Sourdough and Memories

Do you like sourdough?  I do and I have great memories of my paternal Grandpa making sourdough pancakes for breakfast on a Sunday.  He'd make them "dollar size", and they were so, so good.  

At different times over the decades, I have maintained a sourdough starter.  At some point, *when* I have my new kitchen, I will get a new one going again.

As I've decluttered my recipe *collection*, I came across some of my Grandmother's recipes.  She probably lost her original starter after Grandpa passed on Christmas Eve 1970.  We thought we were going to lose her too, she grieved so deeply.  Her sons, my bio-dad and uncle, cleared out her cottage-size house, she was in a rest home for a time, lived with my uncle for a time and eventually was well enough to purchase a small mobile home not too far from where she and Grandpa had lived and was looking to get a new starter going.  

I don't think this was her original recipe, and am pretty sure it is not.  It came from an unnamed someone who wrote "I've copied this just as it was in the magazine." and I'm guessing that was well after Grandpa's passing.   I'm copying it exactly as it was written, punctuation and all, except [ ]:

SOURDOUGH STARTER

Put 1 cup milk in a glass jar or crock (no metal) & allow to stand at room temp. for 24 hours.  Stir in a cup of flour.  (To speed process cover with cheesecloth & place outside for several hours to expose to wild yeast cells floating in the wind)  Leave uncovered in a warm place, - 80 [degrees] is ideal - for two to five days, depending on how long it takes to bubble & sour, near pilot light on gas stove is good.  If it starts to dry out stir in enough tepid water to bring it to the original consistently. Once it has a good sour aroma & is full of bubbles it is ready to use.  Cover & store in refrig.

Try to maintain about 1 1/2 cups of starter.  Each time you use part of your starter replenish it with a mixture of equal parts of milk & flour.  Leave at room temp. several hours or overnight, or until it again becomes full of bubbles.  Then cover & store in refrigerator.  Use at least once a week.  If not used for 2 or 3 weeks spoon out & discard about half, then replenish as above.

In my Grandma's handwriting, there is a recipe for Sourdough Bread.  With that recipe, are other directions for a starter:

SOURDOUGH STARTER II

Dissolve 1 pkg. active dry yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.  Stir in 2 cups lukewarm water, 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 1 t. salt & 1 T. sugar.  Beat till smooth.  Let stand, uncovered, at room temp. 3 to 5 days.  Stir 2 or 3 times daily; cover at night. (Starter should have "yeasty" not sour smell) Cover & refrigerate till ready to make bread.

I have many other recipes from my Grandma, or should I say clippings and a few she likely made.  At this point in time, I don't remember many dishes made outside of Grandpa's pancakes.  Grandpa loved to fish for salmon, and I recall eating it with them, but it doesn't have the same memory.  What I do remember from their house, is the smell of coffee, oh, it always smelled good.  And they had the Tupperware salt and pepper shakers with copper donkey holder (it looked like this one).  I'm always reminded of it when I smell pepper.  

Do you have childhood memories of foods associated with special people?

Yummy Bean Recipe

I discovered the Duggar family's website a couple days ago. You may know the name because they're the Christian family with 19 kids, and Michelle was expecting again but miscarried recently, and they have a tv show. She has some of their favorite recipes on their site and the one called Old Settlers' Baked Beans jumped out at me, so I tried this recipe yesterday. It was so good, I ate too much. And then I had the last small bowl of leftovers for lunch today. And I want to make some more...soon!

I didn't have all the specific ingredients, but I don't think my substitutions changed the flavor that much. In lieu of the Pork 'n Beans and the kidney beans, I used two cans of navy beans. And, because I know the P'nBs are already seasoned in a sauce, I didn't measure the other ingredients precisely and instead added a little extra of everything. Oh, and I remembered my mom would add molasses when she made baked beans when I was growing up so I checked my cupboard, and had just a little molasses left, maybe 1/3 cup, so added it. When I was making it, I cooked my bacon first, as I just don't like the texture of the fat on bacon so wanted to make sure it was more better done! and added the onions for a bit even before I added the ground beef.

This is definitely a keeper recipe. And so EASY. I remember having homemade baked beans quite often as a child, and always loved them but could never get them quite right even following my mom's directions. I think adding some finely diced red bell peppers, maybe a dash of vinegar or some smoke flavor could be some nice variables.

Banana Bread

Everyone loves banana bread, don't they? I adapted this recipe from one published by Gourmet magazine back in the late '70s. I like my banana bread to taste like it has bananas in it. Thus my sequential photos of when the bananas are just right: the first - not even close.














nope, still not ready.












OK, this is close enough. (Any further and I'll probably lose my readers, lol. )
The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups banana puree and I'm sure I'm a little short, but it'll be as it will be this time.











Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Then measure out 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar.













Grab two eggs.













Measure out 1/2 cup water to which you've added 1 teaspoon vanilla.













Next, into a sieve (or flour sifter) measure 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 2 Tablespoons buttermilk powder. (I think the original recipe called for 1/2 cup buttermilk, so if you prefer that, then omit the 1/2 c. water and the 2 T. buttermilk powder.) Sift and then stir this all together and set aside.















OK, now we're ready to roll. Grab a stick of butter (should be softened, or at least at room temp) and a stick is 1/4 pound, or 4 ounces, or 1/2 cup - whichever you're accustomed to calling it. Cream the butter with the sugar.












I'm impatient, and I'm glad I don't have to use a wooden spoon like in 'them thar olden days' so I use my electric mixer. And I probably don't cream it sufficiently to please a master baker. I still have a somewhat grainy texture, not a smooth and cream-y texture...doesn't bother me.
Once you've creamed the butter and sugar, take those bananas out of their peels and mash them in a bowl, they don't have to be pretty, they'll get mixed in with that electric mixer.









Don't those super-ripe bananas look great...they have so much flavor, and sugar content at this point...and almost an alcohol fragrance.

Mix them up real good... er...'well'...as Nick would correct my grammar ;)























Then, add your eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Once the eggs have been incorporated, start adding your flour alternately with your liquid (either the water & vanilla, or the buttermilk)...











beginning with the flour and ending with the flour. I usually add about 1/3 of the flour, then 1/2 the liquid, the next 1/3 of the flour, the last of the liquid, then the last of the flour.
























Mix until the flour is incorporated - no dry clumps.
At this point, if you like nuts in your banana bread, they can be added. 1/2 c. chopped walnuts. Nick is allergic to peanuts so avoids all nuts and I don't really like nuts in my banana bread so I leave them out, most of the time. If I'm making two, I'll add them to one because Marty likes it with nuts.






ummmm, it already smells like banana bread...

Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 12" x 4 1/2" x 3" loaf pan. If you don't have one like this, I'm sure a regular bread pan will work just fine.














Spread the batter so that it's fairly even across the length of the pan.













Place in preheated oven for 1 hour, yes, that long, that's a full 60 minutes ... test with a cake tester to assure doneness, sometimes it takes a little longer.


















When tester comes out clean, turn oven off, open door and leave the bread in the oven for 10 minutes. Please ignore that dirty oven.













Remove from oven, place on cooling rack leaving bread in the pan for another 10 minutes.














Turn out onto rack to cool completely....













or, if you're as impatient as I am after an hour and a half of smelling this yummy deliciousness, then slice off a piece or two and smear my other favorite food onto it...yes, butter is food.





























Side note: I had so much trouble with getting this to structure right. I sure wish that the way I'm typing and adding photos looked the same after I post as it does when I'm doing it, which is complicated enough!...and that while I'm trying to compose that the photos wouldn't disappear (or were easily recovered if they do) when I backspace one too many times or in the wrong spot. I think I need a Blogger For Dummies book :)