food or just hang out with my Big Sis!!!! Today's menu features chicken stock made from scratch to be portioned out and frozen, sticky chicken wings which if I do say as much are seriously yummm and gourmet burgers with all the fixings!!! Sheri is a mean cook and her coconut chicken with salad is the best food in the world!!! Right now it's back to stitching for me - I'll post a couple of pix next time - along with some stitchy snacks and a big glass of iced coffee!!!!