Why am I learning to make a sourdough starter? I have spent years at home rearing children, homeschooling, cooking, laundry, etc. So this time in our history hasn’t been as hard on me maybe as some of you. But it has given me an excellent opportunity to explore possibilities. Extra time at home, what will I do? Using this time to learn some new skills and improve some old ones seems like a good idea.
What have I been learning? In my crazy artistic, ok maybe chaotic (it’s those 11 kids I’m telling you!) way I tackled several things I have been interested in for some time. Today I will tell you about my sourdough project.
Sourdough
The problem is I love bread! If I had to choose one food group it would probably be bread. What smells better than fresh bread baking? With a little direction from my friend Eleni Melirrytou, I decided to learn to make sourdough bread. That entails first making a sourdough starter. Yes, you normally can buy yeast in the grocery store. Maybe not during a pandemic. And maybe not in Africa. I know that you can buy a sourdough starter on Amazon. However, I want to learn the whole process so that wherever I am in the world I can make bread. This is a long process that begins with flour and water mixed and worked with for at least 14 days before you can have a strong enough starter to make your bread rise. You can make some pretty yummy sourdough pancakes with your throwaway starter though.
Work With Refugees
Do you remember the first time you ate sourdough bread? I don’t. I’m sure it must have been in Seattle in the 80s. The best sourdough I have ever tasted was made by my friend Eleni Melirrytou when she and her husband came to Nashville, Tennessee, to share about their work with refugees in Greece. Check out their website here. As with most functions with Christians, there was food! Not just food but amazing Greek food which included Eleni’s sourdough bread! Yum, makes your mouth water bread!
Northwest Sourdough
I need to learn how to do this, I told myself. I asked Eleni for recommendations and she sent me a link to a video by Northwest Sourdough and Teresa L. Greenway. There is a link for a free guide below the video. This video and the following ones got me started making my sourdough starter, pancakes, and eventually bread. Click on the link to learn how to make a sourdough starter using only flour and water.
One interesting side note is that I lived very close to where Teresa L. Greenway filmed these videos and I never knew what I was missing or what great resources were right next door.
Sourdough bread – My first loafSourdough bread 2Sourdough bread
If you follow this link you will find the recipe I used for my sourdough bread. Bake with Jack is a great teacher.
REMEMBER TO SIGN UP FOR THE DRAWING THIS MONTH! To sign up send me a recipe with a story or sign up to receive emails when I post a new story.
I just couldn’t write on Mother’s day about my mom. For one thing, I was visiting her from a safe distance on her porch. Add home church and kids and grandkids and it was a full day. I am so blessed as a mom and to have my mom!
How can I possibly write anything appropriately honoring into a post?
But today when this picture
My mom Birthday 2017
popped up on my Facebook feed, I decided to say something. I know I cannot possibly express in words what an amazing woman my mom is, how thankful for her I am, or how much I love her! But I will write a few things.
Thankful for My Mom!
My earliest memories center around church and family. For many years my mom took the three of us to church all by herself. Not just Sunday morning but at least 3 services a week. I am thankful for her faithfulness to the father and her commitment to the body of Christ.
She made all of our clothes and some for the neighbors too. One year she made Easter dresses for us and the neighbor girls including little crocheted shawls.
She and my dad grew a big garden and canned and froze the benefits. They raised hogs and chickens. She and my dad worked hard and taught us to work hard as well. This has been a huge blessing in my life.
She sounds like the typical mom during that time period in so many ways because of all the skills she learned growing up on the farm. But my mom was far from typical in addition to all of these things she worked full time.
During a time when few women worked outside the home, my mom worked as a computer programmer. She worked in a field few women worked. Her work transitioned a lot over the years. She spent her last two years of programming from home. She is resilient and a great learner.
What is she doing today during this pandemic? She has made over 100 masks to protect others. Sharing with her neighbors, friends, and family from a distance she continues to stay busy. Quilting, cross-stitching, reading books, doing puzzles, sharing magazines, sewing machines, and whatever she has to give she continues doing good as she has always done.
She has weathered a lot of storms in her life and come through them with a generous heart and a smile.
Who has ever heard of mayonnaise biscuits? I certainly had never! Read on for I am about to share the recipe. This year a friend of mine had a birthday. As is common his amazing birthday dinner was shared of Facebook complete with pictures. It was a dinner that made me jealous. Just kidding I was happy for Glenn to have an amazing birthday dinner after all he’s a pretty amazing guy. And he must have a pretty wonderful wife to do all that for him.
As I was reading the list of items on the menu something caught my attention. Mayonnaise Biscuits. I had to message Erica right away to find out if I could have the recipe. She was sweet enough to share her special recipe and a little bit of the story behind it.
Glenn’s mom used to make them for him and to make the story a little bit sweeter she got the recipe from her mom. I love to collect recipes and especially if they have stories behind them.
So today I will share this simple recipe for you to try.
Mayonnaise Biscuits
Mayonnaise Biscuits
2 c. Self-rising Flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Preheat oven at 375° and lightly grease a muffin tin.
Mix all three ingredients and scoop by the spoonful into a muffin tin each one about 3/4 the way full.
Makes one dozen.
Bake for 30 mins or until these golden brown.
These turn out to be very light.
I hope you enjoy them!! They are delicious! Thanks, Erica for introducing me to Mayonnaise Biscuits.
There are two ways to enter the contest to win a beautiful apron. Subscribe to my email list or send me a recipe with a story of why it is special to you.
Yesterday, I decided to try an old recipe…Instant Pot Style! Black Bean Soup has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Black beans are healthy, economical, and they taste great!
I don’t cook a lot using recipes, but I like to share them when I do:)
My first few experiences with the Instant Pot made me want to throw it out the door! I persisted because of my dear friend Lee who uses her Instant Pot constantly and is always telling me how it makes fixing dinner so easy. She is such a patient teacher! So here goes another experiment…
Ingredients:
4 cups dried black beans
2 quarts chicken broth
2 cups salsa (homemade or store-bought)
2 -3 teaspoons cumin to taste
4 garlic cloves (my favorite!) or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 teaspoons lime juice
Salt (to taste)
Optional seasoning: red pepper added for heat
Optional toppings: cilantro, sour cream, or plain yogurt
Add the dried black beans with the chicken broth and cook in the Instant Pot for 14 minutes (use the manual setting to set the time).
While beans are cooking, saute the onions in a skillet.
After the 14 minutes is up, let the Instant Pot self-release its steam. Stir to make sure the beans are well cooked, and then add the sauteed onions, salsa, lime, and all the seasonings. Turn it on saute for about 5 minutes until it is all hot and mixed well. If you want it to have more liquid you can add some more broth or water at this point, and then it’s done! This soup has a lot of wonderful flavors! You can serve it with rice, tortillas, or tortilla chips.
Original Black Bean Soup and Short Cuts Added
The original recipe is not as large so I always had to double and triple it when the kids were home. You know how much boys can eat!
Here is the recipe:
1 lb. dry beans cooked according to directions (shortcut: use two cans cooked black beans)
1 -2 C chicken broth (substitute: 1 C water and 1 bouillon cube for each cup)
2 cups of homemade salsa (substitute: 16 oz jar store-bought salsa)
4 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Optional toppings:
chopped fresh cilantro
sour cream or plain yogurt
Coat a large saucepan with cooking spray, cook onion and garlic over med-high for 4-5 min. Add the cooked beans with their liquid, the salsa, lime, cumin, red pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Cook, stirring occasionally for 25-30 minutes. Top with yogurt and fresh cilantro.
I bake gluten-free cornbread for my husband. According to the last three doctors and numerous tests, they have run my husband cannot tolerate gluten. He does, however, eat corn and loves to have a nice hot skillet of cornbread to accompany a bowl of beans. The two happen to go together right?
Can you imagine I have run out of the regular cornmeal? So instead I used masa flour. He really likes it. It has a softer texture than the regular stone-ground cornmeal I have used in the past. Here is the latest recipe I have come up with based on available ingredients at home.
Easy Gluten-Free Cornbread
1 cup of instant corn masa flour
1 cup almond flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil.
Preheat oven 425°. Bake in a small oiled iron skillet or pie plate for 20 minutes or until done. The top and sides should be golden brown and it should pull slightly away from the sides.
What do I do with 25 lbs. of boiled eggs? I was recently given a “gift” of a huge bucket of eggs. Twenty-five pounds of eggs! As happens with gifts, you also have responsibility. First, I made room in my refrigerator for this big gift. Then I started thinking about what I might do with them. Thankfully the expiration date was a month away!
Egg salad and deviled eggs were easy. Then I looked up eggs in my Carla Emery’s Old Fashioned Book The Encyclopedia of Country Living. If you need to know anything about country living this is the book. There are over 800 pages to this book. There was a whole section on eggs with ten recipes for pickled eggs.
What did I do? I pickled a gallon of eggs. I have never pickled eggs before nor do I think I have ever eaten pickled eggs. I have tried pickled pig feet, pickled okra, pickled peppers, cauliflower, and of course regular pickles. The pickling process for eggs takes ten days to complete. They are supposed to keep for months. So I will try to remember to share my thoughts on pickled eggs when they are ready to eat.
As Patricia Crawford said, “when you have eggs, you eat eggs”! We have been eating boiled eggs for breakfast, lunch, and snacks!
Please share your favorite boiled egg recipes! I have a few dozen eggs left.
With the setting of the sun not too far away, we looked back over the picked field, elated that it was finished. There were many green bolls remaining on the stalks, some of which were bulging at the “seams” from the expanding cotton inside them that would need to be picked later. But for now, we were tired and glad that there would be a few days before the next picking. On the ground between the rows were scraps of cotton that had fallen as our hands reached to put it into our sacks. Some had been knocked off by playful young pickers or by dogs chasing rabbits up and down the rows of white cotton. The scraps were dirty and ugly from having been dragged under the heavy cotton sacks that stretched the fibers into long thin slivers and ground the dirt into them as they went. The once beautiful field of snowy white cotton hanging loose and fluffy from the fanciful dry brown bolls was no longer beautiful to those who passed by. The picture that is presented to the landowner and to us cotton pickers, however, was one of a job well done. That called for a special treat…
As the farmer finished weighing up the sacks of cotton and emptying them into the wagon, we sat on the ground laughing and talking, waiting to be paid for our day’s work. Some of the older pickers took their money and started for home, thankful for having made enough to buy a little something special for dinner that evening. Others went home, thankful for the opportunity to have made a little toward paying off debts for food and clothing that had already been eaten or worn. We, who were younger, were planning what we could buy with our hard-earned cash. In our daydreaming, it always went twice as far as in reality.
“Who would like to go to the gin with me?” was a welcome question for many of us who were still young and inexperienced. It was not always asked, but today was a perfect day. The wagon had about 2000 pounds on it and there were no other fields waiting to be picked. The cotton needed to be taken to the gin where it would be turned into a bale that the farmer could sell on the market. “Who wanted to go?” I did!
We climbed onto the top of the white fluffy cotton and waited expectantly as the team of horses was hitched up to the long tongue in front of the wagon. The horses shook their harnesses and snorted from the feel of the bits in their mouths. They were not quite so happy with the prospect of this trip as we humans were!
When we finally started the bouncy ride, cushioned by the cotton underneath us, I had a sense of owning the world. The breeze that blew the hair back from my face could have been a nice cool shower for the clean feeling that I got from it. I still looked dirty to other people, but I felt clean. My hair was disheveled, my face was sunburned, but I felt good. I had a small amount of money in my pocket, and I felt rich!
I felt like singing and laughing and joking with my cousins as we passed the many farmhouses along the way to the gin. People were friendly and waved back at us. Some of them were still picking cotton in the fields half-finished, and I was glad to be where I was.
When we arrived at the gin, we had to wait in line for the big suction tube that would pull the cotton out of the wagons and send it in to the big machinery inside. It didn’t take long before we had our turn. We even stayed in the wagon as the cotton was sucked up into the big movable metal tube. In fact, we each got to try our skills at pulling that big tube around over the cotton, but it was not nearly so easy as it looked.
After the cotton was inside the gin it went through some processes that removed leaves, sticks, and pieces of cotton bolls that had found their way into the sacks of cotton. Then we watched as the big long bins with rotating “teeth” bit into the cotton fibers and removed the seeds which spilled into conduits that carried them to the seed house. The clean, seedless cotton was whisked through a passageway that ended at a press that had been lined in the bottom with a big piece of material that looked like heavy “toe sacking”, under which long metal bands were waiting to be tied around the whole bundle as it was compressed into a very compact bale of cotton which would weigh around 500 pounds. As the bale rolled from the press into the yard it was ready to take home or to sell there. The cotton seeds were also the farmer’s to take home or to sell to the gin company.
The cycle was near the end. From the planted seed to the bale of cotton, a farmer put in many hours of hard work and provided many hours of opportunity for others to earn money and to experience a great miracle of nature. Today, man’s processes have changed drastically, but God’s has needed no improvement.
If cotton fields could talk, they would tell you many more interesting stories than I have, from the lives of others who learned some of life’s great lessons while bowing their wills to work in a cotton patch! May each of you have had your own special “cotton patch”.
This was the last “Cotton Patch” article written by Jo Redding originally published by Redding Magazine.
Today I want to share some encouragement and hopefully some ideas of how we can share hospitality during a pandemic.
I love sharing recipes and collecting recipes. Over the years I have traveled back and forth across the country. Most of those trips involved ministry of one kind or another. I have collected recipes on these trips. Many of the recipes I share on this blog have come from some of those collections.
As I have sat around the tables of many of my Christian sisters I realized that a lot of encouragement happens in the homes of fellow Christians. In fact, I believe more happens there than any other place. I believe the early Christians were very hospitable.
Hospitality in the early church began in Jerusalem when the early church was started. Many people were there and stayed there. The Christians gathered daily growing their new faith in God. I can just see the new Christian sisters gathered around sharing what they had with others. Sisters cooking side by side to feed those new friends and brethren. Opening their hearts and homes to these new Christians.
Acts 2:44 -47 All the believers were together and had everything in common.45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
So many of my life stories have come from Christians who have opened their homes to me and my opening my home to others. Strangers united by Christ.
We can change the world through hospitality. When this pandemic is over open your heart and your home to those around you that God has placed in your life for just such a time. But while we are still in the midst of social distancing. I want to suggest some ways we can practice hospitality.
Think of those who may need a word of encouragement.
Write notes.
Do not think you need fancy cards or stationary. Just a piece of paper will do. If you want to draw a funny picture or send a cartoon you have saved, great. Everyone needs a laugh. What about all of those postcards you have collected from trips? Why not send those to people who would enjoy them.
Care Packages
You might want to send care packages or a sunshine package from the wealth in your own home. Do you have a book you have already read and enjoyed? Send it to a friend. What about an adult coloring book? Send a page or two with a note. Or color the page or have your child color it for a friend or neighbor. Sometimes suspense is fun. Make an envelope for each day of the week for them to open. Items you might want to include in the envelopes: scriptures, pictures, homemade confetti (you know which of your friends can handle this), a fun memory or picture of a time you spent together, assignments like writing 5 blessings you have on this paper, etc.
Phone Calls
Almost everyone in America has a phone it seems. Call someone today, just to say hi or share a memory you have of them. Ask them, “Do you remember when?”
Call an old friend you haven’t talked with in a while. You will both be encouraged.
Blessing Ring
Start a blessing ring today. Count your blessings for they are many.
Fun and Games
Maybe you can make up a game.
Send a puzzle you have already done for someone else to enjoy.
A deck of cards.
Teddy bears in your window to cheer passersby.
Check out the Facebook group Happy Heart Hunt. Placing cheery hearts in your windows, chalk outside people’s doors, etc.
A lady from church gave me permission to share what her neighborhood is doing. Chalk the walk. So that when people take a walk they will be cheered.
Also, my neighbor had the idea to chalk a hopscotch game on the pavement behind our townhouses. Fun!
Check out Pan and Cora’s Adventures on Facebook. http://redaredding.com/PanAndCorasAdventures
Send Encouragement Online
One thing I did today was to send encouraging scriptures to my friends in Malawi. They do not have many available Bibles and really appreciate the scriptures and encouraging words. I used WhatsApp to do this but we have so many resources to use. I also sent them a face mask pattern. I was told they have no masks there.
Have an idea of how we can practice this gift of hospitality in the midst of the coronavirus? Leave your ideas below. We can all use some more ideas to get through this.
I didn’t really start the day planning to make old fashioned banana bread. Today I was sorting books and got to looking through some old cookbooks. I found a recipe for old fashioned banana bread. We had some overripe bananas that needed to be used so I suggested Esther make banana bread. She got even more creative and made a video of her process. This was her first attempt at banana bread. She said to remind readers to soften the butter which she forgot to do. And she said she poked it a few too many times checking for doneness. The bread turned out to be delicious.
Even though she put the recipe at the end of the video I am including it here at the bottom of the page.
Old Fashioned Banana Bread
3 ripe bananas
1 Tbs water
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1 cup nuts
Mash bananas and water together. Set aside 3 minutes, and then mix remaining ingredients together as listed. Bake in loaf pan at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.
Yesterday I started brainstorming about fun things to do with your kids at home. Many people have found themselves unexpectedly homebound. How long will this crisis last? Tornadoes, viruses, injuries, and snowstorms can all cause our world to come to a screeching stop. I do not remember a more uncertain time in my life. I do not ever remember workplaces shutting down at this rate. This has produced a lot of anxiety for some people.
I recommend making your day a more positive day. Don’t give into sitting and watching a play by play on TV or on the internet. There are many things you cannot control but you can control your home environment. Don’t give in to all-day screen time.
Below is a list that I compiled just off the top of my head. There are many things you can do. These are some things I have done over the years or wish I had done. I hope maybe some of these ideas will make your days at home a little easier.
I have eleven children and I have homeschooled for well over 30 years. Staying home for days at a time surrounded by great books with beautiful and brilliant children was my joy and my life. I miss those days. Were my days perfect? No. There are so many things I wish I had done better. Here are a few things I did do.
Making Chores Fun
If you haven’t already gotten your family on a chore system now is the time. There are several reasons for this. First, you will feel better when the basics are taken care of. This is a basic life skill. Second, you have a lot of hours on your hands and children truly need something to do and this benefits the whole family. There are several ways you might do this.
Pull slips with jobs on them. This adds a bit of mystery. You write single jobs on strips of paper. Fold them up and put them in a basket. Everyone chooses one and goes and does that one. They continue until all are done. You can set a timer to make it more interesting. These are extra jobs, not weekly chores.
Whiteboard with lists of jobs let them choose which one. And of course, get the joy of wiping off the accomplished job!
Assign chores by the week as I did when my children were younger. They became chore chart participants at 8 years old. We switched every Sunday. Dishes, table, babies, floors, etc. We have 11 children so for many years I needed help cleaning the high chair, buckling kids in car seats, etc.
Set a timer and have everyone work together in one room or folding all the laundry and then do something fun.
Stories
Tell Stories, everyone loves stories
Make chain stories where one person starts it and each person takes a turn adding the next part to the story. We did this frequently on car trips.
Read
Listen to audiobooks available free from your library even when your library is closed.
Read great books. If you have not read the classics they are great! There is a reason they are called classics. The long ones I prefer the audio version. Unabridged of course.
All those books on your shelf that you haven’t had enough time to read. Now is your opportunity.
Set a reading time every day during this confinement.
Write (or Dictate) and Practice Penmanship
Have your children write and illustrate a story. I have recently been going through files of things I have saved from my children’s younger days. Their stories are fun to read later.
Write stories and then let each one share. Your younger kids can dictate their stories to you. You can have them dictate first and then illustrate or the reverse.
Writing simple reports can be fun and educational. Let them choose a topic to learn about and research about it for a set amount of time and then have each one share his report.
Write out a scripture verse each day.
Write a letter to a grandparent, friend, neighbor, a sick person, or someone in the nursing home.
Stages of Frog
Arts and Crafts
Have an art show. Hang a string from your curtain rod end to end. Especially if you have a large picture window. This works great. Everyone draws or paints pictures etc.
Craft time. Drag out the craft supplies and create pictures. If you have no craft supplies get creative and use noodles, string, make newspaper hats, etc.
Draw a picture for someone and mail it to them.
Take old mismatched socks and make something out of them. Ideas: sock doll, ball, puppet, doll hats, etc.
Memorize other facts you may need like multiplications, verbs, etc.
Games
Play sound games with your preschoolers. Ask them how many words can you think of that start with the same sound as banana, or apple, or penny, you get the idea.
Drag out your board games.
Play charades. Choose a topic. Bible characters, animals, etc.
Music
Learn a new skill
Practice a musical instrument
If you do not have an instrument you might make a paper keyboard and practice as did several famous musicians. Or create rhythm instruments from things around the house.
Practice singing together.
Learn to read music.
Toys
Get out the legos and play together.
Have the kids sort their toys and find some they would like to share with others.
Put together jigsaw puzzles.
Homemade Fun
Make your own homemade family carnival.
If you have a laundry basket make a game of throwing old socks or balls, etc. and ringing the basket from different distances.
Make your own ring toss game.
Make your own dart game using rubber bands and try to hit a target you make.
Get out the shaving cream and on a safe surface give everyone some shaving cream to play with. It is a lot of fun. Remind them not to rub their eyes.
Make playdough ( recipe here) make figures out of it. Set themes: everyone make a dinosaur, or farm animal or flower, etc.
Cooking
Cook together
Bake cookies or bread or pretzels.
Let each child help you make a meal.
Set the table extra pretty for special guests who are going to be there and let someone make a centerpiece for the table out of things you have on hand. When supper time arrives tell your family they are the special guests.
Outside
Let the kids play in the yard or if they don’t want to, insist they run a couple of laps around the outside of the house for exercise.
Go for a walk.
If you cannot go outside put on some oldies and have a dance party. My 20-month-old granddaughter loves Barbara Ann. Take this time to laugh and be silly with your kids.
Look out the window and count how many birds you can see and what kinds. If you don’t know what kind of bird it is look it up!
Exercise videos
Play hopscotch
Generational
Have your child play the reporter and Interview their grandparents on the phone or face time.What games did they play? Were they ever stranded at home? What was the longest time they ever remember staying at home? Snowed in? Epidemic? Earliest childhood memory?
Have the child interview different members of your church by phone and have them ask about their conversion story! How old? Where? Etc.
