Sourdough part 2

 The ecology of the house needs a balance between those that chew up toys and those that collect them. Otherwise, toys tend to run over the whole house.

It's been fun watching Bruce get more comfortable around us, see his tail rise and his cute puppy walk and playtime kick in. He still needs reminders that the adults here just want to love on him, but he is beginning to run over to us and eat out of our hands. He still doesn't always trust the overhead pet yet, often ducking out of the way.

The French bread turned out great. So yesterday I tried some rye and got a 12-hour ferment, confused with a 24-hour ferment. It is a very dense Norwegian-style rye. And then I made discard cookies. I would say my baking today deserves solid stars. Very sturdy. I recommend thin slices with a good cheese. 

Sourdough discard cookies:

2 cups discard, 1 cup rye flour, 2 cups oats

1/2c sugar, 1 ripe banana (use as many as you have). Vanilla, baking powder and milk until sufficiently cookie-textured. Throw in chocolate chips and nuts. Bake 375 for 20 minutes (and do not go outside and ride a bike on a beautiful day and forget about the cookies. Better to underbake.)

And once again, I forgot to water my seed starting. I even set an alarm to remind me, but my child had the phone.

Sourdough part 1

 The Sourdough Chronicles

While the world burns (I am not going down that rabbit hole) I thought that I would distract myself with something I have promised myself to get into this year: sourdough!

So I ordered some starter, did a little reading, and kept promising myself I would get into it next week.

Then, something weird happened: One of the animal rescues named a black fluffy puppy 
"Sourdough." That grabbed my attention, but I waited, and the puppy was still there a week later. Fine, I had the sourdough starter started, and I would call and see if Sourdough the puppy was still available, but before I could call, they posted again that he was still available.

Sourdough is 20 pounds (and still underweight) at 3 months of age. He will be a big dog. Just what we were thinking of, a guardian doggy for our kids and yard (chase those deer).

Sourdough and his siblings, Cibatta and Rye, had a rough start to life. Their mom wandered onto someone's property, gave birth to puppies and disappeared after a few weeks. When they were noticed and brought into the shelter, they were completely hungry and unsocialized, being protective over food and even water. 

One of the shelter's rules is to have a meet and great with any current dogs you own. That worked well as my Pippy was just happy and excited, and didn't seem to mind when we brought him home. That was Thursday. The kids cuddled the puppy and argued all the way home over the name. Mary favored "Oreo" I l liked it when she mispronounced it "Woereo." Egon favored "Batman." I think we settled on "Bruce." The "fish are friends and not food "Bruce, or Bruce Wayne, or Bruce Almighty....

The first day, the puppy connected strongly with Marian, being calm and happy in her presence. By Friday afternoon, Bruce would also be connected with Egon. He has started to raise his tail and follow Pippy around. But he is still skiddish about adults, carefully avoiding them, and ducking from head scratches.

Today we tried the leash. He jumped around and tried to twist out of it, but after the short 20-minute session began to accept it.

So far, he has made 3 piddles, 1 poo, and 1 barf in the house. Most of the time he has turned around and ate it. Mike thinks its a bad sign. I know it is just normal puppy. He has learned where the water and food is, and all he has to do to go out is go stand by the door.

And in the other style of sourdough....I started bulking up it's feeding so I would have enough starter to make things out of. When I came back to it yesterday, (I have 2 jars going) 1 jar had its cloth lid pushed off and dough all down the sides, the other one just had remnants of starter stuck to the cover. 

This morning I made some wonderful sourdough pancakes, and have started some french bread. at about 7 pm I can continue making the french bread, after letting it ripen all day.

Frozen

 Ice is only a temporary state of matter

crystalline structures

hard, yet

so fragile

locked in the way they see things

afraid to lose the only form they know

but fear does not stop change

and flow will return again

Spring

 it was noisy falling off the roof

in large sheets

like thunder

temporarily eclipsing the sun

but now it is under my feet and melting