something's brewin' in the kitchen

The kitchen is the place to be these days. I've been spending even more time in there than usual, if that's possible. Not only have I resumed weekly sourdough loaves, after a considerable break this summer when the weather was too hot to run the oven very often and we were out of town so much anyway, but other things have been brewing here as well.

A new tactic I've been taking with our sourdough recently is to save my 2nd loaf for the following day to either make into garlic toast, french toast, or cinnamon toast. The kids really love having sourdough for breakfast, in it's various forms, and I like that it's heartier than what I'm usually able to get into them before school in the mornings.

I've played around with more soaked grain recipes as well. Some have worked better than others, and we certainly love our soaked oatmeal buttermilk pancakes, but the pumpkin biscuits that I made last week might have been the favorite soaked grain recipe so far.

I used this basic recipe for soaked biscuits, which calls for grated cold butter, the key to keeping the biscuits flaky and delicious. I only soaked the grain in 3/4 cup of buttermilk though and made up the rest of the liquid with 3/4 cup of pumpkin. Because it was cooked pumpkin, not canned, it was pretty runny and next time I'll probably add 1/2 cup of extra flour since I ended up having to add that when I was mixing up the biscuits. The kids flipped for these biscuits. Elizabeth even took extras to school and came home raving that her friends think I'm a master biscuit maker. And, well, fifth graders can be hard to impress. ;)

In addition to the grains, I decided to order some water kefir grains and yogurt starter culture to begin making yogurt and water kefir.

There is definitely an art to the yogurt and I haven't exactly developed something that the kids love yet, although they will eat it. I've cultured both raw and local, slightly pasteurized whole milk so far. It's kind of runny so I'm going to play around with the cream content and length of culture to see if it will firm up a bit. The yogurt is pretty popular with homemade strawberry jam or vanilla syrup added to it.

And the water kefir, well, it's still in grain rehydration phase so I'll have to keep you posted on that one. Hopefully in the next week we'll have our first water kefir, which the boys are excited about, and we're already plotting dried fruits and other flavors to add to our kefir.

Is anything brewing in your kitchen? Please do share!

apple picking day

Yesterday, we partook in a favorite autumn pastime and headed to the nearby mountains to find an apple orchard for picking apples. The local orchard we visited last year was closed for picking already this season, but we were determined to find an equally lovely spot to pick.

While the road to this orchard was a little precarious in spots, the view from the top of the orchard was worth it. What a view! I'll bet this spot will be even lovelier when the trees change into their autumn clothes.

The orchard we picked in last year had mostly dwarf trees so everything the kids could possibly pick was within easy reach. This year...well, there were ladders involved.

Daddy could still hold Finn up to pick a few of the underling apples.

Then he became the happy bucket-toter for everyone else.

The older kids, after a few uneasy moments on the wobbly ladders, quickly became pros at mastering the art of picking from precariously high places.

Finn kept changing his mind about which apple he wanted to save for his morning snack.

Meanwhile, the older kids just picked,

and picked,

and picked.

Until I found them leaning with 3 appendages off the ladder, which is the time I decided we had enough apples.

Three and a half bushels was a pretty good haul though for the less than an hour it took them to pick. Paul and I only picked a dozen or less so it really was the big kids that picked all of these. I'm so glad they enjoy our trip to the orchard each year.

Now my work begins...

{this moment} - Tolkien after dark

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

::right now::

::enjoying the recent rains::

::smiling over little handprints::

::watching intently as creativity blossoms::

::baking autumnal favorites for the first time this season::

::organizing a library that is bursting with too many books::

::learning when to say no to too many commitments::

::appreciating the cooler weather brought by recent rains::

::wondering how, not 1, but 2 of our children managed to break a tooth this week::

::looking forward to a weekend full of apples and school celebration::

What is happening in your right now?

Yarn Along - booties!

Instead of posting the exact same picture from last week since those are both my current knitting and reading, I'll show you what kept me from finishing either of those projects since then. When we decided to head down to visit friends over the weekend, I thought that a pair of booties for their new little baby would be a fun surprise. So, over the course of 24 hours, I made these 2 adorable booties using the "Perfect" Baby Bootie pattern. The yarn is Spud & Chloe worsted weight superwash wool-organic cotton blend in Jelly Bean. I love the chunky i-cord ties, the little cuffs and the bright pink color. I can't wait until Miss Penelope can wear them this winter. :)

Of course she needed a matching hat! This is the Newborn Hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms with 9 extra stitches cast on since I'd like Penelope to wear the hat this winter at the same time as the booties.

Labor Day weekending

We decided to utilize the long weekend and get out of dodge for Labor Day so we headed down the road to visit our friends who just moved to the Greenville, SC area. Saturday morning dawned clear and began to warm up quickly so we headed downtown to the farmer's market. (Oh, boiled peanuts, how I have missed you!)

After a brief time wandering the market, we ate a quick bite of lunch and headed to a downtown park.

Just outside the park, we stumbled upon a city sprayground where Finn stripped down to his skivvies to take part in the fun.

Oh to be 4 and be able to run around a downtown street in your undies!

A few moments of geese and duck watching and we headed back to our friends house for the evening.

Penelope's take on the ducks and geese:

On Sunday following church and a quick lunch, we spent the afternoon and evening celebrating Paul's birthday with his extended family.

The kids had an amazing time eating grilled food and playing themselves into exhaustion.

This morning, before we had to head back home, Jenni introduced me to a dairy farm that was a stone's throw from her house which sold raw milk (legally!) for a steal!

The farmer has 10 dairy cows and has been a dairy farmer for 30 years. He seemed like such a wonderful person that I wished it wasn't rainy outside so we could chat with him for a few minutes.

I love the small, neighborly little operations like this with the cows eating happily nearby. I might have to visit Jenni more often now that she's just down the road from so many cute little farms!

{this moment} - color

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.