What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

A reader sent me a link to this video where the lady shows making a “dry” starter. It isn’t totally dry like powder but it definitely looks interesting. I’m going to try it. I find it interesting that she’s using einkorn, which I also like but it isn’t readily available locally, or at least not...

The post Dry Sourdough Starter appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

The one thing about Elaine Boddy’s sourdough method is that she plans it so there’s no discard. I love discard and some of the best things I’ve made have been made using discard. There are some amazing crackers I made in Texas using fresh rosemary. Yesterday morning, since I was working off my abandoned starter,...

The post Sourdough Discard Biscuits appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

My sourdough starter has been so neglected for the past month. I fed it about a week before we moved downstairs. As of today, we’ve been down here four weeks. I’ve been using the kitchen but by the time I was comfortable spending a lot of time in the kitchen, we got Oscar and the...

The post Sourdough Alive & Well appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

Cilla asked about the difference in protein in hard red vs. hard white wheat. Bob’s Red Mill has a great article here on the differences. There’s also a “test loaf” recipe. It’s a simple loaf and would be great to try different types of wheat. I rarely use 100% hard red any more. I mostly...

The post Hard Red vs. Hard White Wheat appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

This recipe for Dinner Rolls is what I was looking for at Hillbilly Kitchen yesterday. Today I made the rolls and these are the best rolls I’ve made in a long time. I hate to say the recipe is easy because I’m sure someone will think it’s hard but for anyone who has ever made...

The post Yeast Rolls appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

I doubt unplanning is a word but that seems to be what’s been happening around here. I think it was Sunday I stirred up a batch of plain English Muffins to make on Monday but then got busy and didn’t get them made so I planned to make them Tuesday morning and that never happend....

The post Planning and Unplanning appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

Salt rising bread is a very heavy, dense bread. It’s so good toasted for sandwiches and it makes amazing croutons for soup and salad. Here’s the bread I made last night. It’s only about 3″ tall. The recipe says to divide into three loaves and I do. I only have two short pans so those...

The post Salt Rising Bread – The Loaves appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

The salt rising bread didn’t last long but I did give most of one loaf away and we ate most of the second loaf when Chad, Nicole and Addie were here Sunday. Vince likes it more “stinky” than the first batch was. I’m wondering if the clorine in the water caused whatever grows in it...

The post More Salt Rising Bread appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

It was in 2003 when I started making salt rising bread. In fact, here’s Vince making salt rising bread in 2005. There are so many things that strike me funny about that picture. Vince cooking. Vince at the little house in town in Kentucky. The phone on the wall. Even in 2005, Vince was wearing...

The post Salt Rising Bread appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

A friend texted me Friday night to see if I wanted to come over for a BBQ yesterday. I did, but I’d already promised to bake my mom bread. I decided if I got up at 3am and took the dough out for the remainder of it’s proof, I could get it baked by seven, and have time to bake chocolate chip pecan cookies and make a crunchy bacon pea salad.

I went back to bed and slept until five thirty, so that worked out beautifully!

The girls loved the pea salad, so here’s the recipe. I ...

These Sourdough English Muffins are so easy to make and I’ve never once had a fail with them. I don’t always follow the recipe but I stir them up about 6 p.m. and about 7:30 or 8 p.m. I knead them a bit in the bowl, cover them and leave them alone til about 6...

The post Sourdough English Muffins appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

Yesterday was cloud covered and very windy, and absolute beautiful day to walk at the lake after lunch, despite being over eighty degrees. It felt fabulous!

I met a couple of the girls and we got our six miles in, but while walking we almost stepped on a large copperhead, noticing it just in time to step well back and chase it off the trail with a branch and some rocks. Scary, as it was quite angry and jumping.

Further up the trail we came upon a snapping turtle.

Now mean humans don’t scare me nearly as much as ...

I know I’m weird, and my idea of the perfect day rarely resembles the average person’s ideal. Five o’clock in the morning found me in the kitchen mixing up a batch of red peppers and tomatoes to oven roast. I absolutely adore these, and always have a batch in the fridge.

While the peppers were roasting, I cooked up a package of bacon, something else I like to keep in the fridge. It smelled absolutely amazing!

I fed my sourdough as well, so I could make dough later on in the day. I typically cook bacon in ...

The Rugbrød turned out well enough. I don’t think it’s my favorite of that type recipe that I’ve tried, but it’s still delicious. This bread isn’t for everyone and my fond attachment to it is partly nostalgic, partly for health, and I do of course, quite enjoy the taste and texture of it.

The nostalgia comes from my years in Germany, where this was a favorite breakfast of mine, typically eaten with braunschweiger and a bit of sliced red onion, or spread with butter and lemon curd. Yesterday I had it for both lunch and ...

It dropped down to freezing for the last two nights here, so I lugged my four pots of tomatoes and several pots of herbs into the shed overnight… and left them during the day because they’re just too heavy for me to move around much. That should be the last of the freezing weather, hopefully!

I put them back out this morning with the cages back on. I am going to take a walk at the lake today as it’s going to be nice and I haven’t been able to walk at all this month. Afterward, I ...

I tried a new recipe a couple of days ago. While I have a freaking library of bread baking books, and quite a few of them are sourdough, my hands down favorite is Emilie Raffa’s “Artisan Sourdough Made Simple“. I’ve yet to try a recipe out of it that isn’t spot on perfect. She has amazing sense for blending flavors.

I used half castelvetrano green olives (my favorites!) and half greek black olives. Four o’clock in the morning had me outside in my beds with a flashlight hunting down enough fresh thyme for the dough, the ...

She appears to have gone missing. I guess I better ask Siri cat to hunt for her. Cat’s track down mice and bring them to you right?

I had plans to get more of the weed whacking done yesterday, but the morning was drizzly and cold, with a bitter wind. It was all I could do to talk myself into a walk after lunch, but I’m so glad I did as while I started out with my winter coat and gloves on, I was able to remove them halfway through my six mile walk.

The clouds blew off ...

Lately I can’t get enough of this bread. It’s sourdough with rye and spelt and full of flaked grains and seeds.

I mill my own grains, but I also flake them using my FlicFloc. It’s a bit tedious as it’s a hand crank model, but the flavor difference is oh so worth it!

My mix varies all the time. This particular batch began with emmer wheat berries, rye berries, white wheat berries, amaranth, tri-color quinoa, teff and barley, which I added to a jar and tossed in a bit of water. I use about a tablespoon ...

Sourdough is a bread I’ve made for many years and I can do it without looking at a recipe. Yesterday I wanted to make whole wheat sourdough and was looking for different recipes and came across this recipe for “Easy Whole Wheat-ish Sourdough Bread“. No matter how long we’ve been doing anything, there’s always something...

The post Whole Wheat Sourdough appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

I might have a bit of Irish in me, or I might not. I’ve DNA tested with 4 different companies and while their ethnicity results always agree I am mostly German, some put a small percentage of me in England, and some of them place it in Ireland, so who knows?

Yesterday I decided to bake an Irish Soda bread for today. It’s quick and easy! I’m a sucker for anything baked with a bit of fresh orange zest, and buttermilk!

Irish Soda Bread

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currants
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ...